vikpaw Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Hi from the desert. I'm contemplating changing my name to Lawrence.
apoth0r Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 I bet it's a damn sight better than Wellingborough mate Although a walk in Irchester Country Park was nice yesterday with the little'un, however perhaps a little chilly (can you bring back some sun with you!)
john Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Hi from the desert. I'm contemplating changing my name to Lawrence. Why? Is it a joke I don't get
Dos_Box Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Vik now works for an international school in Saudi.
john Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Vik now works for an international school in Saudi. I know that bit, was just where does Lawrence come from that seemed a bit random
vikpaw Posted January 19, 2009 Author Posted January 19, 2009 @john - yeah sort of, see TechMonkey's link. @TechMonkey - you got the lame joke. @apoth0r - it is much better than welly. i'm not sure about bringing back sunshine, but i'll damn well remember to buy a coat next time i'm in town!!! i don't want to be freezing my nads off outside a hotel at 5 in the morning with Ric again!
tom_newton Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 vik - if it's any consolation, it is absolutely brass monkeys up here in Leeds, don't think there's been real daylight since Saturday!
oggster Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Vikpaw, How long have you been in Saudi? How are you finding it? I've just moved to Qatar, its been good so far even if the speed of the supply change is taking some getting used to.
maz8462 Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 Welcome Vikpaw, Its not much warmer here in Knottingley, rain & snow at the same time, can't make its mind up what to do..............how I crave sunshine, can you bring me some back too PLEEEAAAAASSSSEE
powdarrmonkey Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 I know that bit, was just where does Lawrence come from that seemed a bit random Lawrence of Arabia.
john Posted January 19, 2009 Posted January 19, 2009 oops :o:o:o:o:o:o:o I blaim post show tiredness still
vikpaw Posted January 20, 2009 Author Posted January 20, 2009 vik - if it's any consolation, it is absolutely brass monkeys up here in Leeds, don't think there's been real daylight since Saturday! well, i'm back now and the temp is pretty cool at night. the a/c is set to a moderate 21C and it's still a tad chilly. but i suffer for the sake of the children... 'twas good to see you guys. got an email today, and jacques has already asked arthur (network manager) to try and sort a time to do a filtering trial.
vikpaw Posted January 20, 2009 Author Posted January 20, 2009 Vikpaw, How long have you been in Saudi? How are you finding it? I've just moved to Qatar, its been good so far even if the speed of the supply change is taking some getting used to. Hey Oggster, salaam ale-ekum. been here since start of academic year (sept 08). Hit the ground running, and v.busy as doing reports. Supply chain is v.slow, and electronics are v.dear, despite the no tax status. Got some prices from the apple shop today and they have a set profit and still it's cheaper (~200quid) to go to the UK buy a laptop / imac, claim back the vat and bring it over... i try to buy all i can when i'm over in the uk, though managed to gather over 6 kilos of brochures, and freebies this trip, so not much spare room! life takes some getting used to but pretty cool. i party here more than back home how big is your team? we got 3 full timers and 2 part timers, but the work is never ending. luckily i'm just responsible for SIMS and the intranet. how big is the school for that matter? i'm looking at getting some sort of middle east network together. i started a middle east schools group if you're interested. do you have any other local contacts? i'm sure we could collaborate in many ways.
vikpaw Posted January 20, 2009 Author Posted January 20, 2009 @maz8462 - howdo. i envy the snow. i'll trade ya: send me some snow and i'll try and bend the light round the corner somewhat....failing that i'll box it up with a clever array of mirrors where the heck is knottingley anyway? @john - feel-in a litt-le S-L-O-W. . . ?
oggster Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 Hi Vikpaw, Only arrived here on 2nd Jan but like you I have hit the ground running. I'm responsible for the whole school IT which covers everything from infants to 6th form. Currently there are five full time guys working for me (although two deal with the communities health centre and leisure clubs too), we currently have around 500 PCs and 1700 students. The school is growing rapidly and is due to reach over 3000 students in the next few years and has a new 86 classroom dprimary school building opening at the backend of this year. As you can imagine theres lots to get stuck into! Not got any local contacts yet but am happy to share/collaborate in any way I can... Cheers!
john Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 @ Vik, yeh guess so lol, its bett-itus ya know, im getting there now though
vikpaw Posted January 20, 2009 Author Posted January 20, 2009 @ Vik, yeh guess so lol, its bett-itus ya know, im getting there now though well get over the tiredness and bett-itus, as we're both gonna be real busy as MODS, and you really don't want to be known as the first eduNOD lol
vikpaw Posted January 21, 2009 Author Posted January 21, 2009 Hi Vikpaw, Only arrived here on 2nd Jan but like you I have hit the ground running. I'm responsible for the whole school IT which covers everything from infants to 6th form. Currently there are five full time guys working for me (although two deal with the communities health centre and leisure clubs too), we currently have around 500 PCs and 1700 students. The school is growing rapidly and is due to reach over 3000 students in the next few years and has a new 86 classroom dprimary school building opening at the backend of this year. As you can imagine theres lots to get stuck into! Not got any local contacts yet but am happy to share/collaborate in any way I can... Cheers! Sweet, i bet you're busy. At least it's probably not as strict where you are as it is here. We have students from creche through to IB. I'm responsible solely for the MIS system, for which they are using SIMS from Capita. What do you use? The team consists of An overall IT manager, a Network manager, 1 full time IT Technician, one part-time IT Technician and an ad-hoc night technician. And me of course. It sounds like alot but isn't. We are essentially 3 schools, Lower, Middle, Upper, with around 1500 students of mixed sex / ability. There are approx. 500+ computers with 5 big labs, a few smaller pods and at least one machine in each classroom. Some Macs too! Just coming back from the BETT show i found that suppliers tend to operate through certain areas, and we may have an argument for combined purchasing and / or shipping. Many are in Dubai or thereabouts. I've found the electronics prices extortionate here and with a further 9% drop in Sterling value in the last 2 days, it makes flying to the UK worth it, just to do some shopping. If you are a SIMS school, there's a conference coming up in Dubai at the end of April, where i'm hoping to touch base with a lot of other schools. Were you in the UK before? Whereabouts? I was in Northants, and don't miss it a bit.
oggster Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 I think you might be right, Qatar is quite liberal really, and the community I live in (4000 people and counting, for a gas company) is pretty relaxed. Still have to have a licence to buy booze though! We are a SIMS school too, I hadn't heard about a conference in Dubai though, have you got any more details? I was in North Yorks before on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, I miss some of my friends from there but I really needed the new challenge and its an excuse to travel somemore...
john Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 You can't beat the edge of the Dales thats where I am
oggster Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 I agree the dales are great....but good to experience a different culture and environment too though...
vikpaw Posted January 22, 2009 Author Posted January 22, 2009 I think you might be right, Qatar is quite liberal really, and the community I live in (4000 people and counting, for a gas company) is pretty relaxed. Still have to have a licence to buy booze though! We are a SIMS school too, I hadn't heard about a conference in Dubai though, have you got any more details? I was in North Yorks before on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales, I miss some of my friends from there but I really needed the new challenge and its an excuse to travel somemore... Jeddah is huge and i think has more ex-Pats than locals! Can foreign visitors easily get a licence? Can i apply by post? I am happy to admit to alcoholism if it gets me a licence! lol Not many details on Dubai conference, but you'll hear in good time. I believe it's around April 29th (?) just after our Easter vacation. Hopefully based at a leading school in the region called JESS. Essentially it's going to be a user group meeting for the International Schools in the area. I have been trying to get a list of schools together so we can engage through edugeek, but am finding it difficult to get the information. One of the reasons i want us to collaborate is that we only share around 12 hours per week with the UK support and thus it makes sense for use to network and share our experience. We do have a local support desk based in Dubai called EEH - Emirates Educational Holdings, manned by a guy called Jonathan. However, it seems to just be a middle step in contacting Capita direct. Ask your account manager about it, if you are interested, or i'll let you know when the plans are finalised and published officially. I'm not even sure if i'll get permission to go. There is an independent schools conference at the end of February in the UK do you know about that? : http://www.capitaes.co.uk/sims/independentconference/overview.asp I'm supposed to be giving a brief talk on SIMS at an International School which is really scary as i've not long been here. So if you've got anything to contribute then pass it on and i can try and incorporate it. If you are going to that then we can meet up.
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now