Strategic ICT Plan

[LuciferMorningstar]

Morning all,

 

I am relatively new to my current position, and have been tasked with writing a 5 year strategic ICT plan. Could anyone provide some pointers please? or if possible share there own? I'm not exactly sure where to start, as a school we need to move with the times and future proof where possible.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Face-Man]

It is difficult to advise when every school starts from a different place but I would first make sure all your "pluming" network infrastructure (switches , cabling, wifi etc) is working and not going to cause issues. Then look at if broadband is limiting what can be taught and is ready to move to cloud. finally look at end user devices looking first at areas that will have the biggest impact and look at a rolling program of replacement.

 

In terms of justifying what is required I would look at the the dfe standards https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges also there is advice on the NEN website https://www.nen.gov.uk/advice/

[TechMonkey]

I have had to do this a couple of times.

 

First take stock of where you are, a state of play report. Cover everything you can: Severs, storage, infrastructure, Wi-Fi, PCs, Laptops, tablets, systems, subscriptions, staffing, the lot. Evaluate them fairly and include things like replacement schedules, renewals, end of life notices, etc. From that you will have an idea of what you need to do and what you want to do. Then break it down in to 3 year periods. This way you have a case for anything you propose you can evaluate progress and you have a CYA document if they reject your plan and it all goes wrong

 

Drop me a DM with your email and I can send you my mega strategy document. I'm not saying it is perfect but you can use it as a template at least.

[mavhc]

a) Find out what you already have

b) Find out if it's used (software? website subscriptions? network bandwidth, snmp monitoring)

c) Find out what are people doing that's inefficient, waiting 30 mins to log in, doing manual work that can be automated? Not using IT because it's unreliable, survey people, hang around in classrooms/offices, talk to people and ask what their day to day use/annoyance of IT is (this will also show you're a human they can talk to)

d) What's the most cost effective way of making things better, where better might be faster, more reliable, or easier to use, or just training people to use what they already have

e) Now everything is amazing, what new things can be introduced?

[GrumbleDook]

There are many ways to skin a cat, and if you have a search for 'strategic plan' or '5-year plan', you should find a range of threads on this. When asked for something like this, it can be hard to find what SLT and the Governing Body want. Do they want to know how much you are going to spend? Do they want to identify risks and put plans in place to manage them? Are they trying to assess whether school staff are in the right place to make the most of the teaching already there? I know ... more questions and not enough answers. Below are some ideas to help ask those questions and get some info. This is not a comprehensive answer for you, but hopefully it helps.

 

Whatever you write, it must also align (support or improve) the school's strategic planning. Look at it, see who the target owners are, discuss their needs with them, and identify the purposes for using technology across the school for curriculum delivery and operational/strategic management.

Once you have this, you can make a full assessment against what you already have in place, do your gap analysis, identify any immediate deficiencies, scope out future requirements to meet the targets on the school's plan, and identify how you expect it can be delivered on the present model of IT services it has.

Then, you can look at improvements and efficiencies. Provide options that step up the IT Services and any associated changes to how the school works (communications, storage, access to data, security, etc) and outline changes/impacts.

I would heartily recommend visits to other schools/MATs to discuss some of these points too. Discussions here are brilliant, getting to ANME meetings is brilliant, and the annual EDIT conference is brilliant ...

 

This truly is just a short summary. Discussions on online courses/exams, use of AI for targeted/personalised learning, 1-to-1 schemes, data analysis tools ... so much more to look at.

Best of luck with it all, and, like many others on here probably are, keen to hear of any insights you have along the way.

[chaplic]

I would suggest a 5 year 'plan' is completely pointless in ICT terms, if you can predict developments that reliably will happen in 2028 you shouldn't be working in a school. You can probably set a few guiding principles and shorter-terms plans to get you there.

 

You should start off with (ahem) the school 5 year plan and see how that maps onto ICT deliverables

[TechMonkey]

I would suggest a 5 year 'plan' is completely pointless in ICT terms,

 

I'd partly disagree with you. You will (hopefully) have a rolling replacement program or at least an idea of when items come out of warranty or are becoming EOL. So you can potentially have a 10 year plan, where anything greater than 3 is forecasting on spend, for things like laptop or PC replacements, switch upgrades, Wi-Fi replacements, copier replacements. This allows Finance to have a better idea of when big spends might happen and might shape other decisions. Obviously as they come within the range of 3-5 years they may be 'adjusted' (such and such devices are great so can last another couple of years) and the management/finance team may do some horse trading around other projects. Ok, you are not going to have hard numbers, but you can have a guesstimate based on cost last time plus a bit, and you make it abundantly clear that these are not confirmed figures. Even if you don't have firm figures everyone at least has an idea when big purchases are coming.

 

Limiting yourself to only 3 years limits the school's ability to forward plan.

[PotNoodleTech]

Limiting yourself to only 3 years limits the school's ability to forward plan.

 

I stopped writing 5 year plans when the budget stopped being agreed ahead of time, and when the LA mandated financial rules included no carryover from any cost codes. Just because one moronic school somewhere built op over a million quid in carryovers we've all been tarred with he same brush.

 

So basically forward planning as almost made impossible as you don't have any idea what the budget is gonna be in year 2/3/4/5 cant plan to save up/target for anything specific in year 2 3 or 4 5 either.

[DrCheese]

I stopped writing 5 year plans when the budget stopped being agreed ahead of time, and when the LA mandated financial rules included no carryover from any cost codes. Just because one moronic school somewhere built op over a million quid in carryovers we've all been tarred with he same brush.

 

So basically forward planning as almost made impossible as you don't have any idea what the budget is gonna be in year 2/3/4/5 cant plan to save up/target for anything specific in year 2 3 or 4 5 either.

 

Same. I just do a "High/medium/low" priority sheet each year now. Forward planning is impossible when budgets are all over the place.

[Face-Man]

You can see from Technology in schools survey report: 2022 to 2023 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/655f8b823d7741000d420114/Technology_in_schools_survey__2022_to_2023.pdf

 

Table B2 Number of years the digital technology strategy does (or will) cover 1/4 of school leaders don't know the number of years their IT plan is for.

[ITGuyNW]

I'm currently doing a ten year plan, going through the DFE standards, detail rolling replacements, EOL dates etc

 

Where do people think we will be in ten years? Mostly, if not all, serverless? Literally everything subscription based? Desktops powered by POE? Wi-Fi 8/9?

[PotNoodleTech]

10 year plan is completely pointless IMHO.

 

10 years ago I couldn't have predicted I'd have 2500 devices to look after 1:1 chromebooks etc etc.

[DrCheese]

10 year plan is completely pointless IMHO.

 

10 years ago I couldn't have predicted I'd have 2500 devices to look after 1:1 chromebooks etc etc.

 

Agree with this. Heck, even 5 years is difficult to predict now. As my last post on here it's really difficult to do long term planning when you have no idea what the budget is going to be & the political situation within the school.

I could write pages upon pages of planning documents that would be useless 2/3 years from now & not really read by anyone.

 

You can have general aims about where you want to be, but don't go super in depth.

[midweek]

I'm currently doing a ten year plan

 

Put some stuff in about having good cabling in the fallout shelters we'll all be living in.

[mavhc]

What's changed since 2014? Office 365, Chromebooks, every new app actually being a website, tablets, the assumption that everything will have an IP address

 

What's just changed recently? AI

 

What's changing over time? Bandwidth, mobile data costs

 

What's changed way more slowly? Schools are still teaching using the pre Gutenberg method that assumes books are expensive and one person needs to stand at the front and disseminate knowledge

 

What will happen: Every student will have a computer, they'll waste their time in more computer based ways because lessons are even more boring to people addicted to flashy youtube edutainment

 

Docking your portable computer with a charger/screen/kb via usb-c will be the norm, desktops will be obsolete. Devices without touchscreens will become increasingly confusing to young people, unless they play mouse based games, then they'll be willing to learn

[Olliedawg]

Put some stuff in about having good cabling in the fallout shelters we'll all be living in.

 

& stock up on bottlecaps

[GrumbleDook]

10 years is fine. The way some folk talk about it, you write the plan and stick to it. In reality, you are reviewing it constantly. Whether you are just doing it annually as part of the updates to the School Development Plan, or you do it as specific projects or workstreams are completed. There are times you need a 10-year plan. If the school/trust is in areas where there is a predicted growth or decline in the population of children they may need changes to building and facilities.

When working at the LA one of the School Admissions staff was a marvel at this sort of modelling and it makes a world of difference in planning.

Yes, technology may change and the tools used by teachers and children too, but that is why you keep on track in where changes may be needed.

[HarryMonkey]

Same. I just do a "High/medium/low" priority sheet each year now. Forward planning is impossible when budgets are all over the place.

 

But without a plan, your needs/requirements can't be incorporated into the school budget. If you know you are going to need replacement for 20 laptops in three years time that needs incorporating into the IT development plan which should then feed into the main school development plan so that SLT and governors know what's on the horizon. Likewise the need to renew/replace SIMS in 3 years time needs to feed from the school plan into the ICT plan.

 

The only way that SLT/governors/IT can be informed and aware of what's coming up in the next few years is to get it into a plan. Whether there is a budget available is, to a degree, irrelevant. If it's planned for it can be accounted for.

[DrCheese]

But without a plan, your needs/requirements can't be incorporated into the school budget. If you know you are going to need replacement for 20 laptops in three years time that needs incorporating into the IT development plan which should then feed into the main school development plan so that SLT and governors know what's on the horizon. Likewise the need to renew/replace SIMS in 3 years time needs to feed from the school plan into the ICT plan.

 

The only way that SLT/governors/IT can be informed and aware of what's coming up in the next few years is to get it into a plan. Whether there is a budget available is, to a degree, irrelevant. If it's planned for it can be accounted for.

 

The problem is our pupil numbers rise and fall each year, we rarely get a consistent full PAN. We've also had management changes that mean priorities change.

 

It's not as if I don't say that X is due for replacement in 2/3/4/5 years, but because budget changes each year and stuff gets put back or pulled forward it means it's never held to. I can say it til I'm blue in the face but it doesn't change realities.

 

Whether there is a budget available is, to a degree, irrelevant

That doesn't make sense - If the budget isn't there then stuff doesn't get done and it throws your plan out entirely as everything gets put back & snowballs.

Edited June 11, 2024 by DrCheese

[HarryMonkey]

 

 

That doesn't make sense - If the budget isn't there then stuff doesn't get done and it throws your plan out entirely as everything gets put back & snowballs.

 

I probably didn't word that very well. What I meant was the budget doesn't have to be available at the time you write your plan. If you know there will be a big spend in (say) 3 years time, then finance and SLT are aware and can incorporate it into that year's budget rather than it come as a shock and not be able to fund it.

[Face-Man]

Not wanting to go full cycle on this thread but the dfe are saying every school should have a member of SLT who is a "Digital Strategic Lead" https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges/digital-leadership-and-governance-standards

 

Not only should SLT be aware of possible big spend in 3 years they should be the ones planning for it in their Digital strategy

[thimon]

This should be standard. That perfectly describes my line manager. I’m not in charge of the digital strategy, but I do what I can to support it.

[Aprice]

I think a 5 year plan is always a good start, as others have said not to be stuck to rigidly.

 

I start with an asset register, rating each device a score on Health (Usability) and priority for replacement, or not to be replaced.