Gongalong

Hi Folks, I have a GPO under Computer Config > Policies > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Files Explorer > Set a default assocations configuration file, that forces PDFs and some other file types to be opened by Chrome. That's been working well, but suddenly today if I have a PDF file with spaces in the filename it tries to open a number of separate files per each word of the filename when double clicked. Clearly it's not handling the spaces properly, but there's nothing I can configure in the XML file used above in the GPO. Any ideas as to why this has suddenly started happening? Thanks

In all fairness to the helpline they were very straightforward about it. We've been putting student names up on our website and social media pages, had a couple of parents query it, and so I thought it worth checking. The name is a bit of data, and because we don't have that legal basis to disclose it, we'd need consent to do it. Note this is separate to the part about displaying artwork etc., this was purely about displaying a full student name. Edit: This is separate to the safeguarding aspect, which I think is more to do with the parents concerns. (Of course safeguarding and data protection do have an inherent connection)

Resurrecting the thread. I've been asked the same thing but was unsure so asked the ICO Helpline. They say that if you're displaying a student's full name it's considered a disclosure, and you shouldn't be doing it without specific consent.

Set it to TEST

We ended up using Google Forms with Timify. The only limit we encountered is when emailing feedback to students: Google limits you on the number of emails, so we had to create multiple Gmail accounts then share the forms with other teachers to be able to cope with the send requirement.

If you go to the port and configure that, change the protocol from Raw to LPR there.

Ta. Forgot all about Wisesoft. Sorted.

Hi folks, We have an issue with MacOS integration with our domain where part of it fails if the display name in an AD record is empty. I've got 700ish student records with a blank Display name field. The First name and Last name fields in the AD record are populated. Is there an app out there (ideally free!) that will update the Display name field on mass by concatenating together First and Last name? My PowerShell skills are poor, so I'd struggled to put together a script. Thanks

After some further troubleshooting with Mosyle support, who have been super helpful, they tracked it down to a sort of bug with MacOS. The users that were affected did not have anything in the display name field of their AD record. When MacOS tried to process the user for this part of the dock profile it failed to do it, whereas users that it worked for had a display name. The fix is to have the proper display name in that field - although I have to figure out a way to update those on mass! Kudos to Noelmo in Mosyle support for figuring this out :whoo:

These are brand new iMacs though. We've just started using them in September. The first iMacs we've ever had in the school, so it's been quite the learning curve, including Mosyle. I can see a .DS_Store file in both affected and unaffected user accounts, but nothing else that's jumping out at me as MacOS related. I might have mentioned above, but the bizarre thing is that the icons worked for a student who didn't have a home directory at all on the server (something had gone wrong during their account creation). That almost suggests it's nothing to do with the folder and permissions at all.

I'll time the logins and see. It's definitely not a noticeable difference. It almost seems like newer created AD accounts have less problems, for example newer test accounts created in the same year group all seem to work and students that have more recently joined seem to work also. If I could just recreate the AD accounts I would try that, but they're connected into O365. I don't see a .TemporaryItems folder in an affected or unaffected student's. I do see .DS_Store in both affected and unaffected, which I think is a MacOS file. Student home folders are all on one share, but the year groups are in different folders.

Hi folks, I’ve been given the brief of finding a way of reporting back the student’s output for the day to both the student, and their parents/carers. Any suggestions? I’m not clear at the moment whether it’s for many students or a select few, nor whether it’s for multiple subjects, and whether they need to retain the history. I do know the output will be a number from 1 to 4 (1 being bad, 4 being good). One thought was to use Office 365 with some parent spreadsheet that feeds a lot of child spreadsheets that are individually shared with the parents/students. Alternatively, a spreadsheet with the data that’s then used to mail merge to parent/student email on a daily basis. Unless something bespoke exists? Thanks

I did wonder about nested folders. They're in a structure Home Folders\Year Group\Student Name, shared from the root folder. Students don't actually have access to the root or the year group folder, or at least they didn't, yet it still works for a lot of students. Because I wondered if it was a permissions issue I added read only access to the year group folder for the specific year groups. I also seem able to browse the whole structure, even as a student who has the issue. I will have a look at this again though. We're using .local, not using splitters. It works for some students, but not for others, and oddly it's consistent across all iMacs. So if student A can get it working, it works on all iMacs. If it doesn't work for Student B on a particular iMac, then it won't work for them on any iMacs. I've also found some students within the same year group where it works, and others where it doesn't. In terms of the dock itself, the home folder doesn't display at all as a dock icon. We then have two SMB shares and a web link, all of which display as question marks. Odd that the web link doesn't display correctly, as that doesn't require permissions.

Hi folks, We're using Mosyle to manage a classroom of iMacs. We have configured several profiles, one of which adds the iMac to a Windows domain, and another which forces a dock. On the dock profile we have added "Network Home" as a button, and several SMB network shares as buttons. It works for many students, but for many others they don't get the Network Home button at all, and the rest show as question marks. It can happen to users in the same year group, but some year groups anecdotally seem to be better than others. I have looked at the AD accounts for the different year groups but can spot no difference in the way they are configured. The users it doesn't work for seem to be consistent across mutliple iMacs, and ditto for those who it does work for. It doesn't seem to be a function of the network home folder itself, as by chance I tested with a user whose home folder was missing, and the dock icons displayed correctly. Any ideas as to what could be causing this? Mosyle's support have been very patient, and have tried many things, but are stumped. Thanks

It's gotta beat WoL!

Hi folks, I'm trying to flatten and reinstall Win 10 on a Lenovo Miix 320 (10" Windows tablet, with keyboard). I've tried from a memory stick, but because of its odd display the installer screen doesn't render correctly and I can't see what to select. I built an image from SCCM, and ran that from a memory stick. It took a couple of attempts, but I got the image to take. But despite building the task sequence to enable the administrator account and set a password, it tells me that the administrator account is deactivated. I've tried activating via command prompt and the troubleshooting menu, but it hasn't worked. It has a micro HDMI socket, so I've ordered a cable to get that to a monitor, in case this causes the display to work properly when installing. Any other ideas how I can get a fresh install of Win 10 on this thing? Thanks

Looks like they're a developer for SIMS called Applicaa, and they do a specific Y7 transition system/app https://applicaa.com/transition-plus/

Not sure if Capita were listening, but just received an invite (from Capita) to a webinar for a product called Admissions+ by Applicaa. Brochure here.

Looks like you can only import the student's email address and telephone number, which is essentially useless for us. To import anything you need to have first name, surname, and UPN as well in the spreadsheet.

I can't seem to find anything on what it does. SIMS Help lists that it's a function, but doesn't tell you anything about what it can import and how to format the spreadsheet (!). I'm trying our county support...

@jmak Thanks. Looks like it's basic, but I'll have a look in more detail. I found an article on the SCOMIS website with detail at least on how to get to it, along with where to look in SIMS Documentation https://faq.scomis.org/kb26013/ We definitely use ATFs and CTFs already, but we have this hardcopy form because they can be so lacking in detail. In any event we need to move to a digital form.

Interesting. I think the difficulty though is we ask for a lot of things*, not just email and address, some of which has to be manually transcribed. Also if email addresses are out-of-date we can't get the account to the parent/carer, unless presumably we copy out the details and send it via letter? *I made a list of the fields in the form we use: Student Surname Student Forenames Address Student Preferred Name Phone Number Present School Ethnic Origin Religion Home Language Date of Birth Date of Admission Contact Name Occupation Address Number of children in family Siblings at Court Moor Contact Number Mobile Phone Work Phone Email Communcation Preference Parent Disability Student's Country of Birth Student's Nationality Student's Proficiency in English Family Doctor Other Medical Services Student's Disabilities Student's Illness that Could Affect School Life Custody and Court Orders Adoption etc. Order Parent/carer Serving in Armed Forces Parent/carer Serving in Armed Forces in last 4 years Eligible for Free School Meals Eligible for Free School Meals in Last 6 Years Awareness of Particular Family Circumstances

Hi folks, I work at a secondary school. We're looking to digitise the capture of parent/carer information when students come from their various primaries/juniors to our school. At the moment this is done with hardcopy. The problem with find is that the ATFs/CTFs are missing a lot of information, or are out-of-date. So it's an opportunity to get a fresh set of data from the parents e.g. phone numbers, email addresses. We could of course use something like Office 365 Forms or similar which makes it a bit easier, but it still means copying and pasting between this and SIMS for over 200 students. Do Capita produce a product to help with this, or are there any 3rd party products out there? We already use EduLink One, so it's easy for parents to update their data once they've joined (and we have a current email address), it's the transition period that's the issue. Thanks

"exams time limit" seems to be the key phrase for Google. I turned up a few more, some of which seem to be used by blue chips, universities etc. ClassMarker (https://www.classmarker.com/) US$400 a year for 400 tests per month, and higher tiers. Gauge (https://www.gaugeonline.com/) US$1 per person that completes a test, and there’s a 500 test minimum per year. Online Exam Builder (https://www.onlineexambuilder.com/) US$50 per month for 1,000 participants, and higher tiers. FlexiQuiz (https://www.flexiquiz.com/) US$20 per month with no restrictions, and a higher tier. Inspera (https://www.inspera.com/) no cost given. And a directory of many online systems, not all with time limits https://www.capterra.co.uk/directory/30843/exam/software

Hi folks, We're looking to do some online exams, but they must be timed. Not having much luck turning up products that do this. Neither Google nor Office 365 Forms do it natively. There is an add-on for Google Forms called Timify that's supposed to add the functionality. Any recommendations? Thanks