jmak

@AdminAssistant I think the two posts above mine give you the answer: SIMS FMS is a separate product to SIMS MIS, but they can be and usually are linked. You'd need to talk to other providers about whether they can feed in directly or produce exports than can be imported, but I think what most schools do when the finance department insist on keeping SIMS FMS is run it completely separately and just enter the required data. Have the finance team in your school actively compared the available systems and found quantifiable reasons why there's nothing else suitable? In light of the change in renewal terms I think that they need to look again to be certain they are obtaining best value.

Partner

The required return to the LA is that it has to meet the Consistent Financial Reporting Framework: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/consistent-financial-reporting-framework-2021-to-2022/what-s-new-for-2021-to-2022 To create the actual return you use the XML generator that the DfE publish every year: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/consistent-financial-reporting-framework-2020-to-2021/consistent-financial-reporting-framework-xml-generator-2020-to-2021 You can use FMS without SIMS, but no LA can make you use FMS - and there can't be any left that don't have experience with other systems now.

I take your point, but it's a licensing issue and SIMS will carry on working and your database will be intact. The first time you'd have any kind of issue is when you need a patch - and most of those cause more problems than they fix. It's not like an O365 subscription that stops you editing documents if you don't have a subscription. They pulled the same trick when they bought Schoolcomms. We managed to get an exception as we'd had it confirmed that our school was due to close (effectively merge with another, but stop existing as a legal entity) and we'd been told not to enter into contracts beyond a particular date. We told them one year or no years and they backed down. Sounds like they play harder ball nowadays.

Router [emoji849]

Can you not issue a notice that you don't intend to renew and then change your mind in March? Would they really refuse to take you back if you offered to sign a three year contract?

To get onto a nursing (or other healthcare) course you need evidence of vaccination for: Tuberculosis, measles, rubella, hepatitis B, diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and meningitis. You have to have evidence of having had chickenpox otherwise you need to get a vaccination for that before you start your course. I really don't see the difference in principle with either the fact it's a different vaccine or that it's employees working with vulnerable people in social care settings. It is highly unfortunate that it's creating a staffing issue for care homes, but I think it's a nettle that needs grasping. Link shows an example, but it's the same everywhere I've looked: https://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/sites/default/files/asset/document/Vaccination%20requirements%20for%20all%20health%20care%20students%202015.pdf.pdf

Someone setting up a hotspot with the same SSID and credentials as your genuine network? Lunchtime and just after school makes me suspicious...

Thanks @newtechman I think that'll be fine for their purposes. I have a couple more queries, but I'll make my own thread so that I don't ruin this one any further.

Thread hijack! Do guests need a SharePoint license to access Teams/SharePoint resources as a guest? I'm looking at setting up M365 for a small non-profit. We were trying to work out the minimum number of subscriptions to buy and in testing I invited various people to access my Teams/SharePoint and it all worked fine. Thinking about it, given what most of the users do for a living, they probably all have M365 amounts through work, so I haven't proved that #anyone# can access the resources.

They've also changed the rule that specified it had to be 6 months plus 1 week before you could make a booking. You can now access the booking site 5 months from the day you got your second jab. It'll be a few days under 6 months when I get mine [emoji41]

Always disappointing when you get hit with them, but if you've ever tried getting quotes for groundworks, you'll understand why ECC can be so high...

We used it as a way of verifying email addresses held in the MIS - pretty sure we used child's name, DoB and parents email to validate. We put a notice outside every classroom saying you've been sent an email inviting you to book a parents evening appointment; if you haven't received an email, there a problem with the record. Please come to the office to rectify. It was a massive data cleansing exercise first time round, but we got much better responses to emails afterwards! School cloud is a great system.

Been there, got the T-shirt. I was generally unimpressed with the incumbent, they took real offence when I asked them to complete a tender document rather than just provide a quote and rollover the contract. Couldn't tell whether they were trying to obfuscate costs or just incompetent but their calculations were way off, so I went with someone else. They sent an invoice for £600 per device to collect them and their office was 9 miles from the school. I read the small print and we had the option to return them so I hired a man in a van service for £40 including insurance. That really really annoyed them [emoji57]

Not in our local hospital. Even triple vaccinated (which is more most staff now) have to stay at home if it's someone in their household.

Cavity

From when the isolation rules for contacts were "relaxed" they've had a different set for the NHS. Amongst other rules, you still have to isolate if someone in your household tests positive. Always seemed like a sensible half way option for everyone.

Well, users won't be happy because.... change. My view is that when changing technology it's often best to embrace the new approach as otherwise you often end up complicating what you had before and compromising the benefits achievable from the new system. Microsoft's recommended approach is too use File Sync/Files on Demand: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/map-a-network-drive-to-a-sharepoint-library-751148de-f579-42f9-bc8c-fcd80ccf0f53 Despite the name on the link, what they actually tell you is that the method for mapping a SharePoint library is deprecated from last August. I found that a little user training with emphasis on what they could do that they couldn't do previously, most users actually ended up happy.

You may as well get on with setting up your tenancy straight away - it's free and you'll end up having to do extra work if you migrate twice. Pretty sure you get more features with the free edu version compared to the not for profits offer and it's potentially more straightforward to get authorised. In either case you'll get 1TB of SharePoint storage which should keep most small organisations going for quite a while. As others have said, you just need to change your DNS records to redirect the email. When you run the setup for your MS tenancy, there's a wizard that makes it completely straightforward to make the required changes to redirect your email.

Superman

I started my school career in an organisation that was a Dell house. I saved some money by purchasing a few laptops from HP and Lenovo (based on current offers at the time) which turned out to be a false economy. Then I discovered the Dell business outlet website and started buying from there; at the time Latitude models were about half retail price and came with NBD on-site warranty. They don't seem to be nearly such a bargain any more. I started buying all my personal PCs from them - business grade PCs with on-site warranty for less money than Curry's consumer models. Like DosBox, my personal PCs are all 6 or 7 years old. The Latitude models lol a bit pricey now, so I'm interested that the Vostro ones seem ok. Mine you, the last PC I bought was whatever @ICTDirect_Dave had on offer at the time and I'd always have something from him rather than pay full price!

I'd always assumed that the C shows up as soon as it gets wet, whereas the T only shows up in response to a particular chemical released if Covid is detected. I did have one which was broken - the fluid never made it through to the detection paper.

(no use to man or) Beast..

Expressed in @mavhc's inimitable style, but he's right. The school should care enough about security to spend the money if necessary. I personally have absolutely no issue with using my own phone for things like that, but staff definitely have a right to object. You can't insist that staff buy equipment that's essential to do their job.

Egg (and spoon)