loxford01

One of the DFE standards is to appoint a member from the senior leadership team as a Digital IT lead by 2030 and who must have oversight of all digital tech, create and manage a digital tech strategy. I wonder how well this will work out as they will also be reviewing the effectiveness of IT support and recommending actions for improvement.

Accessing windows shares normally does require account but not sure how this works on a mac as havent tried due to our currnet working solution.

Yes we have a separate account to access the share on Synology

Can you access the share on a mac? can you save and retrieve files from the windows share, if so you may need to look at SMB3 compatibility between Windows/Mac. Finder → Go → Connect to Server → smb://server/share. I cant provide much more on this we use Synology and works well.

Under configuration profiles for the imacs, dock, dock items, you can add the smb share for guest users. They will see the share as a globe icon when they login. smb://192.168.33.118/music-shared

configuration profiles, login window, options theres option to allow guest user. So we have a separate teacher admin account for all macs and then the guest user for students. It doesnt allow saving any local data and cleans the profile during log off.

We have setup a Synology, and through Jamf under login items have mapped the network share where all student work is saved, have docked the shortcut for all students. Also use guest login as opposed to AD for students so once logged off the profile is cleared.

I had the same greyed out. The only way around it is to apply through PowerShell scripts. Test it on a few before rolling out to all students. Minor with consent granted # Import CSV with Year 7 & 8 usernames $students = Import-Csv "E:\scripts\Year7_8_Students.csv" foreach ($student in $students) { try { # Set AgeGroup to Minor and grant consent for Microsoft services Update-MgUser -UserId $student.UserPrincipalName ` -AgeGroup "Minor" ` -ConsentProvidedForMinor "granted" Write-Host "✅ Updated $($student.UserPrincipalName) → Minor (Consent Granted)" } catch { Write-Warning "❌ Failed to update $($student.UserPrincipalName): $_" } }

£34k starting salary to support 13 schools as IT Manager?

On the printer properties on the server, check the Advanced tab and Printing defaults to make sure the settings for that printer are correct as they might be different to what you see on the General tab, preferences.

Yes, I just figured that out with the PS script. The minor with parent consent has also now worked for us, and now they can access 365 but with Copilot blocked. I agree its a pain going through each block and then a year later will have to revert the changes when they are 13. It would have just been easier to have an entra global option for this rather than play around with scripts.

Thanks, will try that as a workaround. Does this also then block the following co pilot URLs for under 13? Edge browser also has the co pilot icon and can initiate a chat for students so need to look at GPO to block this as well. Microsoft guidance aint helpful m365.cloud.microsoft/chat copilot.microsoft.com/chats copilot.cloud.microsoft copilot.microsoft.com

I've run some PS scripts to change under 13 accounts in entra ID to minor and it does block co pilot but then also prevents these students from logging into office.com and using other services linked to their account like Onedrive, Satchel, Teams etc, effectively making the account unusable for normal school work. So the minor setting is not a practical solution, and we've had to revert all under 13 accounts back to nonadult so they can continue to use office 365. We may have to now block co pilot url through our web filtering for these students instead. Microsoft need to offer a better workaround that doesnt block other 365 apps. This might be helpful for other 365 tenants who are thinking of blocking co pilot for minors.

Is there a way to possibly to block Co Pilot for students under 13, supposedly in year 7/8 in Microsoft 365 admin center?

Its now been resolved. Needed to restart the Sims Service Manager service on our Sims server to fix it, a simple fix.

Hello i have sent you a message with details.

Our Sims Next gen is no longer working. We have recently moved to a new MIS support provider. Could this be related to the move. We've had an email from ESS below asking to restart SSM server but havent done this before and cant access the tech article as dont have a direct parent pay account. Anyone know how we could fix this as our new MIS support provider isnt very responsive so far. Something went wrong. AxiosError: Request failed with status code 504 Email from ESS Restart your SSM server: Instructions on restarting your SSM server can be found here KB0012954 - Troubleshooting issues Your IT or SIMS support provider can assist if required. Check that the SSM server is running If the server is operational then please check the sync status. Check the sync status After 72 hours check that data is now synchronising. If the issue persists then please log a case with your SIMS support provider.

As I understand it, we can keep using VMware under our perpetual license as long as we don't upgrade or patch it beyond the version our license covers. However, knowing Broadcom's tactics, they will go all the way in auditing current setups for those that stick with perpetual licensing just so they can extract that extra money from you. It's a greedy tactic. Our current setup is an ESXi cluster with 2 hosts, high availability, SAN storage, and 12-14 VMs. Proxmox is something that seems a good alternative or its HyperV, but it depends on our licensing for it.

Has anyone using VMware ESXi received an email from Broadcom urging them to transition from perpetual licensing to a subscription-based model once their current support contract expires? It seems that if you don’t respond, Broadcom may follow up with a cease-and-desist letter, which could eventually lead to an audit—a process that’s mentioned only deep in their terms and conditions. I’m quite concerned about the tone Broadcom is using, especially as many of us simply cannot afford the new licensing costs they’re proposing. This is particularly challenging for schools that rely on VMware but operate under tight budgets. Is anyone here considering moving away from VMware and exploring alternative solutions? If so, what are the alternatives that you are considering?

I think a new document called If IT Fails might be useful so it's kept alongside the cybersecurity response plan and disaster recovery plan. It would highlight the following: - What happens when a network switch is dead and there are no spares, potentially knocking out the network in areas on-site? - What happens when the only fibre link between 2 buildings breaks and there was never a backup link installed? - What happens when the school internet router stops working and there is no backup internet line and the engineer call-out wait time is 24 hours? - What happens when a student/teacher accidentally deletes their data on O365/Google Workspace, it cannot be recovered from any recycle bin, and there is no cloud backup solution? - What happens when a member of staff permanently deletes their email folders only realising a month later they shouldn't have and there is no cloud backup in place? Just some scenarios I can think of, and I'm sure most of you already have answers for these. Please feel free to add to it.

https://schoolsweek.co.uk/wi-fi-grant-cut-by-30m-as-labour-ditches-levelling-up-plan/

Is anyone experiencing issues with logging into Satchel One? Clearing the browser cache on both Chrome and Edge only temporarily works, and then users see this error again (see image). We use RM broadband, and they recently have had web connectivity issues, but I'm just checking if it could be a broader issue before contacting RM and Satchel.

https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/media-centre/news-and-blogs/2025/03/software-provider-fined-3m-following-2022-ransomware-attack/

Have you tried checking the firewall or web filters on the managed WiFi? Maybe that could be blocking classroom. Whitelist these domains classroom.google.com *.googleusercontent.com accounts.google.com Other than that, under Account Settings, Sharing Settings, you could confirm that the Google domains are correctly set up.

We went with Unifi on the hosted cloud controller, same SSID and PWs, very easy to setup. Our supplier arranged all the drilling/works/setup of APs. I just had to set the correct VLANs. The Unifi APs work great.