Gongalong

We have the issue with most laptops when using average quality cables much over 3m with 4k capable screens. Most laptops try to push an image at 60Hz to 4k screens, and average cables, wallboxes etc. mean that the display frequency has to be dropped to 30Hz, plus it might required very good quality cabling (we only use cables from Antiference).

Now that I think of it, we also had an issue with some very old Intel mobo based PCs, and that was either hardware dying or driver related. Again though, that seems unlikely if you've got it across multiple types of PC.

To the OP, when did it start? I was getting this issue with my Xbox One after I changed the HDMI cable. Changed it back to a better cable, all fine now. Presumably though you haven't just done a mass change of HDMI cables!

Repeating what oters have said, get licensed radios, if you don't have them already.

My issue was more to do with tutor/class and year group photos, which are only shared with the parent/carer audience (for those that buy them). For website/socials etc. usage we of course ask for consent, because they aren't covered by another lawful basis. Both these and ID photos are covered in our privacy notice. I asked the ICO helpline, and they agree that tutor/class/year group photos are covered by "legitimate interests", specifically this bit from the ICO's page: "It is likely to be most appropriate where you use people’s data in ways they would reasonably expect" https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/lawful-basis/a-guide-to-lawful-basis/legitimate-interests/ We of course tell parents/carers that their children are about to be in that sort of photo. Data subjects can of course object to data being processed for legitimate interests, and we already have a statement in some of our comms to ask them to let us know if they don't want their child included in the photo. So we are going to firm up all of our related comms to include this and update our privacy notice to have mention.

Hi folks, Like most schools I'm sure, we ask for consent to use photos for the website, socail media etc. Do other schools ask for consent to take and distribute tutor/year group photos? I'm not sure if this fall into legitimate interests, also bearing in mind it's shared with a limited parent/carer audience.

Stupid question, but what exactly do they mean by the 6+ employee limit? By luck, we only have 5 staff that administrate tickets (once we've deactivated some ex-employees), or do they add into that the number of staff that might contact the help desk? (I'll go and have a look at the Spiceworks forum as well)

We were getting a crash to desktop, so could be a different issue. How many machines affected? I'd at least reboot the SIMS server at an ideal point (if locally hosted), and then over to SIMS support.

We had this back in November and had to apply a couple of patches, one pre and then another post a termly update. It's been fine since though.

Fine here. We login via RM Unify, in case that makes any difference. I've tested with an incognito session, also fine.

I only spotted mention of this via a schools week article (!) https://schoolsweek.co.uk/schools-will-get-discounted-updates-to-keep-windows-10-running/ Does anyone have any more detail on how these ESUs are delivered? We're stuck with WSUS because we use RM Unify and cannot hybrid join PCs. I'll check anyway with our Microsoft license provider if they have any more info.

I was being a numpty and forgetting that enabling spelling via search did in turn enable the underlining of misspellings. So ordinarily misspellings won't be underlined. Oh well, a decision for our exams officer in terms of what to do!

Thanks to all that have contributed to this. I have followed @thimon's excellent guide, and added the other subsequent bits. I've also denied student access to %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\root\Office 16\Proof. I can see that it's all had some effect although I have two issues: 1. Word is still highlighting spelling errors with the red wavy line. I note that the GPO setting only mentions grammar, seems odd there isn't a separate setting for spelling. 2. Students can still use the search bar to find spelling which enables the editor. Anyone know how to disable these? Thanks

I suppose a middle ground would be to export a basic roll for the academic year and store that.

We were thinking of keeping for at least one, because we need to contact leavers and our comms system is linked in with SIMS. It's a difficult one because we infrequently get requests from ex-students to confirm they were at the school, although some are so long ago they predate SIMS. It would be nice to help, but if the law requires the data is deleted...

Hi folks, I'm looking at MIS data retention. We keep physical copies of student records for 7 years, and child protection records for 60+ years - I'm double checking these figures as part of the review. There doesn't seem to be any need to keep MIS data after students have left, but what are other schools doing? Thanks

It definitely looks familiar, and that refers to the IRMS toolkit, so may be where I found the suggestion.

Hi folks, We are re-evaluating our retention schedule, and having looked at other schools there is a bit of variance. The DfE don't seem to provide a recommended schedule, our county legal team haven't been of help, and there doesn't seem to be any definitive free guidance elsewhere on the internet. Has anyone found free (and accurate!) guidance on retention? We are considering joining the IRMS to get access to their toolkit. It's not an extortionate cost, but I wanted to check ahead of doing that. (Surprising really that the DfE don't provide guidance) Thanks

It's a barmy situation, and is only going to cause ESS to lose more SIMS customers. There seems to be a lot of shortsightedness in the MIS market at the moment.

Now I just need to get ESS to reply to sales enquiries...

@Tefters We get SIMS functional support from our county IT still, the server is virtualised, and we don't need any of the classic IT server support. Essentially, we just need the SIMS server bits e.g. if someting stopped working SIMS-wise on the server, if/when we need to migrate to a new server etc. Sorry, difficult to describe! Basically everything other than functional support, and Windows Server environment support. I'm guessing this is why SCOMIS have had issues, in that the provider will ultimately need a support contract with ESS. I am aware of one school at least that don't have third party support, but they are planning on moving to another MIS anyway.

Hi folks, Until a year or two ago we had both our functional and server support for SIMS through our county IT, but they dropped the latter. We then switched to SCOMIS for server support, but they are dropping it from the end of next March. Is anyone aware of other companies that provide server support? I have tried contacting ESS, twice, but had no response. I am not sure if they would offer just server support, or insist that we buy the SIMS license from them as well (currently that's bought through our county's IT). Thanks

Thanks. None of these are time machine-d, mostly beacuse they are setup for students to save to their network folder.

As follow up, I found that I can only easily copy profiles as the user. For some reason, in some user profiles under Music\Audio Music Apps there's a file or folder buried somewhere that even the user cannot copy, as it gives an error. So I found that to backup some profiles I had to exclude that folder. (I had also tried using CHMOD to grab ownership of everything, and that still didn't help)

Hi folks, Any SIMS register gurus here? We also use EduLink, and some of our teachers complete the register in that. There is an issue where for at least some double period registers, the second period marks aren't working correctly. Reports are that the marks don't copy across, or they get N's. I have tested with a purported problem double lesson, completing the first period register on SIMS, inevitably for a different member of staff (in SIMS, Focus > Lesson Monitor > Take Register), and the marks do not copy across. I'm checking with some teaching departments for double period registers that they can confirm work as expected, that is the second period marks copy across, whether in SIMS or EduLink. Two questions: 1. Using the protocol above (in SIMS, Focus > Lesson Monitor > Take Register) for a future register, should it still copy marks across? Or does this only work for the curent day, or some other qualifier. 2. Within SIMS, is it possible to see whether a timetabled lesson is marked as a double? We use Edval for timetabling, not Nova. Thanks