School ipad offer

[CaptainNelson]

My DC's school is offering one of these ipad long loan/buy programmes. It's not compulsory but they are encouraging everyone to join. The monthly price difference for rental or buying is £4 over 24 months, so just under £100. We don't have a tablet and personally have never felt its absence. Would I be stupid just to do the loan, or stupid to buy something that we might never use?

yes

It depends how old your DC are and if you have other ways for them to access the internet to do homework and things on as they get older

Have the school outlined how they will be used and how much of a part they will play in daily school life?

If they will be used every day in school and the option is:

• have your own with all your files on
• use a school one which will be different every time and not have saved files

Then I would buy one, but I'd buy a reconditioned one from Apple which will be in fantastic condition but cheaper.

If they will not be used in school and you have a computer at home for homework then I wouldn't bother.

So would it be yours at the end of the time of would you have to pay a lump sum to get it or would you have to hand it back?

I think there's a good chance once you have it you are not going to want to give it up, so you ought to factor that in...

Also compare the prices to current new and reputable secondhand prices.

They can be great and really useful for education at all ages. DS2 taught himself long addition, subtraction, multiplication and division from apps that big brother had used to practice on -first I knew about quite how well he had done was me getting a telling off from his teacher that I had taught him to do all these things 'the old fashioned way' without doing all the newfangled steps that are required in infant school these days. She wasn't very impressed when I said he had taught himself and even less so when he then added that her extra ways things much more complicated than his way 😂

At junior school They used lots of apps to help, especially for things needing lots of practice .

Younger the child is the more important a rugged case is!

Thanks for all the comments.
@NightOwl101 DC is going into Y10 and there is no option to buy our own - it has to be the through the school. We have computers at home which are used all the time for homework.
@FatAgainItsLettuceTime yes they have - quite a comprehensive presentation on their website, plus FAQs etc. The ipads will be used every day in school and it's not so much a question of whether we opt in, but whether we rent (at just under £15 pcm) or buy (at £18 pcm). It comes with a case, screen cover, insurance, parental controls, etc
@wibdib If we buy, it's ours at the end at no extra cost. If we rent, we'd have the option to buy at full market value, so almost certainly wouldn't. But your point that we probably won't want to hand it back is compelling. I can see myself finding it very useful for recipes off the internet.
@DougSanders that is not an answer to an either/or question.

Are they brand new?

You can get brand new iPads on curry's for about £15pcm.

I'd buy then not rent, but I would look at prices to buy your own and how they compare.

If you bought your own would it be covered under home insurance?

Cases are cheap and plentiful on Amazon so price wise they wouldn't add much.
Parental controls are very easy to set up yourself. My 8yr old uses my old iPad and she needs my thumb to turn it on, or buy anything or install any apps.

www.apple.com/uk/shop/refurbished/ipad

I’d definitely pay the extra to buy it OP. I’d see it as wasted money otherwise. They last ages and withstand drops etc really well with a good case on. Very useful for all sorts in my opinion.

Have you considered an amazon tablet? Think the cheapest is £60 AND you keep it. Probably an option to pay monthly

I too would buy but, like others, I would also check this is a good deal. I don't know about schools, but I've had University issued iPads before now, all of which seemed to be very basic with bugger-all memory (technical term there), which basically meant you had to delete one app when you wanted to use another.

Buying our own is not an option - school has specifically said this. Their reasons are to do with software, apps, access to school LMS, etc (probably BS but not much I can do about that). They're apparently 8th generation ipads, whatever that means. I think I'll go down the buying route, thanks for all the advice/opinions!

I wouldn't be buying, nor renting anything Apple branded. My husband is a tech guy and will tell you to avoid like the plague. I'm sure some sheep will come and tell you they're the best thing ever.

You don't have to have one.

What would he recommend out of interest please.

Why does he say that out of interest?

if they are being used every day in school, the what will happen to the children who haven’t rented or bought them?

We have laptops and phones. I got an iPad for work but don’t love it and have no plan to buy a family one.

I really hate the "sheep" comment.

It's very much personal preference between Apple and Microsoft, there are pros and cons for both.

I work in IT security and love Apple products for ease of use, connectivity between devices, security features and Privacy design, I also like the durability and the fact that they never seem to slow down or get to capacity with the storage.

Here's some articles on the topic:

www.crucial.com/articles/mac-users/mac-vs-pc-the-pros-and-cons

uk.pcmag.com/software/118469/macos-vs-windows-which-os-really-is-the-best

computer.howstuffworks.com/10-differences-between-macs-and-pcs.htm

If you can only use a school iPad in school, check what apps they are allowed to download - schools are often very restrictive on that, and then half of the useful things you might want aren't allowed (e.g., youtube, which can be useful as well as fun; zoom; even various educational apps that aren't on the schools official list). So check exactly how much control the school has. They might have quite a light touch. or not.

If you buy it from them can you
-use it for your other kids

• Sell it onto kids in the year below?

I would price it against Curry's, Apple and a local supplier to see how the prices compare - the fact that they won't let you buy your own would make me very wary.
Couple of things I would want to check - firstly how much are school making off the sale of each iPad? Even if it's 'just' £1/month per child per iPad, that's a nice little earner for them, especially if you can get it cheaper yourself.
How good is the insurance? Chances are it will be cheaper on your home insurance, but what will it cover? Can you take the iPad home? Will you get a charger for it or even a charging cable for home use? What happens to it in school - is there safe secure storage? What if another kid damages or?
What sort of cover are they getting? Will they be rugged enough (especially if your kid can have butterfingers!). Can the child personalise the cover with stickers or doodles etc? How often will it be in school Vs home - will they be expected to always carry it with them (potentially makes kids targets if others get to know that the XXX school kids will always have an iPad in their bag. Could be heavy to have to carry all the time, especially for younger kids.
Is the spec good enough to last a few years of updates? Is there enough storage? Is there enough RAM to run things you might want to run as well as school? Will you/dc be able to access it to save from it, to link up to your home network or computers, without it compromising them?
What happens if you change school before the end of the 2 years? will you be expected to pay remainder all at once? Alternatively, can you pay upfront rather than monthly if it suits you? Will you effectively be tied into a financial agreement if you do have to pay monthly (might have repercussions on future financial requirements...
It's a lot of money to have to fork out for something that they want you to have if you don't get to choose the right model for what you need it for too!

Sorry lots of thoughts and questions! Would just make me nervous and want to find the issues before having to sign up!

No way would I agree to this. We are a family of musicians so have always had ipads and macs. Ds started off with hand me downs then progressed to better models he can use for his music. It would be a waste to buy/rent another one.

There must be lots of families who can't afford this.

Ours did this and they use it all the time. At the end of the 3 years renting it we have the option to buy it for £60 which we have done twice. To use it out of school they just set up their own apple id. Works well

My dd's school did this but with chromebooks. They wanted the whole year to rent or buy the same chromebook as no other one could possibly work. It was through a third party supplier.

The same one could be bought £80 cheaper on amazon.

I emailed and told them that my dd had just had a new chromebook (better than the one they were offering) and it would be a waste to buy another. They easily managed to very easily get hers to worked exactly the same as everyone else's. They don't even really use it at school despite carrying to and from school every day. 🙄

I suspect these third party companies feed a lot of rubbish to schools about how all the kids need the same devices and the schools buy into it.