HEADTEACHERS!!

[witch]

This is the sort of thing I am up against:

When told that my server (which happens to be located in one of the two IT rooms in the school) was now full, and the whole system would soon fail if he didn't get the new drives I have been shouting about since October - my headteacher said:

 

"Oh well, if it does fail, people will have to use the other computer room"

 

I don't think that he really understands the concept of a network, do you?

[russdev]

my suggestion write it down in plain simple english if it fails no one in school will be able to use a computer.

 

Russ

[Geoff]

Just make sure he's directly affected first. Nothing like first hand experience to get your point accross.

[ChrisH]

I find putting stuff down on paper and explaining it clearly helps tremendously. That way they can read it in their own time and take it in better and not be bombabrded with information they dont understand and just stand there looking at you blankly.

[Ric_]

My head likes 'pictures' - if you can show how it will affect people in a diagram, it seems to be easier to understand

[Geoff]

MS Visio to the rescue!

[indie]

A friend of mine who works in a school had an ancient server that broke one day through lack of money being available to upgrade etc.

 

The Headmaster wanted the network back up and running ASAP so he was ordered to buy a server from stock (wasnt allowed to wait the 5-7 days for a Dell build) and ended up with some shoddy compaq/hp that had been on a shelf for months and had old hat hardware.

 

After a few months this server reached its capacity and things started to slow down and fall over, again the headmaster released funds to buy an additional server.

 

What I dont understand is why does everything have to be on it's last legs for money to be made available! If the head had just released both sets of money and given the tech time, they could have had a well specced server that would have lasted far longer than the two they have now!

[kevinmcaleer]

I find the way that you inform the SMT, about server requirements and so on, makes all the difference.

 

At my old school, we used to have a 'ICT development' meeting once a week, where all the stakeholders in ICT met to discuss current issues and future developments. The kind of stakeholders we had were:

* Member of Senior Management

* Head of ICT

* ICT Coordinator

* ICT cross-curricular coordinator

* Head of Business Admin (Typing)

* Network Manager

* ICT Techncian

* School Business Manager (Finance)

 

There was an agenda and minutes were taken.

 

I also presented a biannual IT service report, where I outlined the current usage of IT in the school, showed the problem areas and possible solutions and also how many help desk calls were made etc. It was also a chance to highlight were we thought money needed to be spent (New switches or servers etc) along with what has been spent on IT to-date.

 

I found this gave the senior management full confidence that I had the whole IT environment under control. So when I asked for a new server, I got one; they already knew about it at least about 6-12 months earlier because it was in the Service Report.

 

-Kev

[Alex]

I find putting stuff down on paper and explaining it clearly helps tremendously. That way they can read it in their own time and take it in better and not be bombabrded with information they dont understand and just stand there looking at you blankly.

 

Pffft, just turn the damn thing off and go offsite for a meeting - give him a first hand demonstration of the carnage.

[E1uSiV3]

rofl @ alex...

 

yeah and walk back to a P45 lol

[MkII]

Yeah - we have the same Kev - maybe not quite as neat! Ours tends to be rubber stamping stuff manglement [cheers Tony ] want to do. But to be fair I do have my say and I do get stuff. I presented a five year plan off my own bat and the Head said she'd never had it in black and white before, and could see now what the priorities were. So, highly recommended if you can manage it.

[GrumbleDook]

I sat down with the Head and Business Manager around 2 weeks ago with rough ideas around a 1, 2, 3 and 5 year plan ...

 

This included all the various things from me, stuff from Spot and ideas that the head had already mentioned.

 

And the end result was that we know we can't sustain the expansion without other parts of the school missing out.

 

And then the realisation that the head may change his mind about something and the best laid plans of mice and men ...

 

So the final decision about what happens is something like this. We have a rough number of machines we replace each year. This will get reduced as we introduce terminals / thin clients and the Laptops for Students scheme expands. Factor in that any particular room we want to improve may get dropped 3 weeks before we order the kit in ready for a summer blitz due to changes in the curriculum.

 

Improvise, adapt, overcome!

[MkII]

hmmm - *thinks of the £10k budget this year*

 

:waves: accross the divide

[witch]

I can only dream of 'meetings' - I am a lowly part-time techie who works for an IT co-ordinator who is, herself, ignored by the head! All your ideas sound great, and I would love to be in a situation where I could implement any of them (especially the 'turn it off and walk out scenario!! - no, not really) but I'm afraid that, in my situation, it isn't going to happen.

My other part-time job isnt any better - I spent ages sorting out possible new systems after the head asked me too, and then he completly ignored everything I had said, which is why it looks as if we are going to end up with RM.

Still, maybe I can make some of you see that you aren't so badly off after all!

[MkII]

RM - that Head has PLENTY of money then

[witch]

No, he is going to use the building fund (!)

[alan-d]

No, he is going to use the building fund (!)

 

If he buys RM - he may as well rename it 'The Closing down due to lack of money for books Fund' !!

[oxide54]

This is the sort of thing I am up against:

When told that my server (which happens to be located in one of the two IT rooms in the school) was now full, and the whole system would soon fail if he didn't get the new drives I have been shouting about since October - my headteacher said:

 

"Oh well, if it does fail, people will have to use the other computer room"

 

I don't think that he really understands the concept of a network, do you?

 

once place i worked (not my current job honest.... ) i was told when i started it would be okay if the network went went down (meaning the servers crashed) we could just use the wireless.

 

bearing in mind we have 400+ desktops, obviously without wireless support.

[HMCTech]

I had a very similar situation in my first job. there was one server to do everything and that sat in a computer room. It was two years old when I started and two years later it started to fall apart alot. I spoke to the Head about what would happen he said how much was my solution and he said no. I made everyone aware previously about what would happen if this thing decided never to turn on again and they all seemed worried.

 

When it finally did happen and no one could log on, not access SIMS for registration, do any invoicing, do any of anyones normal day stuff the head got in such a panic that he ordered three times what I asked for.

 

I resigned three months later.

[jamesb]

I had something similar in one school I worked in, until I found the right way to approach it.

 

Originally I'd tried e-mails, mentioning things and so on. Nothing got done unless a crisis was hit.

 

Then I hit on the idea of writing out a business plan, scheme of work, budget, and detail of improvements. It took a while to get everything that I wanted to do down, with all of the various options and some pretty diagrams to show how things would be scheduled and what the impact would be, as well as the benefits. Basically I made a full business project proposal.

 

I then arranged a meeting with the head teacher, assistant head and bursar. I also requested that it be presented at the next governors meeting. They refused this at first, until I applied for selection as a staff governor.

 

The first meeting took about an hour and a half. The governors meeting took another three hours a couple of weeks later. By the end of both I had a budget (less than I'd mentioned in my plan, but well within my safety margin), was reporting directly to the bursar as my line manager instead of the head of ICT, and had the go ahead to start on the project. I'm still convinced its at least partly because I ensured that I was clean-shaven and wearing a suit to both meetings, whereas usually I have at least a goatee and am slightly scruffy to say the least.

 

May not help with anyone else's situation, but my point is that sometimes the way you approach things can really make a difference. Throwing reams and reams of well-formatted, well-diagrammed documents at a problem can in fact make it go away while dire warnings of doom and despair go unheeded. Remember, dire warnings come along every day, a good business presentation is a rarity.

[powdarrmonkey]

Welcome to three years ago...

[Dos_Box]

Oh great. 2 More lots of potty training to get the kids through...again!

Not to mention a return to nappies!