Enhanced Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT)
Bring Your Own Technology (BYOT) has been raised by parents in several forums over the past year. While these concerns were shared with Senior Leadership at the time, the P&F held a special meeting in Term 1, 2026, with key College leadership staff members to discuss them in greater depth.
A primary concern relates to online safety and appropriate access, including students accessing inappropriate content and, in some cases, students with stronger parental controls being unable to access required learning materials. Some parents have also questioned whether College-provided devices may offer a more secure and consistent solution.
We understand these concerns and acknowledge that we have not clearly explained how and why our current technology approach was established, nor how it continues to evolve.
St Peters operates an Enhanced BYOT program, which is regularly reviewed to ensure it remains the most effective model for our students and community. BYOT was introduced in 2014 following an extensive business case comparing BYOT and College-provided devices. This review considered independent research across educational, technological, administrative, financial, and risk management factors.
More recent data, including the 2024 School ICT Management Survey by the Australian Educational Research Organisation, indicates that schools are evenly split between BYOT and provided-device models. There is no universally preferred approach, and each comes with its own advantages and limitations. For example, College-provided devices may offer consistency on campus but can present challenges for learning beyond the school network.
We recognise that a BYOT model requires families to manage and review parental controls on student devices. Many families use tools such as Qustodio to support this.
It is also important to note that both BYOT and provided-device models are vulnerable to workarounds such as hotspotting and VPN use. The College actively blocks as many VPN services as possible and continues to update these protections. We ask students and families to support this effort by reporting any concerns, and we remind the community that using VPNs or hotspotting to bypass restrictions breaches the College’s Acceptable Use of Technology policy.
Concerns were also raised regarding Firefly and the range of platforms used to communicate and deliver learning (such as OneNote, the St Peters App, and Education Perfect). These matters will be considered separately with relevant stakeholders, and an update will be provided at a future P&F meeting.
We are committed to improving communication and transparency about our technology policies, updates, and advice, particularly in relation to student safety.
For more information on the College's Network Security and Content Filtering, please CLICK HERE.
Lisa Delaney
Acting Head of College
