DfE Standards Updated To Include IT Support Standards For Schools

[DavR]

Thanks to this thread, I am now aware of the new 2030 deadline for the first six standards.

 

I'm not sure whether to thank this forum for keeping me abreast of the changes, or damning it for the pile of extra workload that just landed 😂

 

Better I hear it from you guys than Ofsted in four years time, I guess!

[mthomas08]

Looks like the webinars have started to appear and we've signed up to this.

 

It is free.

 

https://www.eventbrite.com/x/dfe-plan-technology-and-digital-standards-webinar-tickets-1973119411274

[mthomas08]

42 minutes ago, DavR said:

Thanks to this thread, I am now aware of the new 2030 deadline for the first six standards.

 

I'm not sure whether to thank this forum for keeping me abreast of the changes, or damning it for the pile of extra workload that just landed 😂

 

Better I hear it from you guys than Ofsted in four years time, I guess!

 

Same, 1st time I heard about the standards years ago is thanks to this place and that is a fear. Ofsted or some kind of audit turns up and says do you do XYZ.

 

Course things may change.. but I'd rather be proactive Vs reactive.

[mikes]

On 12/12/2025 at 09:38, TechMonkey said:

One question though. If schools don't meet these standards, by 2030 or at all, what will happen?  Is OFSTED going to be checking, is the LA going to start looking?  Will MATs and Trusts be held to account, fined, have schools taken away?

 

I think it is great that we have some standards to aim for or exceed but what is the point of a metric if there is no risk or reward?  Especially with budgets as they are and the usual "SLT says no"

 

Over the last 15+ years I've been working here, there have probably been 10+ "standards" or other requirements pushed out by the Government with absolutely no checking, auditing, or even thought to how they might be accomplished or how to check they can be/will be accomplished. I think a group of these beaurocrats must meet over the course of a few months, write this stuff down, congratulate themselves on a job well done then never think about it again.

[nicholab]

I think I would start by making all schools do cyber essentials.  Then a filtering and MIS standards.   Also a parental communication and payment system should be online.

[Jobos]

This is all very well for colleges and FE but how are the small primaries going to cope with the new standards? I mean most primaries I know only have a tech never mind a NM and it’s not really in the techs JD to sort this out. 

[DrBeaker]

1 hour ago, Jobos said:

... I mean most primaries I know only have a tech never mind a NM and it’s not really in the techs JD to sort this out. 

 

From my experience even if you help set it up as a Tech, it's never appreciated, rewarded, acknowledged or thanked - or reflected in the tech salary before or after, hence multiple people reporting similar issues on a particular thread.

 

[PrimaryNetMan]

4 hours ago, Jobos said:

This is all very well for colleges and FE but how are the small primaries going to cope with the new standards? I mean most primaries I know only have a tech never mind a NM and it’s not really in the techs JD to sort this out. 

 

 

Edited January 23 by PrimaryNetMan
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[mavhc]

Cyber Essentials is a bit crap though, "introduce a load of forms and throw away your old stuff, not because it has security flaws, but because we're too lazy to check"

[mthomas08]

Not sure if anyone here had a recent Ofsted, but one thing they did question heavily was our filtering system and procedures through the safe guarding lead. I belive this was updated 2-3 years ago within Ofsted.

 

Did a webinar Friday and it suggest the next thing they will likely question is cyber security and everthing else isn't 'end of the world' if you don't meet it by 2030.

[DavR]

40 minutes ago, mthomas08 said:

Not sure if anyone here had a recent Ofsted, but one thing they did question heavily was our filtering system and procedures through the safe guarding lead. I belive this was updated 2-3 years ago within Ofsted.

 

Did a webinar Friday and it suggest the next thing they will likely question is cyber security and everthing else isn't 'end of the world' if you don't meet it by 2030.

 

Filtering (and monitoring) got an explicit mention in Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) a few years ago. If it's in KCSIE, that's gospel, and you either do it, or prepare a very good reason why you didn't.

 

It remains to be seen whether anyone marks our homework on Digital Standards, but I guess yeah it stands to reason Cybersecurity would be the next step on the roadmap.

[Jobos]

1 hour ago, mthomas08 said:

Not sure if anyone here had a recent Ofsted, but one thing they did question heavily was our filtering system and procedures through the safe guarding lead. I belive this was updated 2-3 years ago within Ofsted.

 

Did a webinar Friday and it suggest the next thing they will likely question is cyber security and everthing else isn't 'end of the world' if you don't meet it by 2030.

 

We are a primary and had them in last week and they didn't ask me anything and the HT said they didn't ask any IT questions to him either.

[Space_Munkey]

Our IT Governor said that the standards aren't statutory after I recently pushed to refresh our server estate due to expiring warranties and that specifically being mentioned in the standards...  👀

[mikes]

Yeah I brought up not having a backup Internet connection to our LEA (they supply our Internet Access) as that is a requirement, they basically said don't worry about it; so I'm not really sure what to think ! We are in Wales so we have Estyn not Ofsted, our last inspection they didn't ask anything about IT - I don't think they would really understand IT if they were to ask questions, you would have to prepare boilerplate statements for them.

Edited January 27 by mikes

[Cat_Jam148]

3 minutes ago, mikes said:

Yeah I brought up not having a backup Internet connection to our LEA (they supply our Internet Access) as that is a requirement, they basically said don't worry about it; so I'm not really sure what to think ! We are in Wales so we have Estyn not Ofsted, our last inspection they didn't ask anything about IT - I don't think they would really understand IT if they were to ask questions, you would have to prepare boilerplate statements for them.

 

I don't believe the language used in the DFE docs make it a hard requirement. A lot of the standards use 'should' rather than 'must'.

 

Admittedly we don't have a backup internet connection due to cost. We have other workarounds in-place.

[DrCheese]

I would go outside your LEA and get a backup seperately. With so much in the cloud now, think of the alternatives if you can't get online. In some cases I can see schools having to close due to safeguarding when Internet is out.

 

We had a fair few lengthy outages (Hi SchoolsBroadband/Talkstraight!) towards the end of last year - Two of which went on for over 36 hours. We managed to carry on due to having the backup.

Until that point we hadn't really used the backup much as the only connection, but at that point it basically paid for itself.

 

Other local schools weren't so lucky and really struggled. 

Edited January 27 by DrCheese

[ITGuyNW]

Our internet is through the LEA and I went to Wave9 for the backup. 

[JazzFlute]

What type of Internet redundancy do most people have? for instance automatic failover or something as simple as a second line in and manual lead swap over to get "some" internet when main line goes down.  Interested in best affordable solutions and practices.

[JRA]

8 minutes ago, JazzFlute said:

What type of Internet redundancy do most people have? for instance automatic failover or something as simple as a second line in and manual lead swap over to get "some" internet when main line goes down.  Interested in best affordable solutions and practices.

 

1gb main here with a 100mb automatic failover. Went with Zen last year when previous term was up. Transition all flawless. Test it once in a while during a holiday just to make sure it cuts over, always works.

[JazzFlute]

1 minute ago, JRA said:

 

1gb main here with a 100mb automatic failover. Went with Zen last year when previous term was up. Transition all flawless. Test it once in a while during a holiday just to make sure it cuts over, always works.

Has the main line ever failed or when you test it do you have any IP Errors or anything similar when the failover line kicks in.

[JRA]

Drops a few packets while it thinks about it but that's it - all done internal to the ISPs gear. Never had a real life outage luckily (touching wood here!)

Edited January 27 by JRA

[nicholab]

FTTP should exist for most schools as the PStN is being turned off and Exchanges closed.  So internet should not be an issue.

[JazzFlute]

1 minute ago, JRA said:

Drops a few packets while it thinks about it but that's it - all done internal to the ISPs gear. Never had a real life outage luckily (touching wood here!)

 

Famous last words lol.  Just interested if anyone got any failover line stories that didn't work or needed some manual intervention as I want one that 100% switches faultlessly so I don't have to attend on site and then main line kicks back in when fixed.

[ITGuyNW]

32 minutes ago, JazzFlute said:

What type of Internet redundancy do most people have? for instance automatic failover or something as simple as a second line in and manual lead swap over to get "some" internet when main line goes down.  Interested in best affordable solutions and practices.

900\900 main and 1000\100 failover.

 

I have it set to manual through Smoothwall as our main line suffers from technical issues rather than it dropping so I switch as and when needed.

Edited January 27 by ITGuyNW

[JazzFlute]

Anyone got an automatic failover line and router with Schools broadband?