36Degrees

If you are working directly for the Government agency then they have to pay for the clearance but if working for a sub-contractor then they have to. The point I was trying to make (quite badly, sorry) is that you can't actually apply for security clearance for yourself. "Individuals and companies cannot ask for a security clearance unless they are sponsored, and you will not be sponsored unless they are contracted (or are in the process of being contracted) to work on one or more specific MOD classified projects. For large contracts, an officer in the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) or Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) - typically a Project Officer will be your sponsor. For staff in sub-contracted organisations, sponsorship will be provided through the prime contractor." Source

Sorry to upset you but that's not the case. "The Department for Education is arranging for the necessary legislative changes to reduce the school year 2010-11 by one day (two sessions) so that schools in England can lawfully enjoy the free time occasioned by the royal event." "The Department also intends to make changes to the School Teachers' Pay and Conditions Document by reducing the number of days a teacher must be available for work and reducing the number of hours a teacher must be available to perform their duties." Source: DfE Statement

Just to clarify, you can't apply for security clearance yourself. You have to be sponsored by an employer.

DV is "Direct Vetting" and is at a much higher level than standard SC clearance - it very much depends where you are working as much as what you are doing as to what level of clearance you require. For example, my first IT job was contracting at a RAF base doing workshop stuff, "at desk" help and occasionally telephone support on the Help Desk and I only required SC. I was considering applying for a contract at GCHQ which although at a much lower level of IT requirement, basically moving computers from one building to another, would have required DV clearance.

I've just changed to their Pro package which has no traffic shaping and a 20GB limit which for me is more than enough. Only issue I'm having at the moment is an IP profile of 1250Kbps when BT claim I should get up to 2Mbps but any download speed above 800Kbps is acceptable! As I've only just moved on to ADSL2+ I have to wait for line to stabilise...

Still involves expenditure! When Freeview bit of DVD recorder breaks then I'll look at it again.

Don't have Sky either! I've looked at it before and I wouldn't get my money's worth as most TV doesn't interest me enough to want to pay out that amount of money. Since the wife was made redundant it's been even less attractive...

I'm in: Castro's Conquerors. I've probably put a massive jinx on all of the players I've selected now! Shan't be watching England game as I'm off to watch Leicester Tigers play Bath in the LV Cup. Bit of a mickey mouse game but I actually like watching the players who are going through the Academy or are on the fringe of the First Team. Plus it's Leicester v Bath!!! Hopefully the England will be on the iPlayer tomorrow as my DVD recorder is a bit unreliable and I can't be bothered to replace it as it is only once in a blue moon I even think about using it.

Short answer - total farce! Electrical contractor said we would need a new cabinet and therefore we'd have to empty the existing one, with all our servers in, to move it over and accomodate theirs. Told them politely that there was no chance. Then told they could mount a small cabinet on the wall instead but I still expressed reservations. Told would need more power sockets but I pointed out there were 2 unused at ceiling level. Informed LEA about all of above. BT turn up unannounced and ask for access to server room. Allow it and told by them that router can be wall mounted where our old, unused BT NTE was still mounted and actually show me a diagram. Informed LEA about various people turning up unannounced was not acceptable. BT engineers then come and install two new fibre tails. Electrical contractors turn up unannounced at 4pm to install power sockets. He says he will install them in the trunking, which would require that to be disconnected therefore switching off power to all of server room. Told him no and that there are already 2 sockets at ceiling level. He then mentions small cabinet on wall and during discussion claims that BT don't know what they are talking about as it router can't be mounted on wall. Informed LEA. Phone call from electrical contractors saying they have an order for a small, wall mounted cabinet so want to arrange coming in and fitting it. Told them it wasn't necessary. Informed LEA. Sub-contractor on behalf of Synetrix arrives unannounced to fit mounting board in server room. Told him he can't but would allow him to see where it would need to be fitted. Fetched Site Manager to ask what would be required from paperwork who told them that as we are a CLASP building an asbestos survey would be required prior to any work commencing. Subby will supposedly inform Synetrix who will inform LEA.

@Busybub I've thanked your post but it was begrudgingly - I'd convinced myself I couldn't afford a camera until you posted links to those sites selling second-hand cameras and lenses! Seriously though, thanks a lot. Apart from my interest I know the Art teacher is considering teaching Photography from September and that could help her stretch her budget a lot further.

"Deburma was certain he would get work outside as a result of his prison work experience" Who else read this and thought work selling personal details or using them himself for fraud, etc.?

We use Frog here for our website, VLE and very soon their Parental Engagement Portal as well.

0% Credit card? Widens your options then. I've been looking (again!) at getting a DSLR and there are a few companies on the net that offer 5 year warranties as standard and are chepaer than Jessops.

Our last dog was a rescue in a way, the wife's aunty & uncle were getting rid of him as being a terrier he kept taking a liking to her young cousin's rabbits. (strange that!) The cousins were told they could either keep the dog and not have any more rabbits, etc. or get rid of the dog - they chose the latter. If we didn't take him then he would have gone to the RSPCA but we decided to have him. The first couple of months were a little trying at time but Sandy finally settled down and beacame a wonderful dog, often acting like a puppy but we decided that was because he was never really allowed to be a puppy. We keep looking at the local dog rescue but since the wife was made redundant she has been working at a company that's too far away to go home at lunch time. We'd therefore need to find one that could be left all day although our next door neighbour complicated things yesterday when she said that she would happily take him for a walk at lunchtime.

One of the pastoral support staff has suggested using a PS3 / Wii as a reward for attendance, class merits or something like that in Year 7 (to be expanded to other Year groups if it works). Whichever tutor group does the best each week gets to use the games console at lunch time the following week.

Or the obvious, eBay. I've bought several computers off there sticking to the usual rules of checking feedback, etc.

So basically engined with the straight 6 2.5L detuned! BMW's from that era are actually surprisingly easy to work on in most instances so the best advice would be get yourself a decent (i.e. not expensive but quite good quality) set of screwdrivers, socket set and spanners, preferably combination, plus a few other basics and work from there. To me basics would be hammer, steel drift, wire brushes, mole grips, hacksaw, junior hacksaw, pliers and a trolley jack. A set of ramps is a good investment as well if you can afford / find them. Buy everything else as you need it. I have to confess that I don't do as much on my cars as I used to. I can't afford to be without my car now as my wife also travels to work, so I can't borrow hers for a few days, and my dad's no longer around to borrow his either.

SIMS backups are actually managed centrally by the LEA but I still take my own. All backups run nightly through Backup Exec with Monday - Thursday obviously being overwritten weekly and Friday 1 to Friday 4 being overwritten every 4 weeks.

What do you mean by branded? Probrand do one called Safestick which are hardware encrypted rather than software and supposedly priced cheaper for the Public sector. If you contact them they will send you one on a free 30 day trial Buy Secure USB Flash Drive | BlockMaster

I suspect I won't have to look at Windows 7 for at least 2 years due to financial constraints. We have a lot of PCs and laptops that are running XP quite happily and do the job they're needed for but are probably too old for Windows 7. The cost of hardware replacement alone would be far too high at the moment.

Very surprised about that. We are looking to go to IP based equipment as the ISDN based VCON installation is rarely used due to being unreliable and expensive so as part of the research I went to another school within EMBC who gave me an unscheduled link up with the supplier to show how good it is.

An excellent idea and in all honesty not something I'd thought about but makes perfect sense. My issue with that on a personal basis is the age old one of resources, especially time. There is myself as NM and one tech to do everything which means there aren't enough hours in the day. When I get chance to speak to the head of ICT I will definitely discuss it with her.

Synchronize! Pro X works very well, especially for a Mac illiterate like me! I bought a licence for this for here so that we could do a regular synch from our Mac Mini server which contains pupils files to a Windows share for backup purposes.

The other issue is which teacher is actually taking that lesson shoud ICT be cross-curricular. Several here don't have the ICT skills themselves so expecting them to teach others is a huge case of "the blind leading the blind" and even those that are reasonably literate would still class as "the partially sighted leading the blind". Also, teachers in other faculties use ICT as tools to teach their subject, how many of them would be prepared to teach pupils the ICT skills first or at the same time?

I had a problem when I tried to renew that would only let me change to the DVD subscription at a much higher cost or take out a new subscription at full price. I rang them and discovered there was a problem with their site so it might be worth giving them a call. (I pay for my own subscription)