As @GavinWilliamson is back, bragging about how well he did with the roll out of laptops, a short thread on an FoI I received back this morning

I asked for the formula used in deciding how many laptops schools should receive

TBH, the process is similar to the one used back when the laptops were first distributed

They take the number of FSM pupils, assume the school have some IT, assume that some of that number is needed by staff, assume that some households already have their own hardware

At this point, using lots of averages, they come up with a total of around 24-27%

What they don’t do is ask anyone if that’s realistic, or if that is what a school actually needs for it’s pupils

I can’t help think that would have been the sensible way forward

Below is the reply with with the full workings

Whilst I’m sure there are good intentions in calculating the figures, I can’t help think they are using spurious data sources in an effort to to work down the numbers

That’s no disrespect to @TeacherTapp or the other surveys, I just don’t think they give meaningful evidence

I should just add, this was a full and clear response from @educationgovuk That was back within 12 days

Let’s hope this is a sign of a change in policy towards a more speedy and helpful resolution of requests