Max_Power

A concern with Casio ultra short throws that have no lamps has always been what to do if it fails after 5 years? For arguments sake say 5 years 5 days. If one of our older Hitachi short throws dies at the moment we replace the lamp for about £160 and apart from the odd filter clean / change they continue to work fine. Got some that are approaching 8 years old but never had any lamp changes just cleaning filters and they are still going strong. Budgets restrict me from replacing them on a rolling program. With budgets being tight, I wouldn't be able to replace multiple Casio's at such a high cost if they failed out of warranty. Do you have strategies or budgets in place that make this a non issue?

If its photocopying would the member of staff needing copies or booklets made be expected to log an osticket and then drop off the corresponding document? Here staff can either email the document they want copying with details of amounts, binding etc to a general reprographics email address, drop the file in a reprographics shared area or simply fill out a paper based form and paper clip the document required to it and stick in the in tray - reprographics staff prioritise as required.

We use the Room Booking System as well - cant fault it well worth the money. The automatic timetable sync works very well especially when our timetable changes daily because of room diversions, exams, options etc.

Live Register

We used Windows Tablets with SIMS installed on a WiFi connection - worked well, but then moved onto biometric registration, student scans thumb as they enter the changing room.

Slightly off topic but may help? We use Live Register for registration and have done so for about 18 months, this uses the same technology that's used for the cashless catering system. Works well, and the company / support is very good indeed. Willing to develop enhancements where possible even if bespoke to your own school. Biggest headache was obtaining thumb scans, just takes a while and chasing students who aren't in etc. Also nice and easy to provide students who do not consent to biometrics with a PIN number. We dont use the cashless catering side, but do use the system for lunches, parents pay for lunch for a whole term and then the system operates a traffic light system. Scan thumb, green enter for lunch, red you dont - simple and effective.

+1 for TASC Insight - been fully deployed to all students and parents for about 10 months now after wasting time and money on SLG for a couple of years. Insight does what it says on the tin, and the feedback has been very good indeed.

We use TASC Insight for some of the data collection. This allows parents to check their details and submit changes as required through the site itself, this generates an alert for the relevant people who can authorise the change.

I believe SIMS partner Istek which has a fundraising module. SIMS Private Funds Manager | Capita SIMS We use Raisers Edge here, it doesn't link in directly to SIMS but the support provided by Raisers Edge to export and import the data we needed was fantastic. Also takes care of Alumni. https://www.blackbaud.co.uk/fundraising-and-relationship-management/raisers-edge-nxt

We did successfully do this a number of years ago on CC4 but found as certain students got older we needed to start changing rules and groups and caused more of a headache to administer. This resulted in us changing the mechanism and applying to the whole school. The policy is set-up as a default domain policy and applies to everyone under computer configuration-windows settings-security settings-password policy. This applies to all users on the network which are from students from ages 5 years old and up, causes a lot less issues in changing groups and editing the configuration as students get older. Here we have applied the minimum password length policy as 9 and also the password must meet complexity requirements. Works well even with the younger students. Either way is possible on CC4.

Slight mixture of Windows 7 32 and 64 bit here. Would like to move to Win 10 summer 2016 if possible but that will depend on if SIMS and other Financial software is supported and reliable enough. Sure I read somewhere SIMS was planning on supporting Win10 from the Spring 2016 release? Is that still the same or have the goalposts moved?

Asking myself a similar question this morning so thought would have a scan on here. Looking at an 80" model of the Genee G-Touch but have similar concerns about their place in the market as well as reliability. The functionality is all there and read reviews where people use it with Smart software (paying licence separate of course). One of the massive points I'm drawn to is that it comes with a 7 year on site warranty! That's huge compared to other vendors which only offer 3/4 years. Anyone any experience with them?

Back in the day when Becta was around there were guidelines regarding the distance between workstations in education, and also the recommended space around the workstation for the pupil to sit etc. These were (I believe) 1000mm and 850mm respectively. Are there any official guidelines regarding this any more? What kind of distance do you have between your workstations, and is that centre of monitor to centre of next monitor? Obviously some monitors are bigger than others and so would limit the spacing between them or indeed how many workstations you can fit on a run on desk. Cheers in advance

We've used Citrix for quite a while here, 2010 I think we got it (Xenapp). Serious improvements have been made by the looks of it with Remote Desktop Gateway since that time and were possibly looking to make the transition. We have a high number of iPad users and the Citrix app works well for them being able to launch SIMS as an individual "app" or full desktop mode and access that way. What's the experience like for iPad users using the Remote Desktop stuff do you use the official Microsoft app from the app store? https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/microsoft-remote-desktop/id714464092?mt=8

RM have a blueprint on how to package and deploy http://www.rm.com/support/generaldownload.asp?cref=dwn3045943 We tend to have all programming software installed on a Virtual Machine using Virtual Box which is installed throughout the computing dept.

There are a large number of MIS systems on the market, with some in particular being aimed at independent schools as opposed to state sector. DfE use the IMLS framework which details lots of different MIS systems. Information Management and Learning Services | Crown Commercial Service Independent School focused products dont appear on this list though, such as iSAMS

Local Free School we partner recently moved over to this. No problems thus far, works well, does use up a fair bit of bandwidth when connecting with multiple users but other than that no complaints (yet).

No mention of how much its going to be? I suppose it would have to be somewhere in region of Lightspeed and other products in order to be competitive? When Cisco took over Meraki couple of years ago they were always going to find a way to make it more profitable, obviously this is how they intend to do it. Just glad I've already got our account setup and over 100 ipads enrolled.

6 Hours to complete a build process sounds like an incredibly long time? Ours take around 2 hours tops with some pretty big pieces of software installed too. What else is included in your build template?

Slightly off topic, but could I enquire what you are moving from in terms of MIS @BJG and if you worked to a specific framework to come to a decision?

Excellent to be honest, it just sits there working and doesnt require much attention at all. De duplication happens once a week, saved us over 1.6tbs the first time it was run which was quite impressive. Integrates well with VMware and is easily expandable in terms of additional hardware if required. Run mostly VM Servers, got a few RDS servers for Citrix in there as well, but the SAN has the capability of a full VDI rollout as and when / if required which was part of the scope.

Went through this process not to long ago and compared Nimble, EMC, HP and Netapp. In the end we went for Netapp and have a FAS2252HA. The de duplication aspect is very effective as someone has already pointed out. Lots of things its capable of yet to use all the bells and whistles of it.

Do you have any Windows 8 devices at the moment? Have to obviously have the ADMX stuff to get windows 8.1 working correctly, and there is an update available via RM which will create all the .v4 profiles that are needed for users to logon with. Without the .v4 profiles can get corrupt as MS doesnt recommend moving between two OS's (7 and 8.1) without use of separate profiles. RM CC4UPD148 is the one you want for that.

Quite sure there is a post somewhere on here (cant find it) that says its pointless getting students to sign AUP's or even acknowledge one at login as they are under the age at which they can be held accountable? or words to that effect? Parents all sign an AUP here so we are able to enforce the various "rules" within it.

Seems to be quite long hours for that wage esp when the Saturday isnt included within the usual 37.5 hour week? Mondays – Fridays 8.00 am – 5.30 pm rota 37.5hrs Saturdays (1 in 3) 8.30 am – 1.00 pm term time During School Holidays Mondays – Fridays 8.00 am – 5.00 pm flexible hrs.