Stevecee

Hi All we moved into our new school building 2 1/2 years ago now and we have a sprinkler system throughout the school, including the server room. A recent fire walk RA has asked the question whether there should be a sprinkler in the server room or should it have a Co2 repression system? Should there ever be fire in our server room it would be to say the leat catastrophic, not least because of the servers and switches in there but also all of the cabling from other cabs about the school are routed through it, also this is where a our telephone and Broadband connection is. has anybody had a similar situation, what have you done etc? cheers Steve

Hi Guys Just a reminder, this is next Tuesday in Kidderminster, event is free. Still a few places left PM me to book!! Cheers Steve

I'll look into it, I guess it depends a lot on the speakers and their preferences (we all know Apple are tight on things like that).

Hi Forgot to say - event is free - please PM for more info / book places! cheers Steve

Hi We are hosting an Apple Tech Forum, We have input from Apple themselves and our supplier. The idea is to have a tech based forum where we can see what developments are in the pipeline and what effects that will have on us in schools - hope to see you there Proposed Agenda Apple System Engineer - find out what is new from Apple (what might break in iOS 11) New Functions in ASM Classroom App MDMs Question and Answer Session Date: 18th July 12.00 2.30pm Venue: Wyre Forest School Habberley Road Kidderminster Worcestershire DY11 6FA Places Limited Steve Cronin Network Manager / Educational Technologist Apple Teacher

Hi would agree with @Brimstone, however please be aware that as you say that your iPads are of a mixed age and spec, some of the earlier ones will not be available in DEP You can enrol your iPads to the MDM using Configurator, then push out the apps to devices from there. HTH Steve

I think its easy to quickly rebuff anything with an Apple logo on it as shiny shiny and expensive - What is wrong with good product design? And have you compared feature by feature including the bundled software, to see what an equivalent Windows machine would cost? I have a few years ago and ended up with a MacBook Pro. Yes I'm a fan of Macs! but at the same time I use windows boxes, the answers so far seem to be centred on a stand point that its "Apple" it must be bad, many of the points that have been made are valid but there are also posts on the other side see - asc's reply I currently manage a school with Windows servers and Macs and iPads throughout, would I be so stressed if the head wanted to add a windows laptop? Yes I'd have reservations, but not to extent i can see on here. Personally i don't see issues with security and connection, these are possibly less of a concern that on a Windows PC, Your AV supplier will have a Mac edition and updates could be managed by the Head (with the proviso that they check with you before they upgrade the OS) Steve

Yes as Computer_Expert says, once the certificate has expired you will need to reenrol all of your devices, had this happen to me once when I renewed the certificate with the wrong one (Had 2 on my apple ID). Steve

Hi You haven't mentioned it but I would make sure that your infrastructure has room for growth built in esp if you are looking for using cloud based services. We're 2 years into our nice new build school but already have had to renew main switch and stuff as the build project only included the infrastucture and there was a squeeze on money so I think in the end it was costed more by price than capacity. HTH Steve

Hi you need 64GB for "Shared iPad" but 16GB works fine for classroom app! Steve

Hi We use GBM Digital fro our mac stuff, have used KRCS and Toucan in the past with good service from all. I would tend to go for a Apple Education reseller as they have all of the back office resources and are able to support the products well. what laptops do you need? There is a benefit of having Apple throughout as they talk to and from the iPads etc. If you want Windows based we have had good results from Very PC also mentioned in thread! Cheers Steve

Hi Have been asked to get a pdf converter for the admin team, have looked on the app store and none stand out even the ones with some good reviews have as many bad :-( anybody have any experience using them and have a recommendation? cheers Steve

I might well pop by, I'm not quite sure when I will be free so probably best not to book a slot, but as I have mentioned elsewhere this is a focus for me this year! Steve

I'm looking at filtering solutions at bett - does iboss report against the government's prevent initiative? cheers Steve

Hi I'm looking for Broadband / filtering solutions, will catch up with people on the Apple stand, sit in on a few seminars in the SEN theatre, look through the SEN area Steve

Hi It's been superseded a couple of times now- it was really flakey - we use Widgit Online now worth a look not sure how much a single licence is http://widgitonline.com Steve

Hi we re sharing a link with another school on our campus, we have been thinking about our own dedicated line and now would be the time to look at it, I'm interested in what CIS are about to offer but we still need to look at "Best Value" so am looking to see what is available, and also what will fall of the edge regarding our IBS SLA.

Hi We are a special school in Worcestershire, the county's broadband contract is about to expire and we are exploring the options of finding a new broadband supplier. To date we have shared a line with another school that is on the same campus but have been thinking about a dedicated line for some time and this might trigger us to jump. any suggestions for suppliers that work in the Worcestershire / West Midlands area please? Cheers Steve

Hi We are an Apple school and also a special school with a broad range of abilities and ages. At the moment we have a transparent proxy because of the iPads (each pupil has one), we have a smoothwall wfs and can use the inbuilt reporting software to gain a report on any concerns that have been raised. How can we be sure who has actually done the deed? any suggestions for the best setup appreciated! Cheers Steve

Hi I would look to using an Apple Education reseller, GBM Digital are who we use but Academia and KRCS both are good, they can help and will be able to add these to your DEP (if you have one?) It must be noted however that their hands are pretty tied regarding prices from apple (everyones are!). You should get a good deal and they should also offer good support - pretty useful if you are doing this for the first time Hah Steve

NOBODY tell @Stevecee. Shhhh! Well sorry @StevieM I've just added my name!!

Hi Glow plugs are to help you start on cold mornings when its cold outside, don't think the are replaced every service though. I would not dismiss the haynes manual as it will give you a list of what you need to adjust change at each service period and of course it will give you step by step instruction to do those fiddly things! does you local library have a copy you could borrow? The other thing to consider is how old is the car? if you service the car it might nullify any warranty that is left, I know with my last car the first two years had to be done by main dealer agents the third year of the warranty wanted someone who was VAT registered. saving a few quid here might prove costly later on if you are not careful Steve

Classroom app is needed for shared ipads which need 32GB, however the features that give you control over the classes ipads still work on the 16GB ipad 4s i have at school!

Hi Just recently received some Surface Pro 3s, am trying to set them up for our SLT to use. When I set up Outlook to connect to our internal Exchange 2010 server, im using the manual setup as they are using a slightly different email to their normal login (long story!). it all seems to work well but once it has resolved the server ip address it uses an internal url rather than the external one that i entered initially, consequently it works well in school but at home or on the road it can't connect. any ideas how to resolve this please? In addition you cant seem to remove the account once done - it points you to control panel but if you create an account there it doesn't appear in Outlook! Cheers Steve

Hi You can create an apple ID without cards details if you create it in icloud rather than itunes! Cheers Steve