bclarke

Salto here too. We use a company called Beaver Access. We use the keyfobs with the copiers on a safecom system. We have one online updater to keep fobs up to date. Don't be tempted to get the cheap keyfobs on ebay. They are cheap for a reason. They don't work.

We have just announced we are going to build a PAC. We are starting to build next summer. It will have a 200 seat theatre, classroom which will double as a changing room, a lovely open glass fronted foyer and a dance studio. I am involved in kitting it out. I would love to put a LED video curtain at the back of the stage to be used for scenery backdrops for productions, watching films and also for presentations so would love to hear from anyone who has done that already. Any tips, advice or pointers on what is essential or desirable would be really helpful. I am also going to setup a time-lapse camera to capture the build outside and then the inside later so any tips on that would be brilliant. Thanks

iPads are great. Loads of SEN apps available. I was asked yesterday by our SEN to take a look at an exam pen for a girl with dyslexia. It is a scanner pen that uses OCR to identify the word and displays it on a screen on the pen or plays the sound through an ear piece. They cost between £150 and £200 but they identified a need so I wi buy it. Also look at needs of hearing impaired students. Often overlooked if they have implant hearing aids but brilliant at hooking up to loops and other systems.

We changed our old Norstar to 3CX and also use a SIP provider to reduce costs even further by sending our calls out over our broadband. We got ours through Trilan whose support is second to none. Phones also have two LAN ports, one for the network and another acts as a switch to connect to the PC so you only need one network point per office. You can get wifi phones and payphones if needed too. 3CX is a great value system which comes with so many options as standard that other systems from big players ask so much more money for.

Never really seen the need for complicated computer names. I simply use the room name, then the computer number starting from the door, so R1-01, R1-02, R1-03 etc. Teacher stations always have the word Teacher, so R1-TEACHER and admin computers usually have the main users name.

This is excellent. I enjoyed reading your posts and can relate to most of them as well as finding new things to think about. A nice reminder on how to support those we are here for too, something some of us forget in our busyness of IT support in schools. Are you on Twitter? Keep up the good work.

I can't believe this article. What he is describing is flipped learning which is actually a brilliant idea. As for university graduates in America being firefighters, perhaps he needs to hear Sir Ken Robinson on finding your element and that is simply what they wanted to do. Technophobic schools too, not where I am. Some teachers perhaps but they all use technology in our school to good use.

AB Tutor here. Used it for years and it is priced per teacher/control PC not per client. Loads of features too.

If you need assistance give these guys a call. http://www.trilan-it.com/ They are based in Devon and are a great company.

We use Aim High by 4C Software. It is really flexible and can do pretty much anything you want. Their staff are knowledgable and can advise on the best way to do it, help set the reports up and will create the layouts for you. The software is a very reasonable price and they also have an online planner where you can push the reports to for online parent access and student homework. This has revolutionised our reporting process. We don't print any reports any more and all checking is done online.

We use Sims for morning and afternoon registrations. Teachers enter registers directly into Sims.

I think the easiest thing is to take a look, you will see scratches or marks. Do you have another of the printers, it is useful to swap between printers too to see if the problem resolves or moves with a particular part.

It is either an image drum or fuser. Usually the image drum and could have a scratch or mark running round it form a jam or careless handling. It could also just be a smear from toner round it. If it is scratched then it would need replacing. This can also appear if you use compatibles.

We use Reflectorapp. It is the same idea but doesn't need Bonjour installed. Works better than apple tv which has issues with proxies. All our teachers have ipads and we use reflectorapp to mirror to each teacher station.

I work in a boarding school but we time our exeats with the bank holiday. No one else does this?

There could be some interesting ways to use this in education.

Shame about the delay. Was looking forward to getting mine. Still, I would rather see it delayed than get a buggy device. It will be worth the wait.

I have found apple tv doesn't work well with a proxy. It's also pricey when you add up all those classrooms. I use Reflector App for mirroring to projectors and is very cheap and easy to deploy. It has saved me nearly £4000 as I would have needed to buy HDMI to VGA converters for every projector.

There are quite a few ways you can achieve this. Our teachers all have iPads which can airplay to the projector desktop PC using software called Reflector App. You can then use whiteboard apps to write or present with. Any app can then be mirrored to the projector wirelessly. Also, depending on how you would want to set this up, you could use remote control software and apps to control the PC.

Spot on! I had one today saying the smart board hasn't worked all day and needs it for P2 tomorrow when she arrives to teach and is therefore urgent. She emailed me at 4.30pm even though I had seen her during the day. I emailed back saying thanks for letting me know earlier in the day, she said thanks.

@MattGibson my comment was aimed @jmak

Not sure about entering the burning building to find a missing child. Surely the fire service should do that, you just provide details of missing students and possible locations. Surely a better test would be to pose as a fire at the bottom of the stairs to divert them to another fire exit to see how we'll they react. Don't forget, the aim is to evacuate the school as quickly and safely as possible, gather together for registration and safety and inform the emergency services of the situation and any potential missing people. Drills are there to ensure everyone knows what to do and where to go and conform to health and safety regs.

@fiza definitely a good find. Must admit to not looking at the link but is a good price and worth considering. Also not really sure what makes it so different to a consumer TV.

This is a great thread as I am currently looking at digital signage. I am currently using PADS by Anders and Kern which is good, but is an old version. The new version is brilliant but not sure I can afford it now. I would avoid commercial screens purely because of the cost. My first screen cost less than £400 and is a basic Toshiba 32" bought about 4 years ago and is on 24/7 and I keep forgetting to switch it off during holidays. Commercial screens are a lot more money so I would just replace it if it goes wrong with another cheap one. The only reason I would consider a commercial screen would be for outdoor use.

We take registers in the morning and afternoon only. We print the registers too and put in a folder with messages etc so the tutor can take the register manually on paper if needed. Registers need to be completed by 9am and 2pm. The reception administrator then prints out the register shortly after each deadline and after electronically entering the register in to Sims if the tutor couldn't take it electronically. These paper copies are then put into the fire box in reception which is then taken with the administrator if the fire bell rings and each register is collected from the administrator by the tutor at the assembly point. We have a late arrivals book and sign out book which is cross referenced on the drill. There is also a system called Sims Emerge for iOS but is rather expensive. We have a couple of licenses but probably won't renew. It enables you to take and view registers and it caches the sims database so it can be viewed offline. This system works well and we have tested it during several fire drills. Also, I realise there is a point in time where there could be an unknown if the register hasn't been printed for any reason, but don't forget that each tutor knows how many students they have and they can easily ask the group who is missing and are they known to be absent that day or where they were last seen. I hope this helps.