just caught this on the radio

[beeswax]

BSF

 

and this link

[broc]

All Official Spin..... with P4S trying to cover themselves by blaming the LAs.

 

What the report doesn't tell you is the number of 'consultants' employed at every stage of the process (at least four lots up to now at my school), or that as fast as the schools/LAs jump through a P4S hoop, P4S come up with another hoop for them to jump through.

 

First there was 'Think outside the box, and don't be constrained by current thinking on space, money.... say what you want for teaching in the 21st Century', closely followed by 'but you have to fit in with BB98 and have less money because of how much we have spent on consultants', and don't forget 'you must have academies'.... and finally 'you must have a managed ICT service'......... Give them time & there will be more.

 

As a school governor at a Wave 1 school, I have seen it all & I am sick of it!

 

They should get rid of P4S, let the schools work directly with the LAs & architects & see how much progress there would be.

[webman]

What. A. Mess. :shock:

[Grommit]

our "Consultants" took nearly £300 000.00 for the consultatition they did in the ICT sector..

 

And when they fiirst sat down with us they spoke the biggest load of drivil I have ever heard....

 

"Do not think of the ICT PC's as Boxes .. think outside the box".. think of your needs and then design the boxes around the needs".. and that will be £30k for the consultation..

[klawd]

This is precisely why BSF will be halted IMO.

 

Schools already under BSF will be completed but the rest of the waves will be "postponed" (indefinately) and mysteriously never happen.

 

Just need to wait it out....

[webman]

I admire your optimism klawd

[Lee_K_81]

Quote from our head today when i mentioned BSF and managed ICT Services:

They don't know their arse from their elbow.... watch this space

 

WE're in wave2 so hopefully it will go the same way as the KS3 ICT Tests by then

[thom]

*edit *

Sorry I posted in the wrong topic.

How do I delete this post?

[Guest Guest]

Quote from our head today when i mentioned BSF and managed ICT Services:

They don't know their arse from their elbow.... watch this space

 

WE're in wave2 so hopefully it will go the same way as the KS3 ICT Tests by then

 

Lets hope eh

 

I had to go into hospital early january so rushed about like a mad man trying to get the KS3 ICT tests up and running on our new server as they had been sat on our old one for a year doing nothing.

 

Anyhow emailed RM, no reply, pished about getting "Waiting for reply" and then "Failed" on the server. Eventually got it all going. Came back after my hospital to "Oh the friday after you were off we got a letter saying it was cancelled"

 

Surerly RM knew what was happening, why didnt they tell me? assholes

[Lee_K_81]

Anyhow emailed RM, no reply, pished about getting "Waiting for reply" and then "Failed" on the server. Eventually got it all going. Came back after my hospital to "Oh the friday after you were off we got a letter saying it was cancelled"

 

Surerly RM knew what was happening, why didnt they tell me? assholes

 

Funny how RM are also involved in BSF. I'm actually pretty glad they seem to have the anti-midas touch.

[Grommit]

Anyhow emailed RM, no reply, pished about getting "Waiting for reply" and then "Failed" on the server. Eventually got it all going. Came back after my hospital to "Oh the friday after you were off we got a letter saying it was cancelled"

 

Surerly RM knew what was happening, why didnt they tell me? assholes

 

Funny how RM are also involved in BSF. I'm actually pretty glad they seem to have the anti-midas touch.

 

The shocking thing is tho .. that some of the winning companies are sub contracting the support out to 3rd party ICT Companies

[CyberNerd]

The shocking thing is tho .. that some of the winning companies are sub contracting the support out to 3rd party ICT Companies

 

lol, they should subcontract it to the school.. no, wait....

[mrforgetful]

Does anyone have a link to an official cancellation announcement for the KS3 Tests? That's the QCA stuff right?

[Lee_K_81]

The shocking thing is tho .. that some of the winning companies are sub contracting the support out to 3rd party ICT Companies

 

lol, they should subcontract it to the school.. no, wait....

 

Amazing isnt it. They say they want to do a managed solution, but dont want to manage it themselves, so they pass it on to a third party, who may even then pass it on to a forth party, or be bought by another company, so who would we be working for if we TUPE over? I think the "prefered supplier" route would be best. i.e. Dell or whoever wins the contract offer their PCs at a lower rate knowing that all the schools will want to buy, or offer better support, etc. The whole mangled services / you must have THIS hardware / must work for us or change role thing , just doesnt sit well with me.

 

Technicians in schools are flexible, we knoe teachers should give 24hrs notice minimum, but if they come in 10 minutes before we do our best to accommodate, (provided they bribe us with biscuits / cakes). Under a mangled service we'd say, nah, not enough notice, even heads wont be able to give direct orders as we dont work for school. And if they go above it's a case of "Well, we had other important roles to do for company we TUPE'd to"

[Lee_K_81]

Does anyone have a link to an official cancellation announcement for the KS3 Tests? That's the QCA stuff right?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6247939.stm

 

funny thing is cant find anything on the RM / qca site. Wonder why that is........

[mrforgetful]

The only thing I found was about it been 'refocussed' from a 'compulsory test' to an optional 'assessment tool'.

 

http://naa.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/naa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=536&p_created=1169223054&p_sid=kyiy6Vsi&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD0xMzgmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0x&p_li=&p_topview=1