School Chromebook Scheme

[Nightpain]

My eldest is starting Y7 next week. The school is paired with Tech 4 Learners Tech4Learners and offered a scheme for them to have Lenovo Chromebooks.

I signed up for it without scrutinising it much, just wanted him to have what everyone else had. Assumed part of the cost would be the educational software bundled with it.

I've paid either one or two of the monthly direct debits, which runs for 3 years, but not yet received the device, which he'll get mid-September.

Was just looking at the specifcations of the laptop - its a Lenovo 100e Chromebook.

Surprised to see that Amazon and Curry's etc are all selling this for about £130.

The school scheme states 'significant savings compared to the highstreet'. Yet I will end up paying about £350.

There is some warrranty/insurance/tech support as well, but feeling a little scammed right now. Cant imagine the school would actively promote this if it was such a blatant rip-off, assumed this would be cost-effective if coming through the school.

Am I missing something or have a just been a chump?

The Chromebook will have 3 years of accidental damage, warranty and theft protection.

It looks as if there are different generations of the Lenovo 100e Chromebook, do you have a model number or similar? What educational software/subscriptions do you get with it? If it's something like Seneca that would add up over the 3 years.

Our school use Acer Chromebooks. We bought the 1st one through school as it was just easier. DD's broke and warranty wasn't worth the paper it was written on. DH is pretty tech savvy and looked around, he found the exact same chrome book for significantly less online. Can't remember the numbers but it was over £100 less.

If you bring your own Chromebook you have to pay the school £40 for them to put all the right software/licenses on it but it was still substantially cheaper than ordering through school.

DH spoke to the school to arrange for them to put the right things on to it and the person he spoke to said they were looking at scrapping the school scheme for that exact reason, parents could buy them cheaper online, no deal the school could get could beat the regular prices available to the public.