Salaam

[oggster]

Hi Vikpaw,
Only arrived here on 2nd Jan but like you I have hit the ground running.
I'm responsible for the whole school IT which covers everything from infants to 6th form. Currently there are five full time guys working for me (although two deal with the communities health centre and leisure clubs too), we currently have around 500 PCs and 1700 students. The school is growing rapidly and is due to reach over 3000 students in the next few years and has a new 86 classroom dprimary school building opening at the backend of this year.
As you can imagine theres lots to get stuck into!
Not got any local contacts yet but am happy to share/collaborate in any way I can...

Cheers!

[john]

@ Vik, yeh guess so lol, its bett-itus ya know, im getting there now though

[vikpaw]

@ Vik, yeh guess so lol, its bett-itus ya know, im getting there now though

well get over the tiredness and bett-itus, as we're both gonna be real busy as MODS, and you really don't want to be known as the first eduNOD
lol

[vikpaw]

Hi Vikpaw,
Only arrived here on 2nd Jan but like you I have hit the ground running.
I'm responsible for the whole school IT which covers everything from infants to 6th form. Currently there are five full time guys working for me (although two deal with the communities health centre and leisure clubs too), we currently have around 500 PCs and 1700 students. The school is growing rapidly and is due to reach over 3000 students in the next few years and has a new 86 classroom dprimary school building opening at the backend of this year.
As you can imagine theres lots to get stuck into!
Not got any local contacts yet but am happy to share/collaborate in any way I can...

Cheers!

Sweet, i bet you're busy. At least it's probably not as strict where you are as it is here.

We have students from creche through to IB. I'm responsible solely for the MIS system, for which they are using SIMS from Capita. What do you use?

The team consists of An overall IT manager, a Network manager, 1 full time IT Technician, one part-time IT Technician and an ad-hoc night technician. And me of course. It sounds like alot but isn't.

We are essentially 3 schools, Lower, Middle, Upper, with around 1500 students of mixed sex / ability.

There are approx. 500+ computers with 5 big labs, a few smaller pods and at least one machine in each classroom. Some Macs too!

Just coming back from the BETT show i found that suppliers tend to operate through certain areas, and we may have an argument for combined purchasing and / or shipping. Many are in Dubai or thereabouts.

I've found the electronics prices extortionate here and with a further 9% drop in Sterling value in the last 2 days, it makes flying to the UK worth it, just to do some shopping.

If you are a SIMS school, there's a conference coming up in Dubai at the end of April, where i'm hoping to touch base with a lot of other schools.

Were you in the UK before? Whereabouts? I was in Northants, and don't miss it a bit.

[oggster]

I think you might be right, Qatar is quite liberal really, and the community I live in (4000 people and counting, for a gas company) is pretty relaxed. Still have to have a licence to buy booze though!
We are a SIMS school too, I hadn't heard about a conference in Dubai though, have you got any more details?
I was in North Yorks before on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, I miss some of my friends from there but I really needed the new challenge and its an excuse to travel somemore...

[john]

You can't beat the edge of the Dales thats where I am

[oggster]

I agree the dales are great....but good to experience a different culture and environment too though...

[vikpaw]

I think you might be right, Qatar is quite liberal really, and the community I live in (4000 people and counting, for a gas company) is pretty relaxed. Still have to have a licence to buy booze though!
We are a SIMS school too, I hadn't heard about a conference in Dubai though, have you got any more details?
I was in North Yorks before on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, I miss some of my friends from there but I really needed the new challenge and its an excuse to travel somemore...

Jeddah is huge and i think has more ex-Pats than locals!

Can foreign visitors easily get a licence? Can i apply by post? I am happy to admit to alcoholism if it gets me a licence! lol

Not many details on Dubai conference, but you'll hear in good time. I believe it's around April 29th (?) just after our Easter vacation. Hopefully based at a leading school in the region called JESS.

Essentially it's going to be a user group meeting for the International Schools in the area. I have been trying to get a list of schools together so we can engage through edugeek, but am finding it difficult to get the information.

One of the reasons i want us to collaborate is that we only share around 12 hours per week with the UK support and thus it makes sense for use to network and share our experience. We do have a local support desk based in Dubai called EEH - Emirates Educational Holdings, manned by a guy called Jonathan. However, it seems to just be a middle step in contacting Capita direct.

Ask your account manager about it, if you are interested, or i'll let you know when the plans are finalised and published officially. I'm not even sure if i'll get permission to go.

There is an independent schools conference at the end of February in the UK do you know about that? :

http://www.capitaes.co.uk/sims/independentconference/overview.asp

I'm supposed to be giving a brief talk on SIMS at an International School which is really scary as i've not long been here. So if you've got anything to contribute then pass it on and i can try and incorporate it.

If you are going to that then we can meet up.