Prevent Damage to IT Equipment in Classrooms/Suites

[Archipelego1]

Hey all,

 

We're seeing a gradual increase in the amount of low level damage occurring to student IT equipment. Mainly missing keys from Keyboards or Mouse buttons ripped up, but sometimes scratched screens and such. Not large amounts, but enough that it's becoming annoying.

 

We've tried to implement a process where staff and students check for damage at the start and end of lessons, reporting anything found. However, we're finding that a few staff aren't doing the checks and that damage is occurring and not being reported. Meaning we're not able to accurately identify who caused the damage.

 

I wondered if anyone had a process in place that has a high success rate capturing damage straight away, or that has reduced the amount of damage occurring. That staff have also bought in to and are happy to do as it doesn't take much time.

[synaesthesia]

Difficult to do, because it's difficult to keep an eye. We're finding the best method so far is CCTV in the rooms, when damage is reported we can look back, find who it is, provision discipline appropriately & charge for damages. Word gets around, happens less often. It'll pick up again, rinse and repeat.

[FN-GM]

When I first started at my first school damage was through the roof.

 

I made it part of the policy to for staff to check all equipment before and after the lesson. If there was any damage it will be automatically billed to the department who last used the rooms. This meant HODs forced their staff to check. As a result there is very little damage now. I can count on one hand how much we have had in 12 months.

[Archipelego1]

Thanks for the replies already

 

I have CCTV on my list of recommendations.

 

The current procedure is, students check for damage at the start of lessons, teachers at the end. But, apparently teachers don't have time to check the rooms before they leave. Just wondered if there's any other ways .

[elsiegee40]

This is a problem for SLT. It’s a classroom control problem, not an IT problem.

 

Yes you can have cctv in the classroom - the teachers will probably go on strike if it’s not implemented very carefully though, i.e. if it appears it is being used to monitor teaching.

 

Yes, it is possible to record who sits at each workstation.

 

However, if the school’s leadership team is incapable of getting consistent application of behaviour policy out of its teachers then there is little or no point.

@DaveP has this problem too

Edited January 16, 2019 by elsiegee40

[6Foot2]

...@DaveP has this problem too

Indeed, I do.

 

Update: It has not improved. Despite promises in September that it would be 'stamped upon' it still happens and, apparently, nobody is to blame.

[Linfit]

This is a squishy problem not a technical one, and it can't be solved by processes or tick lists.

Its a classroom management issue.

Some teachers will report everything and be really on top of things and some either won't or can't - if they are incapable of preventing the issues or don't think them worthy of reporting they are not going to fill in sheets or carry out checks.

We have similar problems from time to time - we know which teachers and which departments cause the issues, but other than continually reporting the issues up the chain of command, its difficult to do anything about it unless the SMT are willing (and able) to try to get a grip on it.

[keyboards]

Not much you can do, needs to come down to the teachers and SLT

 

We had a bit of a dodgy room till this September, new teacher and he is superb in there, even anything little straight on it. We were going through hdmi leads like water, barely replaced any in months, shows what difference good staff can do.

 

Only other thing I can think of is a bit of a dick and use tough love, if it gets damaged, close it for the day or more until they get the message or spend " a lot of time repairing in there" so you can't do other tasks.

Edited January 16, 2019 by keyboards

[LTurner3692]

Not much you can do, needs to come down to the teachers and SLT

 

We had a bit of a dodgy room till this September, new teacher and he is superb in there, even anything little straight on it. We were going through hdmi leads like water, barely replaced any in months, shows what difference good staff can do.

 

Only other thing I can think of is a bit of a dick and use tough love, if it gets damaged, close it for the day or more until they get the message or spend " a lot of time repairing in there" so you can't do other tasks.

 

I did this for a while, then just stopped, after repeatedly telling SLT that the budget didnt cover the current rate of repaires! after a while i replaced some of the broken equipment and it magically stopped! well that and the fact the trust got involved!

[fredbayker]

+1

We’re in exactly the same situation. Have replaced mice/keyboards 4 times in one room alone since September!

Have raised concerns before and don’t even get a response.

Raised it again today - will wait to see what happens but at the moment we have left rooms in disrepair until we get a clear answer of what we’re supposed to do.

Most of us in our team are fairly new to the school and it seems the staff here are accustomed to having replacements without any questions.

The only thing that concerns them is that their class for that period should run smoothly.

What kind of example does that set to the kids ffs?

[mikeprice]

I had a massive problem in my room many years ago

 

Only way to fix it was to have a seating plan for every lesson and make it clear that the pupils had to check the keyboard for missing keys,, scratched monitors etc at the start

If the kids at the start of the next lesson report something that they had NOT reported then they would be held responsible.

I had a list of known problems - if any kids failed to report something I knew about I would blame them in front of the class - totally unfair but I would them ask them if they had checked - normal response was 'I didn't think it was important' - so I could apologise and point out what would have happened if the previous kid had done it and I hadn't already known about it - this required some care and knowledge of the kids - its a teacher thing

Only had to do that once per class

 

Ok - draconian - and it takes several minutes out of every lesson - and it is a pain

and I was never the best teacher in the world at classroom control

 

BUT I did it - and it worked - so if I could do it any teacher should be able to - so if they say they can't then SMT should be looking at the compenancy ( that word would scare them ****less and involve the unions - but it is justifiable!)

 

Anyway - more recently

a few years ago I was working as a temporary IT Tech at a different large secondary school and we started having ridiculous problems in several rooms - keyboards damaged - mice ripped out even memory stolen

Teacher refused to admit it was their fault and refused to do what I had done

 

Only thing that stopped it was me going round every computer room every lesson (yes I know!) and checking the computers - in an obvious manner - and never mind if the teacher didn;t want me there!

problem stopped as the kids realised that they would be help respobsibile - and the teachers freaked out as it would become obvious that it had happened in their lesson - so they couldn't say it was the previous teacher

 

For the record - we suspect that the problem had been caused by one of the main IT teacher being part time. Hence on Mondays her room was used by supply teachers - and they were often pretty much allowed to do things with very little supervision - hence the damage to that room

Then it became trendy and cool to do things like switch keys around etc etc

 

either way it's going to be a pain in the whatsit

 

Good Luck

[AJWhite1970]

I’ve got CCTV in all 5 of my IT labs and also in the Open Access area of the library. A few detentions early on and word got round, I have very little damage these days.

And before anyone asks, before we did it we went to LT for permission and also spoke to the teachers on Inset day telling them we were doing it and that it wasn’t a management back door to monitor their teaching. They were surprisingly supportive!!

[hardtailstar]

We have this issue a lot.

 

One room constantly gets damaged/bits stolen.

 

Two teachers out of the 10 (including SLT) that are in there report the damage.

 

Countless times I've emailed all the teachers to report damage as soon as they know about it.

 

Yet nothing gets done unless we have proof it was one of the oiks but even then nothing much comes of it.

[msi_school]

When I first started at my first school damage was through the roof.

 

I made it part of the policy to for staff to check all equipment before and after the lesson. If there was any damage it will be automatically billed to the department who last used the rooms. This meant HODs forced their staff to check. As a result there is very little damage now. I can count on one hand how much we have had in 12 months.

 

This and anyone who does not run the check is considered the prime suspect for the damage

[Fazza]

This is a problem for SLT. It’s a classroom control problem, not an IT problem.

 

Exactly. We had a similar issue so we just kept reporting it to the SLT link who kept telling us there was not much they could do about it. We kept reporting it and then went higher up the chain until we reached the top. That way, when we reached the top of the chain it wasnt like we had missed out people below them so not going above anyone so to speaks. As soon as the head saw the amount of damage they called a whole school assembly and laid down the law. it has dropped dramatically since then.

[TomHD]

CCTV with no audio is how I protect my computing suite... However I am the only person who teaches in there and I know what the NUT is like with CCTV in classrooms! I never understood why if you were doing the job to the best of your ability, why you wouldn't want irrefutable proof for when an accusation is made... But that's none of my business!

[Katy]

CCTV with no audio is how I protect my computing suite... However I am the only person who teaches in there and I know what the NUT is like with CCTV in classrooms! I never understood why if you were doing the job to the best of your ability, why you wouldn't want irrefutable proof for when an accusation is made... But that's none of my business!

Also if your classroom is laid out in a way you can stick the CCTV camera above the teacher's desk, aimed at the class, then they will be out of shot unless they go walking round the room anyway.

[DrBeaker]

Also if your classroom is laid out in a way you can stick the CCTV camera above the teacher's desk, aimed at the class, then they will be out of shot unless they go walking round the room anyway.

 

The little darlings just figured out where the blind spots in the cameras were and broke the computers that were in those spots. Of course it "was like that when I got here" excuses prevailed and despite investigations there were never any repercussions for those students or staff.

 

Over the years we tried:

 

 

• Daily room checks at the start and end of the day. Logging issues we found.
  
• Taking photos/videos or damage
  
• Repairs and audits of the rooms.
  
• Random spot checks throughout the day/week
  
• IT Suite fault reporting sheets.
  
• Sitting in on lessons/drop-ins on lessons.
  
• Installing CCTV in IT suites and checking the footage.
  

 

None of this reduced the level of vandalism to IT kit. When we DID manage to find anything with any substantial proof, it was escalated to the manager and SLT lead - I'll leave it up to your imagination as to what happened! I'm sure you can guess.

 

I suggested charging the faculties FD and staff who last used used the rooms if they couldn't prove otherwise, it didn't happen.

Edited January 17, 2019 by DrBeaker

[Fazza]

Sadly, vandalism in computer suites and of computers in Schools/Academies is accepted by the SLT in most places. Both students and staff mistreat equipment with no repercussions. It's only taxpayers money after all...

[FN-GM]

Sadly, vandalism in computer suites and of computers in Schools/Academies is accepted by the SLT in most places. Both students and staff mistreat equipment with no repercussions. It's only taxpayers money after all...

 

And then they claim poverty saying they have no money.....

[Areku]

we had major issues with this in our IT suites.

WE decided to install CCTV Cameras, Using privacy screens(virtual black box) over the teachers desk, so the cameras could only see the area where the damages where taking place (the computers).

 

The issues stopped in a week.

[ricki]

If you cannot afford a full CCTV system get a WiFi CCTV camera that can be moved about. But the best way to reduce it is bill department. Let departments and teachers worry about the rest. Also talk to head with what it's costing and infer you will over run on your budget Richard

[synaesthesia]

The NUT are only against them cameras because it makes their life more difficult if they end up having to defend one of their clients found guilty by actions caught on camera. Only an issue if there's something to hide; the majority of sensible human beings will have no problems with this as it's protecting them too.

[Fazza]

The NUT are only against them cameras because it makes their life more difficult if they end up having to defend one of their clients found guilty by actions caught on camera. Only an issue if there's something to hide; the majority of sensible human beings will have no problems with this as it's protecting them too.

 

The thing to do is create a new Staff Policy saying that CCTV in computer rooms cannot be used for disciplinary reasons. When you have CCTV you have to define what it's for (I think you even have to put up a sign saying who operates them and for what purpose (security, safety etc)) - so just says it's for safety and vandalism prevention or something along those lines.

[strawberry]

The first thing to do is realise that blame won't work. Teachers don't accept blame and nor will it be supported by SLT. Blame causes people to be defensive and panic, it won't stop the damage but will mean that every conversation from now on will start with a teacher telling you how it must have already been like that.

 

You need to start by stopping access to the rooms. Unless there is a teacher there don't open it. Make sure it's closed, stick a camera on the door. This is one area where you can tangibly blame people.

Improve the culture. Ban games in the rooms, make sure kids are sat down, make the room so utterly boring that kids only use it for school work. The moment they aren't using it productively they need to leave.

Let them stew. Once it's broken that's it. You can't leave it in the room as a showpiece you need to remove it to a secure location. This will impact lessons and teachers need to figure out organically why it's happening (Because you can't tell teachers)