As we have reached the end of the school year, I would like to follow up on previous correspondence regarding the new laptop programme that begins in September 2009 for our grade 7 students.  For further information, please refer to In Sync, dated February 9, 2009.

For next year, we will be offering the students the Toshiba Satellite Pro U400.  Although we are expecting the price to drop slightly, the estimated cost is $1400.  This includes a commercial grade laptop, a 3 Year Accidental Damage & Next Business Day On-Site Warranty, and is inclusive of all taxes.  As soon as we have the final pricing, an invoice will be issued to you by Mulgrave School.  Payment can be made by cheque or credit card (please add 2.25%) prior to September 2, 2009.

The Toshiba Satellite Pro U400 is built to be fully capable of lasting the students for the 3 years of their Middle School education.  Please note that this machine has to be purchased from Mulgrave.  As an instructional setting, is it essential that all students have the same tools. In addition, the use of third-party machines with non-standard configurations would add considerable support costs to the school. For this reason, laptops not purchased through Mulgrave School will not be granted access to the school network and all of the resources it affords.  In grade 10, students are required to participate in the Mulgrave Tablet Programme, at which time they purchase a tablet PC via Mulgrave.

As is currently the case with the grades 10, 11 and 12’s laptops, we will be providing the students the ability to install their own software in a segregated area of the laptop hard drive. The base image that will be installed segregates the hard drive into 3 areas:  a home partition, a school partition and a shared partition that allows documents to be viewed from either the home or school partition.

Further details on how this works will be provided at our Out of the Box Event, to be held on September 2, 2009 at 7:00pm in the theatre.  This is an important date to note as at that meeting:

a)  Students receive their new laptops
b)  Rules and responsibility of ownership are outlined
c)  Students learn how to care for their laptop
d)  Students are assisted in managing the partitions
e)  Students are provided with a tutorial on laptop functionality and how to install new applications
f)  The use of Outlook and Mulgrave mail and Microsoft One Note are explained.

There will also be a ‘Parent Q & A session’.  In the meantime, please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Yours sincerely,

Eddie de Beer
Assistant Head of School
edebeer@mulgrave.com