Conviently wiped email server

[Trapper]

Teachers’ leader challenges inquiry that cleared schools of Ofsted ‘tipoff’ | Education | The Guardian

 

I wonder which poor IT Manager was told to erase the Exchange db?

 

 

In relation to one school, he confirmed that De Souza had improperly received the inspection date some weeks in advance, but that this date had subsequently been changed – although not because a lapse of security had been discovered, as a previous internal inquiry had erroneously claimed. He said he had not found evidence of teachers being parachuted into any schools. Gizzi admitted his investigation had been hampered by a disconnected server at Ormiston Victory, where De Souza had been executive principal at the time of its 2013 inspection, which made its emails inaccessible. After publication of the review, Ormiston Academies Trust said it had mentioned when contacted that it would be able to rebuild the older server if necessary, a claim denied by Gizzi.

 

The review was also disadvantaged by the unexplained disappearance of senior leadership meeting minutes for the month of the school’s inspection. Gizzi further lamented that all the emails on the Inspiration Trust email account of De Souza, where she is now chief executive, dating from March 2013 onwards, had been “irrevocably deleted by accident in September 2014”, hampering his efforts to investigate claims about two of its schools, Thetford Academy and Great Yarmouth Primary Academy.

 

“When Rachel’s emails were moved over, they were accidentally not archived properly by the IT department and consequently deleted … It would be wrong to imply that there was anything improper or suspicious about this.”

Edited February 8, 2015 by Trapper

[elsiegee40]

Mary Bousted, of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.... ...... told theObserver: “I am so concerned about the inadequacy of the investigation that I have written to Sir Michael Wilshaw asking him what are the explanations given to Mr Gizzi for the missing evidence, including the missing emails, the deletion of hard copy and paper copy of the SLT minutes for the relevant month, and the fact that key witnesses such as Dame Rachel’s former PA and the teacher who was allegedly parachuted in to teach a lesson were not available to be interviewed. My point is, given the lack of key evidence, how can Mr Gizzi possibly come to a conclusion that on the balance of the evidence there was no advance notice of the inspection? I am not saying there was, but how can he come to that conclusion when vital evidence is missing?”

 

It wasn't just emails that were lost. Minutes of meetings seem to have disappeared too. Absolutely nobody had any copy, draft or otherwise, paper or electronic... really?!! Something smells very bad about this whole affair. I'm with the ATL on this one.

Edited February 8, 2015 by elsiegee40

[m25man]

Same old BS!

Conveniently blame the IT Dept for anything that doesn't go the way you wanted....

[elsiegee40]

Same old BS!

Conveniently blame the IT Dept for anything that doesn't go the way you wanted....

 

Or in this case for conveniently going the way you need...

[mthomas08]

Same old BS!

Conveniently blame the IT Dept for anything that doesn't go the way you wanted....

 

Yep - We all see it, I've seen it, have had Staff "Can we blame IT" questions given to me....

 

Sad state of affairs but IT faults are easily misunderstood by those who have zero clue.

[hardtailstar]

I like the idea of teachers being parachuted in and running into classes like the SAS to teach lessons.....

[Oaktech]

This smells of fish...

 

I've been in a less severe version of those circumstances having had several members of staff disappear under a cloud and an audit or other investigation spring up in the wake of it. I have always been able to pull complete copies of mail boxes off exchange backups and largely complete copies of work areas off file server backups.

[pete]

Cue outraged whistle-blowing from their IT staff.

 

Otherwise they're going to be labelled as incompetent or corrupt. "Oh you worked at $school over $time_period?, that's interesting... *files CV in bin*"

[webman]

I like the idea of teachers being parachuted in and running into classes like the SAS to teach lessons.....

 

"Hello, IT? Yes, the cord on my parachute won't work. I need it sorting for this second."

[clockend25]

There are some classes here I wouldn't enter without some plastic explosives and a supply of smoke grenades.

[jbunoomally]

... I wonder which poor IT Manager was told to erase the Exchange db?

 

No mention of it being an Exchange store - article mentions they were moving from Gmail to some managed service.

 

JB.

[Miscbrah]

Cue outraged whistle-blowing from their IT staff.

 

Oh fingers are crossed for this!

[Roberto]

That's a name I've not seen in a while. Trying to think how long ago it was that she worked here...