Secondary ICT vs Primary ICT

[HBPS]

Not that much fun. from my point of view i'm afraid although being out and about has its perks. the downside for me was mainly not having enough time to help the school grow. 3 hours a week visit per school isn't enough and any more time was charged at £60 an hour a lot of schools wont pay that.

 

i did my 4 years though with highs and lows

 

Thanks.

 

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

[sydborn]

Cheers. DId you develop your skills that you think will help you if you were to apply for a NM in a secondary school?

 

Not that much fun. from my point of view i'm afraid although being out and about has its perks. the downside for me was mainly not having enough time to help the school grow. 3 hours a week visit per school isn't enough and any more time was charged at £60 an hour a lot of schools wont pay that.

 

i did my 4 years though with highs and lows

[mowgli82]

I currently work in a large primary full time, the job roles aren't that different from when I was NM at a large grammar, I miss some of the toys, but i've now got the network mirroring that of the grammar I worked in VLAN'd etc etc. Would I go back to Grammar's and larger schools yes! But I have a nice little number where I am at the moment

[synaesthesia]

Both settings can be both like chalk & cheese and like two peas in a pod. The systems are generally the same, only the scale differs. The biggest difference other than software in use (don't often get asked to install Tizzy's First Tools in secondaries!) is the people involved. I do both - senior tech in a large secondary, and support a few primary schools. In the latter, I'm seen as the NM and despite effectively being a contractor, have full responsibility over everything that happens. It is all driven by the needs of the staff, pupils and curriculum so maintaining a good relationship with the staff in both settings is vital. Primary schools can range from very relaxed to far stricter than secondary depending on what's going on, circumstances, school performance etc.

 

The biggest difference from working privately outside of education and working in schools is a little freedom. Although we're driven by the betterment of our pupils, we often get to keep on top of new tech more often than with the majority of industry jobs. Supporting the likes of government departments, police, NHS etc you're more often firefighting than actually designing, engineering, planning etc. Unless your school outsources large projects, you get to do all that yourself.

[HBPS]

well i kind of want to bypass that role personally. but yes i suppose so, you will find many companies that will try and pay you as little as possible though

 

Cheers. DId you develop your skills that you think will help you if you were to apply for a NM in a secondary school?

[Davit2005]

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

 

If you become NM in a primary school you will gain a bit of the knowledge i.e budgeting, projects, etc. You may also be the sole tech and NM at a smaller school but then be faced with managing a team at bigger schools with all that entails.

[Rob_D]

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

My experiences track with Davit's saying for the most part.

I recently moved from a PT split between a primary and secondary to working full time at the secondary.

From a technical standpoint. I think working in a primary is great experience as you get to be very hands on with everything on the network. I rebuilt the primary from the ground up during the Win7 upgrade so it matched what we had at the secondary.

The one opportunity that I found lacking at a small primary (bigger primaries may not have this problem) was the management side of things. In fact this came up when I went for a secondary NWM position.

If the primary is willing to let you get hands on with the budget and there are "people management" opportunities then great. If not then you might better trying for assistant manager in a bigger place, or looking for opportunities outside of work to manage people.

 

And this has rambled on way longer than I meant to. Good luck with whatever you do.

 

Rob.

[sydborn]

Thanks Rob_D.

 

 

My experiences track with Davit's saying for the most part.

I recently moved from a PT split between a primary and secondary to working full time at the secondary.

From a technical standpoint. I think working in a primary is great experience as you get to be very hands on with everything on the network. I rebuilt the primary from the ground up during the Win7 upgrade so it matched what we had at the secondary.

The one opportunity that I found lacking at a small primary (bigger primaries may not have this problem) was the management side of things. In fact this came up when I went for a secondary NWM position.

If the primary is willing to let you get hands on with the budget and there are "people management" opportunities then great. If not then you might better trying for assistant manager in a bigger place, or looking for opportunities outside of work to manage people.

 

And this has rambled on way longer than I meant to. Good luck with whatever you do.

 

Rob.

[Patrick]

With a primary it's very diverse. One day you can be making cables or resetting passwords, the next you can be configuring DNS and AD. The primary will most likely expect you to run the whole show, where as if you join a secondary as a tech, you'll have specific roles and responsibilities.