Lee_K_81

I agree with Budgester and kingswood, as a graduate myself when I left uni I found it very, very difficult to get a job, as i had no experience. I ended up taking a job as a technician, which was advertised as only needing BND / HND qualifications. 6 Candidates were interviewed, all graduates. I thankfully got the job. Since starting here I have moved up very fast, replacing my former boss as Systems Manager, when he left 18 Months after i started. I think the thing to remember is a uni degree / OU degree with teach you the theory behind things, so while they may not teach anything you go and use tomorrow, you know the theory behind it. It also shows a determination. Although somebody without a degree may also progress very high, maybe even higher than some graduates (because some are REALLY thick), you may find you hit a glass ceiling, especially when good graduates catches up on you with the experience and professional certs.

Hi all, I've been considering doing an MCSE 2003 and have the following questions: 1) would you recommend actually attending the courses (~1500 per course) or just buying a good book and sitting the exam? 2) Is it worth doing it now, or should i hold off until MCSE 2007 comes out? I am educated to (almost) Masters Level (in process of doing project) and am a Systems Manager so i have quite a bit of hands on experience with Server 2003, AD, DHCP, DNS, IIS, GPO, and any other applicable abbreviations. If i do the courses, it will take me well over a year as i could probably only do them during half terms, or other holidays. Reading the books and sitting the exams would be a lot quicker and also have the obvious financial saving.......... If anybody has done either method your experiences . opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thankfully we dont have a sixth form although i feel sorry for those who do, or work in a college. There's enough problems with kids turning up, not doing any work and creating a distraction for those who do want to work, all so they can get their £30 pw drug... i mean booze..... i mean... whatever money! I can see where it's going. 10 years time they'll be saying it's 21 and everyone has to go to uni, but hey, there's not student loans or grants, just a defered payment when you get a job at McD's with your BA in mickey mouse studies.

Maybe the cleaning department? ... wait i've got it, neurotic, paranoid, over-convinced of their ability, unwilling to see reason despite it being slapped in their face like a wet kipper, obsessive compulsive, they must be the head of the HR department! OR a teacher! (cringes, waiting for angry backlash!!!)

I've also had good experience with computacenter. If you are buying bulk tell them you would like "bid" pricing and that you have them competing with 2 other suppliers (which you obviously are). I got HP: AMD Atholon 64 2GHz, 512Mb RAM, 40Gb HDD, CDR/W, FDD (which is unusual), XP Pro, 3Yr Warrenty for £358. Not the cheapest quote you've been given today and i'm sure the spec now will be higher as we bought last summer, but we;ve never had a problem with any of the HP machines we have. Build quality is very good.

Out of interest how many people use moodle. I'm VERY interested in deploying it, but as it's not on the becta recommended list am begining to have second thoughts. Does it do everything all the others do? We currently have thanks to the LA, and pay through the nose for - but nobody uses as it's sh1t: Plus (by Netmedia i believe). Moodle would be a very nice cost saving.

From my understanding Becta havent said NEVER use it, just to hold off for 12 months. This is usual with any major release. Lets face it, M$ dont do anything minor with either good things or bad! The article also states that Becta have renewed it's memorandum of understanding with M$, and Becta have been widely critisised for not supporting, or encouraging schools with deployment of open source software. Once the early adopters have discovered all the bugs, Becta will say everyone should upgrade. The when SP1 gets released they'll say hold off for a while then deploy... ad infinitum..... Becta wont say hold off completely. They benefit from agreements with M$ as do schools with favorable pricing compared with private sector. Becta don't back open source..... whats x% of £0 anyone? Hands up if you know. As sad as it seems, the majority of schools have to teach M$ products to kids because thats what they will use in the world of work, thats what they use at home and are familiar with. Until society as a whole changes it's stance on open source software M$ will continue to dominate. Even Universities are having a major shift from *nix to M$, when i went (all of 3 years ago) it was 50:50, my little brother is at the same uni now and it's now about 80:20.

beg your pardon? Is that what they call it these days? Oh... you said "erratic"..... my mistake! :oops: I'm also a new member, and when i'm not lowering the tone, i'm a Systems Manager at a school in Brum. Quals: BSc (Hons) Comp Sci, currently doing a MSc Comp Sci part-time I started to work towards an MCSE but struggling with time more than content. Job Desc: Anything with a plug or looks vaguely technical is "mine/ours". Looking forwards to using this site as somewhere to bounce ideas off, get feedback on ideas, and help anybody else i can. Oh and world peace..... cant forget that.

I'm not looking forward to the tests. I know there was an article on BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6232207.stm about the tests. I think the head who said they didnt rate them highly was being VERY, VERY generous. We are running ours on a DC which isnt ideal but unless RM or whoever else gives us a new server it will have to do. I think it's very badly designed and not appropriate for use in the school environment. I can imagine the announcement, could everybody please log off, stop using cmis / eportal, internet, CCTV, Content Distribution, etc..... year 9 are about to do their (soon to be optional or scrapped completely) tests. I;ve not had an email from edexcel but i will speak to ICT Co-ordinator/Exam secretary and see if she has.

Wow! I think this thread just goes to show that IT staff are some of the most underpaid, over worked public sector employees. There seems to be an "Us and Them" attitude with teachers, Head included, that sees us as "just support staff", and therefore lower paid than any teacher. I'm not begruding teachers or saying most of them arent worth their salaries, but if me and my team went off (and switched servers, switches, etc.. off behind us) there would be chaos. On the other hand if any other member of staff or even several teachers (which happens on a daily basis) are off you wouldnt really notice. I think my school realises that, which is why we're not in as bad a situation as some others. Not sure what can be done overall though. There's no union for IT staff in schools, and standards in wages, etc, differ from LA to LA...... If anyone from BECTA is reading this, howzabout giving a recommendation to schools about ratios of techs to PCs, and other services managed in house. In industry, for a school sized organisation (num of "untrusted" users, machines, etc.) you would have an Exchange Admin, WebDev/Admin, NM, SM, a team of techs, and a help desk. In schools we're constantly firefighting. It's very difficult to be pro-active, testing is often only minimal as results are required "NOW"....... I'm begining to wish i'd never started the damn thread! we're all on verge of manic depression and stress, the lists of tasks we do, gets longer when somebody else reminds us of yet another task we do. Ok, i've finished ranting now.

You will probably find that these options wont appear on a vanilla install of server 2003. Instead you will need to either: a) install the administrative tools package on a workstation that has ie7 / WMP installed (a la Windows XP SP2 firewall settings) then run group policy editor. b) install ie7 /WMP on the server and then run the group policy editor. Hope this helps

Alex, I would say you are vastly underpaid if you are the sole person there. Although i'm not sure what the cost of living is there, i doubt it's mega cheap. You're further south than me. They've got a really cushy deal, if you left they would need to replace you with at least 2 people who wont know the school, the staff, their quirks, etc. If you have a good relationship with the head or somebody else in authority I would suggest you hint (or be downright blunt) and tell them you're (thinking of) looking for another job as you feel under valued for the responsibility you have. If they value at all they'll try and sort something out for you.

1 network, Vanilla MS Server 2003, XP Clients. 900 pupils, 100ish teachers, 20 or so admin staff. MIS = CMIS & ePortal. We are an inner-city school. Lots of behavioral issues, vandalism of machines, attempts to access areas of pcs they shouldnt etc. Students, maliciously changing other users passwords, deleting work, *forgetting* password so they can wander the corridors for a while on the way to see us. Nothing (except electrical and a bit of cabling) outsourced. 3 ICT Teachers, none of them have actual IT training, so they put a lot of demands on us when they cant figure stuff out.

Wow, I have to say I think I still need another tech, as the flood of teachers / students / SMT knocking on the door is constant, but you guys really need to get some extra help too! Either that or you've managed the art of being in three places at once. Why is it that it is always the IT depts that get the least amount of staff. Our finance team has two people, admin has three, Learning support has about 10, heck, even Science gets 2 techs and they only serve 6 teachers, yet because of the advances in IT it's like, "oooh, we'll get that as well.... the IT dept will be able to set it up for us, monitor, create content, ....... ad infinitum...., along side their usual tasks!" Ok deep breaths

Hi, I was wondering what other peoples ratio of technicians to PC's is? Or if there is a BECTA (or some other organisation) recommendation? Equipment: We have ~200 Classroom PC's / mobile classroom, 20 admin, 6 servers, and 57 teacher laptops to service giving a total of around 280. plus 20 Interactive whiteboards & projectors, another 3 portable projectors, 20+ printers, and ANYTHING with a plug on it, seriously - the PA system, lighting desk, video content distribution screens, all "ours". Services: We host the school website internally, and our own email via exchange server. We are in the process of implementing moodle, and also have online reg, assessment, end of term reports, etc. Team: 1 Systems Manager (me) and 2 Technicians. Although one of the technicians spends 50% of his time at the other campus schools. I'm trying to push for an extra technician and a comparison of other schools would be useful. Thanks very much!