IT technician hours

[fooyum]

Dear All

 

Does anyone know of a formula or way to calculate how many technician hours a school should have - if indeed there is any way to calculate this. Could as many people as possible tell me how may hours you work and the size of your school/number of clients etc to give me an idea.

 

Many many thanks

 

Sorry could you include the actual number of hours each member of staff works and if it's term time only or full time.

 

Also, I currently work 12.5 hours in a primary school There are 410 children, 40 members of staff, about 170 clients and I run everything from the network to anything with a plug attached.

Edited November 5, 2012 by fooyum

[elsiegee40]

Hello and welcome

 

How long is a piece of string? The answer is the same. Every school is different and the hours required for each is different. In some big schools you have the benefit of a team, so there'll be more people and all they'll do is IT.

 

In some smaller schools you are a department of one and may be able to manage the network on 4 or 5 hours a week with additional hours during the holidays for maintenance, installation and upgrades.

 

It all depends on the job description. Will you just be maintaining the network, or are you responsible for everything with a plug on it and also eSafety training and MIS work or something in between?

[twin--turbo]

It's impossible to answer with a formula.

 

we have 4 staff covering 2 schools one 1200, other 500 students. Our setup is fairly slick for systems maintenance but we are still kept busy.

 

Rob

[british_government]

School, 1300 students, 250 staff, 1100 devices.

2 Technicians, 1 Network Manager and a Sims manager

[fooyum]

Hi

 

I've edited my post and thanks for the welcome.

 

I work 12.5 hours a week, term time only in a school of 410 pupils, about 40 staff members and 170 clients. I run two networks and anything with a plug from all hardware to software - you name it, it's my role but I don't provide training although I'd like to :-). I used to work overtime for free but realised this was not proving a point and so now I work my contracted hours only, give 20 mins if I'm in the middle of a job, and now the work is slipping. I need some figures to show the school what everyone else copes with but I realise I may be shooting myself in the foot!

[elsiegee40]

I feel your pain. In a smaller school, I started on 8 hours a week. It wasn't enough. I ended up on 20!

 

I had to work to rule to make the point. I got it doubled to 16 and then the extra 4 were added as I took on additional responsibility.

[Oaktech]

Well...

 

We have 1000 devices, 1300 students and 250 staff on our senior school site and 80 devices, 300 students and 50 staff on our junior school site.

 

We have 3 technicians, 2 are full time 52 weeks a year, one is term time only.

 

During term time, one full time technician works 08:00 - 16:00, the other works 09:00 - 17:00, the term time technician works 08:30 - 16:30.

 

During holidays both technicians work 08:30 - 16:30.

 

We spend approx 6 - 10 hours a week onsite at our junior school, but we additionally spend 4-6 hours engaged in remote support or project work for the junior school.

 

The remainder of our time is spent supporting our senior school/sixth form or working on projects that benefit our entire federation.

 

Hope this helps in some way.

[witch]

Junior school - 370 children, 90 machines,25 staff, one tech, 15 hours a week, term-time only. Responsible for all computer things, network etc

Middle-deemed-secondary school, (Years 5-8) 400 children, 35 staff, one senior tech, 15 hours a week, support contract with external company 2 hours a month plus unlimited telephone support.

 

Both are me....

[elsiegee40]

Junior school - 370 children, 90 machines,25 staff, one tech, 15 hours a week, term-time only. Responsible for all computer things, network etc

Middle-deemed-secondary school, (Years 5-8) 400 children, 35 staff, one senior tech, 15 hours a week, support contract with external company 2 hours a month plus unlimited telephone support.

 

Both are me....

And is that sufficient hours at either post @witch ?

[sted]

On average 2 form entry primary schools 2.5 - 3.5 hours weekly dont generally do ordering first i know of equipment is often oh and we have 6 new laptops to set up

 

Personally do 2 or 3 schools a day most weekly some fortnightly have atm one cover day so no timetabled in work

[witch]

And is that sufficient hours at either post @witch ?

 

Junior is OK most of the time - middle not so much

[Steve21]

Of the 7 schools we support it ranges between 2 hours a fortnight, to 4 hours. This is mixed juniors/infants etc.

 

A lot of it depends on kit, some of the larger schools we support have the least time, as they're fully rebuilt Win 7/08r2 etc, so a lot easier to manage.

 

One of the longer is one of the smallest schools that runs an undomained network (Due to budget reasons, won't/can't upgrade it currently).

 

As the others above have said, a lot of it depends on the individual schools, how they're setup, what they want doing etc etc. Whether it's upgrades/rebuild, or just maintanence etc etc. (Obviously bigger work, can be done over halfterms, or during the non-visit weeks)

 

Steve

[witch]

Given the stuff I do every day, I can't imagine how a school manages on only a few hours, one day a week.

Sometimes I have time to spare but often I am running from "my whiteboard isnt interactive" to " I can't log on" to "please install this for me on my laptop" to " get some quotes for xx" on a daily basis

[Steve21]

Given the stuff I do every day, I can't imagine how a school manages on only a few hours, one day a week.

Sometimes I have time to spare but often I am running from "my whiteboard isnt interactive" to " I can't log on" to "please install this for me on my laptop" to " get some quotes for xx" on a daily basis

 

Guess a lot of it depends how it's set up originally, and especially how much of what they want is similar to other schools.

 

Taking one of our sites that's rebuilt:

Fully locked down Win7/08r2.

Automated deployment of all OS/software/updates. (When software does need to be deployed, 80% of the time another school already has it, so we have a package made up we can use. Just changing serials etc. If not it'll take a little time, but once it's done it's easy enough to deploy. Never really done local installs as someone will always want it a 2nd time Even if it's just reinstalling OS).

School decided they wanted passwords all preset and unchangable. So none of the "I forgot my password" issues.

School got rid of all local printers, and have a contracted MFP so nothing really for us to do with that, unless it's software updates.

 

Kind of removes the majority of the day to day issues:

Software wise we can remotely rebuild/deploy the computers overnight if something breaks locally, or software is wanted.

Toner/Printers, Nothing to do with us.

No password resets, and creating the odd account here and there throughout the year is few seconds work.

 

Don't get me wrong, obviously things break but just mean a lot of the day to day stuff isn't as bad as a much larger school. None of the running around 50 printers etc changing toner/paper jams, hundreds of password resets etc we do at the main school.

 

Shame we can't rebuild all the schools from scratch! Go go Win 2k network

 

Steve

[witch]

What about whiteboards though?

I only have a few printers in each school and one uses the networked photocopier as much as they can so that lets me out. It isnt forgotten passwords it is usually corrupt profiles or similar. Passwords are preset and unchangeable but I dont know them!

I have the odd netbook that falls off the domain or decides it hates one user.

I also reimage machines every now and again. - not at night - but during working hours

2008 R2 server, 90% Win 7

[Steve21]

What about whiteboards though?

I only have a few printers in each school and one uses the networked photocopier as much as they can so that lets me out. It isnt forgotten passwords it is usually corrupt profiles or similar. Passwords are preset and unchangeable but I dont know them!

I have the odd netbook that falls off the domain or decides it hates one user.

I also reimage machines every now and again. - not at night - but during working hours

2008 R2 server, 90% Win 7

 

We get a few issues with whiteboards, but honestly not that many at all Maybe it's just luck. And generally it seems the staff at the schools are pretty ok with replugging the USB leads once to try it. (Try to locate them somewhere easy to get to always).

If it's something urgent we can usually get one of the other techs to pop out and sort it, or re-arrange another visit as most of the time the schools appreciate it when we can do the same so are happy to move around. (Helps that we have a bigger team here)

 

Hardly any corrupt profiles either, had maybe half a dozen over the 7 schools since June~

 

We do all the creation of the user accounts (by script) as part of our Summer hols work, so we have the original excel lists of all students/passwords stored away on our encrypted Netadmin bit of the server, so we can get the passwords back if needed.

 

Guess a lot of it is luck, as to how often things break/go wrong, some times it's not enough time, others it's fine. Another reason why I think OP will have a hard time getting a set in stone answer

 

Steve

[SYNACK]

Going for the middle one in size and support, 600 students 160 client devices. 6hrs a fortnight term time. We do have a good hardware rollover plan though which means most stuff is newish and easy to maintain, centralized settings via GP and W7 and W8 laptops. That also does not include extra projects like server upgrades or site wide reimages.

 

It does depend heavily on the school and staff though, I take a very strict training role in 'helping users not to be helpless'. Most end up absorbing the training if only from the repetition of the lecture over and over and over...

[Brpilot99]

I dont know what I'm doing wrong on 15 hours a week 360 kids and plenty to do .... Our temporary head teacher (until Christmas shes a Deputy Head in real life)) has stated that our IT is rubbish and that at her school they have someone come in only 2 hours a month! We got outstanding for IT provision in the last Ofstead

[elsiegee40]

I dont know what I'm doing wrong on 15 hours a week 360 kids and plenty to do .... Our temporary head teacher (until Christmas shes a Deputy Head in real life)) has stated that our IT is rubbish and that at her school they have someone come in only 2 hours a month! We got outstanding for IT provision in the last Ofstead

 

What a charming person. This type of person likes to make themselves look good by trying to make everyone else look bad.

 

Telling everyone the IT is rubbish is not helpful. Arrange a meeting to discuss her concerns, don't disagree in the meeting, just take copious notes.

 

Then back at base make her comments into bullet points.

 

Answer each bullet point by showing how it actually works (i.e. she's got it wrong, but be tactful) or by how things could be changed. If change could improve matters... and there's bound to be something... explain why things are how they are if necessary and work out how much it would cost in time and hardware/software to improve matters.

 

Make sure Teaching & Learning are the main reasons for changing things. Change that does not benefit this needs careful justification.

 

At the end of this present your report and request a meeting a week later to discuss what she wants you to do. I'm pretty sure the second meeting won't happen.

 

Keep your cool and be professional no matter what the antagonism.

[witch]

@Brpilot99 I'm guessing this is the person who swears at everyone?

Is this person been brought in to cover the role until someone the school has employed starts in Jan?

I agree with @elsiegee40. Ask for a meeting and then answer point by point.

 

This coupled with the swearing means this person needs to be pulled up sharpish, and you are just the man to do it!

 

*would be interested by pm in knowing what school she comes from as I may know the IT there!

Edited November 5, 2012 by witch

[Brpilot99]

Thanks Witch and Elsie .. yes its the one and the same I'm afraid ... Shes at the school till christmas until the new Head arrives. I haven't got the energy for to much conflict and unless pushed to far will ignore but hope the incoming uses better language !! Witch..will send PM in the morning ...

[hardtailstar]

I support two schools

 

First one:

25 hours a week spread over 5 days, This school has 12 class room computers, 10 laptops in each class, 30 staff laptops, 8 office non teaching staff computers and a IT suite with 31 laptops. Each class room also has an interactive board and visualiser. School is fully networked with a domain. 25 hours isnt enough to sort all the problems and deal with projects.

 

second one:

5 hours a week spread over two days. each class room has two laptops, one attached to a interactive whiteboard and visualiser, the other is a class room one. bank of 16 laptops for classes to share. about 30 staff laptops, 3 office computers. School is on a work group. 5 hours isnt enough and I regularly have overtime at this school as and when needed.

 

I dont think there is any formula for amount of hours to workload but if i was you just ask for more hours and document everything to support your case to take to who ever you need to.

[twin--turbo]

Schools have to remember that it's not just day-2-day support that needs doing, long term plannign and development needs to be included to improve the provison over time.

 

Rob