the_quick

Sorry, lost cheaper - it should read £30 cheaper. They gave him crappy lenovo with celeron CPU, for around £260 ex vat

The problem with that "point of order" is how those death were calculated. Italy and France calculated all death from Covid, we in UK counted only ones in Hospitals. If we add all the death, it will come to more than double. FT did some calculation (free to read): https://www.ft.com/content/67e6a4ee-3d05-43bc-ba03-e239799fa6ab

I still haven't heard anything about from LA or my head. Just wonder if there is going to be some checks on costs etc. For example we have in our school a kid, that for some reason other county is responsible for. And in the last few days they arrange a laptop for him, brand new, nothing fancy. I was contacted by the supplier and laptop arrived. For some reason I saw the invoice. I could buy the same laptop for £30 just googling it. So I wonder with that scheme, would there be any kind of control - in the end it is paid by the tax payers. Will see..

Our school HT is asking for volunteers to work during Easter break and plan is to do bit more fun activities for the kids of key workers. I work usually during holidays, so I reckon I will be in some days. School is collecting information how many kids we are expecting. On a different matter, canceled hols and flights: My parking at airport parking offers free cancelation and refund , but in vouchers I have to use with them. OK, fair enough I guess car park is still open and I can use it if I really want to. Easyjet - cancelled flight because of Covid again refund given in EasyJet vouchers - not really happy with that - I would prefer refund to my card directly please

@mikeprice

We were told that parent-key workers only can leave kids in school, if both the parent or single parent are key workers. So if mum is a nurse, but father is it support in a private business they will be not allowed to leave kids with us. Will see on Monday how it works

So far there is lots of unknown, HT said they can't predict how many kids will be in school on Monday. So he asks everyone who can to show up on Monday and we will take from there. There is talk about staff rotation and such. We were given questionaire to fill in, asking if we or people we live with have any underling conditions - I guess if anyone do, they will not ask that person to be on rotation. Lots of password changes to kerboodle and other services, teachers are waking up and try to use services they supposed to use for the last few months. Of course everything is expected asap/on the spot. We are busy. Most annoying part is, that there is little guidance from central government DfE.

The most vulnerable to come in, same with kids on free school meals, as they have not the voucher plan yet running. What about areas where most of the kids are on fsm? And lots of staff are already of self isolating. It doesn't look like it was well planned, or is it just me? I'm OK to come in and help, but I have no clue how to teach or take care of big groups of kids. Are schools supposed to come with own plans or will there be some guidance from DfE? I'm not impressed !!!

And if you get really sick no one to help you? Make sure you have someone to do at least some shopping for you. We all need to remember to care of ourselves.

Can we bring forward Xmas, I miss Santa

So they can make this decisions on they own? To close down? I just wonder about details, as Sturgeon said something about providing help with NHS staff kids

I don't if this is wide issue, but we had VPN and remote support problem with some ISPs TalkTalk They will not allow VPN, they said to one member of our staff, they just don't support it They block all kinds of remote support, Teamviewer and logmein rescue doesn't work, chrome remote desktop worked yesterday, doesn't today BT Internet VPN blocked Remote support seemed to work last time I guess they blocked remote support tools after lots of Indian scamming. Going back to school, lots of teachers absent - 16. Very hard to get hold of supply teachers. Decision what next will be taken later today, possibly partial closure. Lots of us complaining about sore throat, but I don't think it is Covid symptom - so maybe another bug making rounds. Reception had a phone call from a parent demanding laptop for their kid in isolation - their home one is broken, after they pour water on it.

The Guardian:

The advice from the government about distancing is not going to work, as it is just an advice, examples: - staff member at home as the child shows symptoms - her partner at work, as if he doesn't work, ho doesn't get paid - another person asked if he will be going to the local pub - of course, we need to support them in those difficult times. I think it is very British, to not do what you being told.

We have around 300 kids absent, out of 1250. Around 5 members of staff self isolating for 14 days - we predict more will follow. I'm lost for words. Small businesses, pubs and restaurants, people on 0 hours contacts and those just made unemployed - all those groups are screwed.

Don't they have a summer in Australia now? And they still get Coronavirus?

When VLE was introduced, we did quick session for each department and in depth session for a delegate from each department. Most did a minimum first and not update anything since - that was around 2 years ago. But I guess you are right, we do have to retrain them

Some interesting request/moves from today: Not my school: Headteacher sent email to parents, with IT support knowledge, that in case of school closure, school will move to using classcharts, O365 and so on - online services and if you have any problem please email IT Support in our school - email of IT support provided - that was last night It support came this morning to see 300+ emails from worried parents In my school. We use VLE, where each department have permission to create their own page, add resources (using g drive) and such - of course lots of departments have not used it for years. Today management team start asking, how see can we (IT team) can bring all departments pages up to date, with all the resources.

In the case school has to shut and it is requested that teachers try to teach remotely - only thing can be expected from teachers, is to reach as many as they can - but they will not be able to force students to do anything. This would be up to the parents. As the school, we fulfil our obligation to provide access to education.

They do on ours, those classes email groups are created by Salamander, from Sims.

Not really a plan, but headteacher asked if I can put quick guides to classroom. I have mentioned meet for live learning and he liked the idea. We had already some teachers that used meet with a success. As we use salamander and g suite, it is easy already. All classes already created in google classroom and it is easy to invite whole class (email group) to Meet.

Eaton here, had APV before, never could get on with their software and were more expensive than Eaton. Eaton now have own VM you can install, not looking back at APC at all

So far only solution was to uninstall OneNote, our new build will not have it.

Early start at 12 with ZX Spectrum, parents sign me up for Logo programing in a local youth centre. Got the bug, few years later got my own PC and started helping others to fix theirs. Did a degree at the local university, a year in a computer shop as a techie helping customers. Became technician in a school, than promoted to a Network Manager. Simply really, computers were always part of my life

Parago - https://www.paragosoftware.com/ Works well, they keep improving it. Has helpdesk (not sure if it is free, as we don't use it), free booking manager.