Students who need to type

[Littlelot]

Just wondering who provides electronic devices in your school, if a student needs to type work due to handwriting?

In my school, if a student has poor handwriting then a sample is sent to SEN department who access and decide if a laptop is needed. If agreed, the student can then borrow a laptop in lesson where it is felt beneficial ( usually subjects like English/history etc).

My son has always struggled with handwriting and English teacher has commented on it and said he cannot read the writing. The teacher asked me to email the SEN department which I’ve done. Their response was they don’t provide electronic devices and if I want him to type I need to provide a laptop/iPad.

The school has far from impressed me in many respects but I was just wondering if this is common - I’ve not known it elsewhere but just wanted to know what happened in other schools if students need to use a laptop?

We don't have laptops for students. If they need to type (and very few do) they have to bring their own devices

We only provide laptops for students who come with additional funding for it, everyone else has to provide their own.

That’s interesting that very few in your school need to when the exam boards are saying that more students should be typing. Having marked GCSEs, poor handwriting is a nightmare when you’re trying so hard to work out what each word says as well as keep the flow/ follow an argument, I also had a B grade student get a D at A level last year - probably down to handwriting as he didn’t want to type. We did an initial review of marking came back unchanged. Appealed it and it went up to a B and I’m pretty sure it’s in a large part down to how long it took to read his writing.

To me it then feels harsh as they have to prove it’s their normal way of working but relies on a parent supplying expensive tech. My son definitely has dyspraxia traits - the though of him having to take a laptop/ipad in and not lose it or break it …
It seems unfair that some schools will provide devices and others don’t and yes I know a lot will be down to funding.

We simply don't have the money. We do offer handwriting lessons for students though, and that really helps.

Glad you are finding success with the handwriting classes. My son has had extra handwriting classes all through primary and if he is given long enough, you can read his work but there is no way he can keep up and be legible day to day or in assessments.

Looks like I’m going to have to provide something I. The toughest case possible and hope for the best. My inner self just feels sorry tor those kids who can’t bring one in.

Also relieved not to be marking GCSEs any more because I suspect this may be a growing problem unless school finances improve which currently seems unlikely

I mark gcse and deciphering handwriting appears to be my superpower

Excellent superpower to have!

I’ve worked in three schools and all have provided laptops for students judged to need them.

You mention parents having to supply expensive tech, but schools can't afford to either. They don't have budgets for this. There would also be the issue of if a child didn't look after the school's property and lost or broke it - who would pay? You can buy a second hand laptop / ipad pretty cheaply.

In my defence, it’s been my experience across a couple of schools that students have been provided with laptops when needed and so I wanted to check here before I talk to the school again. We will get him a laptop if that’s what we have to do. However, I teach students who I know could not provide a laptop even a cheap second hand one and I do think that’s unfair.

In my school, students don’t break/lose laptops as they collect them for the lessons they need and then return them at the end of that lesson. It works really well and means that it’s easy to prove that students are using them as their normal way of working. My school is just a standard comprehensive as was my previous school so it’s not as straightforward as saying no schools don’t do this.

I teach secondary and 6th form. I find often that provision of a laptop is done as a visible sign of 'doing something' hence ticking an SEN Ofsted type box rather than actually providing mechanisms for the student to improve.
Laptops are not a substitute for knowledge and skills.
Many pupils allocated laptops lack the keyboard skills and typing speeds to use it effectively even if they are allocated 25%extra exam time.
I have lost count of the number of students who initially plead that they cant do their work without a laptop who then go back to pen and paper voluntarily because they feel it is disadvantaging them for the following reasons;
A) They cant type fast enough to complete anything except low level assessments like multi choce questions in the extended time. They realise that they are too slow at typing to answer the extended questions in the appropriate depth in the time and this is holding them back. They cant use spell checkers on assessment machines, so laptops dont help with this part of literacy and they will still need the bog standard skill of using a dictionary.
B) They find it very frustrating to try and type subject specific formulae (chemistry) and higher level maths calculations with algebraic symbols.
C) Students have to arrange to save their work and spend extra time compared to others emailing their work in for marking and many dont like doing extra outside class or lack the skills to do the data transfer properly
So overall I agree with many of the previous posters. Classes to help handwriting are definitely best but if a laptop is to be used some extra keyboard skills will be needed to use it effectively especially if your child is average to above average ability.

The laptops that our school provides always seem to have a poor battery life and run out half way through the lesson. If you can supply your own, I would advise investing in one.

We provide laptops for students. They are very basic, and sometimes pretty old but, as long as they can run chrome and have enough puff to type a document, they’re fine. They are locked to our network - so while students can take them home, they can’t connect to the internet or do anything but create basic word processing/powerpoint/excel files to complete homework - in form time, they’re allowed to boot up their laptops to share work to teachers etc. For security and student safety reasons, they cannot use their own devices on our school network. Some students have asked their parents to provide swanky machines - this would be fine, but, once parents understand that we require the same protocols and that the laptop won’t work at home most tell their child to jog on and suck up the basic model!

The students don’t use them in every lesson (science and maths is pointless and frustrating as another poster said).

We don’t generally provide laptops until the end of Y9 and after exams access assessments - unless there’s a medical/disability need.

We have an Incredibly high proportion of students with SEN, but, most laptop users are not students with an EHCP so, the entire cost is on us. We have average numbers of disadvantaged students, high SEN, low medium salary/high cost of living area (in case you are trying to work out if we’re a “leafy” comp!) A basic model costs less than a scribe for a full suite of GCSEs though… and we normally get six years out of each model. I’d say maybe 5-10% of each cohort use laptops. We replace about 1/3 of machines every year.

Most students get very much faster at typing over the first term - certainly well enough that they don’t qualify for extra time to compensate. The small proportion that really don’t get faster, we revisit and consider whether a scribe is more suitable. Handwriting classes have made little difference to our students, but typing lessons make some difference to some students.

It's quite normal for schools to have 'BYOD' (bring your own device) policies.

My main advice is to get him learning to touch type now. He needs to be able to touch type quickly and accurately as all spellcheck etc will be disabled for exams and he needs to get used to this. Use of a laptop is often seen as an 'easy' access arrangement but it rarely seems to occur to anyone that pupils need to be taught how to type!

Slightly off topic but….

My son attended SEN school. I regularly asked that he have support to improve his handwriting. Occupational therapists at the school always insisted laptop was appropriate in this modern world.

Fast forward to his work experience and college years…Hospitals use handwriting sometimes. How can I help him be more employable? Start with handwriting. Google it. You need occupational therapy. It took me a couple of weeks to remember the annual arguments of the past.

As a teacher, it is difficult for children to do everything on a laptop…Maths and Physics not really easy to type.

I’m not sure it’s worth fighting for a laptop.

When I marked a humanities subject at GCSE our instructions were to try for 3 days to read a candidate’s handwriting then send script to Chief Examiner who was very sympathetic to poor handwriting and vowed never to give up.

Finally, in Secondary, I gave up joined-up writing. Print took about the same amount of time and was easier to read.

Good luck

Thanks for all the responses and it does seem a very varied approach from school to school. I have already warned my son that he will need to learn to touch type and one of the reasons I’d like him to start using one now is so he’s mastered it before GCSE. He has had years of extra handwriting lessons at primary and I think for non essay subjects like maths/science he will be okay but I’ve seen his extended writing and he just can’t write neatly in the time available. He is very bright and works really hard at school and then gets frustrated at not completing work or the teacher not being able to read it.

But looks like I’m going to have to get him a device for the time being. I’m hoping to move him across to my school if I can before GCSE years so hopefully that will help.

I think sometimes it’s hard being a teacher when you know your child’s school is not well run and failing in many areas. It’s knowing which battles to pick and this thread has helped with that. I can’t wait until I can move him.

Both my boys type exams (apart from maths). My youngest about to do gcses. Was assessed through section 8 form (year 11 as fallen under radar due to ability) as well as handwriting. Very able but definite concern that external examiners may struggle with his writing. So typing (or mixed type/ writing if graphs in science etc). The school provides laptop for exams. Can only use as word processor and type. Surely risk of cheating on own device?

School computers not great he says but no option given to use own device...

Primary - provide a laptop to use in school with ‘clicker8’
I would have thought if the pupil ( SEN or other needs) needs it to access the curriculum then school should provide or at least some kind of loan agreement / arrangement

My child has DCD/ASD and uses a laptop provided by the school. It's pretty shit and slow though. We did initially offer to provide one when we first spoke to the school about it, but it needs to be one of theirs as it needs to be all set up on their network and security