MAT/Trust IT Support Structures

[timbo343]

We are looking at having a re-strucutre & centralisation, i'm reaching out to see if there are any trusts out there who have around 2 secondaries, 9 primaries and a central team.

 

I'd like to know your IT sturcture / support provision across the trust and at school level please - if you would be willing to share.

 

Alternatively, if you are a big MAT or a small MAT and willing to share, please do, i'd be most grateful.

[CrootUK]

Some mentioned in here

https://www.edugeek.net/showthread.php?t=237983

[TheHyperTechie]

I would have (in your instance)

 

1 - Trust Network Manager (based at central office)

2 - A Senior & A Junior technician at each secondary.

3 - 2/3 mobile technicians to cover those primary schools. The 3rd would be to provide cover for annual leave etc. (Unless term time absence is not allowed)

[DavonPotter]

I went through a similar restructuring recently. We're a bit larger with more secondaries, but the principles should still apply. We centralized our IT support with a central team that handles core services (networking, server management, etc.), while each school has an on-site technician for day-to-day issues. For your setup with 2 secondaries and 9 primaries, a similar structure might work well. Centralize the more complex, technical roles and have dedicated support at each school for immediate needs. This ensures consistent support and can help streamline processes.

[PotNoodleTech]

Well we don't have MATs here but I would think you would need.

 

Director of IT on board level to get those important decisions through. Preferably an ex IT manager so they actually know what they're talking about.

IT Manager to deal with the overview of trust Network/Server/Strategy/Cybersecurity

Senior IT Tech trained up on the servers/switches/wifi/cybersecurity to work closely with the techs and provide 3rd line escalation.

IT Technician based in each secondary (more than one if you think it's needed/large school/etc)

Floating IT technician(s) for primaries I guess with 9 primaries you'd need 2 techs minimum?

[gszech]

Option 1

 

Central:

1 x IT Director

1 x Deputy IT Director (to cover IT Director absence)

1 x Senior IT Technician

2 x IT Technicians (to cover primary)

 

Secondary Schools

2 x IT Technicians per secondary school

 

 

Option 2

 

Central:

1 x IT Director

1 x Senior IT Technician

2 x IT Technicians (to cover primary)

Secondary Schools

1 x IT Manager per school

1 x IT Technician per school

[Lonix]

Might be worth considering exactly the demands of your schools moving forward and recruitment/retention.Some seniour techs might be happy doing server work etc for a school but in my experience, you're lucky if one sticks around. I've seen a lot of techs come and go because of work loads and stress of a school environment. Plus with the recent discussions about salaries, lucky again if they stick around.I'm very lucky that my ST is happy. Otherwise, I could lose him easily for £4-£8K elsewhere. Would some one like me want to take a pay cut to be ST? Well that depends - a small cut for less stress isn't a bad thing. A huge cut for a little less stress, well I'd be gone and won't stick around. There are jobs out there for my salary and in my area or go for jobs with more salaries but right now, I don't want more stress.Some schools have a lot of work to do moving forward. We're in a good place but still a lot to do.Even losing a tech right now, a lot would have to change - behaviour being one (damages etc) - and the constant reliance on setting up the main hall/sports area/canteen daily.

 

All I can say is, try and take in all factors and because it works elsewhere, doesn't always mean a template will work for you - something a Super HT once said to me.

[StephenPink]

Slightly different setup, but we recently completed a review and restructure - we are a MAT consisting of a large 6th Form College, a large Secondary and a Junior School. Services such as Finance, HR and IT are centralised/being centralised. Additionally the Secondary is a 1:1 iPad school.

 

1x Head of IT

1x Head of Network Services

2x Lead IT Network Technician

1x Lead IT Service Desk Technician

5x IT Technician

 

The Leads and the Technicians rotate between the college and the secondary, with the junior getting a one day a week visit and the rest remote.

 

Cheers

[Steve21]

The Leads and the Technicians rotate between the college and the secondary, with the junior getting a one day a week visit and the rest remote.

 

Cheers

 

Curious, is that actually remote home working? or remote as in roaming? Or as in at the secondary but remote support? Just wondering how you're finding remote workers in terms of hands-on repairs etc

 

Steve

[timbo343]

Slightly different setup, but we recently completed a review and restructure - we are a MAT consisting of a large 6th Form College, a large Secondary and a Junior School. Services such as Finance, HR and IT are centralised/being centralised. Additionally the Secondary is a 1:1 iPad school.

 

1x Head of IT

1x Head of Network Services

2x Lead IT Network Technician

1x Lead IT Service Desk Technician

5x IT Technician

 

The Leads and the Technicians rotate between the college and the secondary, with the junior getting a one day a week visit and the rest remote.

 

Cheers

 

Any chance you could work out at least student numbers to IT support personnel please as that would help. We are looking at around 880:1 at the moment.

[StephenPink]

Curious, is that actually remote home working? or remote as in roaming? Or as in at the secondary but remote support? Just wondering how you're finding remote workers in terms of hands-on repairs etc

 

Steve

 

Haha sorry yes should have clarified - remote as in roaming, based either at the secondary or college but able to support the junior remotely for 4 days a week, with the 1 day a week being for physical/hands-on repairs. Generally we have found the junior to be fairly low maintenance (helped massively by a complete wipe and rebuild from scratch for the entire site a couple of summers ago)

 

Any chance you could work out at least student numbers to IT support personnel please as that would help. We are looking at around 880:1 at the moment.

 

Oh yes, approximately;

College: 4200

Secondary: 1600

Junior: 400

Which gives 6200 total students to 10 total IT staff, so 620:1? However - I would say the 1:1 at the secondary has a large impact on the level of hands-on support required, not so much in terms of complexity, but time - student questions, queries, dealing with breakages and insurance claims, loan devices etc.

 

Hope that's helpful.

 

Cheers

[PotNoodleTech]

Yep you need minimum 0.5 extra techs per school if your 1:1