new yr 7s - laptop or tablets necessary? Which?

[whickles]

Our 1st is off to yr 7 in sept. What do secondary children "need" these days in terms of access to laptop/pc/tablets?
Does handwritten vs typed homework vary by school? Or is it all typed these days?
Do homeworks never/sometimes/always require internet research? At what stage do these things become genuinely necessary? Do they take them into school?
What would you say is the best option:
-sporadic access to the main pc and laptop, both of which get used a lot by us as we work from home / and laptop gets taken away a lot.
-cheapish tablet and get a plug in keyboard ( a diy MS Surface!!), but the screen would be quite small

• save up for cheap laptop? maybe a 2nd hand one?
  
• an extra desktop style pc, but not sure where it would go?
  

What have you found is actually more useful and less useful?
And money is tight, so looking for a cost effective solution!

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

YY to everything Isthiscorrect said. We bought one of those mini metal tags (for a pet's collar) engraved with DS1's full name and put that on a split ring (keyring) with the memory stick & his locker key.

He set up a folder for each subject and saves each file in the correct subject folder using the date in this format: 2013-06-18, so all homework is saved in date order.

We back it up once a week.

Still working on persuading him to use headers & footers, although he did use numbered footnotes correctly for one History essay!

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

Just to add that he does include an abbreviated title in the file name, but the date comes first, e.g. 2013-06-18 Gunpowder Plot.

If he submits homework by email (rare) it has to include his name in the file name, for the teacher's sake!

[Lfs2126]

Laptop deffo. Also check which os school has, boy in ds year was bought a beaut macair at 2k+ but wasn't compatible so had to do all his e-h/w in the library after school for a year

[Bunbaker]

I agree about operating systems. Schools generally use Microsoft. OH has Linux and although Open Office can read Microsoft documents sometimes it reformats the work.

[MrRected]

It's the norm to send secondary age children to private schools - or at least it is here in Brisbane.