RichCowell

We've had PARS and PARS CONNECT for just over a year, and have never been happy with the speed of PARS CONNECT, though Tasc have spent quite a long time trying to help, and the server's seriously over spec'd now, it's not improved enough that staff are happy, so the powers-that-be have made the move to Lesson Monitor & Teacher App, the deployment is being planned at the moment... From what I can tell we've been in the minority with the issues we've had, but it was enough to make them change the system...

If you set the permissions for the group in the Outlook Calendar (you can probably do it via PowerShell but I won't even start to rant on about how much I hate PowerShell/Office 365) it should work, but they'll need to open it manually once... We've got exactly the same - an account call SchoolCal - permissions are set on that so our "Staff" security group (as opposed to our allstaff distribution group) have permissions to read - we just told everyone to Open a Shared Calendar, enter SchoolCal and they get that calendar that follows them wherever they log in online or use Outlook... Works well enough here... once new staff get their bearings they usually ask someone how to get it and everyone knows now...

Got to admit, I thought it was a butterfly too, or dragonfly...

I've always used BGInfo to do the wallpapers, you can set it to fit / stretch / centre through that... works well here...

I've got two, one for normal student accounts (Blue), another for their Controlled Assessment accounts (Red).

We're currently looking for an apprentice at my school, there's myself and a technician... I personally couldn't imagine coping with just an apprentice if my technician left - and I've told her (only half jokingly) that it'll have to be a staged retirement when she wants to retire! We've had a few applications, ranging from those really keen and knowledgeable in IT to those who appear to just be looking for a job... I want the former, someone who wants to get a first step of the ladder in IT, though they're not easy to find! I also need to find someone who's happy to work term-time only due to the way we work here at my school... We've not been successful finding anyone so far, came close once, but they he offered a better deal at the factory he was working at until he found something in IT - a decision I'm sure he'll regret, but can't blame him for the money... I'd say you'd be better getting an actual Technician rather than an apprentice as the role is to replace a technician... also at the end of the apprenticeship they may move on, or the powers-that-be may decide that there isn't a role for them to continue in, and you may be stuck on your own...

Just wanted to make a last mention / thank you to UK Media and Events (UKME: UK Media & Events Ltd) and give them a blatant plug as they supplied our lovely new lectern, it was delivered to the hotel and they even came to build it for us! Not only that but they supplied us with a microphone/speaker etc. for one of the speakers recovering from a lost voice - I only mentioned it in passing at about 2200 the night before and they supplied and set it up for us in the morning... Finally - they've beaten all the prices for business cards / letterheads I've been able to find elsewhere - so well worth checking out for your schools when you're looking for new stationery! Can't rate them highly enough!

I've never got my head around WordPress, there's just something about it I don't like lol... Our previous one was done in Concrete5, and that was pretty good, though there aren't as many plugins for it...

haha nothing to do with Anime I can assure you, but you're not the first person to think that, and you wouldn't be the first person to call it that too! lol... It's the Association of Network Managers in Education - pretty much how it sounds... a networking group arranging meetings (only been in the North West so far, but will be arranging some down south soon), free to join, free to attend, we've got a trip to Sophos's HQ in Oxfordshire in a couple of weeks that's free too... We've got 300+ members now, mostly in the UK... Not just for people with Network Manager in the title either - it's for whoever's got the day to day responsibility of managing the network & school IT... If that's you, join up, we'd love to have you as a member :-) http://www.anme.co.uk

I think there's another recent thread that's similar to this... I moved my school site to Schudio (School Website Design | App | Wall | Web | VoiceSchool Website Design from Schudio) after a couple of weeks of using it for the ANME website - the back end's designed for schools so really easy to manage and update, the support's been great, they transferred all the old site content, and the whole process took less than 8 weeks... Can't rate them highly enough... PM me if you want to know more :-)

I've got rules on the firewall (Sophos UTM) to stop users downloading certain file types, stricter for students than staff... I also use Impero to fine-tune the rules depending on location etc. Do you manage your own firewall?

Follow up emails are going out to members at the moment with some ANME news, and information / contact details of the companies supporting us on Thursday! We'll be doing another Member Referral Competition soon too, for referrers and referrees (not quite sure that's a word!), so we'll count any from now too...

Forgot the technician! She's got 2 x Philips 244E1SB 24" monitors...

I've got a matching pair of amazing Dell P2815Q 28" monitors... Love them! Got them from Virtue Technologies, not Amazon, but link here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-P2815Q-inch-Ultra-Monitor/dp/B00IOUBOB2

Just seen @NokiX beat me to it... Can't fault Impero's support - fantastic service!

I reported the issue with Symantec a few days ago, they've emailed to let me know it's been whitelisted now...

The ANME site is with Schudio - School Website Design | App | Wall | Web | VoiceSchool Website Design from Schudio, Lancashire - I was looking for another company to do the school site too, and after using it for a few weeks, and as they transfer all the data/structure over, I went with Schudio for the school site too... all tailored for schools in the back-end, so it's easier for other people to navigate & maintain... Been really impressed with it since we moved... PM me if you want to know more :-)

Gutted! Meeting 04 is on the 25th June so we'll hopefully see you there :-) Hope the transition goes smoothly!

I'm looking forward to seeing if there's any bits I've not used yet, or could do better... there's always something new to learn with Impero lol... We've had it for several years now, and I wouldn't be without it... Hoping to get the teachers using it more here too...

It was one of the members that asked if we could do something with Sophos email encryption, and I'm really looking forward to seeing that too... Thanks :-)

Split networks is still goes on I believe, that's the second reference I've heard to it this week... Not going to add that to the member info though! lol... What area are you in @ps2mint? Some LEA supported schools may still do separate networks for admin/curric...

He's said the 15GB is on the network, it may not be that that's affecting anything, depends where it is, it could already be on a home drive...

They could be using Roaming Profiles, which does exactly what you suspect (depending on the location of the files you're talking about)... anything on the desktop etc. is downloaded to the PC when you log on, and uploaded back to an area on the server when you log off - there are a lot more areas included than just the desktop, but if those aren't limited then it is likely to take an age to log on... I personally can't stand roaming profiles and won't consider using them, but I know some do successfully... I would also suggest disabling showing the last user logged on in the username box...

There may be cake again this time too! I've got an Edifice too, they're great watches!

Another option for the breakout sessions added to the agenda now... just waiting to hear about at least one more to go on too... Meeting 03