Senior School Laptop Program

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Senior School Laptop Program

Learning with Laptops - Senior School Laptop Program

For over two decades, The York School has stood as a leader in innovative technology integration across the curriculum. As one of the first schools in the country to offer a one-to-one laptop program we have learned much along the way. Our program is designed around three main goals: 1) Maximizing learning time 2) A responsive support experience 3) Rich & engaging learning experiences. In order to achieve these goals, we have a robust ecosystem of tools and platforms that support the curriculum. Each year we assess the laptop landscape and make strategic recommendations about what devices we will support for the coming year.

Grade 9 - 12 Student Owned Laptop Program

New grade 9-11 students enter into our formal student-owned laptop program. For the 2023-2024 academic year, The York School will be supporting the Mac Laptop and the Apple platform. Families can purchase any laptop Apple currently offers OR can use a Macbook they currently own (that meets our minimum specs).

Which MAC laptop should you choose?

Students can order any model from the Apple Store (education pricing) or bring in a MAC from home (that meets minimum specs - see below). Any laptop that is currently on offer at the Apple Store will work with our program. We do however recommend upgrading the RAM on any machine to 16GB. Students who anticipate taking Comm Tech in grade 10 or IB Film in Grade 11 & 12 would also benefit from increased hard drive storage. We recommend a minimum of 256GB hard drive space. This article will help families navigate the different models

What are the minimum laptop specifications you recommend for a pre-owned Mac laptop?

Based on our extensive experience we don’t recommend using any Apple Laptop older than 2021. We are confident that any 2021 Macbook, Macbook Pro or Macbook Air or newer will work with our systems. Most laptops come with Minimum 8GB of RAM. We highly recommend 16 GB of RAM Given the size of our software toolkit, we highly recommend SSD hard drive with a minimum of 256GB free space.

Dropping your laptop off for On-boarding & Set-up

We are now ready to begin accepting new student laptops into our IT department for onboarding and academic set-up. As new students enter our student-owned laptop program, we like to ensure that our academic software toolkit is properly loaded and tested on each machine prior to new student orientation. It is our recommendation that you order your laptop soon and drop it off between 9:00am - 3:00pm at our 1320 campus no later than Thursday, July 27th, 2023 so that we can ensure it is ready for the start of school.

1) Preparation: If you are bringing in a new laptop (still in the box) there is no need to prepare anything. If you are bringing in a laptop that you have previously used at home or at another school please go through the following video steps to ensure that you have enough free space (100GB) so that we can properly install our York School software. Please follow each of the videos contained in the linked slideshow to prepare the laptop for drop-off. Please make note of the username and password to access the machine as you will need to give it to us when you drop off the machine.

2) Let us know when you are coming by emailing our Helpdesk: Starting May 8, 2023 we will be accepting new student laptops at our 1320 Yonge campus. We will be open Monday - Thursday from 9:00am - 3:30pm . Please email helpdesk@yorkschool.com to let us know the day and time you will be coming. Please include the following information. (#1 - Student Name), (#2 - Family name), (#3 - The day and time you will be coming - approx).

3) Dropping off: We will have a member of our team at the front desk of our 1320 Yonge campus (Mon-Thurs 9am-3:30pm). They will receive the laptop and ask you to confirm some details as well as take in your laptop username / password (previously owned only).

4) Picking up: Once your laptop is ready for pick-up we will email you directly. You can come by to pick it up or you leave it with us and we can deliver it directly to your child during the new student orientation. If you are picking up the laptop please do not leave without confirming that you can log-in successfully.

5) New Student Orientation, Don't forget your laptop!: The new grade 10 & 11 student orientation date has been set to Tuesday, September 5, 2023. The new grade 9 student orientation date has been set to Monday, September 11, 2023. Start/End details to follow once the programme is finalized. Integrated into that event will be the "Learning with Laptops" new student onboarding. Please remind your son/daughter to bring their laptop "fully charged" to the event as we will be onboarding them into all of our systems & platforms.

6) Questions?: If you have any questions please direct them to helpdesk@yorkschool.com and my team will get back to you with answers promptly.

About the York School

The York School is a gender-inclusive JK to Grade 12 independent school located in the heart of Toronto. The York School was founded in 1965 and is the first English speaking school in Canada accredited to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) from junior kindergarten (JK) to university entrance. As an IB World School, The York School's motto is Experience Teaches.