To choose a secondary school that uses iPads

[Abneyandteal19]

DS is starting to look at secondary schools. We have 3DS but he's the oldest so first to move up.
Two secondaries in our area- broadly similar sizes and very similar results. Got a good feeling for both when we visited. Both ofsted good.

School A is an Apple Distinguished school. All kids have an iPad. It's fully controlled by school. They can't download apps/no App Store no YouTube and serious filters on even when at home. They can't even change the Lock Screen. Still use pen and paper for English and maths and use the iPad like a 'textbook' teacher send slides and question to it. Has lots of accessibility features such as changing background colour/font size etc.
however it will mean significant 'screen time' each day.

School B- standard pen paper/ textbook scenario. Use iPads and laptops as part of curriculum but not like school A. Some homework online so kids need access at home. Luckily this isn't an issue for us could afford a laptop for homework.

I'm unsure on whether I think it's too much screen time or if it's the way of the world/ prepare them for working life etc.

Does anyone have experience of an Apple school? Positives/negatives??

What would you do? Thanks

DS has iPad from school but I think they move to something else next stage. His homework is spelling, reading and words on paper and an actual book. He does use it for number games and other things but homework is actual writing and reading - so far anyway. I know this would probably never happen but what if Apple went out of business? Might be a bit expensive for an Apple school! Just a thought 💭

My dc school is an Apple Distinguished School. No problem with it here. Both my kids did well. They still work from books, pen and paper too. Only issue is the cost, obviously, it's not particularly cheap year after year, and if there's any tech issues the school IT team can be very slow.
My husbands career is technology so not something we have a problem with in our house to be fair.

The school we’ve put down for DS gives all the children a laptop. DS had dyslexia and this was recommended for him.

My kids school is not an apple school but they do have an iPad scheme. I think schools will use tech anyway so having ipads that are properly managed and locked down and the same for everyone is favorable to a mish mash of different devices depending on the family. I wouldn't be in favour at primary school though except for occasional use.

My son's primary was a google school. Everyone had a chromebook during school hours and the children used educational apps. I used to run their Code Club and we'd use the chrome books for our projects.

His secondary was an Apple school and everyone had to have an iPad. They were still google though so used classroom and drive to share docs and information - gmail for email etc.

His sixth form is MS and Apple so he's moved to using Teams and One Drive for information sharing and collaboration. He's only been there a few weeks but the use of Teams channels is excellent and the availability of resources via One Drive is fantastic. It's integrated into their Learning Resource Centre system and so DS can access all of the online publications the school subscribe to for his studies (e.g. The Financial Times, History Today, New Scientist) at home/school on his iPad. His history class has a channel where the class are sharing links to good books/articles/you tube videos they have watched which relate to the topic they are currently working on. I'm really impressed at how well they are utilising the technology.

All the local secondary schools use iPads here and plenty of the primary schools have apps and challenges which means they are in frequent use. In many respects my children view iPads and laptops as educational equipment rather than fun screen time.

We went with option B.

Mainly because my theory was that when it came to exams, with the lack of writing in class, could they sit and right in an exam for an hour comfortably? As they use the pads so much they start to lose the skill of writing

As an adult I use laptops/phones and write very little. Now when I do need to wrote, it's actually quite hard on my hand!

Well it must teach them something…..cos one of my nephews just got 9 good gcses……and most of that was via iPad learning

@Kitkat1523 that's nice. Doesn't prove or disprove anything though.

The ipads are just a computer and note taking machine. They don't teach lessons!

My child attends an apple school. I was reading your post expecting the choice to be between an iPad school or a MacBook school. I strongly prefer the laptop version over the tablet.

I can’t imagine sending my child to a school that was still on pencil and paper. This is partly because she has ASD and using a computer whenever possible is something we had to put into her education plan in the lower grades. It is much easier for her to access the curriculum this way both from an organization perspective and because physically writing her work is difficult.

working on a computer is also just how the world works now. Developing skills for using common software is an advantage for entering the workforce.

I have two DC at an 'Apple' school and would say that the positives definitely ourweigh the negatives. The iPads are heavily locked-down and controlled so there is very little they can use them for other than school work. They aren't used in every lesson - there's still plently of reading, writing, painting and PE. Also - the fact that every child has one means that every child is equal and children aren't expected to use their phones for homework apps etc so it's been quite straightforward to ban phones in the school.

We police the use of the iPads quite heavily at home, so they really are only used for homework and spend the rest of their time on a bookshelf.

I was skeptical at first, but do think that they've been a positive addition at our school.

Unless you know how he would have done without an ipad that's meaningless. Obviously can never prove that either way but what you've said is as valid as saying he wore a school uniform and got good gcses so that must be good for outcomes

I still can’t get over these names. Apple school. Google school. These corporations influencing our schools makes me feel uncomfortable; I am not quite sure why though.

Because we know the corporations are unlikely to have our children’s best interests at heart?
They have spotted a big market and now they’re working hard at making themselves indispensable.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel can you tell me why you think Sparx reader is stupid? It's an option I was looking at signing up to, so v valuable to have genuine feedback!

I'd go for B. I'd be very suspicious about the concept of an apple school. Using children to make money for huge corporations no thanks

Pure Apple marketing.

We're an android household

The secondary that we're looking at for DS uses iPads

To be honest it's fine with me, he'll learn the Apple environment

NB. They're not marketed as an Apple school

There was a thread about it the other day. Kids have the flow of reading interrupted by badly written questions so that even kids who began as bookworms begin to dislike reading homeworks and lessons. Our school has stopped using it now because too many parents complained (including me, and I don’t often shove my oar in regarding how the school chooses to teach.)

Looking into it though, it also appears that all kinds of close work where you don't constantly shift the focus of your eyes is bad. Like reading books 😬 (myopic bookworm with a myopic bookworm child here).

DS1 is in a school where they are given iPads. I very much appreciate that the iPads pretty much get them to do their homework without my input!

In fact, it's all fun and games until "Billy broke the screen on my iPad, it's not MY fault!" (interrogation reveals that they left their bags in a heap next to a wall, and said boy hurdled the wall and crashlanded on bag containing iPad 🙄, and the IT department has a backlog of iPads to fix, due to many other similar totally unavoidable incidents that were no one's fault....🤔)

well he’s obviously learnt something in 5 years to get his good grades…..wearing a uniform for 5 years isn’t going to pass exams …..could he have done better than the good grades he already got, without an iPad? Who knows 🤷‍♀️…..who cares? Not him….and not his parents …..it’s a good school ….but it’s one of only 2 high schools in our town , both use iPads…..so that’s where all put kids go

Oh yes, the backlog, I had forgotten that.
We were told if the iPads were damaged or faulty they would get a loan one to use while they waited for it to be repaired. Only then the repairs started taking longer than promised and they ran out of spares. After his developed a fault Ds2 was without one and thus unable to learn properly for nearly a fortnight and was going to be without one over the Easter holidays with no way to revise for his y9 exams which started just after. I had to complain to the headmaster to get them to find one.

Not all schools that use iPads are apple schools you know