rogerdnixon

I probably said this earlier on in this thread - rather than using compliance rules (where you would use the email address of the group), we use group permissions. So for example, out "students" group contains all students and members of the LG. Students are members and can only view posts and have no posting permissions to the group. Group permissions are pretty much instant when you change them and can be modified in bulk using the GAM commandline tool.

We have been with Virgin Media for a while. Zero downtime or issues.

I don't think we did - at least not in any formal way. It just became what everyone uses over time and as most people are now ChromeOS, that's the only choice.

I suggest you take a look at your Google Drive policies in the admin console. There you can prevent users from sharing outside of the domain and control who (if anyone) can move content outside of the domain. You will shortly be able to define rules which will apply even if they have permission to do this that will scan the content of the files. So set policies that meet your needs - these can be doen at the OU level. We don't allow students to share outside of the domain at all for example.

If you use G Suite - Chrome Sign Builder works well and is simple to setup and manage + free. You just need a Chromebit/box plugged into your display.

The flaw in this calculation is our users expect unlimited storage now (which is what they have). 8Tb would be consumed by one of our heavy users. Fast internet does not have to be expensive now - but it does depend a bit on where you live.

While File Stream is great - for those who need it. I'd say other than a few people in offices, no one actually uses it much as everyone uses Google Docs. So on any PC here there is the option to use it, but most people will just fire up Chrome and go straight to Drive/Classroom. Once you fully migrate to G Suite the usage of Office Apps almost vanishes. The only time I use if is when SIMS spits out a report and then it gets copied straight into Sheets. It is a change of mindset and it takes time - but it is definitely worth the effort.

Most convert fine now. Occasional minor tweaks needed. Macros in spreadsheets are clearly a no go - but you can do pretty col things with Sheets scripts and addons.

People get us to it pretty quickly. Things are much easier now than they use to be as things like converting old Office Docs work pretty flawlessly now.

Back in the day when we moved to G Suite (then Google Apps - about 7 years ago now), I created a few service accounts and literally dragged the content of our network shares into Drive with file conversion turned on and left it to it. Took a while - but once it was done we never looked back. Today, I'd use File Stream and and move stuff into Team Drives that way. Insync is good and I use that to sync camera footage to Drive from security cameras. We are 1:1 with chromebooks for staff and students. We support a couple of primaries who also have staff Chromebooks. They seem to get one pretty well. Interactive whiteboards don't really work well with ChromeOS - although there is some support now. We tend to have a fixed Chromebox connected to a projector/big telly. Teacher signs into that and uses Cast for Education so the students/teacher can cast their screen to the big screen. Couple that with a touchscreen Chromebook and you have a very cheap and flexible solution.

Well, it depends on exactly what you are trying to achieve. Classroom communicates with parents automatically and offers up easy communication between staff, parents, and students. We auto populate staff and student calendars with there timetables, auto-generate Classrooms and keep them upto date - not sure what more is needed (I teach as well). We also help people with their Google Sites and managing Team Drives when they need it. I do do a staff induction session to get people familiar with all the G Suite tools - this includes showing people how to use Gmail effectively and manage things like Classroom notifications.

I suggest you use Google Classroom. We sync from SIMS to classroom (few scheduled reports and GAM). We also populate the Guardians on Classroom using GAM and a SIMS report. Makes it easy for staff to contact parents and parents get daily/weekly notifcations of set assignements. So you have everything you need is G Suite really. I've documented most of what we have done on my blog: https://wpsit.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/how-to-provision-google-classroom-using.html

Same here - everyone has a G Suite account and communicates freely (email/hangouts/classroom). Everyone is in the directory and can email anyone else.

We get support from Capita direct and have done for years. We ask them all sorts of questions - ranging from reports to census questions to technical stuff. Never had problems with them other than occasionally it taking thema few days to figure out how to sort an issue.

Bit like a Chromecast, it won't work with client isolation enabled (interstation traffic or whatever your particular WiFi provider calls it). This is normally on to prevent WiFi clients talking to each other - generally, a good thing to prevent. Perhaps fire up an extra SSID for it? However, they are really consumer devices.

Then its Device Management > Chrome Management > Device Settings

No - thats in you G Suite admin console - under Device Management - assuming your devices are managed. If they are not managed - its one device at a time - login as the user who is the owner of the device - Settings - About ChromeOS - Detailed build information - change channel.

In device settings (in the Admin Console) you can set the channel they are on. Just set it to beta on whatever OU's your devices are in. I'd not recommend putting all of them onto the beta channel - its really for testing.

Sort if - but Google Docs/Sheets etc does the processing locally (which is how they can run offline) - so its less than a remote session. The recommendations for bandwidfth are https://support.google.com/chrome/a/answer/3339263?hl=en

Hi Chris, We are 1:1 with Chromebooks - Staff and Students - so about 1200 devices. Pretty much everything is in Drive/Team Drives. We use Classroom and centrally provision and sync all Classes to SIMS (using GAM and scheduled SIMS reports). Aerohive rather than Unify - but I've heard good things about Unify. We have a 1Gbps Virgin Media leased line and use Securly for content filtering (on and offsite with parental control offsite). We don't often peak much above 300Mbps. Chromebooks and G Suite are pretty light on bandwidth if you are looking at Google Docs use. Obviously things shoot up is everyone is on YouTube. The only thing to watch is ChromeOS updates - once you are in the 100's of devices, I'd stagger updates over a few days. By default, they also do peer-to-peer updating - which if you have lots of devices can create a lot of network traffic - so I'd disable inter-station traffic (client isolation on - or whatever Unify call it). However, it is useful in places with limited bandwidth. Happy to discuss in more detail if you want - we are a Google Reference School - os happy to help. I'll be on the Google Stand taking about ChromeOS on the Saturday of BETT. Roger

Securly (securly.com) offer free ChromeOS filtering and it's really very good. We use their paid for product for all our devices. Parents like the ability to control the offsite filtering and see what the little darlings are doing.

We use Securly (the paid for version) which filters all our devices. Parents like it on our 1:1 Chromebooks as it works offsite and they can login and see what the little darlings have been up to and modify the offsite policy for their child (within defined parameters). All authentication is done via G Suite - on Chromebooks its seamless. On PC/BYOD - they get forced to sign in with there school accout before they can do anything. Firewall - we use the community version of ClearOS (well four in separate instances). Securly reporting is pretty good and its dead easy to use. You can give safeguarding staff access to look at student activity and leave them to it. Does not currently support IPV6 - some maybe not for you - but might be worth considering if you are a big G Suite user (as we are).

If you use G Suite, then Cast for Education is very good. Push the extension to teacher devices and cast to it from other devices - teacher can control who can cast - picks up google Classroom for example.

We are 1:1 with Chromebooks - so 1050 Chromebooks + BYOD for all and use Aerohive which works well and have loads of configuration options (maybe too many). Takes quite a bit of tweaking - but the APs (especially our newer AP250's) can handle loads of clients. However, its not cheap and if I was starting again, I'd give Unifi a look as it seems considerably cheaper for similar spec.

We buy most of our Chromebooks from C-Learning or Getech. Recently, C-Learning have always been cheaper. Our Y7's have all got Lenovo Yoga N23's which are pretty good and ruggedised.