As you know, we at Citywest ETNS take pride in incorporating digital learning into the educational landscape. As a new school however, we have not yet built up the resources to allow an entire class to work on individual computers at the same time. In order to allow the children to engage individually with technology, from time to time, we host BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) days. Each child brings their own laptop or tablet to school with them on a BYOD day. Children keep their bag close to them in the classroom for the entire day to better ensure the security of their device, however, the school cannot ultimately accept responsibility for any damaged, lost or stolen equipment.
During March, we would like to trial the in-class use of Minecraft, a popular construction-based video game, in order to deepen the children’s engagement and understanding of the concept of farming. Minecraft has countless educational benefits, in terms of literacy, numeracy, geometry and basic technological science, to name a few.
Children who have not played Minecraft before, or who do not have Minecraft loaded on their device, would be paired with a child who does have Minecraft, and would work as a team on building something in the class Minecraft world. If your child does not have Minecraft on their device, you do not need to buy it. We will share the devices that do.
In order to participate in the Minecraft lesson, each device would need to be connected to the school wifi. Teachers will facilitate connection to wifi. Children will only be allowed to visit the Minecraft page/ app.
We would like to gauge the feasibility of this BYOD day. Please indicate your willingness to participate in this programme by completing the checklist below. We would be grateful if you would return the form even if you are not prepared to allow your child to bring a device to school.
1. I would allow my child to bring a fully-charged mobile computing device to school
(e.g. laptop, macbook, netbook, tablet. Please note chargers should not be sent to school)
I would not allow my child to bring a mobile computing device to school
2. The device my child would bring is a
Personal Computer (eg. laptop). Please indicate whether Windows/Apple/Other/Don’t Know __________
Tablet. Please indicate whether Windows/Apple/Other/Don’t Know __________
3. The device my child would bring is wifi enabled and is loaded with Minecraft.
My child’s device is not loaded with Minecraft but I would allow him/her to bring their device on another day when Minecraft wasn’t being used.
This use of Minecraft would be an exciting development in our BYOD endeavours. We are excited about the possibilities this would open to us and hope that you will be able to support us in this.
Kind regards,
Aoife Blood
2nd Class Teacher
Anita Collings
Acting Principal