Top Concerns for this academic year.....

[Becky-Impero]

What are your top concerns for the new academic year? Safeguarding, budget cuts, GDPR?

[steveg]

What new things will the next Impero update break? :-)

[NB9457]

Servers and SAN are nearing 9 years old, as are student PCs and budgets are oh so tight.

[bossman]

Servers and SAN are nearing 9 years old, as are student PCs and budgets are oh so tight.

 

Not your concern as this should be covered by the schools ICT strategy policy and its not your responsibility if you are only the NM as its above your paygrade and job spec! Just float it back to them!

[NB9457]

Not your concern as this should be covered by the schools ICT strategy policy and its not your responsibility if you are only the NM as its above your paygrade and job spec! Just float it back to them!

 

Wishful thinking aha! I'm trying to get a rolling plan into place, but getting a meeting and finding out the budget is proving to be a difficult taks. Sometimes if it's urgent, yeah, buy it, but no forward thinking yet. Hoping it will all be ok come September though

[hardtailstar]

Not your concern as this should be covered by the schools ICT strategy policy and its not your responsibility if you are only the NM as its above your paygrade and job spec! Just float it back to them!

 

You can have a policy but if there is no money then there is no money to upgrade.

 

My last school had a plan in place and I would update it and send it to the head before each budget so he would know what would be needed. The school didn't have any money to replace kit so I have to patch and repair until things were replaced when a bit of money was found.

[AlanD]

...nothing wrong with 9 year old computers. We have some Conroe Core 2 Duo machines still doing service of that age. There were a few eyebrows raised and challenges when they were originally specified as they cost almost £50 more than the "budget" AMD single core "school computer" that had been recommended by the supplier. In fact I think they were the first generation of computers we had with the faster SATA drives. £5 extra per year per computer really doesn't seem to bad for a computer that was lightening quick when new, more than capable when middle aged and still useable when ten years old. I've always questioned the "replace every 5 years" strategy when applied to a budget computer which is moderately slow when new and painful to use after five years - better to invest in something that will last and give a better long term return on money invested. The trouble is that long term for a school is often 2 years not 10 so convincing those with the purse strings is not easy. Keep in mind that some of the current CPUS are 65W or even 45W. That can save you up to £50 in electricity over the life time of a computer. Remember to add that figure to a second hand computer which some schools seem keen to buy.

[NB9457]

...nothing wrong with 9 year old computers. We have some Conroe Core 2 Duo machines still doing service of that age. There were a few eyebrows raised and challenges when they were originally specified as they cost almost £50 more than the "budget" AMD single core "school computer" that had been recommended by the supplier. In fact I think they were the first generation of computers we had with the faster SATA drives. £5 extra per year per computer really doesn't seem to bad for a computer that was lightening quick when new, more than capable when middle aged and still useable when ten years old. I've always questioned the "replace every 5 years" strategy when applied to a budget computer which is moderately slow when new and painful to use after five years - better to invest in something that will last and give a better long term return on money invested. The trouble is that long term for a school is often 2 years not 10 so convincing those with the purse strings is not easy. Keep in mind that some of the current CPUS are 65W or even 45W. That can save you up to £50 in electricity over the life time of a computer. Remember to add that figure to a second hand computer which some schools seem keen to buy.

 

I get that, sadly these are only Pentium Duals and are starting to show their age, same story with the servers. As we are strapped for cash, we will be looking into refurb servers and refurb Dell machines with i3 2120s, 4GB RAM, 120GB SSD for £120 per unit, these should then see us into 2021, by which point we will hopefully have a more strategic and planned approach to replacing/upgrading equipment in the future. We also have new projectors to fork out for within the next year too!

[AlanD]

Gee....i3 2120...those are really old - possibly 5 years old.....a complete life time for many businesses....and I've always argued that schools' uses are more demanding that that of most businesses. A contemporary i3 would run rings around it - and save you £30 or more pounds of money depending on how long you keep them in terms of electricity used. I suppose the SSD is worth £50 so that doesn't make the PCs too expensive....but they are end of life rubbish really eeked out as sluggish machines for another 3 or years.

 

I always try to arrange for senior management to have some of the oldest and slowest machines....it helps them to make a good decision when it comes to IT purchases. When they complain how slow they are starting up (make sure they have to start them ...don't do a WOL for them...so they can see how slow they are...remind them that classes are doing that 5 or more times a day) There is ALWAYS money to be found - maybe not enough money for all their want list...but you will be surprised what can be found when they need to find it.

 

I don't think there is a much mileage left in projectors either. I try to get Flat Panel replacements when projectors fail or new classrooms need fitting out. I know that means discarding an otherwise good touch board sometimes....but the lack of shadow and the ability to use them without drawing the blinds and turning the lights off is a great bonus. Again you are looking a say a ten year investment.

[sparkeh]

Top concern is budget issues. Bunch of TAs were let go at he end of the year, quite worrying...

[Tefters]

Whether teachers will actually learn anything or still expect to be spoon fed from their imaginary golden thrones...

[geezersoft]

Whether teachers will actually learn anything or still expect to be spoon fed from their imaginary golden thrones...

Bit of a negative view point to start a year on. Have you considered a career change?

[Tefters]

Bit of a negative view point to start a year on. Have you considered a career change?

 

Some would call it negative, some telling it as it is.

 

Love the job, love what I do, unfortunately just one of those sad truths that is not going to change.

[pcstru]

Love the job, love what I do, unfortunately just one of those sad truths that is not going to change.

It is not universally true [*1]. Schools vary and sometimes schools even shift from one end of the spectrum to the other. IMO it comes down to senior leadership, they set the tone and others copy how they treat support staff. Often those that treat people badly are those with least experience and self confidence; it is a way for them to displace that by demonstrating to themselves that they sit above others. People who are confident and comfortable in their own skin don't need those behaviours.

 

[*1] But it is sometimes true and when you are in that environment, you have only my sympathy.