The Western Australian Curriculum states that students are expected to learn to use technology effectively and appropriately to access, create and communicate information, solve problems and work collaboratively.

In order for students at Floreat Park Primary School to have access to their full curriculum entitlement, there is a need to increase the number of devices available for students to access to enhance their learning. A 1:1 device environment allows for the best access to technology for students.

In collaboration with the staff, parents, P&C and School Board, Floreat Park Primary School has been working towards a 1:1 program for the last three years. In order for students to have frictionless access to technology to support their learning at point of need we have planned a 1:1, parent funded, school managed iPad program for Year 3 to 6.

Benefits of a 1:1 program

  • Access to wide range of tools when needed to enhance learning
  • Greater independence and self-initiated learning among students
  • Students able to present their understanding in more varied ways
  • Improved student motivation and active engagement in learning
  • Greater responsibility by students for taking care of devices
  • Improved teacher capacity to plan for and meet individual student needs
  • Extended learning beyond the classroom
  • Improved parental engagement in learning
  • Strengthened communication between home and school

Contemporary, evidence-based teaching, following the Western Australian Curriculum, improves outcomes. Technology is simply a tool with a huge amount of potential that, when used effectively, can improve student engagement, outcomes and enhance learning. This is why we have focused on pedagogy first, then introduced technology when our teachers are ready. When considering research, wide-level studies and meta-analyses are more reliable than individual analyses. Some key research studies from reliable sources are included on the school website.

ICT and Digital Technologies are mandated learning areas in the Western Australian Curriculum from Pre-primary onwards. The Department of Education ICT Strategy states that: “To participate in a knowledge-based economy and to be empowered within a technologically sophisticated society now and into the future, students need the knowledge, skills and confidence to make ICT work for them at school, at home, at work and in their communities.”

It is every student’s entitlement to learn to use ICT to support their learning.

Unfortunately, government schools are not in a financial position to be able to fund such schemes. Until 2022, Floreat Park Primary School (supported by the P&C) was able to co-fund shared devices. Those devices are over seven years old and becoming unsuitable for teaching and learning. Replacing the devices that we currently have is not a financially viable option for the school or the P&C, and still would not allow for enough devices for students to access their full curriculum entitlement.

Shared school and P&C funding has helped achieve 1:3 ratios. This was always a short term strategy whilst we developed teacher pedagogy in order to be ready for 1:1. In the current arrangement, students need to share devices with a number of others students in their class and teachers are required to borrow from up to four different rooms in order to run whole class activities. The sharing of devices between students and classrooms restricts teacher and student ability to get the most benefit from technology as a learning tool. Additionally, the ongoing replacement costs would be too great to sustain long term and would divert school budget from staff development and infrastructure.

From 2022, the 1:1 iPad program will be from Years 3 to 6. This means that a new iPad in Year 3 should last until at least the end of primary school.

Please see the 2022 Year 6 Students Parent FAQ.

As the device is parent owned, the school management software is removed and the device can continue to be used at home as you wish. You may also be able to trade it in to our parent portal for some credit towards another device for high school.

The Future Technology Committee carried out an extensive device evaluation exercise. The criteria used to evaluate devices were; curriculum requirements, teacher professional learning, user experience, safety and security, cost and hardware capability. Based on these criteria, the iPad was deemed the most suitable learning device to enhance student learning and allow for access to the full curriculum. The iPad as our 1:1 device was endorsed by the School Board.

No. The Future Technology Committee researched this option early on in the process. We consulted many other primary schools and the overwhelming consensus was that a single operating system was far easier to for teachers to manage in a 1:1 environment, allowing them to focus on learning rather than trouble shooting.

We have created a parent purchasing portal though Winthrop Australia. You can access it via the school website by clicking on ‘Our Programs’ and ‘1:1 Technology Program’.

Buying a new device ensures that it is the same specification as other students and is set up specifically as a learning device for Floreat’s needs. It will arrive with the correct profiles loaded so that school and home can manage it effectively. This helps take the responsibility of buying school apps off parents. The portal also offers education discount and the correct accessories/insurances. If there is a warranty problem with the device, the company will collect and repair it in line with their terms and conditions. You may also be able to trade in the device when your child leaves and receive credit towards another device for high school.

Potentially yes as long as it has the correct features and longevity. To ensure the device is suitable for the 1:1 iPad teaching and learning program, and to ensure it remains functional while your child takes part in it, the device should be 8th Generation or newer with at least 128gb of storage. The iPad would need to be factory reset so that the school can enrol it into our mobile device management (MDM) software. This allows us to ‘push’ school apps out to the device, ensuring it is ready for learning. You still own the apps on it and can install these on another device. Once your child leaves Floreat, the device is factory reset again and you can reinstall your own apps.

Protection against damage, theft and/or loss requires a combination of human and physical environment factors to mitigate potential risks. We highly recommend buying the suggested case on the purchase portal. We also recommend the AppleCare+ option which covers up to two repairs/replacements per year resulting from damage. At school, the device is kept in the classroom and students are taught to handle it safely, with two hands, when transporting it.

The iPad is a tool for learning. Ensuring it is charged and ready is part of helping children build personal responsibility for and ownership of their learning.

Because the school is supervising the devices, we control which apps appear (even when your child is at home). This means that messaging and social media apps will not be on the device. Our aim is for this to be a learning device only. Once your child leaves Floreat, the device will be factory reset and given back to you to use as you wish.

Learning the social and ethical protocols of using ICT is embedded in the Western Australian Curriculum and teachers regularly teach students about how to stay safe and be kind online and offline. Students are also regularly reminded of the school Technology Contract which outlines the rules and expectations for using ICT.

Parents are supported with annual seminars by industry experts who share advice on how to manage technology use at home and set boundaries and expectations.

The school has a parent cyber safety hub which includes a great deal of evidence-based resources to support parents. The Floreat Cyber Safety Hub is available through the school website.

One of the aims of the 1:1 program is for technology to be accessible in a ‘frictionless’ manner. This means that if a student needs it, it is available. As a result, this makes putting time limits on the use of a device challenging. Additionally, it is difficult to measure ‘screen time’ when sometimes children are solely using a device for an activity and sometimes using it alongside traditional methods; glancing at it from time-to-time. The debate around screen time has certainly shifted in the past few years to focus more on the type of screen time. For example, an hour spent developing creative, critical and abstract thinking or problem solving may be far more beneficial than an hour spent gaming or watching videos. We refer to our approach as ‘hands on brain on’, rather than ‘hands on brain off’. That said, the iPad is not intended to become the only tool students use at school. We envisage that on average less than half of the school day will involve using technology in some form.

Many schools in Western Australia have 1:1 programs and the majority of primary schools use iPads in 1:1 or shared scenarios. In planning this program, the Future Technologies Committee visited many local schools with 1:1 programs and learnt from their experiences in order to refine our planning and processes. We also consulted closely with Shenton College, our main feeder high school to ensure our program also helped develop the skills needed for a high school 1:1 environment.

This is an excellent point and something we have considered carefully with our technology for education coach. One major learning from the pilot class program is that, at first, children will be focused on the design appearance rather than the quality. Digital products allow the students to have a greater degree of expression and allow greater depths of creativity to express their learning in new and interesting ways beyond normal pen and paper. The depth of content knowledge displayed will outweigh the ‘wow’ from the product. Teacher rubrics will still include the standards expected of the students and will now start to include creativity, design elements and other aspects previously unable to be assessed.

Navigating menus, saving and retrieving work from cloud and non-cloud drives and navigating websites are all part of the Western Australian Curriculum and these skills are currently taught using iPads. iPads also integrate well with Office 365, which we currently use and school and will continue to do so.

Yes. This was one of the areas in which the iPad scored highly in the device evaluation process. The iPad has a wide range of easily set accessibility options from contrasting colours, text to speech (and vice versa) and many more. Students with special needs in our pilot classes responded very positively to the support the iPad offered and were able to experience much more success in their learning as a result.

Whilst we do not teach touch typing per se, we have taken on board parent feedback about the iPad on-screen keyboard and are recommending you buy the keyboard included on the purchase portal. Regular use of the keyboard helps with speed and fluency which will benefit students, particularly when they reach Year 5 and carry out NAPLAN writing using the iPad.

Fine motor skills and correct pencil grip are very important skills and we continue to teach these as part of the curriculum. Students will continue to use pencil/pen and paper for their school work as well as manipulating context specific tools in visual arts, music and physical education. To further develop their fine motor skills when using the iPad, we recommend parents also purchase the Apple Pencil (first Generation) or Logitech Crayon included on the purchase portal.

If you have 3 or more children in Year 3 to 6 in 2022, the school will provide the 3rd iPad which your child can use until then end of Year 6, or until it is no longer needed. At that point the iPad will be returned to the school.

One of The Future Technology Committee’s aims is equity for all students in this program. Payment plans are available through the purchasing portal. If this is not suitable, please speak to us and we will work with you to ensure your child/children take full part in the 1:1 iPad program at Floreat.

Your child will need over the ear headphones which are part of the booklist. We discourage in-ear headphones such as air pods.

The Future Technologies Committee and School Board have considered this point very carefully. The decision made is that the devices will be school managed. This is because:

  1. School managed devices allow us to use the full functionality of the iPad. There are certain teaching and learning management apps that will not work on parent managed devices.
  2. Parent feedback showed that most parents were happy for the school to manage the devices. Almost 2/3 of parents did not want the responsibility of buying and installing school apps for their children. Many of the schools we visited in the research phase stated that parent managed devices can be problematic when apps are not installed, not updated or the wrong ones are installed. The added variable of having a non-standard ‘image’ results in more technical support time being needed and can get in the way of learning and teaching.
  3. Cyber safety. As Jordan Foster, Clinical Psychologist and founder of YSafe Australia, says at our annual parent sessions “start strict and ease off… Not the other way around!” There are already lots of variables in running a 1:1 program and we want Floreat’s 1:1 program to be the best it can be. The staff, Future Technology Committee and Board have invested significant time and effort in running a due diligence, consultative planning process and it is imperative that it gets off to a great start in 2022.
  4. Parent feedback raised shared concerns about screen time and over-use of devices at home. To support parents and to maintain the integrity of the program, it is important that children see the iPad as a learning device, not an entertainment device.

For these reasons, parents will not be able to install their own apps on the devices. If your child needs access to a particular app (for example, one recommended by a therapist/healthcare professional) please get in touch to discuss this.

The Future Technologies Committee will review the iPad management method decision at the end of Term 2.

Yes. This was one of the device selection criteria which the Future Technologies Committee considered. Your children will use their iPad for NAPLAN and other assessments which are now mostly online. The addition of the keyboard will help them (particularly in Year 5 where the NAPLAN writing assessment is online). However it is important to remember that research by the University of New South Wales on NAPLAN readiness found that the most important factor for student success in NAPLAN Online is familiarity with the device, not the type of device.

The decision to include a keyboard with the recommended specification was as a result of parent feedback on the importance of developing confident keyboard skills.