BYODD MacBook Program
Getting My Laptop Ready
Before a MacBook can be used at school it needs to be enrolled into the College's program. Here's what that means, and exactly what to do for your child's year group.
The College provides all the apps, software, services and settings your child's MacBook needs to work as a learning tool. Almost all of it arrives automatically once the device is enrolled into the BYODD Program.
Enrolment installs a small Jamf Pro MDM Profile on the Mac. From that point the College can deliver apps, apply the right settings for your child's year group, and keep the device secure and compliant. It also installs Zscaler Security, which provides internet filtering while the device is on the College network.
Enrolling the device is a compulsory part of enrolment at St Francis. A MacBook that hasn't been enrolled won't connect to the College network or reach the resources your child needs in class.
Do it before Term 1 starts
The process takes most families around 30–45 minutes on a home internet connection. Doing it at home, unhurried, is far less stressful than doing it in a queue on day one, and it means your child can get straight into learning from their first lesson.
Have these five things ready. Most delays we see come from one of them being missing.
Unboxed, charged, and meeting the device requirements. Keep the charger handy, as the first setup downloads a lot.
Posted or emailed to families before Term 1. It has your child's username, password and College email address. You'll need the username and password, not the email address. See the warning below.
Home Wi-Fi or a hotspot. Several gigabytes of macOS updates and College apps will download during setup.
Mostly waiting on downloads. You don't need to watch the whole time, but don't start it ten minutes before bed.
Some steps need an adult, particularly for younger students. Please don't leave a Year 5 student to do this alone.
About Apple Accounts
Your child does not need a personal Apple Account to use the MacBook for school. If you choose to add one, for personal purchases, iCloud or Find My, please use a family-managed account appropriate to your child's age, and keep the password with a parent or carer. The College cannot recover or reset Apple Account passwords.
This is the part that connects the device to the College. It's the same process for every year group, and takes about ten minutes plus download time.
The one thing families get wrong
Your child has two different addresses. Enrolment needs the one that is not their email address:
username@dow.catholic.edu.auUse thisusername@dowstu.catholic.edu.auNot thisBoth start with the same username. Only the part after the @ differs. Typing the email address at the enrolment screen is the single most common reason enrolment fails.
Two different passwords
Step 2 uses the CEDoW account password (signing in to the College's system on the web). Step 7 uses the Mac's login password (allowing a change to the computer itself). Mixing these up is the second most common snag.
Once the MDM Profile is in place, Zscaler Security will install and prompt for sign-in, and College apps will begin arriving. Leave the Mac awake and connected for around 30 minutes to let that finish.
Three things ask your child to sign in, and each wants their details in a different form. All three use the same username and the same password. Only what you type in the username box changes.
username@dow.catholic.edu.auusername, on its own, nothing after itusername@dowstu.catholic.edu.auIf a sign-in is being rejected, this is almost always why.
The enrolment process is broadly the same for everyone, but the timing and the amount of help available differ. Choose your child's year group below.
Year 5 is where the BYODD Program begins at St Francis. For most students this is their first personal laptop, so we take it slowly and provide extra support in class through Term 1.
Parents and carers, please do this together
Year 5 students should complete setup with an adult. Beyond getting it right, it's a good chance to agree on where the laptop lives at home, when it gets used, and how it's packed away.
@dowstu.@ and nothing after it. Complete this straight away, because until it's done, Zscaler will block the Mac's internet connection. See Zscaler Security for details.What happens in Term 1
Students take part in a Bootcamp session on their first day. The IT team works through getting everyone signed in to the College's apps and services and checks that each student can actually log in, so anything that didn't go to plan at home gets sorted there and then.
Enrolling the device beforehand is still worth doing: it means your child spends Bootcamp learning the tools rather than waiting for downloads.
Keep the Mac login password and the CEDoW account details written down at home somewhere only the family can reach, such as inside a cupboard door or with other important documents works well. Practise typing the CEDoW password together a few times before Term 1; it's the one they'll use most.
That's entirely a family decision and the College supports whatever you choose. Please note that some settings can conflict with College-managed apps. If something stops working after you change a setting, mention it when you contact IT Support so we don't go looking in the wrong place.
Yes. Students are responsible for bringing a fully charged MacBook to school each day, which means charging it at home overnight. If a device does go flat during the day, the College has charging towers on site, but please don't send a charger to school, as loose cables are a trip hazard.
Year 7 brings two different groups together: students continuing from Year 6 at St Francis who already have an enrolled MacBook, and students joining us from other schools who are setting one up for the first time. Find yourself below.
If your child is new to the College, you're starting from scratch. Work through these steps at home before Term 1.
Coming from another school?
If the MacBook was enrolled in a previous school's management system, that profile must be removed by that school before we can enrol it here, as we have no ability to remove another organisation's MDM. Contact their IT team early; this is the single most common cause of a Year 7 device not being ready on day one. Devices supplied under a previous school's loan or leasing program usually have to be returned to that school.
Good news: there is very little to do. The MacBook stays enrolled and moves up with your child, and the IT team updates its year-group settings over the summer break.
Two things are worth doing before Term 1:
Your child may notice some settings change as they move into Year 7, including which apps are available on the College network. That's expected. See device restrictions for what applies to each stage.
Is it time to replace the device?
A MacBook bought in Year 5 will be around two years old by Year 7. If it still runs the current macOS and holds a reasonable charge, keep using it. If the battery is failing or it can no longer update, Year 7 is a sensible point to replace it, and a new device then should comfortably reach the end of Year 10.
If your child already has an enrolled MacBook and is moving up a year, there is nothing you need to do. Their device carries over and the IT team adjusts its settings for the new year group.
This section covers the situations that do come up mid-program.
Students enrolling outside the usual Year 5 and Year 7 intakes follow the same setup as a new Year 7 student:
Contact the IT Hub once you have the student account letter. Outside the start-of-year rush we can usually help with enrolment in person. Just book a time rather than dropping in.
When a MacBook is replaced, the new one must be enrolled before it can be used at school. Treat it as a fresh setup:
Before you sell or pass on the old Mac
Contact the IT Hub so we can remove the College MDM Profile properly. If the Mac is erased while still enrolled, the profile can reappear and leave the device unusable for its next owner.
Erasing the Mac, reinstalling macOS, or having certain repairs done (particularly a logic board replacement) will remove the MDM Profile and Zscaler. The device will need to be re-enrolled before it works at school again.
This is quick, usually 15–20 minutes, but it isn't optional. Work through Enrolling the MacBook into Jamf again, or bring the Mac to the IT Hub.
The BYODD Program runs on the same terms across the Middle Years (5–8) and the Senior Years (9–12): same conditions of enrolment, same device requirements. See device restrictions for what applies on the College network.
Two things matter most in the senior years:
When a student finishes or transfers, the MDM Profile and Zscaler components are either removed remotely by the IT Hub or you'll be given instructions to remove them yourself. The MacBook belongs to the family and stays with them.
Before leaving, students should copy any work they want to keep out of their College Google Drive, because the CEDoW student account is deactivated after departure and its contents cannot be recovered afterwards.
Most enrolment problems come down to one of these. Try them before logging a request.
The profile doesn't install itself once downloaded. You have to open System Settings › General › Device Management and double-click MDM Profile to start it. See steps 6 and 7.
If it's there but won't complete: check macOS is fully up to date, restart the Mac and try again. If the Mac was previously managed by another school, that profile must be removed by them first.
If this is during Jamf enrolment, check the username ending first: it must be @dow.catholic.edu.au, not @dowstu.catholic.edu.au. That catches out more families than anything else.
Otherwise check for typos. The password in the account letter is case sensitive and often contains characters that are easy to misread. If it still fails, contact IT Support; we can reset it. The College cannot reset personal Apple Account passwords.
This usually means sign-in hasn't been completed. Open Zscaler Client Connector from the Applications folder or the cloud icon in the menu bar, and sign in with the CEDoW student account. Internet access is blocked until authentication succeeds. See Zscaler Security.
Apps install in the background and can take 30 minutes or more on a slow connection. Leave the Mac awake, connected and plugged in. After that, open CEDoW Self Service from the Applications folder and install anything still missing manually.
Log a request through the IT Support page. Tell us the year group, the Mac model, which step it fails at, and the exact wording of any error message, which usually saves a round trip of questions.
At the start of a school year
Term 1 is our busiest period by a wide margin. We'll get to every request, but please allow a little extra time and submit through the support form rather than phoning. The queue is how we make sure every family is helped fairly. Thank you for your patience.
