School Council

Dear parent community,

As School Council we feel it necessary to clarify things around the HEPS leadership announcement last week about digital devices for year 5 and 6 for 2026. 

At School Council we had already been discussing the leadership proposal to phase out BYOD (iPads) in favour of a school owned and lease program for laptops. This was a leadership initiative to ensure child safety and make it easier to have consistent rules and guidelines around device management for this cohort. This is on the background of a small number of concerning reports regarding how iPads are being used outside school hours, but when the devices are not owned by the school, but are the private property of families, there is a limit to controls that can be ensured on the devices.

As council we had ratified this decision as we were unanimous in supporting it. Prior to the details of the scheme being finalised, the government announcement came over the news that from 2026 parents would no longer be expected to provide devices for Victorian primary school children. What we have discovered is the first time that the HEPS leadership heard about this government proposal was when it was announced on the news! Also, importantly, the government has not committed any funding to this proposal, so they are still expecting schools to come up with their own plans to finance it. 

Rest assured, because this was already in the pipeline, we will be able to roll this out in 2026 but as council we think it's important for the school community to understand no funding will be attached from the Victorian government, so school council will continue with the plans we had already begun to roll out a school owned device from 2026. The devices will be owned by the school and a parent contribution with be sought from level 5 parents to contribute towards the device, software, and management cost. More details will follow soon.