alexknight Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 500 students 50 staff ....... Just me on about 17K. Question, should 'I' have more help and an increase in salary? Alex, I would say you are vastly underpaid if you are the sole person there. Although i'm not sure what the cost of living is there, i doubt it's mega cheap. You're further south than me. They've got a really cushy deal, if you left they would need to replace you with at least 2 people who wont know the school, the staff, their quirks, etc. If you have a good relationship with the head or somebody else in authority I would suggest you hint (or be downright blunt) and tell them you're (thinking of) looking for another job as you feel under valued for the responsibility you have. If they value at all they'll try and sort something out for you. Rant/ I have indicated that I feel undervalued. To make matters worse in the last three years I have been given no 'real' training on the extra aspects that have grown over the years. i.e no CPD. I have asked on several occasions if they would consider me taking a relvant traing course to help me do my job better, such as the MSCE qualification, but it falls on deaf ears. I would have thought that a decent employer would be knocking on MY door and sending me on relevant qualifications and courses. Having reviewed my situation I am taking it upon myself to take the qualification and at my expense. Then I will see what my position is at the end of the year and if it is still the same then THEY will have to find some other person (idiot) to do what I do on my salary. Funny thing is that I used to love working at the school (stiil do to some extent) and wasn't that concerned about my pay, BUT when I then being crticicised over petty things, such as being a little 'offish' at times, etc etc etc, (becuase of the stress levels and lack of support, not to mention network users trying to offload their inadequacies onto to me) then i think hey wait a minute, this is not wortth the £980 a month that I take home?? /Rant over
_Bat_ Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 - 94 Desktop/laptop machines - 26 Interactive whiteboards along with 26 projectors - Two separate in-house school websites - Six servers - 10 Admin machines - Four laserjet printers - 12 very old inkjet printers - Anti virus - Facility CMIS - Facility EPortal I'm paid £14,300. There is a NM above me but only see him about half a day a week due to other schools he works for. I'm perfectly happy with that wage. Not entirely sure what others make of it but from what i've seen, on this thread so far, my situation appears to be very good. Because I have built (and am still building) the websites from scratch, they take up a lot of my time. As webman points out, trying to get the teachers to give in content for the website takes ages as well.
Disease Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Can I also add since peoples lists are getting longer and longer that I/we also do: External Website Internal Website Exchange x2 Outlook Web Access 2 ISA Servers VLE Development Onsite Security (We have to deal with Intruders) All Procurment, bids and purchasing Management of 3 Budgets CCTV As of today supplying support to one of our feeder schools Firewalls Phones ALL Installs Cabling AV Fire alarm duties Converting all school videos to digital format and storing on servers all PAT Testing Sims Support FMS Support Cross Curricular ICT Development Blah blah blah the list goes on
Lee_K_81 Posted January 10, 2007 Author Posted January 10, 2007 Wow! I think this thread just goes to show that IT staff are some of the most underpaid, over worked public sector employees. There seems to be an "Us and Them" attitude with teachers, Head included, that sees us as "just support staff", and therefore lower paid than any teacher. I'm not begruding teachers or saying most of them arent worth their salaries, but if me and my team went off (and switched servers, switches, etc.. off behind us) there would be chaos. On the other hand if any other member of staff or even several teachers (which happens on a daily basis) are off you wouldnt really notice. I think my school realises that, which is why we're not in as bad a situation as some others. Not sure what can be done overall though. There's no union for IT staff in schools, and standards in wages, etc, differ from LA to LA...... If anyone from BECTA is reading this, howzabout giving a recommendation to schools about ratios of techs to PCs, and other services managed in house. In industry, for a school sized organisation (num of "untrusted" users, machines, etc.) you would have an Exchange Admin, WebDev/Admin, NM, SM, a team of techs, and a help desk. In schools we're constantly firefighting. It's very difficult to be pro-active, testing is often only minimal as results are required "NOW"....... I'm begining to wish i'd never started the damn thread! we're all on verge of manic depression and stress, the lists of tasks we do, gets longer when somebody else reminds us of yet another task we do. Ok, i've finished ranting now.
budgester Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Damn there are some people here that are getting seriously underpaid and overworked. I am a network manager, I have 2 fulltime techs. 1 four days a week tech, soon to be full time. 1 full time CMIS support. 1200+ students 150+ staff 12+ servers doing all the funky stuff schools do. Phones, cameras etc. However when I started here 4 years ago, it was just me on poo money. However by budget planning and explaining things in non technical terms to SMT. I now have a the above, and we are able to respond to issues very quickly. Having the staff and the resources allows me to align what we do as the IT department with what is required by the curriculum, and we got technology college status last year. Hope this helps someone. Regards Budgester
Midget Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 BECTA do make a reccomended tech:comp ratio. I used it in a meeting/argument trying to get more staff, but I can't rem where it is atm. If you have competant users, a tech help desk, and a good network you should have 150 PCs / technician. If you have untrained users, no tech help desk, and a shoddy network you should have 50 PCs / technician. I dont have a help desk so should have ~100:1 instead of 400:1
alexknight Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 I explained and produced evidence such as the Becta recommendations and received a dissmisive reponse concerning recommendations from these 'organisations'. In fact they made me feel quite inadequate and unappreciated adding a sense of 'what do you do'. I sensed that they felt I did nothing which made me question their understanding of what ICT support actually involves. 8O 8O 8O
webman Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Found it!! (Bloody becta website PITA... ) The optimal number of ICT technicians will depend upon the type and nature of an institution's ICT infrastructure and management. As a rough guide, an institution with: a reliable network efficient technical support ICT confident and trained users a staffed Service Desk may require as few as one technician for every 150 computers. Alternatively, an institution with: an older network or inefficient technical support or users lacking confidence and training or no Service Desk/single point of contact may require more than one technician for every 50 computers. This ratio is only indicative, so please read on for suggested next steps. Source: Webpage and PDF. Unfortunately it seems that schools are selective in taking advice from BECTa, in that they only take notice when it suits them.
Geoff Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 Correct, because it's only advice and BECTA has no clout to enforce anything it says. So schools tend to cherry pick things.
Chafftech Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 In fact they made me feel quite inadequate and unappreciated adding a sense of 'what do you do'. I sensed that they felt I did nothing which made me question their understanding of what ICT support actually involves. 8O 8O 8O Been there mate. I have worked at 2 previous schools who virtually said same thing when linemanagers in SMT would not fight my cause for pay rise or listen to my suggestions. So both times I moved on only to be met with derision for leaving the post for better pay (and hopefully conditions) - "traitor" one Asst. HT called me!!! Some were unhappy that I left and actually question why the SMT didnt just give me what I wanted. It can be hard to find another job, but keep looking and let them know that your looking if they ask, but only because of x or y. But do not say you hate it here etc.
alexknight Posted January 10, 2007 Posted January 10, 2007 It can be hard to find another job, but keep looking and let them know that your looking if they ask, but only because of x or y. But do not say you hate it here etc. I try to never burn my bridges and I have given myself 12 months to see if things turn around. During those 12 months I will try and educate one or two people on what the ICT support team (i.e me) does. Alex
AshF Posted January 13, 2007 Posted January 13, 2007 Wow... this thread has thrown some interesting light on things... To repeat some of what I posted in my introduction.... 15+ Servers, 1000+ Desktops/Laptops (including some mobile laptop stations) Projectors in every classroom Also responsible for A/V equipment in general. 1600+ students. 200+ Members of Staff. This is all managed and supported by myself, A Snr Technician, and a Junior Technician. There is also my line manager who is MIS manager purely due to historical reasons, he is also a Teacher but teaches less and works with me more on the IT Development side. Thankfully this is about to change in that: The current Snr Technician is (hopefully) moving to a newly created Dev Position, and we're employing a new Senior Technician, *AND* an additional Junior Technician. Soon. As an example of rate of growth when I started in Summer 2003, we brought the grand total of machines up to around 600. We replace workstations on a 5 years scheme, and usually have more new locations to set up. Space problems have recently been addressed by the increased use of laptops/trolleys and wireless basestations. Of course this brings with it unique problems all of their own. This 150 machines per technician Ratio is a shock to the system, as I hadn't heard/seen that before. Neither this place nor the previous school I worked at was below 250-300. Having said that we only deal with 16-18 year olds, who are *slightly* less vandal-tastic than the whole KS-GCSE field I worked in previously. I have yet to encounter a single sandwich lodged in a cd drive at this place. We tick over and provide as fast a service as possible. As for the issue of pay, well that's a whole thread on it's own.
FreeWill Posted January 13, 2007 Posted January 13, 2007 9 Servers - 8 Windows Server 2003 / 1 Server 2000 - four of these mission critical 250 Desktops - spread across three and a half ICT teaching rooms, library, two subejct suites and machines in every teaching room. 60 Staff laptops 35 Science Lab laptops Everything spread across 16th/17th Century buildings, 1900's-1960's extensions and a large new block due to open early this year. We manage everything ourselves - except installing IWBs, furniture and cabling. There is a Network Manager (my boss) and myself looking after the network, all connected devices and the e-Registration system. When my contract expires at the end of August it'll just be the boss.
GrumbleDook Posted January 17, 2007 Posted January 17, 2007 Sometimes is is best not to use Becta advice / guidance ... but speak with other schools ... just like people are doing here. Sometimes, for politics more than anything else, those schools consulted need to be 'notable' schools ... If you search the ICT Register for schools that can provide advice on support staff then you may have more joy when speaking to manglement.
bishopsgarthstockton Posted January 17, 2007 Posted January 17, 2007 I've been working on my own for over 2 months now (taking the piss). Systems manager has been working from home scanning documents in to eformat for the VLE. we have 39 IWB, 39 teachers workstations, 255 student workstations, 1 mobile classroom (30 laptops), 48 staff laptops, 10 home loan laptops, 7 servers, 29 printers. i dont touch the admin network much. only when the council cant get out quick enough i have to support them.
Midget Posted January 17, 2007 Posted January 17, 2007 bish> Thats all you have and you're complaining? Bloody hell, I have more than that and I'm the only person here fullstop, no other person doing work from home or doing the paperwork etc.
bishopsgarthstockton Posted January 17, 2007 Posted January 17, 2007 Well you should hire extra help. And im not shy of hard work.
Midget Posted January 17, 2007 Posted January 17, 2007 You've never worked in a Welsh school have you?
bishopsgarthstockton Posted January 17, 2007 Posted January 17, 2007 hmm.. no i think i know where you are going with this as i have 2 welsh cousins and there hard bloody work
AshF Posted January 17, 2007 Posted January 17, 2007 This is rapidly devolving into a Monty Python Sketch... "Woke up half an hour before we went to bed... handful of hot gravel.... dancing on our graves screaming 'Hallejulah!'"
kylewilliamson Posted January 17, 2007 Posted January 17, 2007 We've around 300 machines and theres 3 of us.
tosca925 Posted January 17, 2007 Posted January 17, 2007 1500 kids 100 teachers 60 support staff 620 desktops 150 staff laptops (network point at front of every classroom) 50 IWB 14 servers All the rest of the daily shi*e thrown at us VLE Website ME and 2 techs (one of whom is useless) No sign of anyone else staring, and what do BECTA quote? 1 per 200 clients or something?
netadmin Posted January 19, 2007 Posted January 19, 2007 We have... *160 students *24 staff *1 windows server (about to add another linux server) *45 desktops *1 laptop *1 IT Manager (myself) *1 Facilities Manager (my supervisor, who does a little computer work when he has time) We are also responsible for the copy machine, laminator, tvs, cd players, sound systems, theater lighting system, website, keycard system, intrusion and fire alarm system (only basic maintenance, like cleaning and testing, luckily), the phone system, and CCTV.
alonebfg Posted January 19, 2007 Posted January 19, 2007 we have 240 students 17 staff 1 windows server 45 desktops 10 laptops also responsible for projectors and other equipment.
adent Posted January 19, 2007 Posted January 19, 2007 For what it's worth... It depends on the school, the equipment in use, the level of training and processes in place and budgets. I know of one school where they have 350 Desktops, 175 laptops and 14 servers with all the interactive whiteboards etc and just 2 techies. They also support their primaries. BUT the techies are happy with the workload because 1) it is a relatively small campus - therefore easy to get to places 2) The techies are well trained and have spare kit to 'play with' rather than the live network 3) Teaching staff have a good level of technical ability through a comprehensive CPD programme 4) The equipment is well specified and backed up with on-site warranties I know another school with 700 machines and 6 techies who are run ragged - not because the training is not there, but because the kit is dieing and the teaching staff have not the same technical understanding. I guess what I am trying to say here is that each case is different and it is very difficult to generalise
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