IT funding for schools?

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fab

155 posts

Master Geek

#104097 14-Jun-2012 19:14

Evening all

I support a small (60 students but wanting to grow) school in South Wellington.
Over the years they've been donated computers, which has been great, but as you can imagine the ones they recieve are often donated at point where they are not the fastest of PCs.

Does anyone here know of IT funding that the school could apply for?

Many thanks for any suggestions.

fab

155 posts

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#641226 15-Jun-2012 11:02

Anyone...?

jonherries

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#641239 15-Jun-2012 11:19

Most trusts will give funding for this type of stuff, we have had quite good success with our sports club.
A list of trusts that fund sports (and generally other stuff), is on the Sport Wellington website. I believe from some of my school teacher friends that schools will often use galas and other fundraising events for this type of stuff.

I am interested in this generally, and was wondering what government funding the school already receives, probably not specifically for computers, but for the school in general and why (apparently) it isn't directed towards technology?

Be interesting to know what proportion of (government) funding other schools spend on IT...?

Jon

jbard

1377 posts

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#641243 15-Jun-2012 11:25

Mindkits have a really great lending library:

http://www.mindkits.co.nz/mindkits-tech-library

trig42

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#641262 15-Jun-2012 12:00

+1 to the charities thing - a lot of smaller schools get funding this way.

They also lease quite a bit of gear, not such a huge capital expenditure hit, and most leases allow the school to replace the gear at the end of the term and roll the payments over.

Check out Equico - they do good education leasing arrangements.

gehenna

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#641267 15-Jun-2012 12:04

A lot of vendors also have education services that provide low-cost solutions: Apple and HP definitely do that I know of. Dell maybe...

Not sure if you can get these directly from the vendor in NZ or whether you have to go through a company like Gen-i, Yoobee, Datacom, etc.

lxsw20

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#641284 15-Jun-2012 12:26

Yeah HP do the desktops for schools thing. Have you thought about putting in some grunty servers and using TS or something rather than worrying about the end points? I take it you get cheap or free licencing from MS?

Ragnor

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#641549 15-Jun-2012 18:11

Doesn't the schools operational grant have specific amounts for ICT in it? I think there are also quite a few programmes from the ministry of education for ICT that you can apply for.

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jevvv

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#641565 15-Jun-2012 18:54

Some govt funding depends on if it is a private school, a charter school or a government school

Do Techsoup NZ do computers for schools?

<- don't ask me where I am - I haven't a clue: its a tech thing ;)
Housewife computerer: not particularly great at either.
And don't take me too seriously.

CamH

564 posts

Ultimate Geek

#641575 15-Jun-2012 19:11

We subsidize the cost of computers that we sell to low decile and small schools down here in Auckland, although i'm not sure about Wellington. Why not try the Lion Foundation (http://www.lionfoundation.org.nz/funding/) - I know it says you have to be a registered charity but it also says they fund education so who knows!

polglase

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#641577 15-Jun-2012 19:16

CamH: We subsidize the cost of computers that we sell to low decile and small schools down here in Auckland,

Who is "We"? I help out with IT at a small school in Auckland...

CamH

564 posts

Ultimate Geek

#641582 15-Jun-2012 19:26

polglase:
CamH: We subsidize the cost of computers that we sell to low decile and small schools down here in Auckland,

Who is "We"? I help out with IT at a small school in Auckland...

www.topquality.co.nz - I'm not sure if it's any use to you, but we're upgrading a school in 2 weeks and we'll be e-wasting about 15-20 desktops, not exactly fast or great, but perfectly fine for running XP Pro and the normal school games/applications and you are welcome to them if they are any use.

Alternatively, if not, feel free to contact me, we've reached our maximum funding for this month but we may be able to look into your situation in the next few months.

simplestuff

84 posts

Master Geek

#641593 15-Jun-2012 20:22

Hi
have a look at a group called Divers Have Branches in most areas. I regularly buy IBM/Lenovo/Dell from them for our school. Costs are around $10/130 for units and keyboards usually Dual core 2 gig 80+ gig hd.
With schools getting Micrfosft sofware at no charge you just need someone to install Windows 7 and then copy your first installation with a disk image progamme and install in other machines. A bit of tech knowledge is required to open takeHard drives out imaging and replacing . I use TB free for imaging. Monitors (lcd 17) can be bought for around $50.00> most of these are ex lease from government depts.
Your school will receive funding for IT. With cloud computing you dont need big or exdpensive servers and with Fibre going into schools you should be looking at cloud computing for saving files. Hope this is of some help.