Secondary ICT vs Primary ICT

[sydborn]

Hi All ,

 

What do you think about moving from ICT support in Secondary school to ICT support in Primary school?

[NB9457]

Having done both, I can personally say I enjoy High School support much more.

 

Primary support to me is a lot easier and simpler, usually one Server with backup and clients with some basic software and policies, nothing demanding needed. Most support calls tended to be user error (loose cables, clicking the wrong thing, forgotten credentials) but overall pretty laid back and most of the teachers I've dealt with are very pleasant.

 

I prefer secondary due to the complexity, the need for multiple servers, HyperV and overall more demanding requirements, in a High School, there's usually always something that can be done; upgrades, repairs, testing, calls and so on. Whereas in primary schools, in most cases, once the system is on, that's it really, it ticks over.

 

Depends whether you prefer laid back or being tested!

[mikeprice]

I did that

 

From my point of view Primary seldom needs a full time ICT tech unless it is a huge school. I manage because I only work 3 days full time and 2 days half time - and I teach for the afternoons for the 3 full time days (I am qualified teacher) so it works out OK

 

However I also do loads of things that many ICT techs in Secondary often don't do - e.g. set up anything/everything for our Immersive Room and help out in classroom for some of their projects.

 

Also I have found that the general ICT knowledge/experience/confidence of Primary teachers of often quite low so problems that that I would expect a lot of secondary teacher to sort themselve (especially in DT, Science, Maths) I need to do myself

 

I also have to consider myself part of the overall 'team' and fit in with whatever. However the normal communication problems happen as people forget that I am outside a lot of the normal loops (e.g. sports day was suddenly rescheduled on Thursday as the rain stopped - so I was appointed photographer - unfortunatly no-one told me!!!

 

My school sees that advantage of having me available for anything techy - but it is the only school in the area that does. Most Primaries put up with a once a fortnight - my lot tried that but hated it - hence me!

 

It's great if you can find a place - but it is more likely to be across several schools - and contracts may come and go.

 

check with @witch as well

[sydborn]

Thanks Both .

 

Is Primary School a good place to start your career as a network administrator since as an IT Technician the manager dont allow you to do certain things in a secondary school

I did that

 

From my point of view Primary seldom needs a full time ICT tech unless it is a huge school. I manage because I only work 3 days full time and 2 days half time - and I teach for the afternoons for the 3 full time days (I am qualified teacher) so it works out OK

 

However I also do loads of things that many ICT techs in Secondary often don't do - e.g. set up anything/everything for our Immersive Room and help out in classroom for some of their projects.

 

Also I have found that the general ICT knowledge/experience/confidence of Primary teachers of often quite low so problems that that I would expect a lot of secondary teacher to sort themselve (especially in DT, Science, Maths) I need to do myself

 

I also have to consider myself part of the overall 'team' and fit in with whatever. However the normal communication problems happen as people forget that I am outside a lot of the normal loops (e.g. sports day was suddenly rescheduled on Thursday as the rain stopped - so I was appointed photographer - unfortunatly no-one told me!!!

 

My school sees that advantage of having me available for anything techy - but it is the only school in the area that does. Most Primaries put up with a once a fortnight - my lot tried that but hated it - hence me!

 

It's great if you can find a place - but it is more likely to be across several schools - and contracts may come and go.

 

check with @witch as well

[witch]

Yes. I am at a Junior School and up until recently, a Middle School. i get to do everything - and I know that other than the NM there are some senior schools that don't allow the techs to touch GP AD etc.

Speak to @Oaktech. He went from senior to junior and he loves it. They have got such a bargain in him - he has set everything up from scratch (see Mr Oaktech's massive rack!) and he works full-time.

 

I am part-time but find that I have enough to fill my days. I rarely get asked to do anything else

[sydborn]

thanks

Yes. I am at a Junior School and up until recently, a Middle School. i get to do everything - and I know that other than the NM there are some senior schools that don't allow the techs to touch GP AD etc.

Speak to @Oaktech. He went from senior to junior and he loves it. They have got such a bargain in him - he has set everything up from scratch (see Mr Oaktech's massive rack!) and he works full-time.

 

I am part-time but find that I have enough to fill my days. I rarely get asked to do anything else

[sparkeh]

Never worked in secondary but have worked in a fair few primaries. They are all very different!

 

Currently I work full time in a large primary and I do love it. Completely responsible for everything IT wise and a fair bit non-IT. :S

 

My advice would be to really check out any potential primary school and their attitude toward IT, their investment money-wise and what they will expect from you.

[Jamman960]

I work full time in a mid sized independent prep school doing absolutely everything without external support other than for paternity leave, based on the primaries and secondaries I saw when working for an external support company it seems to be a good mix of the two, we've just taken on a junior tech in preparation for our mobile/digital learning expansion.

[sydborn]

Hi jamman , Thanks for your response. Will Working as an IT Technician prepare anyone for a network manager job in a secondary School?

 

I work full time in a mid sized independent prep school doing absolutely everything without external support other than for paternity leave, based on the primaries and secondaries I saw when working for an external support company it seems to be a good mix of the two, we've just taken on a junior tech in preparation for our mobile/digital learning expansion.

[sydborn]

Thanks for your response am Looking to develop so that I can be a network manager in a Secondary school some day.SO is Primary any good for that?

 

Having done both, I can personally say I enjoy High School support much more.

 

Primary support to me is a lot easier and simpler, usually one Server with backup and clients with some basic software and policies, nothing demanding needed. Most support calls tended to be user error (loose cables, clicking the wrong thing, forgotten credentials) but overall pretty laid back and most of the teachers I've dealt with are very pleasant.

 

I prefer secondary due to the complexity, the need for multiple servers, HyperV and overall more demanding requirements, in a High School, there's usually always something that can be done; upgrades, repairs, testing, calls and so on. Whereas in primary schools, in most cases, once the system is on, that's it really, it ticks over.

 

Depends whether you prefer laid back or being tested!

[elsiegee40]

I liken a primary school role to a doctor being a General Practitioner (GP)

 

A GP/primary NM/tech ends up dealing with lots of common ailments, can do a broad range of procedures and diagnoses, may not be an expert in any of them but equally there is an opportunity to learn a lot simply because there is nobody else to do the work and may end up going to external experts for stuff they can't do in house.

 

A hospital doctor/secondary NM/tech will be working as part of a team. They'll have an area of expertise and other members of the team will have their own specialisms.

 

If you move your technician up to an even bigger organisation like a university you are even more likely to specialise and have even fewer opportunities to dabble in other stuff.

 

The only way to get promoted in a lone primary tech situation is by going elsewhere. The opportunities to grow and develop depends on the school and what needs doing - no two will be the same. It can be a great opportunity

[sydborn]

Thanks .But is it wise to move from an IT Technician in a secondary school to be an IT Technician in a primary for the sole purpose of learning how to manage a network as you don't get that opportunity in a secondary school as that is the Network manager's job

 

I liken a primary school role to a doctor being a General Practitioner (GP)

 

A GP/primary NM/tech ends up dealing with lots of common ailments, can do a broad range of procedures and diagnoses, may not be an expert in any of them but equally there is an opportunity to learn a lot simply because there is nobody else to do the work and may end up going to external experts for stuff they can't do in house.

 

A hospital doctor/secondary NM/tech will be working as part of a team. They'll have an area of expertise and other members of the team will have their own specialisms.

 

If you move your technician up to an even bigger organisation like a university you are even more likely to specialise and have even fewer opportunities to dabble in other stuff.

 

The only way to get promoted in a lone primary tech situation is by going elsewhere. The opportunities to grow and develop depends on the school and what needs doing - no two will be the same. It can be a great opportunity

[Guest MD5T]

Hi All ,

 

What do you think about moving from ICT support in Secondary school to ICT support in Primary school?

 

How old are you btw?

[elsiegee40]

Thanks .But is it wise to move from an IT Technician in a secondary school to be an IT Technician in a primary for the sole purpose of learning how to manage a network as you don't get that opportunity in a secondary school as that is the Network manager's job

 

Why not? If you're the kind of person that's scared to find things out for yourself and gets stressed at the thought of there being nobody to consult or help then it's not for you. If you have a reasonable basic grounding and don't mind admitting when you need help (EduGeek is a saviour in those situations) then go for it!

[sydborn]

Thanks for that!

Why not? If you're the kind of person that's scared to find things out for yourself and gets stressed at the thought of there being nobody to consult or help then it's not for you. If you have a reasonable basic grounding and don't mind admitting when you need help (EduGeek is a saviour in those situations) then go for it!

[TwistedHelixis]

Primary support to me is a lot easier and simpler, usually one Server with backup and clients with some basic software and policies, nothing demanding needed.

 

I look after a number of Primary schools and have Host / vm servers running on hyper-v connected to iSCSI servers. It all depends how easy you want a rebuild to be if the Sxxx hits the fan and a server dies. It does not need to be simple and boring.

[elsiegee40]

@sydborn in many primaries you have far more opportunity to become part of school life than in some secondaries.

 

There are fewer staff so you may be asked to help out with all sorts of things. You do need to learn to manage your time, but helping out with the nativity play or sports day and being an extra pair of eyes on a farm trip can be very rewarding. Make friends with the caretaker, the only other person who can fix stuff, quickly!

[MartinRouterKing]

I am a full time primary technician / IT manager. I really enjoy it. I worked in a high school and for the local authority but never learnt as much as I have now. We have 4 servers, hyper v and smoothwall. I built everything from scratch after dealing with a big mess when I first started. I have just recently started installing door access for the school as well which in a high school they would probably just get someone else in to do it. I feel I have learnt so much that will help me with my career moving forward.

[HBPS]

Well i have done both also

 

My background is

 

Primary x2 ICT Tech and NM

Secondary x4 Junior Tech, Senior Tech, Assistant NM

Private IT Support company looked after 10 schools

LA Sims support

 

Currently working with a primary Helping them move to 3 form. Both primary and secondary have pro's and cons but the biggest difference for me at the moment is not having a team. Sounds sad but a bit of office banter goes a long way

[mikeprice]

agree about the team aspect - there can be days where I don't talk to people much at all

 

in a team at least you have someone to sound off to - and to go through problems with when your brain fails

[Davit2005]

I worked in a secondary school where I had a lot of freedom to do the techincal stuff and projects when it was a bit less frantic.

 

Then moved to a Small Pre-Prep school as the sole techie which I wouldn't say was a step back. I had more responsibility as I was doing all the tech stuff and it was a good experience. It may of being a step to becoming a manager then progressing to a bigger organisation if wanted.

[TechMonkey]

I've done the same, worked in a Secondary and then shifted to a primary. As others have said, it all depends on the Primary you go to. I am at a large, independent pre-prep. I do everything, have recently appointed a second in the department and we are looking at getting a term time only tech. We do have a 3rd line MSP to fall back on but we don't use them much, more as a safety net if it goes really, really wrong.

 

Differences from a Secondary? Less pressure due to no major exams, coursework pressures or trying to get some ridiculous "industry standard" piece of software to work that doesn't actually like being networked. Different pressure as the staff are less inclined to do things themselves, no departments you can discuss things with and the staff feel there is pressure so it is harder to talk them down. A different pressure of working in the Independent sector is the greater customer mentality. The bursar feels that we should drop everything if a parent has a query, whereas our focus is more on supporting the Teaching and Learning and keeping the tech working. This lead to a great discussion over a ranking priorities interview question I set.

 

I preferred the Secondary from the point of view of having a joke with the students, trips and general silliness you could get away with in a much bigger school, but apart from that I wouldn't say there was much difference. If you have any inkling about wanting to go into teaching then a primary would give you more opportunity, especially an Independent school.

 

You may have to fight your corner harder in an interview, some would instantly think that a Primary School has lesser requirements but I don't think we are missing anything that a secondary school has and I would confidently put our systems against most other schools in a Top Trumps stylee contest.

 

I do have to caveat this that I feel I am very lucky in the school I am in, we aren't cash strapped and I am gradually getting them to think more about IT and systems, hence why I have been able to expand the team.

[Oaktech]

As @witch mentioned I joined a senior school as a lowly 14k tech and left it 5 years later as a 23k senior tech when they refused to change my job title to NM despite the fact that was what I was doing. As a lowly tech I basically got all the grubby jobs. Not the most mundane ones, we had a very competent helpdesk lady for the user issues, but all the running network cables and installing projectors and sorting out backups. It gave me a very good grounding, because I made sure I was exposed to all the higher level stuff even if it wasn't my hands on the keyboard.

 

I also chose to go from the Senior school to the Junior school when my son was born as it was a term time contract. I was immediately doing way more than term time and I have now had my contract extended to term time + 5 any time days + 10 days summer working to stop me from claiming so much overtime/TOiL.

 

The Junior school is a very different environment. This school asks way less of it's IT in terms of techincal usage, BUT it demands a lot more reliability. Lessons are short and intensive so not having something working for half a day, which was a minor inconvenience in senior school, puts the whole curriculum out in a Junior. Also, it wasn't a problem in a senior school if it took 2 minutes for a workstation to log in because it was a bit elderly. At Junior 30 second logins are a lifetime as the kids don't have the patience and the teachers don't have the time.

 

I have a lot more time at junior to make sure things are fine tuned, I've got it now that any 1 work station processes a maximum of 8 GPOs, down from the 20+ when I got here, and only the Windows tablets which are going next year have more than a 30 second login even when a whole class is hung off a single access point. I've been able to add multiple ethernet trunks between cabinets which means ping times are always sub 1ms and file transfers between wired machines are up in the 100s of Mbits from the 10s they were when I arrived. I've also been able to implement a working backup routine and we haven't had (touches wood...) any data loss while I've been here despite 3 major hard disk crashes.

 

I feel much more respected at the junior school and I integrate more fully with the life of the school. For the most part, as long as I keep ahead of the curve and remind everyone to keep me informed about their plans it's a lot less stressful.

 

I've also been able to use a Junior school as a springboard to actual NM-ship. I was employed as the ICT Systems Manager, but I have just officially taken over our federated school and it's technician, and from the start of September I will be the ICT Network Manager for the federation (other than the exec head I'm the only person officially working across all schools in the federation. We are also looking to join a MAT shortly and their Head if IT is happy enough with the way I do things to have promised only to get involved if asked.

 

Hope this helps in some way, anything you want to ask, PM me.

[sydborn]

Thanks.

 

Please how is it like being in a private company looking after IT in schools?

Well i have done both also

 

My background is

 

Primary x2 ICT Tech and NM

Secondary x4 Junior Tech, Senior Tech, Assistant NM

Private IT Support company looked after 10 schools

LA Sims support

 

Currently working with a primary Helping them move to 3 form. Both primary and secondary have pro's and cons but the biggest difference for me at the moment is not having a team. Sounds sad but a bit of office banter goes a long way

[sydborn]

Thanks. Do you think the skills from primary school does help you becoming a NM in a bigger school?

 

I worked in a secondary school where I had a lot of freedom to do the techincal stuff and projects when it was a bit less frantic.

 

Then moved to a Small Pre-Prep school as the sole techie which I wouldn't say was a step back. I had more responsibility as I was doing all the tech stuff and it was a good experience. It may of being a step to becoming a manager then progressing to a bigger organisation if wanted.