In 2020 Brighton Primary School began its journey down a 1:1 device program for students. The chosen device is Apple iPad.
Brighton Primary School is running a pilot program in partnership with the Department for Education (DfE), Apple Education and Compnow. We are the first school in S.A. financing our iPad fleet as opposed to purchase outright. The offering is extremely beneficial to the school, deferring payments at 0% finance, options regarding paying the normal price by the end of the term and owning the device, or returning it at no extra charge.
In 2020 students in Year 6 and Year 7 were the pioneers for the program receiving their personal device at the beginning of term 3. The uptake by students and staff has been unanimously positive. Plans were put in place to extend the program over the next 3 years enabling 1:1 for students in Year 4 and above. The flow on effect from this is that the rest of the school owned fleet of iPads and Laptops are more readily available for use by the younger years.
In 2022 we have exceeded our target and are now proud to say that our 1:1 program reaches all students from Year 3 to 6 with generous devices ratios available to students in Foundation to Year 2.
The device allocated in 2020 is an iPad 7th Generation 128Gb in a Logitech Rugged Folio keyboard case, giving all students peace of mind in a safe device, but also full functionality of the device for all aspects of their education. Each year afterwards the device has incremented in Model, but the case has remained the same due to its proven reliability and safety. In 2022 we are now using 9th Gen 256Gb iPads.
This program is not just about putting devices in the students’ hands, but also making sure it is used effectively. To this, staff have undertaken training from Apple Education. The first two courses were completed early in Term 3 2020 and future courses are planned. Courses in Microsoft Office 365 have also been undertaken, a suite of apps that have been heavily used on the iPads. Brighton Primary School strongly believes high quality training and development for all staff is crucial to ensure all educators can use and deploy their iPad in the best possible learning context.
This device program has also benefited our staff and students immensely in COVID-19 times. These devices have proven invaluable for the online learning environment, both at school and home. We were able to loan devices to families who were short on devices to facilitate at home learning.