Earlier quoted context omitted.
No all GCSE so 14+ students. The issue is usually that they freeze or crash under "desktop use" all the time and people pull the power out and back in again to reset them. This flexes the HDMI and USB connectors which eventually break or the cables give out. During the reboot cycle is when the SD card gets borked, or randomly suddenly. It's really a terrible computing experience compared to using a simple off the she…
These are classic symptoms of underpowered PIs. 99% of USB power supplies are not fit for a PI :(
They could use a different power connector that doesn't cause this confusion, or they could design Pis to use less power and therefore work properly with more USB power supplies.