Sohailahmad

For Arbor schools https://support.arbor-education.com/hc/en-us/articles/360017930018-Arbor-integration-with-Google-Classroom It's not free..I'll find out costs. SIMS requires SIMS ID to be set up, if you have a local installation, I don't know how that would work.

Ahh geez, I noticed this last week, I too reached out to the publisher, haven't had a response. Classright was brilliant, easy, free tool to help manage my Classrooms for school that don't have (afford) the likes of Salamander, Locker etc.. It even had an API which allowed me to find old Classrooms that were manually created, old, sitting dormant that I needed to close down/archive. It's impacted me for a couple of schools which is now slowing me down. A simple but effective tool with many options. Anyone know if any alternatives just in case Goldy Arora will not be bringing it back? If Google offered these settings natively in Workspace, we wouldn't need to reply on 3rd party tools. GAM I have used before, just more compicated to use. We have SIMS and Arbor, do you know if they offer any 1st party tools for Google?

I despise GDPR, I'm definitely not a DPO! Once of my schools came to me with a question that their DPO raised with them. - - - Updated - - - I re-read your message and you're referring to the actual DPO, not me haha!

Thanks, I thought the same, and the fact SIMS doesn't give you the option suggests it's not a requirement.

Hello, Our DPO has suggested that class teachers should only be able to access data for their own students, e.g. contact details for parents etc. For years I have been aware that the class teacher group gives teachers access to basic details (read-only) but for all students in the school. Does SIMS have the options to filter for staff as long as they are assigned to their reg groups via pastoral structure? Thank you.

me too! I've just found 15 boxed, brand new in pristine condition. Went to install the software, had issues but put the installer in compatibility mode and it finally installed but doesn't detect the Log-Box, though Windows does after I installed the driver manually. Any updated software? We also have some old Log-IT units too, going to try those next, the software seems to be a little newer.

Thanks mavhc, I've emailed TTS, just waiting for a response, don't think it will be good news. We'll just have to use them as standalone once they get used to using the Probotix software.

Sorry to bring up an old thread, mine also says "Converter" on WIndows 7 were you able to resolve this issue? We will be moving to Windows 10 soon. thanks.

Hi Fiza That's exactly how mine is set up too, Staff have all enabled but for students chat is off, hangout meets and google hangouts (under one app section) is on but settings like external access, making calls and video meets is all turned off. Weird, i'll post some pics of my settings too.

Still wondering How Fiza got that message without turning off Hangouts as a whole.

Hi Fiza, I tested it and unfortunately the test student can still send messages, any idea on which specific setting you used to block chat? Thanks

Hi Fiza Yes, because call and video restrictions are in place on my test user, but the message function is still enabled and can't be disabled. The Video button takes them to meet where it tells the user they can only join and not create. The Phone button says the call feature isn't available. The Message button still allows users to search user, send messages and create message groups.....

Yes, Wonde (Paid) can pull data from SIMS and create accounts for staff and students. They also have additional features like SSO for other external services, helping kids log in to to things like Mathletics etc. They also have a easy login feature to create emoji or QR code logins. https://www.wonde.com/

Hi All In the same situation, I have disabled the same as suggested above, however, if I log in as a test student, I can still open the hangouts app which then lets students send messages to each other directly which we want to turn off, but still allow teachers to create meets for students to join, is this possible?

Are you talking about local policies for computer/user settings? I don't think there is a way without DC's. We've made a decision on Microsoft's platform but haven't auctioned it yet. Hopefully soon once we upgrade to Server 2016 and Windows 10 which has taken priority over moving to the cloud. I will update the thread once we do.

Hi John, thanks for your reply, I will be attending BETT and speaking to MS/Google/LGFL regarding this to finalise a decision for the school. I'm wondering if we could do both, maybe a mixture of MS E5 for admin and GSuite for curric....After this week hopefully it will be a lot clearer.

I've mentioned concerns to the Head and he will investigate how GPDR will affect sensitive data. SIMS I think will continue to stay local until they themselves move cloud/web based as the demo we were show last year at BETT at the Capita stand didn't look very good, Azure/RDP sessions in to a Capita hosted server just didn't sit well with me. It needs to be web based imo. If some of the data does end up being local, what do you guys still recommend for the rest of the curric data/accounts moving on to Google or Microsoft with USO?

Thanks Rob, I'll keep this threat updated. I can see it all linking up in my head but had no idea if it will even be feasible in the real world. Yes GPDR was mentioned in the meeting today, one of the Governors has had to do it recently for her own company, she will look in to how it will affect us if we move in this direction.

Hi All I've been tasked with moving one of my schools forward that has become part of a MAT and is leading the way to set a standard for the rest of the schools that will eventually join. I've spoken to many people from heads to other sysadmins regarding this and there seems to be lots of options. One thing the current heads and governors have been sold on is going could based for their data. Some MATs I know of have gone down the DFS route with WANs linking the sites. As we are an LGFL school there are some other options I'd like to explore. We currently have a single Windows 2008 R2 based domain with managed OUs. It's currently the standard pushed out by the current IT support and to be honest works well. I would want to keep AD in place and Group Policy to manage the computers. I would then want ADSync provided by Atomwide to sync USO accounts in to AD as they already use USO for Staffmail. The next step would be to get Admin and Curric data off the servers and on to a managed platform. Last year at BETT I was sold by Google for Education, it's collaborative working and sharing of content among many other benefits. The LGFL would then set up USO sync there too unifying staff and students accounts across all platforms used at the school. I know Microsoft are also doing O365 with LGFL/USO sync on their Azure platform, again with collaborative learning. Is this a better option? Whichever system/direction we go in would need to be able to include and link other schools under the same trust so that MAT staff can share and collaborate data across all sites regardless of local or LGFL domains. My main question is, am I going in the right direction with this? Do you have any more information about this idea, if you think it's wrong or think there's a better solution please let me know. How have you done it??? if you need me to provide any more information, please ask. Many thanks in advance

Sorry, just a little bump to see if anyone else has any ideas, many thanks

Hi All We have SmartNotebook v15 deployed in our school and we are using Papercut with two print queues deployed for the same copier. One queue is for colour while the other is for black & white. For all users the default queue is B&W. When using anything but SmartNotebook, the software will use the predefined colour settings and print in B&W for any document. When printing in SmartNotebook, in the print window there is a "printer setup" tab. In this tab there is a small tick box which allows for colour printing. Unfortunately even if the printer via the server is set to B&W as default it will still force the currently selected printer to print in colour. Untick the box then forces it in to B&W. If I untick then close the print window then go back in the box is ticked again to print in colour. Please see images attached. My issue is that I can't find a preference file either in the users appdata folders roaming/local, program data or program files where I can maybe set the default to be unticked. then deploy that preference file to all other users/computers via Group Policy. I have had to do something similar with Promethean Active Inspire where I was able to edit the program default settings to turn certain options off then export that to other users using a logon script. Does anyone else have this issue? Does anyone know of any settings files that I could possibly edit to force the B&W option for all users? Smart appdata and program files folders are full of XML/INI/JS files, I just can't find the right one. Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

Thanks for all the replies, waiting on the quote, I'll report back once I get somewhere with it.

Dave!!! Long time! Hope you're doing well at your school, Are you coming next Friday? Sure, though not cheap I will probably get them, I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for the quick reply David, that's a nice idea with the RFID label. Also yes something similar to the animal label would be useful. I've found this website (note sure if I'm allowed to post) https://www.stickythings.co.uk/round-labels-stickers/extra-permanent-labels who can make bespoke extra strong adhesive labels. Their quotes page allows you to fully customise each one, so I've requested a quote for 10 different colours x 40 labels each.

Hi all I'm at one of my schools where their laptop use is very heavy for a 2/3 form primary school. We have approx 280 laptops across 8 trolleys + some spares or 1on1 laptops. Each trolley is identified by a sheet of coloured card stuck to the doors. I wondering what you all suggest in terms of marking the laptops with asset labels or something else which will help identify which trolley each laptop belongs to. Too many times I turn up to work and laptops are all over the place, some being left on top of trolleys clearly not the same (Lenovo's sitting on top of a trolley full of Dell's). Also too many times my concerns have fallen on deaf ears so continuing to go down that route really isn't feasible. I want to make sure it's less difficult to for staff/kids to make mistakes by making identity of the laptop visual, orange sticker/marking = orange trolley etc. How do you guys do it? What do you suggest? Is there anything that can be purchased like a foil asset tag that has strong glue and difficult to remove? Thanks in advance.