Small Independent School - Starting again with IT

[AJWhite1970]

So... I've been asked via a friend of a friend what I would do for this school (other than a tragic overnight fire while it's empty and insurance claim...)

 

Current Situation:- 25 students, 10 staff. 10 PC's in one classroom (which apparently are rubbish and not being used), 8 laptops (which apparently don't work and most have keys missing anyway) and 10 ipads, one for each member of staff (which do work). Nice fast internet connection, poor wifi coverage, one network printer, hosted SIMS, o365 accounts and google accounts, all storage on the cloud (which is full), three cctv cameras (but no-one knows how to view footage) and an external company doing support (one half day every 2 weeks)

 

Requirements:- They want to start again, green field with the exception of the staff ipads which are fine. Would like to keep and use o365 (assuming there is a licence inplace for this...) but want a reliable solution for the IT lab, the laptops, storage, cctv etc (and I suspect dump the external company at next renewal)

 

If this was yours, what would you do? There is a pretty healthy budget to put this right. I was thinking Unify for the CCTV and wifi which is easy and cheap enough. Chromebooks maybe instead of PC's and laptops? Something like Linux Schools Project as a back engine?

 

Your thoughts/suggestions?

Andrew

[DJ-1701]

Just want to check to make sure this is right, 25 students and 10 staff total?

[AJWhite1970]

Just want to check to make sure this is right, 25 students and 10 staff total?

 

Correct, classes have a max of 3 students with some classes 1:1

Edited January 14, 2019 by elsiegee40

[elsiegee40]

Independents have to pay VAT on everything which massively increases the costs. They are, however, allowed to use the free o365/Google offerings as per any other school.

 

Is SIMS the best MIS for a school of this size? They might be better off with one of those aimed at independents like Schoolbase or Scholarpack.

 

They still have the same obligation to be on top of filtering and monitoring. They probably aren't even close to doing it.

Edited January 14, 2019 by elsiegee40

[localzuk]

To be honest, this needs approaching from how it'll be used rather than any other way. So, curriculum lead.

 

So, will the children be taught with any legacy software? If so, that determines device types. Or, will you go full cloud, in which case you could look at non-Windows devices instead.

 

Realistically, starting fresh in that small environment I would be looking at:

 

Unifi switches, wifi and CCTV.

 

1 per child devices - depending on curriculum needs. Get rid of the ICT suite.

[jmak]

Your OP says that their cloud storage is full. If that's the case, it's set up wrong, so definitely review their O365 configuration.

[Duke5A]

What's a healthy budget and how big of a building are they in?

[AJWhite1970]

What's a healthy budget and how big of a building are they in?

 

Ground and first floor in a 2 classroom front and 2 classroom back layout on each floor plus a reception and what is currently an IT "lab" on the ground with an addition 3 smaller one to one sized classrooms on the first floor and a common room.

 

Apparently healthy really does mean healthy in this instance, I know why and how they are funded and the backers want it fixed regardless of cost but it has to be done right rather than just a salespersons dream of a customer.

[3s-gtech]

I’d put a small cheap server in to give some on-site ease of management - bit against the tide but even if it’s just for DHCP and DNS. Could also do AD and sync operations, allowing a bit more Powershell control of O365. Doesn’t need much - a Microserver or similar? Then determine what the client needs are - will Chromebooks do everything needed, or would some more powerful devices be needed for certain applications? Could be PCs, Macs, whatever. It sounds like they’re well cloud-integrated already so I wouldn’t step that back, but I would want to make sure that the on-site capability is there.

[Sonic007]

Do you really need Office365? Would a Google based GSuite be a better option and it is free?

 

I'd throw away the computers from the ICT suite, you can always add new ones later if needed.

 

For that size school you could get away with a Synology NAS that could also run your CCTV cameras.

[edmokeski]

To be honest, this needs approaching from how it'll be used rather than any other way. So, curriculum lead.

 

So, will the children be taught with any legacy software? If so, that determines device types. Or, will you go full cloud, in which case you could look at non-Windows devices instead.

 

Realistically, starting fresh in that small environment I would be looking at:

 

Unifi switches, wifi and CCTV.

 

1 per child devices - depending on curriculum needs. Get rid of the ICT suite.

 

 

I'd (emphatically) second this. Teaching and learning needs to lead the tech. (Also, having a 10-seat lab for a school with a max class size of 3 seems a bit bonkers.) What does the curriculum look like? Are there any special demands on teaching particular to this school? (Is the small class size simply their USP, or is it because of particular needs of the students or demands of the curriculum?) Is this the school's "intended" size, or are they looking to grow? Once you know what they're doing in class, you can think about how the tech can best support it. Once you've established that, you can work out what the tech should look like.

 

In a vacuum, not knowing the answers to any of this, I'd lean towards a 1:1 solution (and, given that your staff have them and seem happy with them, I'd lean towards it being an iPad 1:1 rather than Chromebook or MS, but there's a case to be made either way). Sure up the wifi so it's bulletproof, be that Unifi, HPE/Aruba, or otherwise. Re-evaluate that support contract. At a school this size a member of staff seems hard to justify, but getting a good outside company onboard to both help you set everything up and support it going forward is critical. You'll want someone with experience in the education space and with cloud-centric approaches, like Blue Sky, or perhaps someone who can provide not only kit and technical support, but also strong CPD support like Trams or Academia. (Obviously these examples are London-centric, but Blue Sky work nation-wide, and there are other companies like Trams and Academia elsewhere.) If teachers can't 100% rely on it, they just won't use it, so it won't matter what you bought. The speed at which teachers can turn against tech after only a couple of outages/glitches is enough to leave your head spinning.

 

Anyhow, I'd strongly recommend a good long sit-down with the head of curriculum to hash out what the needs really are as your starting point. And get that wifi sorted, it's as essential as oxygen these days! I think crappy wifi is the #1 thing that makes teachers give up on tech.

 

ps - Is this independent school a registered charity, or a profit-making company? The former should sort out their 365/G Suite as they should be on the Edu versions w/ virtually unlimited storage. The latter is going to need to budget for a commercial version, and be aware that if this whole project is successful, that ongoing budget will need to grow to accommodate increasing use across the school. (Ditto re: your budget for bandwidth.)

[AlanD]

Teaching first. Absolutely. The whole system must be led by what they need to achieve. Try not to allow technology, and perhaps your experience, to dictate what they must have and then for them to decide later how best to make use of it.

 

If they are happy using iPads..and they are using an MDM and VPP (or even confirmatory..ugh) to manage them...then you might avoid PC use altogether. If the students had their own iPad to use it might be really good.

 

And For that number of students I’d just use a spreadsheet rather than the expense and straight jacket of any MIS system.

 

..and you can still use Microsoft office with Apps ...and a keyboard ...if you must.