the_quick

So we get that message but as well most of our staff couldn't login to Sims. If I restart SSM, for short period of time we can login. But after that time, we just get a splash screen from Sims and nothing else. If I disable SSM all can login without a problem. Applied the patch, but didn't fix it. Anyone else had similar experience?

We are not looking at changing entire MIS, this was discussed with management and rejected.

We have lots of trips, clubs and all sorts activities that the parents pay for. So it it is nice if students and parent information are there, pull from Sims. Otherwise we have to each time run a report and import that information. Additionally we have staff who can directly claim expenses in the current system, all their details are synced from Sims.

Hi All, We use Sims in our schools, our current finance system has no any native way of working with Sims. We build custom integration tools, but these are not great and our software developer guy left. So we are looking for something better that has some kind of integration with Sims. I used Sims Finance before in my previous school, we are waiting to hear about new development coming together with Sims Next Gen, but Parent Pay group are really quiet about it. Please let me know any suggestions

I have not been to BETT for at least 4 years or more. Previously I just popped in for a few hours. This time round I was there for 3 day (coming from abroad now) - I had a clear plan want I want to look at, who I want to talk to and what sessions/talks I want to attend. Before I mostly came to browse and meet people. I was really surprised how many people came from abroad - for that London makes sense with multiple airports - I met with someone that came from down under ! I found it useful, but AI clearly dominated everywhere. Was really impressed what MS is doing with Teams. And I got lovely lunch from one of our suppliers ! And most important I got a mug from EduGeeks - thanks guys !

I worked in a school where we have a kind of hybrid solution but with limits. Emails were done with gmail, vle was Google Classroom (both staff and students really liked it), we still had Windows domain and windows PCs in the school, with Office packages on these. Plenty of Chromebooks for students to use in classroom, Windows |Desktops were used in ICT/Computer Science. We used free version of Google Workspace - yes, students and teachers had 2 accounts - AD and Google account - but it seemed to work well. The plan was to become server less school and use Google to authenticate to desktop computers. Now I work for school that used 0365 - for office based staff it works well, but I think Teams/OneNote are way too complicated in comparison to Google Classroom. If I could, I would change to Google for schools, with use of 1:1 Chromebooks - these work so well in education.

Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future Of Blizzard Entertainment Really interesting read !

Hi All again Sorry for digging up old topic. I have now moved away from my previous school and landed recently in British School abroad. We use Macs here for both Music and Media Studies- managed in Jamf. Apart from this we use o365 and windows laptops, including 1:1 for students. And now the teachers from Music and Media are asking to buy them Macbooks - what they want costs around 3k - they claim it is for them to be able to do their work - I can see the point, but again we do not give macs to students who do these courses. Bit annoyed to be honest. I'm just concerned it will open can of worms.

Thanks, I wish we could change to something other then Sims - but this option is not on the table for us. Here they are fully committed to Sims Next Gen.

Hi All I work for British group of schools abroad now and trying to make the reporting parents receive a bit better system. Currently they use custom tool written by someone who long left, so we cannot maintain it or change anything. We have Sims for all the campuses, but schools are not entirely happy with these, as Sims doesn't allow attaching multiple pictures. And this is a must. The current report has sections for writing, reading art etc and some of this sections have pictures of the child doing the work or piece of work they have created. Could you share what you use? Or you know of a reporting tool you can recommend. Thanks

Absolutely, good practice would dictate all cabs should go directly to the core. If you are able, do it

My uncle use to live very near Ashdown forest and he had similar privileges - he was never short of firewood. Apart from that a forest needs to be properly maintained, especially a young one- some trees have to be cut down. In my school we have a lot of huge Ash trees, ever so often we prune dead branches and so on. Site manager has plenty of fire wood

I have suffered not along ago from tennis elbow. Started near xmas and it was getting worse, so I ask for GP appointment, but surgery sent me to physiotherapist and good that they did. He diagnosed me with tennis elbow and suggested 2 things. Special exercise for the arm and Tennis elbow strap. It worked, before It was hard for me to lift cup full of tea. After 3 weeks almost no pain and 95% back to normal. Didn't use special mouse or pad, just recommended exercise 4-5 times a day. Here is good one: https://www.nhsaaa.net/musculoskeletal-service-msk/musculoskeletal-service-msk-elbow/tennis-elbow-exercises-msk/ Physio gave me exercise very similar to 1st video on that website - I was told to do that in reverse with a twist. So extend your arm, angle your hand 90 degree and pull fingers towards your arm with other hand, and twist your arm while doing it, hold it and twist in other direction. I could see the results in just few days. I hope I explained it clearly and hope it helps

Haven't cut a lot recently, but I did lots of changes when moved in to the new house. All out bulbs are LED, we had to replace most of the kitchen appliances and with new ones we always chosen the most energy efficient ones. We always make our own lunches at home, I cook dinners most of the evenings - so not many take aways - but this is not new to us. Recently I have cancelled TV license as we don't watch live TV at all. Mostly YouTube, Catch-up TV and Netflix (shared "family" account with 3 friends). I car pool with another person from school - massive savings in the fuel costs. Few month back we switched from Lidl to Asda as it is now cheaper. We are not big spenders, but what we really like is foreign holidays once per year, as this keeps us sane.

If you have school guest wifi - that should do it. We have one that traffic is only allowed internet, no access to local servers at all, only DNS and DHCP. If you don't, I would be very careful about it.