bossman

@pcstru Delegation..........hmmm! Cute terminology and can be quite effective if used correctly by good managers according to the staff members job spec and if that person is in receipt of the remuneration for that task and responsibility, you seem to feel you are one of these people and therefore you must totally understand the other type which you have already described and I have commented about, I agree with your comments especially with the last one "IMO the bigger problem in schools IS a result of poor management skills, but it is teachers who's management skills seem to be at the level of "treat everyone like a 12 year old child", a problem I put down to being shut in a classroom with children for decades and as a result having little experience of the real world." It beggars belief that Teaching Staff are given management tasks in the first place as they have usually no concept of the term "Manage" nor the qualifications to match. Yet SLT seem to give them that responsibility without question either to keep that member of Staff happy and an increase in pay which is all that most teaching staff seem to want to do these days for less work! Lets face it if teaching staff take on extra admin duties they seem to drop actual contact time with students so they really don't have any extra workload and then they have the audacity to "Delegate" (Shirk) the actual workload and pass this on to an underling who cannot refuse as they are not in a position to do so plus they don't receive any more remuneration for said extra tasks and responsibility. It seems now that schools remuneration packages pay more for responsibility than for the actual workload so if a person has the positional clout they can claim all the remuneration for being responsible for all those tasks and duties yet not strike a bat when it comes to workload and yet the poor staff member who has been delegated the extra workload without any extra remuneration feels obligated yet frustrated which leads to poor performance long term as they don't put 100% into those extra duties and tasks. Overall it becomes disjointed and at times the whole atmosphere of the school can be effected by a few careless staff members who have these positions of management without the necessary skill sets.

@FN-GM Would this be of any use: Angry IP Scanner - Documentation

Why are these different to other school policies? School policies are just that "School Policies" they all fit under one canopy and are controlled by Governors and SLT and these are the people who should be writing them not you as the network manager or Technician as you are there to maintain the network and the running of it not administration duties such as writing policies that's for admin workers who type up the written policies which have been constructed by SLT after gathering information from different staff around the school who have a valid input. In my eye's it's just another shirk of responsibility by those members of staff who like the remuneration part but not the actual workload, old saying "Why have a dog and bark yourself!" always happening in Education where certain staff shirk their responsibilities by passing the workload to other members of staff who are afraid to say "No!" in reality its a mental form of bullying and this happens quite a lot in schools so it seems by the reports on this and other forums. Over the years I too have learnt very valuable lessons from other members of staff in our school which leads me to believe that I am no more thought of than the chewing gum on the school yard playground.............................fact!!! Don't be misled into thinking that you are favoured any better because its the same in most every school in the UK because certain staff are brought up to believe they are members of an elite group of people who in reality are no more than overpaid babysitters!! Oh btw I don't care if this offends anyone who has a partner in this profession because I'm really not bothered.............passed caring about that all now! I just do my job to the best of my ability and to my job spec end of! have a good evening

@sparkeh This is not aimed at you btw, its nothing personal, just I read on this forum all too often from you guys about how badly your being treat! We are our own worse enemies in that we don't say no often enough to work that is not officially ours and this therefore leads to confrontation and feelings of being put upon and then depression in some cases because of the heavy workload etc etc!! Don't mean to rant but it boils my pi** to read time after time how we professional IT members shoot ourselves in the foot because we think we are a valid member of the team when in actual fact we are totally frowned upon by senior management in one way or another because we are classed as the "Dark Arts" and not understood!

So what are you doing then if not arguing your case? You may feel that your not in the firing line but by creating these policies which are sanctioned by SLT who probably haven't got a clue as to what they determine when something happens to break one of these policies, I don't know whether the Governors would be that interested either if those policies were written by someone who basically in education is classed as a support worker because they don't carry enough clout. Its a power thing in Education not only with teaching staff but their line managers also and I'm afraid that sh*t rolls downhill not up! I've been there and worn the T-shirt and believe what you may, its not all roses when the smelly stuff gets dropped from a great height,...........

I know that for sure its not in my job specification!!! I don't do anything that has responsibilities which could backfire because some member of Staff decides to overrule the policies just because they feel they can and therefore I'm not paid enough to take the can for their mistakes!! I'm here to manage the network not create policies for other Staff members to ignore because that's what happens and then the sh*t hits the fan and your the one left holding the baby!! If you like being in the firing line then so be it @sparkeh but iv'e learned very early on to dodge those bullets as it gets you no where being a mug!! You can argue until your blue in the face about this but you won't get any change out of me bud......too long in the tooth for that!!

@owen1978 DPO (Data Protection Officer) or DPM (Data Protection Manager)

@owen1978 I would say non of them as they are all your ICT HOD responsibility bar one such as the Technical Policy and this may be dubious, its above your pay grade! Data Protection Policy - DPM CCTV Policy - DPM Electronic Data Management Policy - DPM Laptop policy - ICT HOD Printing Policy - ICT HOD Remote Access Policy - DPM Technical Policy - Maybe Acceptable Use Policy for Pupils, Staff, Visitors - ICT HOD Mobile Device Policy - ICT HOD E-Safety Policy - ICT HOD I have no involvement in any of the schools ICT policies as these are above my paygrade and its not for me to make those decisions its clearly an SLT person who has the authority to make those decisions which carries with it the remuneration package. Just my tuppence worth on this as we are here to support IT not set policies on what users can and cannot do I feel.

Good morning all, Quick question regarding the above, when our exams officer runs the above and goes to print them as she has done for many years Sims generates the reports but then crashes when trying to print, We still use Office 2010 for our admin staff as the rest of the school use google docs and I have come across this: It seems that previously, the XML editor automatically converted the XML file without having to ask which file to convert, whereas now it is waiting for user input and this is why Sims is crashing when trying to print the bulk reports I feel, has anyone else come across this? Sims users can print other stuff like timetables etc but not bulk reports involving XML files. Thanks in advance.

Best place for them IMHO

@jahilton2002 Was going to post, had this happen a couple of weeks ago due to Smoothwall updates, resolved using the same method as you, pleased you sorted, have a good weekend

Not your concern as this should be covered by the schools ICT strategy policy and its not your responsibility if you are only the NM as its above your paygrade and job spec! Just float it back to them!

Both techies here have gone down the S8 route and as a phone i don't blame them as they had the best OP phones to date bar the last one OP5 which they wouldn't purchase because of the cost and that the OnePlus company had sold out in their words. I still have the OP3 but I'm very impressed with the Galaxy S8 in quality of the hardware but as for the usual bloat...............I'm not!

+1 Overnet Data run our Moodle which has all the benefits of pulling all the Sims groups and data out plus Parental connectivity, this coupled with our move to G-Suite and all the EDU apps that brings has been fantastic and the Staff just love the simplicity of it and how good it works. We sync the AD groups using the Google sync tool and this again just works. Our network shares are read only now so Staff and Students have all their data in Googles team drives where they can have access anywhere, mapped drives are now hidden so shared resources are now also in the cloud using team drives again, just works so well alongside Gmail which links everything together so staff can collaborate with students using Google classroom and also share files with other members of Staff via team drives or Gmail. Eventually when Sims is finally web based from September so I am led to believe we can utilise the cloud service even more. Even 3D technology apps are finding their way into web based apps so it shouldn't be long before most schools become Cloud service based. I find its the only way forward and will save the school money in the long term.

@NB9457 PM'd you

More than happy with my OP3 so no reason to change it! Been absolutely solid! Only problem is they have become a major player and the whole idea of the One Plus ethos was cheapness with quality! Yes I know its still a very cheap phone for the spec compared to others but its still crept up the cost ladder! Next phone will probably be a HUAWEI P10 Plus or the next gen one!

Wow! RM have had this for years! Works a treat! Just saying like!

Currently Reading: Detroit 67: The Year That Changed Soul (The Soul Trilogy) Stuart Cosgrove I used to go to Wigan Casino during the 70s and have been into the scene forever, started dancing again about a year ago and now I go to gigs all over the country, fascinating how the scene came about and how it originated in the States all those years ago, brilliant read so far! KTF I have the sequel also: Young Soul Rebels: A Personal History of Northern Soul Stuart Cosgrove Will read this on my holidays in Greece on turtle beach! sweet! KTF

@FN-GM Have a great time bud, will arrange that weekend when you come back and tag @webman in also, be safe and don't drink too much! Enjoy

I'm in no way talking them down @GrumbleDook and the other site looks very professional and it functions very well, just the fact that it is not a secure site rings alarm bells and when I have asked the question the reply is that they run it as a free service which costs money, surely though when dealing with data from schools the site should be secured? Not being a jobs worth but you yourself have instilled this security process in me from our meetings and posts on here, this is the way I look at things ever since we met.

Hi All, On the back of this and not wanting to hijack the thread, one of our teachers wants to move forward with this site: What is PrimaryBlogger? ? PrimaryBlogger I feel it is not to be used as it is not a secure site and have told the Staff member not to use it as it could lead the school into certain DP and SG issues. I have sent the owners of the site a FOI email to which they have answered but before I post those I want to see what other people on here think? Its associated with this company: https://primaryt.co.uk/ but they just said that the web services are run by another team which seems a little strange in that they didn't know why the other site was not secure? Appreciated

VM server 2012r2 with 16GB RAM and 2 processors, seems happy with this! Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using EduGeek mobile app

@Edu-IT Cheers was just about to post but you saved me the time (Getting a little sluggish in my old age hehe!)

@elsiegee40 Collective bargaining power, our LA tried the same thing here a while back, we are still required to present 3 quotes on items over £5k but we are obliged to use their listed contractors. It can work out very effective if all the LA schools use it as intended otherwise its just a wasted exercise! I would say its more along the lines of what Academies are doing right now as they have numbers of schools under their procurement umbrella!

Because they can hehe! Have a good un!