jmak

Microsoft's own guidance is now that security updates should be installed within three days, so weekly sounds better than monthly.

I didn't have to win that argument - our 40 year old boiler packed up and the radiator and pipework needed replacing because they were equally old and it was 8mm microbore, but.... The heat pump installation including 20 new radiators, all plumbing and electrical work was done in 5 days (team of four plumbers). It was chaos for a week, but then over. I've evangelised about our ashp on here before and it was a great improvement on our oil fired CH, but I'd do something different if I was starting now. I wouldn't install a system that doesn't also cool my house. The model of ashp I have has a different spec in Australia and can run in cooling mode, but the UK variant doesn't. Otherwise I'd be swapping out some radiators for these: https://theheatpumps.co.uk/products/chilled-water-fan-coil-units.html Alternatively I'd be seriously looking at air-to-air to completely replace my wet heating system.

You want to put a whole year group in detention at the same time 😲 What did they do!? /sarcasm

I have: Goretex with zip-in fleece for all occasions Goretex with zip-in fleece for all occasions with additional ventilation from where OH's cats expressed their views on being captured and put in cat carrier Goretex with zip-in fleece for all occasions with additional ventilation from when I fell off my bike Hi-viz Goretex inherited from someone who carried it on a DofE expedition as hi-viz was mandatory, but they were too cool to wear it.

Three of us received it simultaneously during dinner. We all grabbed our phones and tapped on it, at which point it disappeared before any of us read it. It's not stored anywhere on my phone (Pixel 9, Android 17). I did discover that you can access messages at gov.uk/alerts but the only one published there at the time was in Welsh. I'm not convinced the subject justified it. "There's a fire five miles away; be ready to evacuate" seems like a good reason to alert everyone. "It's come to our attention that the population is so stupid they need to be told not to set the whole place on fire" seems like ultimately a bigger problem, but less immediately urgent. Related: do people put their phones on silent or turn them off during concerts/theatre/cinema?

This is my draft user guide Passkey_Setup_Guide.pdf

Most people use laptops and for the last four years I've specified fingerprint readers and most of the new ones have Windows Hello capable cameras, so for convenience I think most people will have a passkey on their main device. I have one on my phone in the MS Authenticator app which I find works well. The user experience with a hardware token on the machine you're logged in on is much better than even simple passwords. I'm sure it'll be broken at some point but I think they're a genuine upgrade for users and admins.

I'm aiming to push our users towards passkeys as quickly as we can. We've had multiple successful phishing attacks despite authenticator based MFA. Issues for us (not a school): 1) A mostly universal solution for an alternative second factor when they lose/change/forget/drown their phone 2) An option for people who want to login to desktop computers that they haven't used before, e.g. presenting at a venue that has a PC as part of the hosts AV setup. There's a third internal issue for us: the team that runs the tenancy is not the team that runs active directory. I haven't yet persuaded them to talk to each other and run the command that will allow it as authentication for logins to domain PCs.

If you have OVS or should be free. You have to place an order and "buy" licences, but it should be zero cost.

Do you mean they used shared device activation for the OS? We don't have the complication of CertiPort, but we use device based activation for Office 365. The machine has to be in a specific M365/Entra group and Office then activates based on the DBA licence being applied to that group.

Referring back to previous comments, Teams has a Speaker Recognition feature. You do need a Teams Room Pro licence (around £40/year/room for Edu) and a decent (ideally Teams certified) mic.

I haven't faced that specific requirement, but conditional access policies should allow you to restrict login to domain/Intune joined Windows devices for a specific M365 user group.

The answer isn't to block security updates. From your own description, you can run iPad OS 18. My suggestion is that you compromise on the number of installed apps - that's how you can keep the devices functional. Cyber security is a basic requirement that *does* come ahead of teaching and learning. Without it you can't keep your legal obligations for KCSIE and is essential to ensure your school doesn't become the next victim to a cyber attack. It's equivalent to decommissioning PE equipment that doesn't pass safety tests or DT tools that are worn out. They probably still work and there's a high likelihood that no one will come to harm before the summer holidays and withdrawing them from service will impact teaching and learning. No responsible leadership team would take that risk and they should have the same attitude to cyber security.

It's an often asked question in this forum and I think you might be about to become the expert! When I worked in a school, I went for Unifi. It was an easy decision - it was a massive upgrade on the home grade unmanaged access points we had and the total spend was around £600 Vs about £9.5k for Aruba. That included three years licensing but I knew I wouldn't be able to afford the ongoing costs and the Unifi had zero ongoing costs. In the non-school setting I work in now, I don't have any influence on the decision, but the network team are very keen on the Aruba platform. They get a lot of value from the management platform. If you can afford it and you'll use it the Aruba might be worth it.

Seems like a warning from the future - the only step missing is having AI sit the exams. At which point the participation of a human in that process becomes futile. That's the future I think we need to prepare for: work out what we can do that people don't want to be done by AI. I was speaking to a friend who recruits for a graduate training scheme - the skill they want is understanding of and ability to use AI tools and they're finding that students have minimal exposure. The focus has been on preventing them from using it at school and university.