A SECONDARY school in York is set to become the first in the city to give all of its pupils an iPad.

Manor CE Academy is setting aside £75,000 a year from its budget to equip its 946 pupils with tablet technology.

Principal Brian Crosby said Manor was the first secondary school in York to introduce the technology on such a large scale and he believed it would make a significant impact on learning, working alongside, but not replacing, traditional teaching.

Mr Crosby said the school had spent an additional £40,000 to £50,000 upgrading its network and in January, all 183 Year 9 students would get an iPad. If that is successful, it will be phased in across the whole school.

Director of learning Dave Hosier said: “The scheme is subsidised by the school and parents pay £13 a month for a contract with the company that supplies the iPads, which also covers insurance. Although the device is owned by the school, it is the pupil’s responsibility to look after it.

“Parents who already have an iPad have no need to pay and there’s a reduced cost for parents with children on free school meals. We are also looking at how to get machines for families in hardship and to accommodate families with more than one child.”

Mr Crosby said: “We are not making any claims that results are going to shoot up because of these devices. We still believe it is very good teachers who make a significant difference to a child’s education. This is a new tool for the young people and the teachers to use in the educating process. It is not a replacement for good teachers.”

Mr Crosby said the school had held five consultation meetings with parents which had all be well-attended. The feedback had been generally positive, with 76 per cent of parents who took part in a survey in favour of the project.

He said safeguards had also been put in place to ensure that pupils could not access restricted material while they were at school, but it was up to parents to police them at home.

Mr Crosby said the benefits of the scheme were huge. Pupils were able to take full advantage of everything from maps for geography, to online literary and historical archives. The school has already used the iPads to link up with the National Archives in London to access historical documents from the Titanic.

It is a big change, too, for teachers – who also have also been given iPads – and are able to mark homework with voice annotations.