Some schools have laptops they can lend out to children whose families are experiencing disadvantage. But with so many more families coming under financial pressure in this tough economy, few schools have enough resources for all the children who can’t afford a device.

Currently, the requirement for laptops and the support provided is at a school level. However, schools vary dramatically in their ability to provide students with the basic digital resources they need for learning. This is primarily due to the different funding and resourcing capabilities of schools throughout Australia.

While some schools that offer a Bring Your Own Device policy may have support for student laptops, many of our partner schools are unable to provide an individual laptop to each student in need. Another requirement for digital inclusion is having home internet access. This is not a resource that schools usually offer, which means students are unable to access crucial online studying resources from home.

The Smith Family works with our families and partner schools to understand the digital inclusion needs of our Learning for Life students so we can provide the specific digital resources required. With the generous support of donors and corporate partners, we can ensure every student has a laptop device, home internet access, digital skills, safety training and technical support, so they can access vital online education and learning opportunities.

As part of our Digital Learning Essentials program, we pre-install each device we send to families with a digital safety handbook that provides crucial safety information and parental control instructions.

The digital safety handbook takes parent/carers through a step-by-step guide to online safety around the common cyber threat of scams, online bullying, inappropriate content, social media addiction and more. There are also conversational points for parents/carers to discuss online safety and the risks and challenges children might face on the internet.

Parental control step-by-step instructions are included in the handbook alongside screenshots as a visual guide. Parents are also advised to set up time limits (this can be done on the device), block age-inappropriate sites and to filter different types of content. In addition, many social media sites, games and apps come installed with parental controls that extend to all Windows, Android and Apple Devices.

The Smith Family also provides parents/carers with ongoing safety support through the Learning for Life Help Centre that includes a free call number, email, a chat bot and online tech support articles. The digital safety information follows the guidelines from leading eSafety resources:

• eSafety Commission
• Think U Know
• Kids Helpline.

The Smith Family’s goal is for all Learning for Life students to be digitally included by June 2027. This means that every student is able to access a laptop device, reliable internet at home, and resources to improve digital literacy and safety skills.

With the initial roll out of devices, The Smith Family will prioritise students on a needs basis and consider:

• Number of students within the family without access to a device
• Students transitioning to high school who do not have access to a device
• Students from Year 4 (when schools often introduce Bring Your Own Device ) and Year 10 (compulsory years of schooling)

The Smith Family also asks families on an annual basis to update their Digital Status on our family portal called My Smith Family. This includes providing the number of devices and type of home internet connection.

This helps us to understand what digital resources families have so we can monitor delivery effectively.

The cost of digitally including a student varies widely, as it’s based on the digital needs of each individual student. These needs will consider whether a student requires a laptop device, has a home internet connection, their internet data package, the digital literacy skills of students and parents, and the ongoing technical support required. The combination of components required will determine the overall cost to digitally include a student.

The average cost of providing Digital Learning Essentials to a student is $770. This covers the cost of providing a laptop, delivering internet data for a year, providing digital literacy and safety skills, as well as supporting students with ongoing technical support.

Your generous donation goes towards ensuring every Learning for Life student (including your sponsored student) has the digital tools and resources they crucially need for school.

We are rolling out the Digital Learning Essentials program on a needs basis, prioritising those students who need it most. We prioritise based on the age of children and their digital inclusion needs – considering whether a student currently has access to a computer device, their home internet connection and data package, their digital skills level and the technical support required.

With the extra support of caring donors, we can reach our goal of digitally including all our Learning for Life students by June 2027.