BYOD Laptop selection check list for 2020 onward
If you are purchasing your own Laptop from your selected retailer (NOT the Valley View Secondary School’s recommended LWT parent purchase portal) please follow these guidelines to ensure that what you purchase will work successfully at Valley View Secondary School.
Must have one of the following operating systems:
- Windows Version 7 Home or better (Windows 7 S is not compatible and should be avoided)
- Windows Version 8.1 or better
- Windows Version 10 (Windows 10 S is not compatible and should be avoided)
Must meet the expected recommended minimum requirements as outlined below or be better them:
- 11.6 inch screen (resolution 1366×768 minimum)
- 500GB mechanical HDD or a we recommend a 128GB SSD or greater (Solid State Disk is a faster drive)
- 4GB RAM (Memory)
- A Celeron processor, M3 processor or Intel i3 processor is acceptable. (the latter being more powerful)
- Wireless a/b/n/ac (must be dual band 2.4/5.0Ghz)
- At least 7.5 hour battery life to provide “a full school day of computing” as student laptop charging is not permitted at the school.
- Hard cover protective case/carry bag for safe transportation between lessons.
The School will not provide support for any of the following devices/operating systems: Apple products (including iPads), Android, Chrome Books, Linux, WinXP.
School connectivity & software: (MANDATORY)
Various applications will be required to be installed to connect the laptop to the school network and school internet. This is to facilitate filtering and device monitoring whist using the schools services. From a wireless and internet certificate installation to a low resource, realtime scanning tool that monitors applications and traffic from the device throughout the school day. Virtual Private Networks or VPN’s are NOT permitted on the school network and devices will be removed from accessing the networks if detected or discovered by monitoring tools at the site.
Microsoft Office Suite:
The Education Department provide access to Cloud Office 365 and downloadable Office 365 ProPlus to all students. An installation guide will be provided to assist in the installation of the software. For families that do not have internet access at home, Valley View Secondary School IT staff can assist students\users with the download and installation of the products mentioned. Parents who wish to ‘opt out’ of this free software offer are required to do so in writing.