OFSTED Classroom Tech Requirements

[Disease]

Hi all, had a company contact the school claiming that using projectors in the classroom will affect your OFSTED rating, what are peoples thoughts on this, I don't ever recall OFSTED setting minimum specs for AV?

 

Ofsted have actually recently included a minimum of a 75’ Interactive touchscreen as a tickbox for schools to have in the classrooms now.

 

This is the line they have painted in their email.

[ITGuyNW]

Utter rubbish imo

[PotNoodleTech]

Sounds like idiot companies trying to pray on non technical people to get sales.

 

Ignore and name and shame preferably.

[Disease]

Here is the full email which they sent to our finance department trying to circumvent me as the budget holder, company is called PWD Supplies.

 

Hi,

 

I was wondering if you can help, I had been dealing with xx regarding a refresh on front of classroom technology for 16 classes. We had initially discussed projectors to display a larger image such as an 85’+ . But projectors are old tech and aren’t future proofing the school.

 

Ofsted have actually recently included a minimum of a 75’ Interactive touchscreen as a tickbox for schools to have in the classrooms now. Projector bulbs and lamps are also being discontinued come near the back end of the year as they are fading out of the market completely, so when projector bulbs break you wouldn’t be able to replace them and ultimately would cost double for the school. Not to mention the power usage and consumption they take.

 

I have attached a quote for a solution which will not only future proof the school but also save you tons of money too.

 

See attached for our Viewsonic touchscreen which comes with a FOC central management system to push notifications such as fire drills, lockdown procedure alerts to them all, and also schedule updates etc.. We can do FOC training for all staff too so the transition is seamless. I have included FOC cable kits, FOC delivery too. The screens have also been discounted over £700 per one too. So a huge saving. Theres only x30 left at this price right now 😊

 

Thoughts? (we can do educational leasing, or defer payments, or 60 day payment terms on this if needed)

 

I had tried contacting IT as the initial request came from them but have been unable to get anywhere with a response!

 

Thanks,

[3s-gtech]

That's absolute ********.

[Olliedawg]

8 minutes ago, Disease said:

Here is the full email which they sent to our finance department trying to circumvent me as the budget holder, company is called PWD Supplies.

 

Hi,

 

I was wondering if you can help, I had been dealing with xx regarding a refresh on front of classroom technology for 16 classes. We had initially discussed projectors to display a larger image such as an 85’+ . But projectors are old tech and aren’t future proofing the school.

 

Ofsted have actually recently included a minimum of a 75’ Interactive touchscreen as a tickbox for schools to have in the classrooms now. Projector bulbs and lamps are also being discontinued come near the back end of the year as they are fading out of the market completely, so when projector bulbs break you wouldn’t be able to replace them and ultimately would cost double for the school. Not to mention the power usage and consumption they take.

 

I have attached a quote for a solution which will not only future proof the school but also save you tons of money too.

 

See attached for our Viewsonic touchscreen which comes with a FOC central management system to push notifications such as fire drills, lockdown procedure alerts to them all, and also schedule updates etc.. We can do FOC training for all staff too so the transition is seamless. I have included FOC cable kits, FOC delivery too. The screens have also been discounted over £700 per one too. So a huge saving. Theres only x30 left at this price right now 😊

 

Thoughts? (we can do educational leasing, or defer payments, or 60 day payment terms on this if needed)

 

I had tried contacting IT as the initial request came from them but have been unable to get anywhere with a response!

 

Thanks,

Out of principle i would not work with that supplier after that email!

[APMerry]

I would ask them to prove that point. It's definitely BS and should be called out for it.

[HarkNowHear]

It's absolute nonsense - name and shame those numpties!

[Koldov]

11 minutes ago, Disease said:

 

"I was wondering if you can help, I had been dealing with xx regarding a refresh on front of classroom technology for 16 classes. We had initially discussed projectors to display a larger image such as an 85’+ ."

 

 

"I had tried contacting IT as the initial request came from them but have been unable to get anywhere with a response!"

 

 

 

Firstly are either of those statements true...?

 

Secondly, I could imagine that as a very broad rule of thumb you might associate 75’ Interactive touchscreen in a classroom rather than a projector as being an indicator of 'future proofing' and 'investment in IT' and therefore be part of an inspection, so it isn't impossible.

 

Lastly, I think OFSTED publish their inspection criteria... it shouldn't be difficult to find any mention of it, if you were so inclined.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yep sounds like one of those emails I junk and block.  Never deal with a company that's willing to just make stuff up.

[Disease]

I did contact them for the quote but I was upfront in saying that our Head hates Interactive TVS but they persisted in pushing them even though we had said no to them, so I stopped contact with them as they wouldn't give me the quotes I had asked for.

[Andrew_C]

Consider forwarding to OFSTED?

[Fazza]

It's a lie. OFSTED have no such requirement.

[ITGuyNW]

I've had nonsense off that company before. Now they are on my reject list on exchange.

[andy_b]

48 minutes ago, Koldov said:

Lastly, I think OFSTED publish their inspection criteria... it shouldn't be difficult to find any mention of it, if you were so inclined.

Which makes it even worse imo, that they would lie about something so provable false.

[Sylv3r]

We have a new build taking place at the minute and the DfE requirements are for a minimum of 75" interactive displays in the classrooms but certainly not Ofsted.

[Fazza]

5 minutes ago, Sylv3r said:

We have a new build taking place at the minute and the DfE requirements are for a minimum of 75" interactive displays in the classrooms but certainly not Ofsted.

 

That's probably what they've read somewhere and mistakenly think the DfE standards and OFSTED standards are the same thing!

[andy_b]

14 minutes ago, Sylv3r said:

We have a new build taking place at the minute and the DfE requirements are for a minimum of 75" interactive displays in the classrooms but certainly not Ofsted.

Not a requirement I have seen before - at least not from the DfE, is there a a source for this?

[Disease]

14 minutes ago, Sylv3r said:

We have a new build taking place at the minute and the DfE requirements are for a minimum of 75" interactive displays in the classrooms but certainly not Ofsted.

But that would be interactive display, either Interactive board and projector or Interactive TV, no exclusively Interactive TV.

[Sylv3r]

Just now, andy_b said:

Not a requirement I have seen before - at least not from the DfE, is there a a source for this?

I thought it must have been part of the digital standards but i've just taken a quick look and it doesn't appear to be the case.

 

I don't really have anything to reference too, other than the x amount of money in the contract to spend on ICT - if you'll be wanting Interactive Screens then they'll need to be 75" minimum. So in theory, if we had fairly new Interactive Screens that were only a couple of years old in our old building that were 65" they wouldn't want us to move them over, but if they were 75" and only two years old then we would be expected to decant and move.

[Chris_Cook]

42 minutes ago, Sylv3r said:

I thought it must have been part of the digital standards but i've just taken a quick look and it doesn't appear to be the case.

 

I don't really have anything to reference too, other than the x amount of money in the contract to spend on ICT - if you'll be wanting Interactive Screens then they'll need to be 75" minimum. So in theory, if we had fairly new Interactive Screens that were only a couple of years old in our old building that were 65" they wouldn't want us to move them over, but if they were 75" and only two years old then we would be expected to decant and move.

We're in a similar project, and more or less have been told the same thing. All our new classrooms are getting 75" interactive screens or bigger where needed. They will take down the old TV screens for us to re-use elsewhere in retained classrooms, offices, digital signage etc.

 

I imagine Ofsted might have something to say if old tech is getting in the way of T&L, but I didn't think the actual technology itself was a focus. I would quite like it if it was though.

 

They have a fair point that lamps are going to get harder to buy in a few years, but laser projectors are a thing. What I would worry about is if you are projecting onto interactive boards - these haven't been sold in some time, so how reliable are they?

 

That email is poorly worded at best, and doesn't sound too professional. If they won't quote for what's specified, then that's not helpful.

[dmj]

2 hours ago, Andrew_C said:

Consider forwarding to OFSTED?

Advertising Standards Authority would have the remit for this.

[paulkerton]

4 hours ago, Disease said:

Hi all, had a company contact the school claiming that using projectors in the classroom will affect your OFSTED rating, what are peoples thoughts on this, I don't ever recall OFSTED setting minimum specs for AV?

 

Ofsted have actually recently included a minimum of a 75’ Interactive touchscreen as a tickbox for schools to have in the classrooms now.

 

This is the line they have painted in their email.

Nope. Ofsted don't even consider anything with IT, frankly. It's very rare you'll ever see it mentioned in a report.
Name and shame em!

[Steve21]

I'm going to say it's AI generated email. 

After reading that I googled "Ofsted 75 inch screen" and Google AI Overview confirmed Ofsted requires 75 inch boards (then links to 4 ViewSonic resellers) - So I'm assuming it's somewhere in there blurb it's picking it out from and spurting it back out

Interestingly re-running the same search multiple times won't now repeat the same line!

Steve

[FN-GM]

14 hours ago, 3s-gtech said:

That's absolute ********.

Mostly, they are right projectors are old school. I stopped installing them in 2011.