Printing in Schools

[Stuart_C]

Just curious really.

Everybody really want's a printer in their classroom so that life is convieninet. But those small deskjet printers are far from econimical when compared to the big network printers/photocopiers. To that end we've just decided to stop supplying them and route all printing to our ICT suites/Staff workroom. We are going to keep those that we have and then simply not replace them when they break. I know people are going to sulk and complain so I was wondering what setup other had?

 

Do you use lots of small printers, is everything sent to one monster print room?

[tmcd35]

We use laser printers every where - Deskjets/inkjets are far too costly. All offices have 1 B&W laser - 1 or 2p per page. The staff room has a colour laser. The main IT suites have two printers - 1 colour 1 laser. There are a couple of A3 cols around as well.

 

As for classrooms, no. Not unless they have a significant number of Laptops/desktops in them. They would get re-routed to the nearest suite/department office.

[maniac]

Most departments at this school have a B/W laser, with maths, english and Science also having a colour one as well. They can decide where they want them, but that's all the printers they get.

 

Admin offices have a printer in each office, and a few others scattered around the building, but I've phased out all the inkjets over the last year, we don't support them now and once the current stock of ink is exhausted, that will be it for inkjet printers - they're too messy, un-reliable, slow and expensive to seriously consider keeping.

 

Staff without a printer in their room are able to print to our staff room printer or the printers in our enterprise area which are available to everyone, and are high yield cheap to run printers.

 

Mike.

[Stuart_C]

It's good to know Cheers!

[Geoff]

Stopped buying inkjets long ago, as others have mentioned they cost far too much to run. We've standardised on HP kit. Generally b/w lasers. We have a couple of larger colour lasers in departments that warrant them. Plus a scattering of photocopiers capable of black and/or colour. For high volumes we have some big machinery in the repographics room.

[enjay]

I'm currently running this idea round my head too - staff want the convenience of a printer in their classroom, but this just doesn't seem cost-effective. Unfortunately, the lay-out of the school doesn't lend itself to having big lasers dotted around the place. I think I've just got to bite it and put up with lots of £80ish inkjets in classrooms, unfortunately.

[cookie_monster]

I've just got to bite it and put up with lots of £80ish inkjets in classrooms, unfortunately.

 

We have inkjets in department offices, 'READ' expensive nightmare

[dhicks]

Do you use lots of small printers

 

Yes. Everyone in the school seems to agree it's not the most economical thing to do in the long run, but lasers are a bit more of an initial outlay and if you're only printing a few pages a week then it's not too much bother. We have managed to standardise on one model of inkjet printer, though, the HP Business Inkjet 1100 / 1200 range, which all take the same cartridges and print heads. If a teacher needs a cartridge they can simply grab one from the tub in front office, there's no confusion possible. The printers have removeable print heads so if a printer doesn't get used for a while and gets blocked up we can switch print heads and get going again within minutes.

 

--

David Hicks

[dave.81]

Over half term we are going through a huge change in our printing policy.

 

Currently we have inkjets and laser's all over the place, many teachers have inkjets in their classrooms and we have larger colour HP Laser's in IT Suites etc.

 

Over half term all printers in classrooms are being removed, to be sold on, and we will have 4 commonual colour copiers around the school that all printing will be routed too.

 

There will be a lot of complaints about it but the SMT can see how much it will save per year and are backing the idea.

[SteveBentley]

if you're only printing a few pages a week then it's not too much bother

 

If you're only printing a few pages a week then it's not too much bother to go pick them up from a departmental shared printer.

[enjay]

If you're only printing a few pages a week then it's not too much bother to go pick them up from a departmental shared printer.

 

Unless:

a) you have a class with you at the time

b) there isn't a departmental area convenient for a printer to be in. If you put it in an office, then you can't send students to go and get the printing, but nor can the teacher leave the class to go get it themselves; having it in one classroom could be very disruptive for the teacher in that room

c) the IT Suites or Library are too far away to make it practical.

 

We have two departments that have shared laser printers in communal rooms as you're suggesting, but not all departments have the facilities to do this.

[Disease]

We have a laser printer in every classroom and every admin worker has their own printer. I would be interested to know which printers people use for Departmental printer if you are only using 1 per department. I might look at reducing down from the 100 printers we have at the moment.

[Boon72]

my primary schools have 2 colour lasers & 2 b&w lasers (1 of each on each floor) they all default to the b&w which is added to them when they logon, if they want to use the colour printer they have to add it themselves so they make a conscious effort regarding its use and we use papercut to report all the printing activities (they were spending £10K-£12K on toner before we started this practise)

[enjay]

I would be interested to know which printers people use for Departmental printer if you are only using 1 per department.

 

The main Admin Office here is sharing a Brother HL5140; colour printing is very limited in Admin, so they just have a basic desktop inkjet thing (HP Deskjet 6940 if memory serves, although the Epson Stylus P50 is nice too) shared out between them.

 

Shared higher-end colour ones (if we had them) would probably either be the up-to-date equivalent of the HP LaserJet 3600 we bought a few years ago, or possibly the Samsung CLP310 (very compact colour laser for less than £200).

[Disease]

How many share the Brother printer, my office manager has one of those to herself?

[elsiegee40]

This is a good one ... I've had no end of earache about this one!

 

Our network is relatively new (2005) and the decision was made to only install network printers for everyone except the office staff(secretary, registrar, HT & Bursar)... and they have 3 local lasers between the 4 of them. (1 colour 2 mono)

 

Since then an A3 a local inkjet printer has been installed in the library - not shared - that can be used by staff only... however, the fact that they have to go to the library and oust the Librarian means that they only use it if they have to.

 

The school's "Policy for Electrical Equipment" allows staff to bring in their own local printer if they wish, BUT it must pass PAT testing, it must be installed by me and the school will not provide maintenance, ink, cables or any other accessories or consumables (other than paper) for these.

 

The thinking behind this is that printing is provided (and monitored by PMP) and that if staff are too lazy to walk to their nearest network printer, that's their problem. We can't monitor what happens on the local printers, so we don't pay for them.

 

As a result, there are 3 local printers in KS2 classrooms and "They're not my problem"

 

The teachers mutter and moan, but we're a small school, the network lasers are easily accessible and the HT and Bursar are united! End of...

[enjay]

The Brother is shared out between 4 people, and sees both single and multi-hundred page runs - never have any issues with it at all.

[CraigM]

We have a printing room where heavy jobs are done, as well as copying. Our staff workroom has a fairly high speed Sharp Copier as well as a HP 2015 for smaller jobs. Some of the classrooms have printers in them, they are the classes usually the furthest away from any printer. I haven't seen everything yet, but there appears to be a mix of inkjet and small laser printers.

 

Prices are high and climbing for cartridges, I wonder how long before we need to scale back....

[enjay]

The school's "Policy for Electrical Equipment" allows staff to bring in their own local printer if they wish, BUT it must pass PAT testing, it must be installed by me and the school will not provide maintenance, ink, cables or any other accessories or consumables (other than paper) for these.

 

Thing is, the staff with those self-provided printers are presumably running the cost of the consumables through their departmental budgets (either directly or as personal expenses), so you're not actually saving the school any money, merely changing whose money it is. In fact, since some of these printers will have been bought by people who assume a £50 printer to be cheaper than a £150 one, you're possibly actually costing the school more in the long term.

[Mr.Ben]

Two years ago we took the ability to Print away from the Students (with the exception of those departments in which it is necessary - think Art & DT)

 

It's saved us loads - down from £9k a year to £4k in cartridge costs. Staff all have read access over the student's my documents and the Students has to go through them in order to get something printed, or do it at home through our remote access.

 

I've got laser printers dotted around the School in pairs (one B&W and one colour) where printing is collected from. Staff can print to anything from anywhere through the print server, so can always.

 

We are a SEN school with 90 Staff, and have three of these printing stations, and that seems to work brilliantly. I do find I have a lot of waste as people don't bother to pick up printing though.

[elsiegee40]

Thing is, the staff with those self-provided printers are presumably running the cost of the consumables through their departmental budgets (either directly or as personal expenses), so you're not actually saving the school any money, merely changing whose money it is. In fact, since some of these printers will have been bought by people who assume a £50 printer to be cheaper than a £150 one, you're possibly actually costing the school more in the long term.

 

Not here... no such thing as 'departmental budgets'

 

Like I said, we're a small (private) school and all purchasing is done through the bursar. Unless she gets out the school cheque book, you pay for it yourself. She absolutely won't pay for anything without receipts... come to think of it she won't pay for anything much at all at the moment!

[localzuk]

The majority of all printing is routed to 2 copiers - a Ricoh MFC 2800 and a Ricoh MF7001. (To the tune that they're printing 100,000 prints a month at the moment).

 

We also have a few others dotted around - 2 Epson CX11's (one in the reception, so receptionists can copy things given to them at the desk, and one in the library), a few HP Colour Laserjet 3505n/dn's (one for the head, one for the bursar, one in our children's fund, SEN dept, and one in MFL) - these were chosen because their cost per page is very low for the initial outlay, and is why I was willing to go out of my way to source another recently. We also have a few Brother HL525DN's around (one in each ICT suite, one for our finance officer and one in the kitchen). Again, very cheap outlay, very cheap to run. Then there are a few legacy inkjets around which I refuse to have anything to do with.

 

If a department has a printer of their own, then they must pay for the toner/ink themselves. If it is a communal one (such as admin, ICT suites, or central copiers, then it comes out of a central budget).

[dalsoth]

If only the money saved through sorting out more efficient printing methods actually went back on our budgets eh? More prawn sandwiches and champagne for the management teams weekly meetings more like.

[sidewinder]

*sigh* almost every teacher has at least a b+w laser in their classroom, quite a few have colour lasers. We've I think just bought one for a room that is about 5 metres away from another room with a colour laser. 5 seconds walk away. Disgraceful waste of money but teachers rule here if we say no it gets pushed through by SMT

[cookie_monster]

*sigh* almost every teacher has at least a b+w laser in their classroom, quite a few have colour lasers. We've I think just bought one for a room that is about 5 metres away from another room with a colour laser. 5 seconds walk away. Disgraceful waste of money but teachers rule here if we say no it gets pushed through by SMT

 

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