Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
Sandringham School operates a Bring Your Own Device policy where all students from Years 7 – 13 are required to have a device in school for use in lessons and at home. Students in Key Stage 3 and 4 require a tablet device, whilst Sixth Form students require a laptop.
For Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) and Key Stage 4 (Years 10 & 11) a tablet is a compulsory equipment for all students, as per school policy. For Sixth Form, all students require a laptop device. This could be a Windows Laptop, Chromebook or MacBook.
A ‘smartphone’ is not a suitable learning device for this programme. Screen sizes are simply too small to be able to use eBooks, conduct research, write presentations or essays, etc. It is a fallacy promoted by IT vendors that one device can satisfy every possible educational use. You wouldn’t use a laptop to record a competitor on the sports field, likewise you probably wouldn’t type an A Level essay on an iPad!
We propose a model showing that for longer duration or higher complexity tasks, you need more powerful and probably less portable equipment.
- Low duration/complexity : web research, photo or video capture, blogging/tweeting, scanning QR codes, reading ebooks, quizzes, surveys etc.
- Longer duration/complexity : word processing, programming, movie editing etc.
Furthermore, we require access to the Internet to be via our filtered WiFi and require devices with 3G/4G connections to have them switched off for the safety of our students and staff. The ‘no phones in lessons’ rule makes this much easier to monitor.
