Chromebooks

There is a shared set of Chromebooks for Reception to Year 2 children. These Chromebooks are charged up in school and do not go home. Most of the time, however, the IT being used will be via the interactive screens at the front of the class.

Individual school-managed Chromebooks are compulsory for all students from Year 3 through to Year 13.  They must be brought to every academic lesson and used as directed by the teacher. This means that there are times in the lesson when they should be closed and attention focused to the front of the class or elsewhere, and times when they should be open and used appropriately as directed by the teacher.  The majority of our classrooms are now equipped with Smart TVs, to which both the teacher and pupils can cast resources.

If you are unfamiliar with Chromebooks, these devices are a kind of laptop which uses the Chrome operating system from Google. This operating system is in the cloud and therefore requires no updating from the user. Chromebooks are ready to use in seconds, whether in lessons or at home. The model we use has a touchscreen and 360 hinges, allowing it to also be used in ‘pad mode’. Chromebooks also have a built-in webcam, which is crucial during any period in which Virtual School is in operation.

Chromebooks are sourced by the school and charged to your account. Although parents own the Chromebook, it is fully managed by the school for both educational and safeguarding reasons. When your child eventually leaves Farlington, the Chromebook is unenrolled from the Farlington domain by our IT Department, meaning that it can then be used however you wish.

It is very important that a pupil’s school digital life (for which the school is responsible) is separate from his or her personal digital life (for which parents are responsible). Therefore the Chromebook is to be used exclusively for school work and may not be used for personal web browsing, documents or entertainment. 

GoGuardian is the software used to automatically flag up any inappropriate browsing, which keeps young people safe at school and at home. GoGuardian also allows teachers to see what a learner is doing on their screen in class at any time.

Chromebooks are issued to students by Mr Josselin Guédes-Wright, our Head of Computing, who acts as Chromebook Administrator. Any student who has a problem with their Chromebook in school should see Mr Guédes-Wright for assistance during Registration or activity time. He may be found either in the IT Department or, especially at break times and lunch times, in the Languages Centre. 

All users are expected to take proper care of their Chromebook. The model we use is reasonably robust; however, it is not indestructible. Accidental damage will not be covered by either initial or extended warranty. It is therefore important that parents impress upon their children the need to treat it with the greatest respect at all times. We highly recommend that you purchase a sleeve for your child which will have a little padding to help keep it safe. Any colour or design will do – it’s an opportunity to be individual!

The Learning Platform

This is our Farlington brand name for Google Classroom. Every pupil is required to join the destination for each subject that they study. These destinations are used to post resources, homework and teacher messages. Learners may also comment and ask questions in the stream.

Students are also required to join their Virtual Form Room to make sure they see key pastoral and organisational messages. 

Student Email Addresses

Every Farlington pupil is given an email address in the following format: firstname.lastname@farlingtonschool.com

• Middle and Senior School pupils should not share their password with anyone at all. If they forget their password, this can easily and quickly be re-set by the IT Department.

• Lower School pupils will need to do their best to remember their password. They can share that password with parents but not other pupils.

School email addresses are  used primarily for logging on to G-Suite, which comprises Classroom, Drive, Gmail, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Meet and more.

Whilst students may email teachers, we strongly encourage them to instead post messages in the relevant destination on The Learning Platform, as this separates out and prioritises student messages from the many other emails that staff receive. Messages can be for the whole group or private.

IT Code of Conduct

Each year, all new and existing IT users must undertake to adhere to this. This is done electronically through a Google Form.

ePlanner

The ePlanner is a personal electronic student planner downloaded each term from the Virtual Form Room. Its use is not optional. Pupils from Year 7 upwards use this to enter timetable details, their homework schedule, and timings for any extra-curricular lessons. Each week has a separate tab used for recording homework details but also reminders, top goals and achievements. Parents are encouraged to ask their children to see it from time to time and it can also be looked at by Form Tutors, Learning Support (if applicable) and senior staff.

eeBooks

This stands for electronic evidence Books, and is used in tandem with – and sometimes (in the case of Modern Languages) instead of – physical exercise books or files. Farlington places great importance on its digital agenda but, naturally, we wish to retain the important skill of handwriting and recognise that, at the present time, public examinations are still done in writing. Therefore subjects will also provide written tests and examinations in writing as appropriate, in addition to any computer-based testing. The proportion will vary according to the nature of the subject studied. eeBooks are used in both Middle School and Senior School.