How many ICT Technicians at your School???

[BaccyNet]

This is a Secondary school with 700 users, 250 pc's 60 laptops 20 interactive whiteboards and no full time technician? I was just rather suprised!?

 

Without stating the school name, which side of Norfolk is this? I cant say over this way I know of a school (high school) around this way that doesnt have an IT Department of some kind, even primaries that are not in an ICTS Field Tech contract have someone supporting them (usually their local high school, like we do:))

 

Do you know if the school has a contract with ICTS higher than the basic package? It may be they have a field technician visiting on a set basis or on a call-out only basis?

[FreeWill]

220 laptops (approx. 160 classrooms sets, rest staff laptops)

220 Desktops

90 Thin clients through Terminal Services

30 Thin clients through Virtual Desktops

~ 560 total clients

 

approx. 15 servers.

 

1,100 users.

 

1.8 (9 man days per week) members of staff (myself and NM).

 

1:~311.

 

Comfortable work load to fill each day - jobs end to end make the days go quickly!

[IanT]

a few months bk I went for a interview at a new school in bexley - they didnt have a it manager, the it teacher was running it.........and he didnt have a clue what he was doing............as soon as I walked into the server room I noticed one of his drives on there nas was failing and he was like oh yeah, i didnt know what that was

[Mr.Ben]

We have 50 desktops, 80 laptops, 3 physical servers, 4 virtual servers, 26 IWB, plus a lot of media equipment.

 

It's just me here and whilst I am paid as a Network Manager I am also expected to cover as a TA for two days a week.

 

So it's 130:0.6 here!

 

However there are some things that I am unwilling to add to my workload because of that, for instance I have hired in a company to create a new website for us as I don't feel that I have the time to do it properly, and the same goes for the VLE, bought in as I would otherwise be expected to add all of the content to make it a success, regardless of how much staff training is done.

 

Oh, and I'm term time plus 2 weeks.

Edited April 28, 2009 by Mr. Ben

[Azhibberd]

We are on just over the 210:1 mark, Think its about 1,300 users.

Although thats not including 2 other sites we do IT support for but thats a if/when needed.

But seems to be fine normally, good work load really and myself and the NM are both full time.

[Mr.Ben]

Just a suggestion, but perhaps we should be thinking more in terms of networked devices rather than just PC's

 

Then I go up to 173:0.6, taking into account all of the managed switches, projectors, Wap's, printers and my iPod touch that I can control kids mice with whilst standing on the other side of the room.

 

Perhaps also different software packages?

 

My point is that it's not as simple as just Desktops/laptops anymore

Edited April 28, 2009 by Mr. Ben

[Azhibberd]

Actually totally agree with 'Mr. Ben' on that one...

 

I think the main thing that takes up my time is projectors normally down to staff not being able to read instructions

 

Although i have no idea where that would take are ratio most likely to the 300 mark as we have like entire site covered by wireless etc

[Mr.Ben]

Just worked it out. If I support 130 with 0.6 then it's 216:1 on pc's, if it's 173:0.6 then it's 283:1 on networked devices.

 

That puts me in the realms of an efficient network

 

I shall have to mention that at my review :-)

Edited April 28, 2009 by Mr. Ben

[Tony_Mc]

my school currently has 600+ pcs and about 250 laptops, 40 switches, 9 windows servers and 2 linux boxes. 1440 students and 220 staff.

 

myself and Max, the technician.

 

we are generally too busy

[tsky]

It's not so much the PC:Support Staff problem, it's all the additional things you have to do AS WELL as support the computers.

 

Take for example this morning's one - head has put presentation together and wants to show it in assembly. We are told we have to click through the presentation. He's not the only one in here that does that...

 

ICT Support staff always end up having to do training for things like IWB's, VLE's, the latest software from each department and suchlike.

 

None of the BECTA cack factors this in, and on none of the BSF info I've seen so far is this taken into account for the phone-call of "er, I'm in Room X and I can't get my screen on". One 'technician' is required for turning things off and on apparently, nothing more - everything else will be remotely handled.

Yeah... right... like reconfiguring network switches that have corrupted and hopped onto VLANS taking them off the main network, checking drives in servers that are failing in RAID arrays, pandering to every member of staff's urgent curriculum needs and file modification from Office 2007 to 2003 format before an urgent presentation they forgot about.

 

There's myself (NM), full time paid Technician, full time training Technician (who is on a placement here), about to have a voluntary trainee a few days a week unpaid also to gain some work experience. Between the four of us, we have days when we're flat out trying to do everything and days when we get to take stock, document, prepare and plan. We're supporting about 350 PC's, 25-ish switches and routers, 9-ish servers (currently moving to virtualisation from physical systems), about 60 classrooms, 1200 kids, 100 staff.

[Tony_Mc]

This is a major issue in school, being asked to non techinical things. We flat refused and put it to them like this "if you want the real techinical stuff to fail and not be looked into, then yes I will press next for you, if you want that stuff to work so learning can continue, then get a student to do this for you or spend £15 on a presentation device"

 

can'o'worms.

 

 

 

It's not so much the PC:Support Staff problem, it's all the additional things you have to do AS WELL as support the computers.

 

Take for example this morning's one - head has put presentation together and wants to show it in assembly. We are told we have to click through the presentation. He's not the only one in here that does that...

 

ICT Support staff always end up having to do training for things like IWB's, VLE's, the latest software from each department and suchlike.

 

None of the BECTA cack factors this in, and on none of the BSF info I've seen so far is this taken into account for the phone-call of "er, I'm in Room X and I can't get my screen on". One 'technician' is required for turning things off and on apparently, nothing more - everything else will be remotely handled.

Yeah... right... like reconfiguring network switches that have corrupted and hopped onto VLANS taking them off the main network, checking drives in servers that are failing in RAID arrays, pandering to every member of staff's urgent curriculum needs and file modification from Office 2007 to 2003 format before an urgent presentation they forgot about.

 

There's myself (NM), full time paid Technician, full time training Technician (who is on a placement here), about to have a voluntary trainee a few days a week unpaid also to gain some work experience. Between the four of us, we have days when we're flat out trying to do everything and days when we get to take stock, document, prepare and plan. We're supporting about 350 PC's, 25-ish switches and routers, 9-ish servers (currently moving to virtualisation from physical systems), about 60 classrooms, 1200 kids, 100 staff.

[sidewinder]

Approx 900 PCs, 30 Macs, 8 Windows Servers, 1 Mac Server, 36 switches, 50 odd WAPs.

1700 kids, 150ish staff.

 

IT Staff - NM, Myself, 2 technicians, 1 classroom support, 1 primary liason. So essentially 4 people that can respond to problems

[grumpy_git]

1200 students; about 110 staff (excluding those who dont use the network e.g. dinnerladies, cleaners)

Coming on for 600 machines and another 65 thin clients

9 servers

Approx 60 projector/sound installations

CCTV system with 15ish cameras

 

1 NM - full time

1 technician - full time

1 assistant technician (me) - part time

 

Things have always been mad but improving recently as we've brought out newer hardware which doesn't die so often. Also a bit of staff education - we gave them all an A5 "crib sheet" on troubleshooting projectors, and now encourage them to email rather than phone so the workload is managed better.

 

@OP - i thought teachers weren't allowed to manage the network as part of their 'workload agreement'? (though it has to be said, it doesn't stop one of ours from trying....)

[Mr.Ben]

I'm currently sorting out all of the Templates for reports, mainly because none of the teaching staff want to do it.

 

I don't mind though, it's got me out of lessons all day!

 

Also about 120 software packages to administer.

Edited April 28, 2009 by Mr. Ben

[Nick_Young]

It has certainly been an eye opener moving into the realm of Education. I'm amazed at what poor students most of the Teachers become when you ask them to read something IT related - amazing!?

 

Thanks for all the responses Guys.

[Stuart_C]

We have 6 servers, 20+ Switches, 70 Printers, 270ish computers, 20ish IWB's and until revenly just me! Now there are 1.5 of us! Still it's slightly better.

 

Actually one of the biggest problem is the amount of time spent on problems that could easilly be solved if the person in question used the help!

[Marci]

We HAD a team of 4 that were purely Network / IT Support. We've now gone down in size - one tech moved sideways into Project Manager's position. The other retired, leaving a team of 2... however, at the same time my role expanded into sound / lighting / video production / recording studio tech, and the other fella (the NM) is a member of SLT, so between us, we have the effective time of a single technician... we've just hired another to replace our retiree tho, so hopefully that should smooth things over n' make `em a bit less stressful.

 

1200 kids, 180 staff, 600 Windows Clients (wired / wireless / desktop / laptop), 15x MACs, pile o' servers.