Norbert

We use various smart devices, in particular smart plug sockets to be able to restart a couple of projectors which were intelligently installed with no isolator switch within human reach. You're right that the apps are rubbish so we set up Google Home with our IT department muggle test Gmail account (Google Home isn't available for Google Workspace for Education) and linked the apps into that. Works really well and we can reboot the projector and WIDI in our main hall from anywhere in the world!! The lights should work with that. You'll probably need to make sure that you have an SSID which has a 2.4GHz radio available on it as these devices tend not to run on 5GHz networks.

Our SLT are having a rearrange when we move sites and appear to be wanting to move our team of two from a secure (small) office environment that we have at the moment into an open plan area in the new library. We do have the server room and a general store cupboard for the day to day junk that we need to keep and we've wrangled those out of the new building, albeit smaller but manageable. I've got various concerns about this - physical security of assets, GDPR concerns surrounding privacy, confidentiality and commercially sensitive matters that I have to deal with, constant phone calls, difficult calls to suppliers who I am politely giving a dressing down, handling CCTV, the ability to concentrate whilst dealing with complex problems - the list goes on. We have a small workbench area where we do development and faultfinding and quite often have thousands of pounds worth of kit like laptops, chromebooks, cameras and server/network kit out. No ral provision is being made for a development area or work room. I wondered where you were all sited within school and what the pros and cons you have found of your environment are.

I know this thread is a bit old now but I felt really mugged off when the quotation came through for renewal of support. We'd been paying just short of £400 with AIT and the new quote came back from Altman at just over £1200 - needless to say they lost the business and we'll probably run this into the ground and rethink our needs when we come to rebuilding the print server.

I have an ongoing call with this issue. Things are just getting a little stressed here with no reliable method of communicating with parents via email from Bromcom.

We are still struggling to get this working. The biggest problem is the randomness of it. Test messages send OK but sending out bulk messages is so hit and miss. Some send, others don't with no real pattern, rhyme or reason. I'm currently looking at an alternative SMTP feed to try and get this all working.

For anyone else trying to set this up I have had to move the account that I am using for this into its own Google Organization and allow access to less secure apps for that Organization. It worked to a point until Google started blocking the traffic as it was being accessed by what it deemed to be a less secure app.

Further to this, I've just had a really helpful call from the Bromcom helpdesk team and I'll be in a good position to try out a couple of possible solutions shortly. Well worth logging the call with them if you have any concerns.

Anyone else get the email today about the Bromcom email limits? What a backward step this is. Anyhow - we have an on-prem Exchange server and our MX records point at Google (we use GSuite for Education here) - all incoming mail comes into Google then routed to our Exchange Server. All outbound mail is sent via Google's servers as well which is set up as a smarthost on our Exchange server. Given the Bromcom announcement today, I'm looking for the best way of using either our Exchange server or, preferably, our GSuite GMail servers. Any pointers before I go wading in and trying this out for myself? Ta.

Surely there is a Galaxy of phone puns that we can use?

Oh top Marx for that one

Likewise, we control staff access to YouTube (unrestricted - sheesh, they are grown adults and are in the best position to decide what they do and do not deem appropriate in the classroom) and students (restricted for 6th Form and blocked for pre-sixth form) We do use Google's GSuite and have set up policies on a per OU basis but RM's implementation simply did not respect those settings. Blanket changes like this are daft at best as you cannot possibly test for every scenario. Net result here is that the start of the new half-term has been disrupted and there are a lot of disgruntled teachers whose jobs are hard enough without this sort of thing being imposed on them. Unless it has come from the DofE themselves that this needs to be done, why not let us as network managers make the decisions based on our own school policies as to what is best and how to manage the resource.

Sadly, the response from RM is as follows, "Last week we have updated SafetyNet platform to enforce YouTube moderate restricted mode for customers. This blocks access to content not suitable for children and removes the ability to read or write comments. This is a permanent change. However if the school having G Suite tenancy , you can manage YouTube restriction mode on a per-user basis. The bellow link will give you more information. " Making changes in GSuite doesn't work. If they don't get it resolved and soon I'll be onto my account manager as the service is not now fit for purpose. I appreciate the need to keep students safe but this is taking the biscuit!

Great. RM have decided in their infinite wisdom to enforce restrictions on YouTube which has caused chaos here. According to them this is a permanent change. Modifying the permissions within GSuite has no effect whatsoever. Anyone got a way around this? I've got some seriously hacked off teachers here who rely on YouTube for parts of their lessons and they can no longer access the resources.

A few from this weekend - Reed Bunting at Staveley Nature Reserve, Kestrel from Nosterfield Quarry and Geese from RSPB Saltholme

I've just had a head of faculty ask what appears to be a vaguely sensible question. How do other school let Ofsted see the sort of feedback and marking that is being done via Classroom? He was also interested to know how heads of a faculty or heads of subject can look at what staff members in their faculty or department are doing by way of marking and feedback. I'm not sure that there is any way of granting that sort of access to other members of staff other than adding them as a co-teacher in that classroom. What if Ofsted wanted to particularly scrutinise marking and feedback - how would they do that? Any suggestions or ideas of how it is done elsewhere are more than welcome. Ta

Been many times before so always go kitted out with suitable head wear! The terns were as belligerent as ever.

A few from the Farne Islands a couple of weeks back.

Weddings, pre-wedding shoots, parties, gigs, events, interiors and I've sold some of my wildlife and landscape photographs. My passion is wildlife and portraits but the other ones pay better!

I've noticed a tendency for extra lens flare and other undesirable effects with UV filters. It just makes no sense to me to put a cheap piece of glass in front of a beautifully engineered piece of ULD glass. As I shoot semi-professionally I have everything insured to the hilt anyway but so far have never needed to make a claim. More likely to trip over my own shoelaces and damage something than scratch a lens with deep lens hood on! Saying that though I did once pile everything into the bag after a shoot and when I next took the camera out the lens release button had inadvertently been pressed and when I lifted the camera out by the strap (which was attached to the foot on the 400mm lens) the body fell to the floor. Closest I've come to c**pping myself! Thankfully no damage done and I now check before getting everything out!

Not personally a fan of UV filters on digital cameras. Used to use them all the time when I shot on film. An £80 bit of glass in front of a £1500 lens makes no sense to me! I always use the lens hood and, touch wood, have never damaged a front element in umpteen years of taking pictures. Each to their own though.

Trying to retina vague air of decorum here but keep losing focus. I like threads like this - different to the rather eyebrow stuff that normally gets posted.

Eye think these are getting cornea

Try putting /d:0 in there as well

Had a lovely day out on Sunday at RSPB Blacktoft Sands and Fairburn Ings. All sorts of things there - marsh harriers displaying to each other, cettis warbler, heron, avocet, shovellers, geese, pochard, black-tailed godwit in winter and summer plumage and many more beside - all very exciting stuff!

These are getting Scilly