ITBadger

In fairness there are a lot of education providers that are swamped at the beginning of term, but it does tell you a lot about the efficacy of the company support team at times like this. We have recently moved from Cunninghams to Biostore FasTrak and whilst they too had issues with being very busy, their approach to providing support has been a world apart from what we were used to with Cunninghams. The product itself is much better than that offered by Cunninghams in my opinion and their developers are responding well to suggestions on how to further improve the product. I'd certainly include them in any considerations of alternative providers. I've also heard that Live Register are good from a trusted colleague at a neighbouring school (who also ditched Cunninghams this year), but have no experience of Live Register myself.

It's also a feature of PARS by Tasc Software which has many other advantages too. If you are in the market for a tool to add functionality to SIMS then it's worth a look.

The Bluedio T3's are priced at £29.99 at the moment. Not as low as yesterday obviously, but still significantly lower than previously.

Consider adding links to the footer items, particularly a mailto: link on your email address. The Select language button also looks a little iffy on my browser (Chrome), but may not be universal. The design is nice and clean though.

Just checked our archives and I have the installation media for version 1.7.2 but I think that this is far too modern for what you are searching for. The date on the files is 2013, but that could have been refreshed when i moved the files onto a new server. Let me know if it's any use to you.

Sounds promising. Look forward to seeing how it pans out.

We've had Cunninghams for the last seven years and are looking for a replacement. Their support isn't brilliant and is quite expensive. My favourite of the ones we've had demonstrated is Biostore's FasTrac system. It seems to run on the most modern architecture of all those we've looked at. Just awaiting a response from a reference site before making a final decision though. I don't think there is a clear leader in the market, but Biostore has shown the most potential, and it obviously integrates perfectly with their biometric database, which we use for library, password change and printing already.

I have a couple of Epson EB-440W's here that I have replaced which you may be able to use for parts. Not sure where you are based so this may not be feasible. I replaced them with Casio XJ-UT310WN's which needed different mounts installing. Took me about an hour to remove the Epson and install the Casio.

Just got back from there. Not sure that it was worth the drive to see a dozen laptops, but the guys in the van were nice enough.

Another possibility is relating to a bug in VPP. If the app has been assigned to the iPad using VPP via Profile Manager then there can be an issue when the app is updated with it not writing back to the PM database. Uninstalling the app and reinstalling it from the device should fix the bug.

If you use Macs then Pages has a few nice templates that may work for you.

We've dealt extensively with Jigsaw over the last few years. They always provide good, knowledgeable service and would be able to assist you with DEP. They're a good friend to have if you need an answer to a Mac related question too.

I agree with @RichCowell - I've told the people that bought them (without my input or knowledge) that they'll need to take them home to update them (after signing them out on the asset register of course). It may not make them think twice when ordering next time, but it makes me feel better.

Money Saving Expert runs a cheap energy club. You can sign up to that and get a notification if there is a better deal available for you. It's also a good site to use to compare which deals are best for you. If you have your previous bills to hand you can establish the best deals and even make the application from the site. Cheap gas & electric: compare rates & save - MSE Be aware that they will get a referral fee for anyone who signs up through their site, but that doesn't affect the price you pay. It really is a simple process as previously mentioned. You'll be wondering why you haven't been through it before once you've done it once.

The fact that you mention having access to Chromebooks suggests that you would also have access to Google Classroom. You could suggest that they share existing material with the class through this medium, allowing the staff to get used to using technology with material that is familiar to them. Show them the power of collaborating on Google Slides files (both teachers and students) and the benefit of being to access files from any location (of course if you have an existing remote access solution this may not be much of a carrot to dangle). If you are looking for some ready built resources I can recommend Linguascope - it has an annual license cost, but seems to be well worth it according to the wife (a French teacher). For a free resource, have a look at Kahoot - our MFL department use it and the kids love the competitive nature of it, although other departments can use it too as it isn't subject specific.

Some projectors have multiple sensors on them, You could try disabling those that point at the students and leave the front one active for the teacher to use. Not foolproof I know, but may reduce the problem.

We've built our own using Google Calendar and hosted on a Google Site. Staff either self book using available slots or fill in a Google Form to request a booking if user intervention is required. Staff can also just check their own calendar to see any bookings that they have made. Works really well and is free.

I've not made a (reasonable)request of them yet which they haven't been able to implement. Support response times are excellent too. Normally the request is sorted within the hour.

Funnily enough we have exactly the same at our school. No issues at all.

It's empowered staff to view / analyse / manipulate their own data rather than relying on someone in the support team to do it for them. She concentrates on ensuring that data is accurate before uploading to SISRA.

We had to downgrade from 5105 to 5003. I'm not in any rush to jump up to a later version until it has bedded in. We used to be at the front of the queue for Impero releases but I've learned to hold fire until someone else has found the bugs now. Having said that, Impero were very accommodating in rolling us back to 5003 and it has been pretty solid since we did so.

Have a look at SISRA (https://www.sisra.com/). It's completely changed the nature of the job here and staff at all levels (even PE teachers) feel comfortable using it.

After reading, digesting and acting upon said literature of course...

I used them over the hols for Xbox Live and EA Access subscriptions. The only problem I had was that the wife answered the automated confirmation code that came to my landline. I still had the codes within about 20 minutes though.

Take a decent bag with padded handles to assist in lugging around all the booty. Make sure that you dump any literature that comes with said booty in the bins to avoid wasting valuable booty space. #bringingbootyback @itbadger