Koldov

We are having strange behaviour using this option... some get to a Google log-in, some get a Google Classroom product/information/advert page from the US! Google Classroom doesn't appear in our 'waffle menu' for some reason...

Just us...? Strange 10 minutes in the ICT suite just now, called by a teacher saying why is Google Classroom blocked?! First couple of hits on Google search for Classroom come up with strange Google Sites page (these are the web pages that were being blocked). Classroom doesn't appear in their list of apps if signed on to Chrome. classroom.google.com takes them to a US page which appears to be just Google Classroom information website... Luckily it recommended going to the UK site and there was a 'Login to Classroom' button.

Can any please tell me the variable to get Chrome downloading files into a 'Downloads' folder which is redirected? I've set 'Ask where to save each file before downloading' to disabled, but having trouble with 'Set Download Directory'... I can 100% of the time get it to download into the actual 'Home Folder' but whatever I put it seems to ignore the /Downloads part... I've tried '${profile}\Downloads' and '${user_name}\Downloads' and '/Home/Downloads' (also tried variations of the GPO's 'help' section's suggestion of /home/${user_name}/Downloads), but no luck, it always just ends up in the Home Folder'... Also, to be clear are these Computer or User configurations? Computer for 'Ask where...' and User for 'Set Download Directory'?

iirc I didn't put those in, that was what was entered for me when I chose the option 'redirect to users homedrive' or something along those lines...

Thanks, yes I could separate out the home drive from the redirected folders, I guess I was just trying to re-use what I'd already done as it seemed to work OK. Trying to minimise the places I have to give permissions and troubleshoot. .Share (All Users Folder) .....> INDIVIDUAL CLASS FOLDER ............> Home Drive (H:\ Whole Class Folder) > Redirected (Documents/Pictures/Music etc.) Students can create Individual Student Folders (optional) ............> Redirected Folder (Class Desktop) I'd still rather they didn't use Documents etc. Just save everything in the class home drive as they do now (or individual folders if they want to make them). There are times I'd need to put a class specific shortcut on, otherwise I'd give all year groups and classes the same desktop. Exclusive rights is not ticked, I've learnt that the hard way... EDIT: Probably overcomplicating this, but in my head it seems so simple...

Not sure if I should even admit this... but we have always been a 'class log-in' school... I inherited it and up until recently haven't had any reason to change it. We have very young children, a lot of SEN/EAL and in general the vast majority of them don't even know their own (Legal) name, let alone how to spell it (or even simple words to create passwords). This would make using any sort of sync software a nightmare... However, we have recently started using Google Classroom and although it was initially a struggle, I don't get many issues now, so I am using parts of these log-in details for their Windows accounts to simplify things. Anyway, I know we're late to the party and all that aside we have decided we should start the journey to individual Windows log-ins. This has been prompted by recent changes to DfE recommendations and KCSIE guidelines. Obviously the Headteacher (who has also recently become Designated Safeguarding Lead), has suddenly taken a very keen interest in filtering and monitoring... and has been advised we are 'non-compliant'... so we are knee-jerking our way to some sort of monitoring software that will require individual accounts. I would like if possible to start very simply, leveraging the structure I already have in place if possible, as this works perfectly for the class log-in, but will obviously behave differently when multiple accounts are used (as in I can't choose the option like 'create folders for each user'). So far I have created the relevant class OUs in AD and have created all the student accounts, created Security Groups to make permissions easier to grant. I have used a GPO to point their desktop to a shared class folder and I have edited their AD accounts to all point to a folder in the class share and have used this as their 'Home Drive', but I can't seem to get it working how I want... So, to keep management simple and required device storage for accounts to a minimum (as I've read a few posts where it's been noticed that student accounts are eventually filling up the drive and I also don't want them saving anything on the desktop or in any other folder but their home drive), I'd like the following: Just bear in mind they only need to sign-in with individual account for monitoring purposes, not 'really' to have an individual space to work.... All students to have the same 'read-only' desktop (this is only ever going to be used for shortcuts that I add into the 'desktop' folder). All students of a particular class to share one 'Home Drive' within which they can create their own folder if they wish although this is how we currently have it set for the 'one class' log-in, they have hardly ever bothered (this might be against the spirit of individual user accounts, but honestly most of the 'work' they do is in an online learning platform and they only ever save the odd Word document or PowerPoint). Possibly the Downloads folder needs to be in there, but no need to have Documents/Music/Pictures folders at all. After the recent meeting where I told the headteacher what the changes would mean and I was told to get it done ASAP, I spent the afternoon trying to figure out how I could make this work for multiple users, but ended up without the correct desktop, or the desktop appearing as a folder in the Home Drive, or in the root share and lots of other weird and wonderful combinations... Does anybody do anything similar and could share their Group Policy?

Haha! Yes, I thought so too.... but you know what? I very much doubt that is actually going to happen in the real world!! First issue and it will be my door they're knockin' at! Anyway, could we add Senso to the list as well? I presume these are all 'MONITORS' not full on filtering solutions as well?

Hi, Could anyone please give me a brief rundown of the benefits and pitfalls of these systems for Monitoring/Safeguarding? I have no experience with either of these systems but as the new safeguarding recommendations are slowly beginning to filter into the collective SLT mind, I'm now being asked for an opinion.... and I quote "Are they user friendly for non-techy people who need to be aware of things safeguarding wise?" We have a current solution, but for various reasons (as in, it isn't the flavour of the month and we have a bandwagon to jump on) I am being asked to look at other options... one of which I know we will probably have to go with anyway, so I don't even really know why I'm bothering to ask... but I've got to give a reply so it doesn't seem like I'm being 'that one, that there always is'... Also, a funny thing was mentioned, in that 'I.T. should not be heavily involved other than installation, as we shouldn't be privy to sensitive safeguarding information!'... So if little Johnny types in rude words, that alert should bypass I.T. and go straight to the Safeguarding Team? Is that how it's done these day? I feel that once this choice is made, there is another thing that would be taken off my hands and that the Safeguarding Team thinks they will now be responsible for the ongoing monitoring and configuration of policies etc.

Yeah, thanks I get it... Sadly I got an email the other day which certainly seems to suggest hobnail boots are being laced up as we speak... I've also spoken to the member of admin staff who's working with the EWO and apparently they were talking about remote access into SIMS and all sorts, so we've escalated just a touch... Anyway, I've gone off-topic on my own post! So, does anyone know anything about creating a user in SIMS (but not as a staff member - I'm thinking about the School Workforce Census etc.) and giving specific permissions for an EWO? Things like children's details and parents details...? I have found permission groups such as 'Attendance Manager' and 'Attendance Operator' do you think that's all they'd need?

I knew I'd have a hard time letting go... I've been network manager here for 13 years (unlucky for some)... I guess I'm fooling myself to think I can still have some measure of control, but I'm fairly black & white, so in my mind it's all or nothing.... and I'm quite competent and cutting my nose off to spite my face... I feel like just washing my hands of it and going yeah, have at it, here's the admin password... see ya! At least it's nearly time to go home!

Our admin manager who is off long-term. We have a ridiculously small turnover of staff so we don't create new admin users very often, but I'd guess at least for teachers there would be some sort of template (well just look at what the permissions other teachers have). Yeah, I guess (story of my life)... Well, we don't have basic local admin staff as such, we're a small school and they've all been here for 10 or 20+ years (some even longer!) and they all have specialised bits that they do (and so have been given extra permissions).

Now I'm thinking about it, do they need to sign our policies to use our systems? Or is it going to be a case of 'well we're all MAT employees now, so I can come here and do what I like'..? Ultimately I can't say no, I guess I've just got to do what I'm told.... but I think I should make the headteacher aware of these points, so how do I email the headteacher back telling them it's 'a little more complicated than that', without sounding like I'm being difficult/making excuses/being a blocker/resisting 'progress' or inferring that they don't understand the implications...?

Some other things to bear in mind... The email states this person will be here to 'check our attendance and produce letters for parents'. So will they need to create reports, save them on the system...? Have access to the network, staff drives, printers...? So many questions! Now the messy bit... if I need to create a user in SIMS, do I need to class them as an employee, do I need home address etc. Is there some sort of 'guest user' I could create?

Well, it's started... slowly, insidiously, creeping in, asking for log-insssssss my precious.... We've just been consumed by a MAT and done the whole academy thing and it hasn't been a great start for a number of different reasons... A few big issues and a few little niggling doubts (like meetings happening with MAT staff who already have equivalent staff here etc.)... luckily we haven't gone corporate so it hasn't been a complete tear-down, but the claws are definitely in... We used to have a lovely EWO (Education Welfare Officer) from the LEA who would come in and sit with our SIMS person (not really a 'SIMS' person as such, but a member of the admin/reception team that has the 'admissions officer' role). The most that EWO ever asked me for was the Wi-Fi login for their LEA laptop. Now they've gone obviously and we have a person from the MAT who breezed in, got our admin staff to summon me to reception and demanded a SIMS login... My knee-jerk reaction was no... but followed up swiftly with a 'it's not my decision' statement to cover my A$$... I'm also going to imagine a Network/Windows log-in is going to have to happen as well... because if she's not going to be doing this with our admissions person, she obviously won't be using her computer log-in... /rant Anyway... I have zero experience creating a SIMS log-in and giving that user specific permissions (enough to do their job, but not enough to see all the data SIMS stores about everyone). However, I have just had an email from the Headteacher to create this person a SIMS log-in! Does anyone have a similar situation and know the specific permissions an EWO needs?

Yeah and I presume it only gets more expensive the nearer we get to Winter?! The floors as far as we can tell are all laminated, I had thought they were on concrete being all on the ground level, but we noticed a slight spring in the step (I thought just cheap laminate - which it probably is anyway) and then noticed the low level air bricks, so yeah probably floorboards under the laminate... no idea what state they're in, but hopefully it makes it a little more airtight though. My parent live in rural Cornwall and have an oil setup, they say their village has a little club that purchases bulk. Might actually have to interact with the locals and see if that's a thing...

Ah, so like the diagram, your hot water tank is fed from the boiler as well as having an immersion heating element? Well done on buying a house with a nearly new boiler... we are estimating ours to be at least 25 years old... but no idea until we get in there how it's all actually plumbed in! Well, I think we are definitely going to have to live that mantra for a while... it appears as even though our solicitors were telling us that they were 'pushing' for 'end of September' to complete... as of last week the house we are going to buy hasn't been emptied (and the vendors are 'away on business')... Also this appears to be the first time our buyer has heard of this and is only just now thinking about what days they would like to move! I have no idea where the confidence of our solicitor came from... but our buyer is casually offering a moving date near the end of October! The worst thing is we've been ready and waiting (loft/garage/shed cleared and living out of boxes) for over a month now, thinking we were almost good to go! So, minus a few degrees C to the temperature and add a few CM more to the rainfall... sounds like fun, right?! I hope the boiler works and we can get a decent price on an 'emergency' oil delivery, because the OH doesn't fancy doing any days without heating that time of year. Unless like most of those house where they've been remodelled to remove the fireplace and breast in the rooms, it means the stack has been removed right up into the loft. Usually with a metal plate to plug the hole and gallows brackets resin bolted in to the wall (not on ours of course, oh no.. it appears the previous owners just had some mortar jammed in there and some bricks 'thrown' at it until they stuck - see photo in OP). Of course these days (now we have to rectify it) we've found articles online that suggest most building control have started recommending an RSJ to be fitted instead! This due to the complicated nature of the forces affecting chimney stacks and the walls they're attached to... who knew?

I'm OK with lukewarm 5 minute showers though... So do you have an oil boiler for central heating/header tanks/immersion heater set-up? If so, any reason you stuck with that and didn't look at something like a combi? Is it cost for burning oil to heat hot water (I'm guessing it would absolutely guzzle it), or cost of replacing the system? I think we are going to actually go for an external replacement boiler for now, like a 'Grant' (good reviews) and look again at options in 10-15 years or so, something like this: https://www.screwfix.com/p/grant-vortex-pro-21-outdoor-oil-combi-boiler/478KP I mean not that one exactly, would have to see what the installer recommends. I do get the device is a 'single point of failure' (and the fuel source) for the heating and hot water and I am concerned about fuel management, but it seems the simplest option...

I guess it depends on the size of the school as to what administrative/budgetary impact any kind solution of has. But I saw on the local news a primary school promoting the fact they are going 'phone free'.... what?! A primary school!! We're a small school, with primary age pupils and we have never allowed children to have their phones during the day. Just checked with our admin staff and any children who bring a phone to school have to hand it in to reception. Out of over 300 children they have roughly 6 -10 phones handed in a day and they return them at the end of school. Obviously if you have 1000+ children in a secondary/upper school I can see that won't work as you'd need storage and have an admin burden collecting and returning, which is where the 'keep it in your bag/locker' policy comes in I guess... but what kid isn't surreptitious enough to hide it in their pocket on a trip to the toilet, or have a buddy keep an eye out on the playground... BYOD is a terrible idea IMHO and only serves to save the school money providing devices. But a phone is not a device that should be used for T&L and certainly not a personal one, I honestly can't believe anyone ever thought that was a good idea. There's no filtering if they're using data, there's the fact that you can't control the content on the phone, there's the fact that they can video or take photos of themselves or other students, etc... In an education environment with 'children' (as defined), a suitable desktop, laptop or tablet should be used, with filtering and restrictions governing its use. I'm old, I get that... I'm not tied to my phone and half the time I don't even know where it is, but for anything more than just a quick internet search I prefer a tablet or even more preferable a laptop/desktop. If I'm searching for anything that I need to see details of, or need to examine documents I don't want to be zooming and scrolling on a phone screen...

My current house was built c.1970 I think. When I moved in (1998) there was no double glazing (single glazed/wooden frame) and no central heating (just a couple of storage heaters downstairs and a couple of electric convection-type heaters in the bedrooms). What I did find in the kitchen, was a cupboard with a half-height metal door and inside what looked like (iirc) a very small engine. This was removed by the people that put the Gas Combi-boiler in (so I didn't pay it much attention) and underneath it I found a pipe going into the floor. I found the other end emerged in the garden and it had a metal plate screwed into the wall above it on which I could make out the word 'Mobil'. During redecorating I found that large square holes in the walls throughout the house had been filled in over the years and surmised that these were originally vents. So, oil fired, but nonetheless a warm air system. I guess the 70s was an interesting time in heating whilst they were building that estate as I previously lived in a maisonette just around the corner. That had electric elements in the ceiling (like underfloor heating in reverse I guess).

I'm not sure really, we haven't moved in yet so I haven't gone in and started doing a thorough investigation. There's a lot of pipework (and quite a few pipes in the immersion cupboard - first picture in OP), but I've no idea where they come from, or where they go to...

So do we have a consensus if one of these is for cold water or is one for hot water and the other heating?

So when you say the high tank is for hot water, this feeds into the immersion, or does the immersion feed into it...?

Pretty much my thoughts exactly! No, no solar... we did look at heat pump, but honestly so many mixed reviews and this is an old 1950's bungalow with very little done to it in terms of modernisation (old oil tank, old boiler, no cavity wall insulation etc.)...

There's also a pipe running down from the left of the tank on the chimney that appears to run down into the living room and disappears behind the open fireplace...? Primitive back boiler? EDIT: I didn't even notice until I looked at the pictures just now that on the right hand it appears one of the pipes is held up with rope tied round one of the roof A-frames...