localzuk

Our 6 school trust has made its decision to move away last week. Just got the formalities to finalise now. We've used the G Cloud process.

I think their view is linked a little to the earlier comments that were made that a lot of schools were not following proper practice with regards MIS procurement anyway, letting it run on forever without any new competition or analysis of needs. So, if schools had been following those rules anyway, this *shouldn't* have been such a shock to the system.

Server updated to 1.11.0

Though the timescales are very limited, everyone still has a few days of term left to decide and sign any dotted lines...

OK, here's one for you. We pay a considerable sum per quarter for two copiers at one of our schools. At a glance, someone would look at our copier rental costs on our published accounts and think "they're being ripped off, why would a small school be paying that?". So, an FOI to find out what exactly it is would be entirely legitimate. They'd discover they're production print machines, and not the usual little machines most schools have. An FOI request would be completely legit there. Yet, using your view, the public (who have a right to hold us to account) would not be able to find out what it is we're spending our money on. Can you provide advice that comes from the UK instead? Mainly because it would be provided within the context of UK law...

The big issue for me @paulkerton, is that you are making a judgement that doesn't appear to have any grounding in law?

That one has already been covered by the ICO. https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/2619472/fs50344341.pdf However, in that case, knowing everyone's email addresses is indeed a security risk. There's good reasoning in the ICO's response too.

That's the point of the FOIA... It isn't our choice. Its the public's choice - it is their info, after all... The law disagrees with you generally here. The default position should be to give the information requested unless it fits with one of the exemptions, and even if it does fit an exemption you have to do the public interest test.

Knowing that would be in the public interest would it not? Knowing that our schools aren't keeping their critical systems up to date? As I say, there is no specific exemption, in law, for perceived security risks. I've just been through this with a request for info about our internet, firewall, filtering and safeguarding monitoring... No exemptions applied, as the public interest test outweighs them.

The law makes certain exemptions and that's it. Knowing that you run Ricoh copiers is simply not a security risk. Knowing that you have a certain brand of firewall or cctv camera is not a security risk either. Security by obscurity is not security. This is very much why you should be running things past a properly qualified person when making these determinations. The law has very little wiggle room with this, and the public interest test matters. There is no general exemption for perceived security risks.

That link is pretty clear, receiving a single request asking for a set of simple information is not vexatious. Not that I can see, no. Simply knowing what system you have is not a security threat. Everyone needs to remember that the law very much leans on the public interest side of things when determining exemptions for FoI. If you aren't sure, run it past your DPO. There are some exemptions that can only be decided on by a properly qualified person anyway.

To be fair, their £40m will go a lot further in Pune... Average software engineer yearly salary there is about £5-6k a year.

The CEO of the company sent out an email stating that it won't renew to at least some of us... The email explicitly states "If we don’t hear from you by 31 December 2021, we will invite you to confirm certain details, including your pupil numbers, via the Portal by 1 February 2022. If you don’t update these details, we will assume they are unchanged. We will then issue an invoice for the relevant amount on or around 1 March 2022. Although we will issue you with an invoice, it will not mean that you are committed to renewing for the three-year term." The email later references our quotes as well, so directly links it to our account. That's pretty clear to me.

Server updated to 1.10.1 - and Dynmap is back.

Server updated to 1.18.1.

Their comment on requirement for procurement processes ignores DfE guidelines, school finance policies etc... Schools don't generally ignore the guidance set by the govt, and don't generally ignore their policies for 1 company that is effectively playing dirty... We have policies for a reason. However, their change of language with regards the notice for cancellation is very helpful. Takes a tiny bit of the sting off, but there's still a need to be expeditious if anyone wanted to get a new MIS in place by 1st April 2022.

When considering costs, you must take into account the total value of the contract over its contracted period, not the yearly cost - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buying-procedures-and-procurement-law-for-schools/before-you-start So, with your values, your contract is basically worth £40,000. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/buying-procedures-and-procurement-law-for-schools/find-the-right-way-to-buy

Vimeo is a very bad choice for education due to their total lack of safety controls for the site. There is nudity and erotic content hosted on the site, which cannot be blocked without blocking the site in total.

All that everyone can do now is go through your internal processes, and see where they lead you. For us, that's getting demos of all the options (including demos of bits of SIMS we're not using), getting pricing, drawing up how we're going to decide and then deciding... All in the next 2 weeks. HA *melts from stress*

Announcing the next EduGeek Minecraft server - Vanilla 1.18.1 Caves & Cliffs Part 2 release Server address: mc.edugeek.net:25566 As someone has requested it, this is a Minecraft 1.18.1 server. This server is running in tandem to the FTB Oceanblock There are no mods or datapacks at present As always, to be whitelisted on the server, please visit your Profile on the site and add you Minecraft username to the field there. The server updates the whitelist every 3 hours from 00:00 BST. It can also be updated manually if you PM me and I'm around to do it. Up to date information is always available via the Discord channel. http://www.edugeek.net/forums/gaming/186223-edugeek-discord-live-chat-server.html

You can get tablet Chromebooks now. I know Acer and Lenovo each make at least one. However, they seem very few and far between still.

I just bought one of these for my mum - https://www.samsung.com/uk/tablets/galaxy-tab-a/galaxy-tab-a7-lite-gray-32gb-wi-fi-sm-t220nzaaeua/ But then, her requirements will be minimal - Pinterest, web browsing and crossword apps. Can't imagine it'll excel with games or other child friendly things. But yes, you are right - the cheap android market is a mess. 90% of them are very poorly spec'd.

I think the other MIS providers would be better placed - this effectively forces ESS to have a locked in monopoly for 3 years, meaning the other companies basically get no new business during that time.

As someone who has set Xibo up twice, and thoroughly broke it twice. I would recommend paying for their subscription service instead.

That's what a lot of banks still do...