Our Commercial Team and Local Store Cover all Bases
Seamless BYOD rollout at Hastings Boys’ High School
Hastings Boys’ High School has run an opt-in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) scheme for the last five years. The resulting “half-way house” as described by Deputy Principal Clive Alderton satisfied no one and the school decided to make BYOD a requirement, in the first instance for the Years 11 to 13, “Being a decile two school, we knew some families would struggle to provide a device so we wanted to make the process as simple and affordable as possible, and enable the majority of families to participate.”
Harvey Norman Commercial had a close relationship with the high school, dating back almost a decade, and extensive experience helping other colleges establish BYOD programmes. The school preferred a person to person system rather than using an online portal, “Our families choose a device from a selection identified as appropriate for school use by Harvey Norman Commercial. We handle the administration, order them, and we organise finance where required. Harvey Norman supply them direct to the school and we give them out.”
To reassure families, the school’s Harvey Norman Account Manager, held a number of information evenings, “These were really beneficial with a lot of families taking up the opportunity to ask questions. This is something that we will definitely repeat to support future families.”
The devices selected by Harvey Norman Commercial include two Chromebooks and two entry level Windows devices, “We have found that for the majority of students these devices are perfectly adequate right through to Year 13. Obviously if a student is doing graphics they need something meatier, but probably seventy to eighty percent of the students opt for Chromebooks.”
Harvey Norman Commercial and the school have made support as seamless as possible for students and families. Students bring the device to Clive or another dedicated member of staff and they take it to the local Harvey Norman retail store, “We have a great rapport with the staff and in most cases they repair or replace the device under warranty.” Obviously some scenarios aren’t covered, “They did open one device and found a sandwich squashed inside!”
Clive and the school are very pleased with the BYOD roll out, “We have achieved ninety percent take up across Years 11 to 13, and are planning on expanding the scheme to our Year 9 and 10 students. Nothing has been too much trouble for Harvey Norman, both the Commercial team and the local store have been great to deal with every step of the way.”