Anyone moved a school before? -Help / Advice / Guidance

[GregpaulJones]

I was looking for some advice/ guidance with regards to moving a large secondary school in Liverpool!

 

The school is Gateacre C C School, Gateacre's new BSF school is about half a mile away from the existing site, are you aware of any schools that have had a particularly "good" move that I could contact?

 

Just looking for any pitfalls / problems to watch out for or any good gantt chart tasks.

 

We have 8 weeks to move the school over the next summer holidays (2011)

 

Thanks for any advice given

 

Greg

[Rozzer]

I am in the process of moving into a new build, funnily enough we get the keys today! Bit different from your setup though because we are on the same site. Happy to give any advice if you need it.

 

Ross

[Roberto]

I'm in exactly the same boat as Ross, just moving our college from one campus to another but on the same physical grounds. We're not BSF as we're a college, but still helpful I hope. Also happy to give advice - and hear some from people who know what to expect from your first year in a new site.

 

I'll give you a couple of points I've found to get started.

 

1. Many things will take longer than you think they will (and often it will be the simpler jobs that trip you up... you already know the difficult jobs will be difficult and plan accordingly).

 

2. It's the odd little jobs that take the most time to sort out

 

3. There are far more odd little jobs than you think there will be.

 

4. Throwing resources at a problem only helps so far - you can only have so many contractors / temporary helpers standing at a patch panel patching or trying to move items into a classroom at once before they just get in the way.

 

5. Someone needs to manage your aspect of the move. Managing this will be a full time job for **at least** one person, so this person/people can't let themselves be bogged down with very many 'doing' tasks as they will need to be available to solve problems and make decisions as things happen.

Edited August 14, 2010 by Roberto

[joe90bass]

we moved two sites to one two miles away two years ago - pfi not bsf though

 

my advice.. you'll be very lucky if you actually get 8 weeks. we were supposed to have 5 and only had 4. I second don't underestimate the time jobs will take, prioritise rooms as once staff/kids are in day to day tasks will mean outstanding rooms/jobs will take much longer. And DON'T trust anyone, double check any work i.e. cabling,etc and any promises!

 

Happy to answer any questions or to have a chat if you want.

[speckytecky]

George Ward in Melksham has moved to the Melksham Oak Community School recently; I don't have any contacts in the former or new school but I expect someone on the Forum does? Also St John's at Marlborough was a recent move to a new build from two sites into one new one.

[broc]

Make certain things are counted, maintain an inventory of what is packed where. Seal stuff in boxes if you can. Check that things arrive in their new location asap, don't leave it too late. You would be amazed what goes missing during a move like this. I know of a school where a whole trolley of nearly new laptops 'vanished' never to reappear during a move from one part of the campus to another part of the same campus....

 

Loads of things went missing from my wife's school during their BSF move.

[gaz350]

Defo interested in this thread, just to add some more to the mix we move Mid academic year! After Xmas oh and guess when my next baby is due...... 8th jan! All fun fun fun. Annoying thing we were suppose to move at the end of ocotober.

[psydii]

Think of a perfectly moved room. Describe it in detail.

Re-write that description in non technical terms.

Re-write that description in technical terms.

 

Think of an existing room (that maps to you perfectly moved room) describe it in detail.

Re-write that description in non technical terms

Re-write that description in technical terms.

 

Think of the steps required to move that existing room and its services to the new room. Describe it in detail

Re-write that description in non technical terms

Re-write that description in technical terms.

 

Check that you have mapped (or accounted for) all the existing facilities, and all the facilities presented in the new space. Resolve anomalies (updating the technical and non technical documentation).

 

Test the model against some other facilites (e.g. offices, classrooms, non-typical ICT suites). If there were any major generic gaps, update the documentation.

 

Now that you have a fair idea of what is going to be involved. Here are your next steps:

 

1) Document what you have in each and every room to be moved.

2) Document exactly to which room each piece of kit is to be moved.

3) Hire a Commercial Mover, with project management (and insurance); Give them the information from step 1 and step 2 and ensure that your expectations of service are aligned. You can use the documents created in the initial exercise to help this process.

4) Do exactly what the Project Manager asks you to do.

5) Do not allow anyone to release the Project Manager until you have signed off that the move is complete.

 

It wont stop things going wrong, but it will produce the closest thing to a perfect result that is possible while keeping your stress down to a safe level.

In my experience the move team will confirm the audit of current equipment and that it is in working (i.e it boots) condition, and then re-instate it based on the move schedule confirming that it boots/powers up in its new location.

 

Beyond simply moving the kit you need to consider the technical aspects. Think think about what you need to do to move one PC between locations (renaming, printer config, software sets etc). Multiply that by the number of PCs you've got to move. Document and 'test'. Think about your patch schedule and switch vlan port configurations; do not let anyone change these unless they update the patch schedule. You may be able to buy these additional services from the Commercial Mover.

 

By outsourcing these aspects the school local team can sit with the PM at the focal point of the operation, perform necessary technical operations (AD updates, Printer Server, DHCP configuration) and also advise with local knowledge as necessary, and be kept completely in the loop. Most PMs don't like to deviate from the plan, feeling it is better to implement as agreed and make changes later from a known 'good' documented state. Roll with this. While the PM in in charge you can be planning how to improve things once their team has gone.

 

Much of this advice doesn't require the infrastructure in the new building to be up and running, but if you have contracted the Move Team to do any of the reconfiguring, then you need to be certain the switches and servers are all up and configured correctly before the move starts.

 

HTH

P.

[SpuffMonkey]

Make certain things are counted, maintain an inventory of what is packed where. Seal stuff in boxes if you can. Check that things arrive in their new location asap, don't leave it too late. You would be amazed what goes missing during a move like this. I know of a school where a whole trolley of nearly new laptops 'vanished' never to reappear during a move from one part of the campus to another part of the same campus....

 

Loads of things went missing from my wife's school during their BSF move.

 

I'd ditto the inventory and keeping a check - we had a whole lorry load of IT gear disappear in our move - luckily it was old rubbish mainly - but could easily have been expensive new stuff - goodness knows what else disappeared in that move - as we (ICT) were the only ones who drew up inventories & box lists - everyone else just labelled stuff and hoped for the best.

[Rozzer]

Well its day 3 of having the keys for the new build and it has been running very smoothly. Projectors are being installed alongside our print solution and Aruba Wireless. We have patched in all sockets which will be used and transferred all numbers across. Got to say my team has done a grand job! All I will say is it does not matter how much planning you put in it is never enough

 

Ross