In July Lewis attended a taster week at his new secondary school, and during this week it was announced that, when they start they will be supplied with a free iPad Retina to use during lessons, and outside school. As you can imagine there was a lot of buzz and excitement that day.During September the school held a parent and pupil evening, and IT teachers introduced the scheme, talked through the initiative, internet safety and answered any parent questions. Each pupil was given a heavy duty case to protect the iPad, and all parents had to pay a very reasonable £20 insurance fee and of course both Lewis and myself had to sign a agreement to say we will look after it.
However the first day he came home with his brand spanking new iPad, I spotted it had muck in the ridge on the case - "Lewis why is there muck in the corner of this case" - looking at me sheepishly "ah yes we were dropping them in the muck to see if the case was as good as what the teachers said it was" - AARRRGGHH, No Lewis please do not do that again - saying that, since then, he has taken great care and attention to look after.
We have one begrudge older son with all this - Liam goes to the same school although he is a couple of years above Lewis, and Liam was a bit disappointed that their year was not supplied an iPad. And do you know what he said, "huh, that is so unfair, they won't even give me a free pen when I lost mine, but they give you a free iPad" - I do feel for the other years that were not given an iPad - I bet some feel pretty unlucky, although Liam is lucky as he has own personal iPad, so he wasn't too worried, but I know some other kids, are not so lucky, but with this trial the school is doing maybe one day their luck will change and they will be given the same excellent opportunity.
Gosh times have changed, when I went to school it was black boards and chalk, now it is all techy interactive learning, which I think is all very exciting. Lewis comes home and he has filmed/record lessons, so for example if the teacher is doing a demonstration in Science class, all the pupils record it with their iPad, they then came come home, watch it and use it to assist in their homework. There are tons of other advantages- The school can push new downloaded apps on to all the iPads, they can also remove unsuitable apps (they can take full control of each iPad). And at home, Lewis can download his own apps and use the iPad not only for homework but also for fun, games, Facebook etc.
So overall I feel Lewis and his fellow year students are extremely lucky, and I do hope they all realize how lucky they are, and that they set a good example, and maybe the school will see it as a success and roll it out to other year groups, giving all the children the same opportunity and privileges that Lewis is enjoying.
