Local Authorities 'top slicing' School funds for MIS!

[Sylv3r]

Interesting ... A matter of interest which VLE did LA go with and which VLE did you choose?

 

They made their own inhouse solution using Sharepoint.... I created our own VLE using Sharepoint which is internally hosted rather than externally which they have done. A lot of schools are now no longer continuing with the LA solution now the initial three year sign up has ceased.

[dsm]

Well our ICT Manager wants to move to a Browser based system because he is fed up with SIMS.Net installation on every work station. Browser based would be more cost effective because of a lower cost of ownership. As to having already paid - we want to opt out from having our funds 'top sliced' so that we can buy our choice of MIS.

 

Hi Alice,

 

This seems to suggest to me that everytime you upgrade SIMS you are having to manually go round each workstation and update them? Is this correct? If so you do not have to do this...

 

Regards

[Tiger]

Hi Alice,

 

This seems to suggest to me that everytime you upgrade SIMS you are having to manually go round each workstation and update them? Is this correct? If so you do not have to do this...

 

Regards

 

Having seen this thread and how problems seems to be taken that it is just upgrading client stations as being the only issue as the 'cost of ownership' of THICK CLIENT SOFTWARE. Far from it! There plenty discussion on this on this under different thread, see Browser based MIS etc.. - so I won't dwell on it here.

 

However what is interesting here is the schools choice and whether 'top slicing' is denying schools the basic decision whether to go for one MIS or other. Surely there should be a mechanism for a school to 'opt out' from top slicing and get their appropriate funds to be able to go for their choice of MIS.

 

Some LAs seems to be giving this option - it should all LAs. Yes?

[Tiger]

I'm in Norfolk too. In terms of the finances, my understanding is that the funding will be topsliced but there will be no obligation to use the system (as per the earlier post).

 

I think it comes down to how far you've got with your current learning platform - Fronter is a decent product for schools which haven't got anything at present (or are unhappy with their current product). However, when we went to look at it there were so many little things that were either the same (or not as good) as what we already had, let alone what we plan to implement in the next 12 months, that it would have been a retrograde step.

 

Having said that, I don't blame the LA for trying to get some kind of consistency across schools. I do wish it had happened 3-4 years ago though, as I know it did in some other parts of the country. That way we wouldn't have the mish-mash of schools all using different systems that we do now (and I include our school in that!).

 

In fact, the timing is just about as bad as it could be really. I know it's all because of the government deadline on access to eportfolios etc etc, but the missing ingredient for everyone as far as I can see is true integration with MI systems. None of the products in the Norfolk shortlist were able to offer that, but all promised it "soon". Fingers crossed...

 

I've just come across this entry under different thread - it is 'top slicing' in a different disguise!!!