Face-Man

Camden’s Schools’ IT Support Service (SITSS) is a fully traded part of Camden’s Digital Data Services (DDS) primarily delivering support to around 50 schools in Camden. They have created a new role of IT Service Delivery Lead which will be responsible for delivering the services defined in the SITSS Service level agreements (SLA) and supporting the management of the ICT infrastructure and support services. For more details see https://ecum.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_2/job/3035/?utm_medium=jobshare or https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4004285726

Not wanting to go full cycle on this thread but the dfe are saying every school should have a member of SLT who is a "Digital Strategic Lead" https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges/digital-leadership-and-governance-standards Not only should SLT be aware of possible big spend in 3 years they should be the ones planning for it in their Digital strategy

i assume you have already looked at this help from microsoft https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/fix-onedrive-files-on-demand-issues-on-macos-12-1-or-later-8c99b82e-bf6e-4bb1-a3df-d0cc5bcbff93 Could you not do a local copy then sync back to the cloud ? in terms of backup we have started using https://www.arqbackup.com/ to backup direct to onedrive or google drive and they do education discount if you ask.

Sorry I was just trying to be provocative.... after all the cloud is just someone else's computers (or servers) The main difference is apple philosophy is for local personal users rather than managed central users.. it has got better with MDM and ASM but really they are trying to sell shiny expensive stuff that are great for the end vip users but hard to manage in a microsoft environment especially in music/media labs (don't get me started on hard drives filling up with user profiles) My response when asked is always everything you want to have is possible but it needs to be fully costed including the additional expertise need to integrate with other schools system eg SIMS (there is another company that didn't get the whole severs are a thing in the past) Still at least the DFE are helping with these guidelines .... Though if your fully cloud do you then need an on prem solution to meet the 3-2-1 backup requirements ???

s*** I swear I could argue MacOs is a home operating system after all they have retired Mac server... Just need to add Jamf to the price :-)

The new standards https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges/laptop-desktop-and-tablet-standards say all devices need - "Operating system - Enterprise or education-grade operating systems, which means they are designed for professional rather than home use." and "Devices should be centrally managed by IT support." Does anyone think we can now tell a head teacher that there request for an Apple Mac laptop no longer meets the DFE standards ? (that's before we add the extra cost for apple care for 3 years warranty)

The LGFL have a free RAG audit for school websites https://lgfl.net/safeguarding/school-website-rag-audit-tool there are different requirements depending on what type of school you are

email response from LGFL "I want to apologise for the internet issues you may have experienced over the last two days. We are seeing unprecedented levels of demand at the end of term. We are taking urgent steps to address this including emergency increases in network capacity. John Jackson, CEO LGfL " Or in the tradition of Scooby doo "We would of gotten away with if it wasn't for the pesky teachers streaming content at the end of term"

The only thing to note is if the ipads are not on wifi they can't reconnect until the passcode is entered so if the teacher forgets and the dhcp lease expires then no mdm can then tell the ipad that it needs to clear the passcode. I've had to wipe lots of ipads manually when teacher forget the passcode ...

The DFE have just released their report covering the state of ICT provision and support in English schools Technology in schools survey report: 2022 to 2023 (Site) Direct PDF Link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/655f8b823d7741000d420114/Technology_in_schools_survey__2022_to_2023.pdf Might be useful if you need to "keep up with the Jones" when asking for certain provisions but also help say at least we are not the 6% of primary or 1% of secondary school who don't have any anti-malware and Anti virus protection

You can see from Technology in schools survey report: 2022 to 2023 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/655f8b823d7741000d420114/Technology_in_schools_survey__2022_to_2023.pdf Table B2 Number of years the digital technology strategy does (or will) cover 1/4 of school leaders don't know the number of years their IT plan is for.

It is difficult to advise when every school starts from a different place but I would first make sure all your "pluming" network infrastructure (switches , cabling, wifi etc) is working and not going to cause issues. Then look at if broadband is limiting what can be taught and is ready to move to cloud. finally look at end user devices looking first at areas that will have the biggest impact and look at a rolling program of replacement. In terms of justifying what is required I would look at the the dfe standards https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges also there is advice on the NEN website https://www.nen.gov.uk/advice/

If you are looking for a new connection it is worth making sure that your provider meets the DFE recommendations as who know when these will change from recommendation to requirement. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges/broadband-internet-standards-for-schools-and-colleges which does now include a resilient connection We use LGFL now NGFL and they provide this as part their price and are a one stop shop for filtering, adobe, meraki etc. I know that not everyone like that as a solution but it works for us.

Also some versions of apple apps only install if the ios/ipados is the latest version (eg GB 2.3.15 required ipados 17 or newer) I've also noticed that some time when vendors use different version number protocols that meraki does see that 2.3.14 is older than 2.3.15 might be to do with multiple decimal points

it is a pity that school can't just use youtube player for education https://blog.youtube/news-and-events/player-for-education-making-edtech-better-for-learners/ but if you have money to subscribe to a third party it will remove this problem.