SEGfL_Krista

Canva is FREE to use for all Primary and Secondary Education settings. It provides access also to Affinity which gives a range of options including tools like photo editing, graphic design and page layout. With alignment to UK Curriculum requirements at GCSE. There are lots of tutorials on CANVA and regular updates are given to all users. As a school the SSO is not a long winded process, and with FREE use for Staff and Pupils, its a really good option

If anyone is interested, SEGfL have a National Software Framework which SEGfL set up for compliant procurement with negotiated value pricing for Schools, Trusts and LA's. www.segfl.org.uk It is provided through SOFTCAT, so you can take advantage of the pricing even if you are already a customer. It is certainly saving schools money. Also, are your schools using CANVA, now with AFFINITY both are FREE for Primary and Secondary Schools and can save money as an alternative to other design licences, and is in line with GCSE curriculum requirements. Just a couple of ideas to help with licence workarounds and saving money ideas. Please let me know if these are of interest and you would like more info.

The Cloudflare outage on 18th November, caused by a configuration error, disrupted services globally. t’s a reminder of how dependent we are on a few providers and why resiliency must be part of every school’s digital strategy. BBC Report: Cloudflare apologises for outage which took down X and ChatGPT - BBC News How are schools planning for connectivity failures? Backup connections? Failover solutions? Role of MATs and service providers? Would be great to hear what approaches others are taking.

According to The Guardian, 60% of UK secondary schools were hit by a cyberattack or breach in the last year. That’s not just a statistic, it is a signal that our sector is under siege! As IT professionals, safeguarding pupil data and ensuring operational continuity is part of our core mission. But are we doing enough? Questions Every School Should Be Asking: Are our backups truly secure and immutable? Can we recover quickly from a ransomware attack without paying a ransom? Have we tested our incident response plan recently? Do staff know what to do if systems go down or data is compromised? Are staff trained to spot phishing and social engineering How often do we run simulations or awareness campaigns? Do we know our Cyber Score? Have we benchmarked our cyber resilience using tools like Secure Schools? Are we relying on outdated systems or unsupported software? Is legacy tech creating vulnerabilities we haven’t addressed? Are third-party vendors properly vetted? Do we know how our suppliers handle and protect our data? What’s your school doing to stay secure? Have you faced a breach or near miss? What helped you recover? Are your systems resilient against today’s threats? Would your school recover quickly from a breach? Resources to Consider: SEGfL Backup & Recovery – Immutable, cloud-based backups with instant recovery. Secure Schools – Cyber audits, policy builders, phishing simulations, and free Cyber Score benchmarking.