RAINBOW: My kids school reccommends ipads. We don't have to get them but that is what is reccommended. If we were going to pay that much I'd rather buy a laptop that will fit their requirements for years 11-13. I like chrome books, my youngest has one at year 6.
iPads make little sense to me as a school device.... they are great for content consumption, but not so great for content creation (in my opinion). I would encourage you to talk to the parents of older kids about their experience with iPads for school.
iOS apps won't run on a laptop, so if an iPad is strongly encouraged (and you choose to follow that encouragement), then you'll be best following that path.
“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.” Douglas Adams
Seriously, the first reply contains the most critical piece of advice - I suggest there's no point investigating specific devices, or even researching laptops with a particular operating system, until you've checked with the school as to what their requirements are. Once you've got that then you could report back here; this will allow people to provide advice relevant to the type of computers you'll need to purchase.
You'll often find this information is included on the school's website, or in a 'guide to new students' (may be a pdf on the website); if not, contact the school directly as this will be a question that they commonly have to answer.
Personally, I think there's not enough consideration of device types for schools, including a real lack of integration between the levels. My kids need different devices at primary, intermediate and secondary schools, despite the latter two being common feeder schools for the preceding level. I get that iPads work well at primary school and by intermediate a laptop with a proper keyboard is appropriate, but surely allowing the same device and OS at intermediate and secondary would be logical? (In our case intermediate = ChromeOS; secondary = Windows or Mac OS, and these two schools are literally next to each other!)
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