ICT Support Resource Levels in Schools

[IanHamilton]

As a one-man band in a 250 workstation school I'm trying to present my boss with typical support levels found in schools as a comparison. I know this varies hugely and there are all sorts of reasons for that but, in general, my estimate is that to support 250 workstations, phones, 7-server domain and two sites I reckon two staff is about minimum. I'd appreciate any comments.

[JonThompson]

At my previous place the ratio was 125 PC's per technician (FE college), so two in your case would seem reasonable. At my current place, we have two full time staff - NM and Snr Tech (me) and two 1 year university placement students who are replaced each year with new students.

[IanHamilton]

Many thanks for the response. I am polling a few schools directly too and two seems to be the bare minimum often with extra for AV etc.

[Cache]

I'm in a similar situation to you, except I'm a single site and trying to get a 2nd member of staff.

[Sirbendy]

500ish "fixed" workstations, also laptops, IP phone systems, CCTV and security systems, 6 ESX servers running lots of Vservers, across 3 buildings on 1 site - 2 staff here. NM is currently bogged down in CMiS/SLASC/Data verification/Timetabling, so I'm manning the helpdesk and going out to do stuff. Hectic, yes..a bit!

[gpe5732]

Our technicians support over 1,000 workstations at any given location. They do not directly support their own servers or network at this time, though.

[Oaktech]

this thread may be of interest...

 

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/school-ict-policies/4000-computer-tech-ratio.html

[clareq]

There are 4 of us here with 1400 computers, 450 of them laptops, and 23 servers. We also look after phones, door entry system and a small (65 machine) mac network. We are split site.

[tb2571989]

Me, and a Network manager. 600 Student laptops, 300ish Desktops, 120-odd Staff laptops. 40ish iPads. 20 Servers, physical and virtual. 150 Staff, 800 students. Phones, CCTV, single site, and we're term time only. We do not cope.

[bushby]

my self and the nm here 200 machines but all dual boot mac and win 7, 4 servers (we need more), they only got me last year and its made a diffrence already to the running of the it here.

[TronXP]

We Have two sites, total of around 900 students, 500 machines all Win 7, and around 18 servers (we are in process of virtualisation). We have a NM, 3 Technicians and 1 AV Tech.

 

Look at this though Case study: Essa Academy's high-tech approach to education - 02 Oct 2012 - Computing Feature 900 apple devices and one technician because the students can act as technicians too.

[Max_Power]

Me, senior tech, and 2 other techs - 1100 PCs, 20 servers, SIMS, SLG with full parent rollout, FMS, 1550 students, 250 staff, phone system, door entry system, lunch contract system, BYOD, 70 iPads, 30 Android tablets, 150 projectors, all usual subject specific software (sibelius, CS5.5 etc) a banging headache and a partridge in a pear tree

[RTFM]

700 machines, 4 ESX hosts, 2 netapps, 20 virtual servers, ruckus wireless, cisco phone system + 1 primary to look after, classroom support to do now and again as well as all the other bits and pieces. team of 2 (plus a director of ICT who's job isnt day to day support)

[36Degrees]

NM + Tech. Approximately

 

1000 Pupils

180 Staff

275 PCs

100 Laptops

225 Thin Clients

20 servers

 

Website, VLE, Parental Engagement Portal, Home - school access for all, Cashless catering

 

1 site, 2 buildings

[fiza]

At my previous place the ratio was 125 PC's per technician (FE college), so two in your case would seem reasonable. At my current place, we have two full time staff - NM and Snr Tech (me) and two 1 year university placement students who are replaced each year with new students.

 

Interesting about the University placement students. Do you pay these students?

[JonThompson]

Interesting about the University placement students. Do you pay these students?

 

Yes. They are both paid a £6000 bursary for the year.

[fiza]

Yes. They are both paid a £6000 bursary for the year.

 

I take it they work full time (term time only). Are they doing some kind of computing courses at Uni and this placement is part of their course?

I was thinking of getting someone under the Apprenticeship scheme but this placement idea sounds good too.

[Davit2005]

200:1 200 machines, all updates, all policy changes, all image builds, all image role outs, all server builds, all server configurations, email system, wireless system changes, backup system changes, firewall changes, plugging the speaker into the correct port, basically anything in the slightest bit technical ends up with me.

 

Technical ability (or the lack of) from end users is hard to measure and can put even more pressure on IT support. The issues also play into effect as the lack of error messages reported or incorrect error messages reported by end users makes it even more difficult to sort the problem out unless you actually watch what they are doing when they recieve the problem.

 

Happy days

[JonThompson]

I take it they work full time (term time only). Are they doing some kind of computing courses at Uni and this placement is part of their course?

I was thinking of getting someone under the Apprenticeship scheme but this placement idea sounds good too.

 

Yes. They are doing a 4 year Sandwich Degree course at University, with the third year being an industrial placement. They work for 48 weeks, and then we often pay them (at the technicians hourly rate) to keep them on in the summer when we do our refresh work.

[fiza]

Yes. They are doing a 4 year Sandwich Degree course at University, with the third year being an industrial placement. They work for 48 weeks, and then we often pay them (at the technicians hourly rate) to keep them on in the summer when we do our refresh work.

 

Is the £6k Bursary set by the Uni or is it something the School are offering?

[JonThompson]

Is the £6k Bursary set by the Uni or is it something the School are offering?

 

The school. The University doen't set a wage, to them it's more about getting the students experiance. In fact alot of placements are unpaid. We found that to get a decent calibre of student, you needed to offer at least a semi-decent wage for the year.

[TechieWils]

I did a work placement as part of my sandwich course and found it a real challenge and learnt so much and set me up well for future work.

 

I will say though please pay them minimum wage for the hours their doing or even a little extra. we speak so much on here about being taken for granted and we all need to live and make a living. Back in 09 the lowest paid placement was £9000 and even then a lot of students just skipped that offer and went else where.

 

Just a thought and not meaning to judge or preach at anyone.

 

TL: DR uni placements are a great idea, just pay them more then peanuts

[JonThompson]

I did a work placement as part of my sandwich course and found it a real challenge and learnt so much and set me up well for future work.

 

I will say though please pay them minimum wage for the hours their doing or even a little extra. we speak so much on here about being taken for granted and we all need to live and make a living. Back in 09 the lowest paid placement was £9000 and even then a lot of students just skipped that offer and went else where.

 

Just a thought and not meaning to judge or preach at anyone.

 

TL: DR uni placements are a great idea, just pay them more then peanuts

 

I agree placements are a very good idea. I did a placement in my third year (where I now work) and it helped me get my first job. I was paid for my placement, but at a lower rate than our current students (this was in 2006). I do agree that students need to be offered a decent wage, otherwise the quality students go elsewhere, and unfortunately the students that tend to apply are not of a very high standard. You just need to find the diamonds in the rough.

Edited November 6, 2012 by JonThompson

[AceDaz]

375 PCs / Laptops

15 Servers

CCTV

Telephones

Hall AV

Projectors

Wireless

95% of Installs done in-house

Training Sessions

Procurement of hardware

Policies and Documentations

1st line / 2nd line / 3rd line support

 

1 Person - me

[SteveB_NI]

375 PCs / Laptops

 

1 Person - me

 

Sounds pretty much exactly what I have here too - and I'm the only ICT support. I must be mental though as I wouldn't have it any other way... I like being in control of knowing when a job is done it's done to the best of my ability.