Kirrawee High School has had for several years an established and successful BYOD program.
In 2022 this program transitioned away from Stage 4 students (Years 7 & 8) bringing iPad’s to school. ALL students are now required to bring a laptop device to school.
Kirrawee High School does not recommend a specific brand of laptop. The advice I often give parents about purchasing a device for school is that they should have a budget in mind. Within that budget you should be looking for the best processor, memory and RAM that fits within that budget. The device specifications give parents a guide to what is needed. The device that is purchased should meet all the following requirements.
Form Factor – Laptop or convertible device
Physical Dimensions – Minimum Screen Size: 9.7” Maximum Screen Size – 14.0” inches
Operating System – Microsoft Windows 10 or newer, Apple MacOS 10.14 Mojave or newer,
Chrome OS no longer supported (4/3/2024) due to NESA not being able to provide a suitable browser to run NAPLAN tests.
Wireless Compatibility – Please take special note of the Wireless Compatibility requirements. Recently purchased devices will all connect to the wireless network. Device must have 5GHz 802.11n support or better. This may be advertised as “Dual Band Wireless”, “802.11abgn”, “802.11agn”, “802.11ac” or “Gigabit Wireless”.
Note: Devices marketed as “802.11bgn” probably do not support the required standard.
Education Software – All NSW Department of Education students are eligible to download and licence Adobe and Microsoft software for FREE. This software is only available to download onto personally owned devices. To ensure consistency across the school, all students are required to have access to Microsoft Office applications. Students can access this software through the Department of Education Student Portal. To access Adobe software, students will need to log onto the Adobe Creative Cloud using their DoE email address firstname.lastname@education.nsw.gov.au
Help and support are available to students to download software as needed.
Web Browser – computers must run a modern web browser such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge
Additional Requirements – the following requirements should be considered per your budget. At the very minimum, the device you are looking at should have at least 8GB of RAM. You should also look for a solid-state drive (SSD) of at least 120GB. The advertised battery life should be 6 + hours. A tough and sturdy carry case and being aware of the device's weight is also important. Remember your child will carry this device to and from school and class daily. You should also be looking for a modern processor, but this will depend on budget.
Please contact Mr Wang or Ms Barnes with any specific questions or concerns regarding purchasing a device.
Regards
Mr Greg Munsie – Deputy Principal
