All Year 7-13 pupils will be expected to bring a device to use in their classes.  We are committed to using a device as a tool to support the students’ learning and allow students to work online from home should the situation arise.

There are some general guidelines/specifications for what the device should have.

• Have good battery life.  Devices must be charged at home, overnight.
• Have a keyboard.  If your child uses an iPad, they will require a Bluetooth keyboard.
• Be Internet accessible so students can access their Microsoft 365 Portal/Google Apps for education.
• Be covered by your insurance.  The school will not be responsible for any loss or breakages.
• Please note – a Cell Phone will NOT be considered the most appropriate learning device. Your child can bring in a device you already have if it meets the criteria above.
• Year 7-10 students: We highly recommend Chromebooks, or some variation on this, because they are the most cost-effective and durable for this age.
• Years 11-13 students: We recommend laptops.

Subject Specific Specifications

For some Art based Year 9 and 10 Learning Packages, a Chromebook isn’t the best option.  A laptop is preferable.  Such choices include 9/10 Digi Image (DME) and 9/10 Innovation and Invention (INI).  Laptops for these subjects need to have 8GB RAM and a minimum of 240GB hard disk/SSD.

For all Senior Art packages Levels 1-3, laptops need additional specifications above and beyond the general requirements.  These include 240GB Hard disk/SSD and 12 GB RAM.

Learning Needs e.g., Dyslexia

If your child has dyslexia or any other specific learning needs, we suggest you check out a computer or tablet with assistive technology, i.e., text-to-speech and speech-to-text features built in.  All Windows devices, Chromebooks and Apple devices have these.

On loan School Devices

We know providing a device is not always easy for every family so as a School, we will continue to provide some ‘loaners’ for daily use.  These are Chromebooks/Laptops which students can borrow from the Library at the start of the day, to be returned at the end of the day.  This ideally would only be an interim measure to give families time to purchase their own devices.  As you will appreciate, demand often exceeds our supply. But we try to do our best for the students.

1. All Cell Phones are to be switched off and in bags at all times, in all classes, and in all learning situations. There may be exceptions under teacher direction e.g. filming in English to create visual text-note from teacher required if out of room in this instance.
2. Head phones that are necessary for learning purposes should be connected to chrome books, laptops etc, not cell phones.
3. Activities unrelated to the learning context e.g. accessing social media and listening to music on any device are not acceptable.
4. If a student’s cell phone is not turned off and in their bag, then the teacher present will require the student to take the phone to Student Services where it may be collected at the end of the day by the student.

Cellphone Guidelines can be found on page 8 in the ‘Whānau Hononga Booklet 2022’ by clicking HERE.