Device Procurement & Leasing for Schools
The right devices, at the right price, deployed by the team who supports them.
We’re a school IT support company first — and that’s exactly why schools across the UK trust us with device procurement. Whether you’re rolling out a 1:1 Chromebook scheme, refreshing an iPad suite or replacing an ageing ICT room, we handle the whole journey: honest advice, education pricing, flexible leasing, and delivery to deployment by engineers who’ll still be supporting those devices in year three.
No webshop. No call centre reading from a price list. Just a quote from people who know your network, your MIS and your classrooms.
Why buy devices through your IT partner, not a reseller
Box-shifters sell you hardware. We take responsibility for what happens after the box is opened.
Advice with no agenda.
We support Chromebooks, iPads and Windows devices across hundreds of schools, so we'll recommend what fits your curriculum, your budget and your existing infrastructure — not whatever a distributor is discounting this month.
Deployment is part of the job.
Devices arrive enrolled, imaged and ready for the classroom — Google Admin, Apple School Manager or Intune — with charging trolleys installed and staff shown the basics. See how this connects to our wider school IT support service.
Accountability for the lifetime of the device.
Warranty claims, repairs, spares and end-of-life disposal all go through the same helpdesk that handles everything else. One partner, one phone number, no finger-pointing between supplier and support.
What we supply
Chromebooks.
The workhorse of 1:1 schemes — low cost, fast to deploy, centrally managed through Google Admin. We supply education licences and enrol every device before it reaches you.
iPads.
Ideal for early years, SEND provision and creative subjects. Supplied with Apple School Manager enrolment, managed via MDM, with rugged cases and charging solutions specified for school life.
Windows laptops and desktops.
For staff, offices, ICT suites and specialist subjects that need full desktop applications — built, imaged and joined to your domain or Intune tenancy before delivery.
Interactive screens and AV.
Classroom panels, hall AV and digital signage, installed by our own engineers and covered under the same support agreement.
Charging and storage.
Trolleys, lockers and secure charging cabinets sized to your classes, delivered and positioned as part of the rollout.
Accessories and spares.
Cases, headsets, styluses, replacement chargers and a sensible spares pool — because a 1:1 scheme lives or dies on how quickly a broken device is swapped.
1:1 device schemes that actually work
A successful one-device-per-pupil scheme is 20% hardware and 80% planning. We’ve delivered 1:1 rollouts in primaries, secondaries and multi-academy trusts, and we bring that experience to yours:
- Scheme design — device choice, staging by year group, and a realistic refresh cycle so you’re never replacing everything at once.
- Funding models — outright purchase, operating lease, or parental-contribution schemes run with education-specialist finance providers.
- Zero-touch deployment — devices arrive enrolled and policy-managed, so day one is teaching, not unboxing.
- Breakage and loss cover — warranty, accidental damage cover and a spares pool sized to your scheme, managed through our helpdesk.
- Safeguarding built in — filtering and monitoring policies applied before a single device goes home, aligned with our safeguarding and filtering service.
Planning a trust-wide rollout? See how we work with multi-academy trusts on phased, centrally governed device programmes.
Leasing vs buying: an honest comparison
There’s no universally right answer — it depends on your budget profile, your refresh ambitions and your governance rules. Here’s how we lay it out for bursars and business managers:
| Operating lease | Outright purchase | |
|---|---|---|
| Budget profile | Fixed termly cost spread over 3 years — e.g. a 30-device Chromebook class set from roughly the price of a daily supply teacher per term (illustrative) | Single capital hit in one budget year |
| Refresh cycle | Built in — devices are replaced at end of term, so pupils are never on 6-year-old hardware | Refresh only happens when budget allows; estates drift out of date |
| Ownership | Devices returned or refreshed at end of lease | School owns the asset outright, including disposal responsibility |
| Compliance | Operating leases are generally permitted for schools; we only ever propose compliant structures | No borrowing implications; simplest governance position |
| Best for | 1:1 schemes and large estates that need predictable annual costs | Small top-up orders, grant-funded purchases, long-life kit like desktops |
A note on the rules. Maintained schools and academy trusts face specific restrictions on leasing — finance leases can count as borrowing and may require Department for Education approval, while operating leases are generally permissible. We work only with education-specialist leasing providers and we’ll never propose an arrangement your governors or trustees couldn’t sign off. If in doubt, we’ll walk your business manager through it before anything is quoted.
Every order tracked: quote to PO to delivery
AIT Ordering is our procurement platform, and it’s included for every school we supply — not an extra line on the invoice.
The old way to buy school IT was a webshop, an email trail and a shrug when you asked where your delivery was. We replaced ours with something better:
- Quote — your quotes live in one place, itemised against your school, ready for SLT or governor approval.
- Purchase order — raise or attach your PO against the quote; no re-keying, no lost paperwork at year end.
- Delivery tracking — follow every line of the order from confirmation to your front office, so you know before half-term whether the trolley arrives before the Chromebooks. For example, a typical order moves through five tracked stages from quote approval to signed-for delivery (illustrative).
- Catalogue — an education-priced catalogue curated for schools, so a cover supervisor ordering a replacement charger sees school-appropriate kit, not ten thousand SKUs.
- Supplier management — we manage the distributors and manufacturers behind the scenes; you deal with one supplier: us.
Existing customers reach Ordering through the Customer Portal, the single login hub for all four of our platforms.
Illustrative demo data
Budgeting beyond this order: Horizon IT Finance
A device order shouldn’t be a surprise. For supported schools, AIT Horizon — our leadership platform — includes an IT Finance module that turns procurement into a plan:
- Five-year projections — every device we supply joins your estate record, so heads and bursars see the refresh cost curve years out: for example, a school might see its device spend projected to peak in 2028 when a 2025 1:1 cohort falls due for renewal (illustrative).
- Hardware refresh planning — age-banded views of your estate show what’s due for replacement next, so budgets are set from evidence rather than guesswork.
- Software licensing — device-linked licences (MDM, management consoles, warranties) are tracked alongside the hardware, so nothing silently renews.
Horizon’s Executive, Schools and Support views mean a trust CFO, a headteacher and our own engineers are all looking at the same estate — a natural companion to our IT vision and digital strategy work.
Illustrative demo data
From quote to classroom: how it works
Talk to us.
A short call about numbers, curriculum use, budget and timescales. No obligation, no pressure — call 0115 9170 197.
Quote and options.
You receive a clear quote in AIT Ordering, with lease and purchase options side by side where relevant.
Approve and raise your PO.
Governance done your way — we'll provide whatever your governors, trustees or trust procurement policy needs.
We build, you track.
Devices are enrolled, imaged and asset-tagged; you watch progress in Ordering rather than chasing emails.
Delivery and deployment.
Our engineers deliver, install trolleys, hand over to staff — and then keep supporting the devices for their whole life.
After the rollout: warranty, repairs and end-of-life
Warranty and repairs.
Faults are logged with our helpdesk like any other issue; we handle the manufacturer, the courier and the paperwork. Spares-pool schools get a swap first, repair second.
Lifecycle management.
Asset registers, age profiles and refresh recommendations are maintained for you — visible to leadership in Horizon, actioned by us.
Secure disposal.
End-of-life devices are data-wiped to recognised standards and recycled or remarketed under WEEE regulations, with certificates for your records. Lease returns are collected, wiped and handed back on your behalf.
Compliant procurement, made simple
School procurement rules exist for good reasons, and we make it easy to follow them: transparent like-for-like quotes for benchmarking, framework-friendly purchasing routes, and documentation your auditors will actually thank you for. Ask us about compliant routes to purchase when you request your quote — and see our wider credentials on why schools choose us.
Frequently asked questions
Yes — with care. Operating leases are generally permitted for maintained schools and academy trusts, but finance leases can count as borrowing and may need Department for Education approval. The distinction matters, and getting it wrong creates real governance problems. We only work with education-specialist finance providers and only propose operating-lease structures schools can lawfully enter, and we'll happily brief your business manager or trustees before anything is signed.
It depends on who's using them and for what. Chromebooks are typically the most cost-effective route for 1:1 schemes from Key Stage 2 upwards: cheap to buy, fast to deploy, easy to manage centrally. iPads excel in early years, SEND settings and creative subjects where touch, cameras and apps matter more than a keyboard. Many schools run both. Because we support both estates every day across 249 schools, our recommendation is based on what works in classrooms — not on margin.
No — any school can ask us for a quote. But the real value is in the whole journey: devices specified by people who know your network, deployed enrolled and ready, then supported, repaired and eventually replaced under one agreement. Most schools that start with a device order end up asking about our school IT support too, because a single accountable partner is simply easier.
The school (or trust) leases or purchases the devices, and parents contribute a voluntary monthly or termly amount towards their child's device, usually including accidental damage cover. We help you model the numbers, choose the device, set up the scheme with an education finance provider, and handle deployment, breakages and swaps throughout. Contribution levels are set by the school; schemes must remain voluntary and inclusive, and we'll share what has worked well in schools of a similar size.
We collect them, securely erase all data to recognised wiping standards, and either remarket them (with any value offset against your new order) or recycle them under WEEE regulations. You receive data-destruction certificates for your compliance records — increasingly something auditors and DPOs ask to see.
Ready to plan your next device rollout?
From a single replacement laptop to a trust-wide 1:1 scheme, it starts with a conversation — not a checkout.
Existing customers: track orders in the Customer Portal