pete

Guessing there weren't any comms to customers about this choice between security updates or functional backups?

Click the headset icon at the top (then pick Microsoft as the support provider if you have N+1 options).

One of our schools has a 3G pitch under construction. The intent is community use out-of-hours and school use during the day. The suggested access control method for out-of-hours is Clubspark.com (online pitch booking platform) linked to SmartAccess (gate access controller) for the generation of time-limited PIN codes for gates. We have an existing Net2 system across the trust and I'd like (for school use) the existing staff ID badges to work on the 3G pitch gates. I could do this at the very basic level (Net2 controller and SmartAccess controller trigger the same locking mechanism), but has anyone using Clubspark integrated it with Net2 and removed the need for SmartAccess? Google suggests it may be possible with Middleware, but details are a bit sparse. (and yes, have emailed Paxton). cheers Pete

I'll echo the "integrate with Wonde". Our experience (Lincolnshire) is that all too often we get a quite-last-minute iffy looking request from an overworked practicioner who expects us to send a spreadsheet with a password of "schoolname" or "same password for every spreadsheet in the county". And then I get a "the NHS are doing dodgy things with personal data again" email from the school office(s).

From what I recall, providing you're not over your license count (or doing it to circumvent licensing) Smoothwall don't (didn't) care back when we did it for testing / migration. @tom_newton would know any current licensing Jenga that's necessary.

Waterproof winter coat w/removable liner Boating/sailing cagoule that's properly* waterproof Lightweight down jacket Softshell that's waterproof enough if I walk fast. Warmer softshell that I don't care if it gets filthy. Denim jacket Long wool coat Pack-a-mac jacket that doesn't breath at all, but gets thrown into a bag occasionally if I'm going to be gone for a few days but don't want to lug a coat around *handles head-on "WTF are we out on a boat in this?" storms with no shelter.

^ Most students who have the Bromcom MIS app on their phones also have the Outlook Mobile app on their phones (due to *interesting* design choices in the initial authentication setup for the student MIS app). Outlook mobile can function as a (not particularly great) second factor. If it's working, great. If it breaks and it's the only second factor it's annoying to resolve compared to standard MFA reset.

^ Can second the LR recommendation. We (previously CRB and Vericool in two secondaries) went from 3-4 cashless catering tickets per week to maybe 1 every 6 months because they're hoping we/LR can find or create a very niche report. I actually have to RTFM when doing things in LR because I don't really need to touch it day-to-day.

There's a nature walk with a clear view of the west ~10 mins walk from me. Just need to find a cardboard box of reasonable dimensions.

Happily, we banned SMS and voice auth more than a year ago and moved the handful of SMS users to a physical token or an authenticator app. The interesting part comes when the (token-using) person needs N+1 authenticators for different work-related websites that can't use an existing source of truth. You can get physical tokens that can hold N+1 authenticators (https://www.token2.com/products/token2-molto-1-i-multi-profile-totp-hardware-token) but setup isn't straightforward for an end-user.

This breaks our device licensing group (multiple school in the same tenant, but the UI only allows you to specify one group) and our "People allowed to create groups in M365" group. The latter is annoying (I can add a group per school if I really have to), the former is a pain in the backside with 3 months notice.

^ Actually yeah - cable pass-through grommets of an appropriate size may also work as "pegs".

Madonna will be heartbroken.

Looking at the image, Is the handle just a push-fit, plastic into plastic, that wears out? Could you retrofit/reinforce with an appropriately-sized chicago screw, maybe a couple of washers and some loctite? If your DT dept has a scrap acrylic pile and a laser cutter, you could probably get away with colour-matched washers.

https://github.com/Virtastic/openmw-web (you need access to game assets if you want to play the whole game)

Depends on the status page layout, but a big enough monitor and Chrome or Firefox's split view in conjunction with "open previous windows and tabs on launch" may also work.

^ We found the Verkada kit was very sensitive to deoderant / body spray. Especially in the girls toilets. Whether that's overlap between flavouring compounds, I don't know (less likely to have something that tastes like Lynx Africa).

So, follow-up for anyone wondering. Finance had to do some legwork, but overall the secondary school migrations were straightforward. Like, suspiciously "it would be nice if something went a bit wrong because that's more reassuring" well, with only a handful of parent queries across two schools.

I've used Iron Mountain in the past ( https://www.ironmountain.com/en-id/services/document-scanning-and-digital-storage ) and they're very good. They are not cheap, however.

^ That stuff (description, dept, line manager, extension, office etc) is all very visible as soon as you sync to M365 and hover over a person or click on them. Can't remember how much Google Workspace sync off the top of my head, but there are some optional synced attributes from AD you can turn on.

I mean, back in the day that'd just get you the cheatsheet for Granny's Garden*. *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granny's_Garden

^ Basically that. They get a "you need to do X by Y" notification, with nagging and then you get the domain. Also, make sure you create [email protected] accounts for administering Apple School. You need an account that's not synced by Apple School if it goes sideways. Make sure any cert renewals are linked to the appleid.com account(s).

We've had Iiyama touchscreens for a while now (easily 4 years). Apparently anecdotally the Airplay option (via iiShare app on the TV) has been troublesome for staff trying to connect to the TVs for $indeterminate time (few months) and we've been trying to work out why. We know it did work without issue during install and at least in September 2025 it was working. We've made no changes in VLAN/switching/routing configs that would inhibiti connectivity during that time. Airplaying to an Apple TV works on all the devices below. I don't think it's the Airplay implementation on the tablets/laptops. TVs have an ethernet connection on the same VLAN as the devices using AirPlay. We're still in the testing phase but so far: iPad Air M3 = erratic behaviour when connecting via iiShare AirPlay. Rebooting the TV allows connection (and connect/disconnect cycles) but it isn't a long-term fix. iPad Gen 8 (base model) = One iPad (same firmware and age as the others) connects flawlessly every time. Four other other iPads only connects after the TV has been rebooted. Macbook Air M1 = erratic behaviour when connecting via iiShare AirPlay. Macbook Air M4 = erratic behaviour when connecting via iiShare AirPlay. All of the above can reliably connect if we use the EShare App's AirPlay functionality on the TV. Has anyone else come across this? cheers Pete

Danger of a misguided whistleblower running around all the local papers saying "Sigma at SchoolName puts admin credentials in the description fields of user accounts" though. We tend to use these https://canarytokens.org/nest/generate for honeypot-type activities.

Sure, if the organisation wanted to create a public record that they'd done the IT equivalent of posting credentials on a billboard outside Tesco and then acted surprised when someone tried them. Suspect it'd get dismissed though.