Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

Year 3-8 students have the option of bringing a specific personal device, a Chromebook, to school. This page sets out the BYOD policy and guidelines. To learn more about our approach to their usage and effectiveness, visit the Technology page.

The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy enables the school to continue to explore 21^st century learning environments which enhances our striving for excellence in learning.

We continue to purchase a range of devices in classrooms including ipads, chromebooks and desktops. We have found that these devices, when used within our learning programmes, can significantly enhance student engagement, expand the range of learning experiences that can be offered to students and help students to explore their learning more deeply.

We have a policy of allowing Year 3-8 students to bring a specific personal device, a Chromebook, to school. This is optional and we will continue to provide devices for student use throughout the school.

We see that students will have good use of these devices (6 years) whilst at Kohimarama School. We continue to see that the netbook style devices offer the most flexibility for our school purposes and we will in future be purchasing Chromebooks for this reason. We see Chromebooks as a reliable and affordable device which makes them ideal for the classroom environment. No other personal device will be accepted.

We will only be permitting Chromebooks as the personal device for students. Key reasons for this are:

• It is a reasonably priced device with the learning tools students require
• Trouble shooting several makes of devices is time consuming and not always possible if staff are unfamiliar with the brand
• It has limited hard drive storage and is primarily designed to enable Apps to be downloaded and it supports the use of Cloud solutions such as Google Docs
• We use a teacher management system called Hapara which is most compatable with Chromebooks This application enables us to monitor students learning and give feedback as well as ensuring students are using the devices safely and appropriately.

We have placed some clear guidelines around the introduction of BYOD:

1. The sole purpose of the use of devices at school is to support and enhance educational outcomes. Their use is limited to this.
2. Use of personal devices during the school day is at the direction of teachers and teachers monitor the use.
3. Teachers are the professionals and will ensure that if the device is the best tool for learning it is used only for the period required to complete that learning.
4. Headphones cannot be used other than at the direction of the teacher for an educational purpose.
5. The use of a personal device is not to be used for any other purpose other than described above. Students do not have free use of devices.
6. Students will make no attempts to circumvent the school’s network security and/or filtering policies.
7. Students will not capture or distribute voice, pictures or videos of students or staff unless this is directed by teachers within an educational context.
8. Students will not use personal devices outside of their classroom unless otherwise directed by their teacher for educational purposes.
9. Kohimarama School will monitor the activity of students of the network. We do this regularly using Hapara (this allows us to see the past and present content on student devices).
10. The use of personal devices falls under the conditions of the ‘Kohimarama School Cybersafey Policy’, ‘Cybersafety Student Use Agreement’ and the ‘Kohimarama School BYOD Agreement’.

Students bring their devices (including all peripherals) to use at Kohimarama School at their own risk.

It is the responsibility of the individual owner, to keep the device secure, charged and with up-to-date virus protection installed on the device.

Kohimarama School system and staff are in no way responsible for:

1. Personal devices (including all peripherals) that are broken while at school or during school-sponsored activities.
2. Personal devices (including all peripherals) that are lost or stolen at school or during school-sponsored activities.
3. Maintenance or upkeep of any device (keeping it charged, installing updates or upgrades, fixing any software or hardware issues).

Consequences for Misuse/Disruption (one or more may apply):   

1. Access to device removed for the remainder of the day.
2. Device removed and kept in the front office until parent/caregiver picks it up.
3. Parent may be advised to conduct a more thorough search of the device.
4. Privilege of using personal devices at school denied.
5. Disciplinary referral as per the Kohimarama School Cybersafety Policy and Agreement.  This may involve informing the appropriate external agencies/authorities, including the NZ Police.

While we value the way devices can support learning we take a ‘fit for purpose’ approach to their use. At times we still expect that paper and pen may be the most effective way to complete a task. We are also aware of the health risks of overuse of devices and will be continuing to promote physical activity and device free learning time.

We would like to reiterate that bringing a BYOD is an optional choice and that we have no expectations that every student must bring their own device to school.

Students who intend to bring a personal Chromebook into the classroom will be asked to sign a BYOD agreement which is to be brought back to the classroom teacher prior to them bringing their device in to school. We ask that Chromebooks are not brought to school until week 3 of term 1 so we can ensure classes are fully ready for them.