Your school/institution's setup

[curiousoranj]

I'm the IT Technician in secondary school in South Wales, 1000 or so pupils and about 100 staff. There's just me on the ground and our network is remotely managed by RM. I wanted to get a feel for how other forum members schools etc are set up please and what's expected of you.

I deal with pretty much most day to day IT running of the school and assist our remote team where I can, been doing this for just over four years now. When I started we had a few SLA contracts that would help me massively with iPads etc but slowly and surely the plug has been pulled on such invaluable help. The latest money saving exercise my school is looking to undertake is getting me to PAT test all the IT equipment in the school while dropping me from full time to term time only. And don't get me started on my requirement to be 'onsite full time during a lockdown', I've had some battles with this and it's been wearing!

 

Before I started my current role the school had a Network Manager along with a technician for assistance. With the amount of IT equipment growing pretty substantially over the years and workload showing no sign of easing off cut backs just aren't manageable, are they??!

If another such thread exists please direct me to it

[mavhc]

I just do everything.

 

I visited a school managed by RM via the council, they had no technician and couldn't get a lot of things to work because the RM network was so secure. However the desktops didn't even have bios passwords, so obviously just a default network thing and no overall security idea.

 

Do you report what you do to your school leaders, do they know what you're spending your time doing?

 

Start looking for another job anyway, no downside.

 

An external support contractor isn't going to innovate, they're not going to observe what's happening and suggest improvements, they're going to take as much money as they can for as little effort as possible.

[Tefters]

What Mac said above.

Outsourcing is like throwing money down the drain, they will say they proactively monitor (bollocks) and do the bare minimum for the maximum cost.

Any slight request outside of something broken is further cost for consultancy etc...

 

Im the IT manager for a secondary school of 1600/200 with a colleague working with me and we both use to work for an IT outfit the school outsourced to.

We were on-site 5 days a week all year round and when I looked into technologies/upgrades I was told to stop as it's project consultancy and the client needed to be billed and other people brought in to do the consultancy even though this was during the time the site were paying for me to be there anyway.

 

The same company also charged computers at double the cost I could get them on the market as well as other horrendous costs.

 

3 year contract ended and he we are working direct for the school a further 8 years later and we do everything!

Only things we outsource are external CCTV and gates (insurance and safety purposes) however we still setup and do all the software side (Hik and Net2). Other than that we do all server, network, upgrades (self taught / learn on the fly).

 

PAT testing is a funny one as they tried it with me and and all the departmental TA's on-site, booked a training course and everything.

I demanded a meeting to talk about this as I was refusing to take any ownership of this without a formal meeting which never happened and then later tried to claim they offered one which was a "you got 5 minutes” message on an email in a complete different subject chain drying my lunch break which I didn't pick up til late afternoon.

I was then off for the training day (organised trainer onsite) due to daughter having covid and since then my colleague does it all and from what I observe looks after the PAT tester, checks it in and out with other staff and has a local DB on his pc.

I've told him I want nothing to do with it as it has not come through the IT department on the correct channels (through me via a formal meeting/agreement).

The SLT snuck it through him in the back door and if I am ever to get involved with it then I will be calling in external people to do the actual labor of testing. I'm not shunning the responsibility of it needing to be done, far from it, however I personally do not have the time to do it.

 

Unfortunately my colleague is the bend over type while I'm quite the opposite and will gladly fight back. Personally I would tell you school sure you will "manage" PAT testing however the actual physical labor will need external resource.

Also PAT testing is not even a legal requirement nor does it tell you anything other than the cable/device is earthed correctly.

If the device has something wrong under the hood and is going to explode next week (extreme I know...), the PAT test will pass if the earth is good and the device will still explode.

 

It's just a box ticking exercise and then the school also try and stick their heads in the sand when you highlight all this equipment being used with students from science and tech with broken/dodgy flex leads that either need repairing and condemning.

Edited January 27, 2021 by Tefters

[psydii]

If you are taking on the load previously carried by external companies, your pay should reflect the uplift in responsibility and skills.

 

You should definitely be looking to move on. Right now you can spin the additional work you have taken on as a positive on your CV. It may soon become a burden on you personally. With the reduction in hours, the work cannot get less (unless they reduce their expectations in a documented and measurable way). It is time to move.

 

As for how many techs per student, it really depends on what the school is doing. How many computers, what the internal SLA's (or expectations) are, how embedded IT is in the delivery of the curriculum and how involved it is in 'new things'. A static, locked down network, with known apps, and uniform classroom deployments, conceivably might be manageable by a single person for a few years (until upgrades require more time/manpower/skills).

 

I would suggest that two well trained people managed by a technically sympathetic Deputy Head or Head would be sufficient to keep things ticking over, and leave capacity for improvements should budgets ever allow it. (The techs should almost be peers rather than senior/junior or NM/Tech).

[Ex-MGSTech]

Let me give you a comparison with a well staffed secondary school:

 

1500 on roll (11-18)

110 Staff

IT Manager

SIMS(data) Manager

2 x FT IT techs

1 x TT Shared Tech (14hpw)

No 1:1 laptops (apart from DfE ones for home use only)

PAT Testing, Management of external contractor and recording of tests only

Vanilla Windows Network, on Premises with Hyper-V

Full Office 365

Classes replicated in MS Teams

Cloud backup

External support contract for project work (i.e. Remote Gateway & Always on VPN

200mbit Broadband over 1Gb bearer

Backup broadband being installed shortly

New IP Phone system imminent (SIP Trunks)

All teaching staff and a significant number of support staff with laptops and working remotely via Remote Gateway

SIMS available from home

Managed printing

Source our own HW & SW (Multi quotes req for over £4k)

IT Steering group (made up of staff from most roles in school)

 

You get the idea?

[curiousoranj]

Thanks for the responses all. It sounds like most of you are working in a team of at least two people, that's been sounding faaar more preferential to me for the last four years now! Being alone and therefore an easy target is extremely hard work. And as for having an IT sympathetic line manager as I think someone put it - no chance! They expect the same level of service from the one member of staff regardless of the drop in SLA contracts and people on the ground. One tech used to apparently go around cleaning all the monitors and keyboards throughout the school - something they tried to get me to do a couple of years back; I essentially managed to laugh it off and they seem to have realised with my workload that that simply was not happening!! My line manager is essentially a direct extension of our Head Master, he makes crazy demands on us support staff throughout the school all of the time.

 

 

Tefters - They asked TAs in your school to help with PAT testing?? They've asked (more told!) caretaking staff etc to do other areas of the school at ours. SLT have done exactly the same to us in respect to PAT testing, no formal meeting at all and just an email from my Line Manager to say "You need to do this training course next Monday". Total joke! Haven't heard much since so hopefully they've messed that one up and they'll be trying to get a refund on the £3000 they've spent on the kit. How on earth I'd test everything working 9 weeks less in the year on top of everything else, I DO NOT KNOW.

 

 

psydii - You mentioned a pay rise to reflect extra responsibility with the dropping of SLAs, absolutely no chance!!

 

 

MGSTech - That sounds much more like it. I'm guessing I've got your sympathy here! My partner's school sounds similar, there's three of them in their IT dept and that's a 1000/100 kind of school - same as mine.

 

 

When I started four years ago there was someone working in reprographics, she's since gone and of course all that comes down to me now as well.

 

 

I'll give my school ONE plus though, they did fork out for single sign on after the first year or two - not having to change network passwords and they're google logins has been a massive massive help!!! Prior to that how I wasn't off every month with stress I feel is an achievement!

Edited January 28, 2021 by curiousoranj

[mavhc]

Who did they pay for single sign on? I just sync passwords from AD to Google and MS for free.

[danrhodes]

If you're syncing passwords with AD Sync you can also enable Seamless single sign on with the matter of about 10 clicks also to Office 365...its a real god send as it stops users having to think!

[hardtailstar]

I used to be the only tech in a primary school with all server stuff outsourced.

 

I stayed there too long, You'll find your knowledge and growth will be limited.

 

If you have been there fours years its probably time to move on, join a team at your next job.

 

 

Having said that the school I work at is me (IT Tech) and my boss (Network Manager) and we look after everything between us in a secondary school.

[curiousoranj]

Yeah staying there too long is exactly what I've done. The previous Business Manager who got suspended in suspicious circumstances just before Covid hit (was this time last year actually) said he'd pay for Network Management training for me, that I'd do it in my hours after kids/teachers left school for the day etc so it seemed like it was on the up!

 

Being interviewed in a secondary school next week where I'll work with another person, would be faaar better than being on my own!!

[curiousoranj]

"When I started four years ago there was someone working in reprographics, she's since gone and of course all that comes down to me now as well."

 

Would just like to point out that this quote from me in this thread isn't strictly true, someone in the office does all the photocopying etc! I meant the changing of toners in copiers throughout the school!

 

I hate to 'lie'!