RoyG

That is exactly what has been happening and why scrapping this particular test is so important. My previous school was using the interface as the basis for all year 9 lessons for exactly this reason. AAARRRGGGHHH!!!!!! :angry8:

I suspect in many schools it has been more a case of "This is how you use this rather strange interface to pass the KS3 tests!" RoyG

YESSSSSS!!! Looks like the beginning of the end to me. I'm sure glad we haven't spent any time or money on this bad joke and hopefully won't have to in future! RoyG

P.S. Also have Intelligent Disaster Recovery - boot server from CD, insert last backup tape - sorted! Thankfully I've never had to use it - I think I'd be pretty nervous if I had to!! Also keep backup tapes in fire-proof safe or off site. Roy

We happen to use BackupExec, but the strategies need be no different. Schedules as follows - During term time - Every Friday at 8pm Full Backup - Overwrite (ie Replace) Leave tape in Every Mon, Tue, Wed & Thu at 8pm - Incremental Backup - Append That gives us a complete record of one week's files & settings. Repeat for 10 tape sets. At end of each half-term Full Backup, kept for 1 year During school holidays - Every weekday at 8pm Incremental backup - Append That gives us a complete record of all changes during holiday. We very, very rarely have to restore from tape as Netware has a restore facility (like a super-duper Recycle Bin) that will retrieve most files deleted in the last month or so. Hope this helps, Roy

I've just totted up - and shocked myself!! Our ratio is 371:1 (i.e. 371:me!) I think I need a lie-down! RoyG

Not so much panicking as getting p*ssed off! For the 3rd year in a row our ISP (E2BN/Seimens/Uncle Tom Cobbly...) have managed to lose our broadband connection in the last week of the hols (it went down last Friday!). Even more of a pain this year as we host Moodle on-site & loads of teachers want to upload stuff for the beginning of term. "We'll phone back when we've investigated." Yeah, right - still waiting, despite reminders. Hi ho!! RoyG

This is ludicrous! I wouldn't even bother to guess what they might want to use. I'd install an OS on the PCs & server, install AV, make sure they talk to each other and the Interweb and await further instructions. There's no way you can be expected to set up a usable network until you have detailed information about what the teaching staff want to achive with it. Don't bother trying to talk to individual staff, go straight to SMT and/or ICT Co-ordinator and let them sort it. Such a total lack of planning on their part is nothing short of incompetant. RoyG

Mark - Your Head must be one of the totally short-sighted and power-crazy variety that are screwing up relations in so many schools! Keep talking to the other 5 SMs who backed you on this occasion. Nil illigitimi carborundum - don't let the b*stards grind you down!! RoyG

Try again!!! I know I'm fortunate in having been on the teaching staff and have a good relationship with teachers & SMT. I know that lots of you have less good working relations, but the totally negative attitude I read in some posts certainly can't help! Above all talk to people, put your point of view, be professional. I know it won't work every time, but things sure as hell won't improve if you don't try! Yes, ours is a Grammar School. But as I've said before, that simply means we have a brighter class of villain! Kids are kids! Not all the kids I've tried to use to assist me have been any good, but it's been worth taking some chances for the invaluable contribution made by some of them. Tips - talk and listen to the kids, give them old machines to play with and try new stuff, ask what they want and, within reason, try to help them. Check out with IT teachers which kids they might recommend. I simply don't believe that any school has NO kids who could be useful. Agree 100%.

Not just 6th-formers - over many years I've found student help with running the school IT systems absolutely invaluable. I've very, very rarely given any significant access to servers, but have been able to allocate loads of specific tasks to students which have subsequently been adopted into the school's systems. Recent examples - Linux server set up by a Year10 student, which will host our school's website and Moodle VLE from September. PowerMac set up by 3 Year11 students for video editing in Drama Department. So successful that we've bought 2 new iMacs for general school use. School website designed by Sixth Form group - now maintained by Admin staff. Several 6th formers in the past have helped out with server setups - one of them was subsequently employed by us as a consultant after his graduation. I'm willing to accept the fact that most kids are capable of picking up new ideas & new technologies a lot quicker than us slow-learning adults! Sure, you have to be a bit cautious in what responsibilities you trust them with, but our school's IT facilities would be very much poorer without the input of many students past and present. It's all about getting the kids on your side, instead of confronting them with over-regulation and prescription. RoyG

I managed to persuade the powers-that-be that we needed to evaluate one of these. So I bought one! I'll be lending it out to some of our Tablet power users to see how they rate it for classroom use. Initial impressions are really good, it's pretty fast for all the usual apps & obviously REALLY light to cart around. Main problem it that some windows in various apps are fixed size & sometimes the OK button is off the screen!! Brilliant for watching Live Timing for the Grand`Prix yesterday! RoyG

God knows how the vetting procedure is done, because loads of ELC approved software is pure cack! Conversely loads of good useful stuff is not approved. It seems to me that the approved list is pretty arbitrary. An example of the madness - a year or two ago I was asked to buy graphics software. Adobe Photoshop, £106/licence, approved - Corel Graphics Suite, £16/licence, not approved. We bought Corel - cough!! RoyG

Out of interest, what policy does your school have about kids hooking their own laptops into the school network? And what about PSPs for Internet access in school? RoyG

Webman - "....Perhaps your AV fails or isn't updated for the latest threat..." Let's face it, that could cause problems on any system! "....Just because P2P apps are deleted on a reboot doesn't mean they aren't using them to illegally share files which could land the school/LEA in hot water..." Paranoia squared!!! "....To me, it's like having your server's directly connected to the Internet without a firewall..." Overstatment, or what?! "....and preventing users from having free-reign over the network is better than sorting out the aftermath..." That's "free-rein" - sorry, ex-teacher speaking here!! mark - "....and all the default shares turned off?..." Which? "....Agreed Geezer. It looks like a lot of fuss to set up - and not cheap ...apart from Netware..." Confused! What's a lot of fuss? What's not cheap? The original post on this thread was "Does anyone use some software that undoes any changes to a local machine's hard drive on reboot?" The answer to that seems to be Reborn Card, EZ-Back, Deepfreeze or similar, however you choose to apply network policies. The thread seems to have developed into "How can this silly old b*gger run a network without imposing huge restrictions on what users are allowed to do." My final words on this topic are that our school has a system which has had only one unscheduled server down since 1999 (40 minutes), only 3 student workstations needing any attention this academic year, where kids can use USB drives, CDRs, floppies, Hotmail or whatever else they like to transfer work between work and home, where they have the freedom (within reason) to experiment & develop their IT skills & interests. We have had no instances of lost GCSE coursework or any other important data. When we were using the "restrict the b*stards to the bare minimum", workstation downtime & general hassle was a LOT greater. The school has 860 students, 200+ desktop PCs, 100+ laptops - total ICT technical support staff, me! We have one ICT Manager who looks after Computer Room bookings and classroom support. We are a Grammar School, which doesn't mean it's full of goody-goodies - just generally brighter villains! I'll be 60 years old next month, enjoy my job immensely, enjoy the interaction with IT users of all ages, am not stressed (often!), don't have to work silly hours, enjoy the challenge of new technologies - I'm still learning loads new every day! I'm not saying that the model we have is appropriate for every school, but worth consideration. For it to work it's important to have a good, co-operative relationship between SMT, ICT Department, ICT Support staff and a degree of trust for the kids. Don't fight 'em - talk to 'em! Over & out. RoyG

Webman - AV runs on all w/stns & server. They may have attempted brute force (with my encouragement!) against the server, but have not succeeded. E1uSiV3 - No Reborn cards on server, we (like US Department of Defence) rely on Novell security. If they do install games/P2P they're instantly deleted when the w/stn reboots. ajbritton/NetworkGeezer/DMcCoy - Remote access & file sharing are not enabled on w/stns - particularly the Head's!! NetworkGeezer - I see what you mean about having my rebellious ideas challenged!!! Time to go home. RoyG

They can't bring the network down, the only total freedom they have is on the workstations, which I can restore in the time it takes to reboot a PC. If I did have any real concerns about that, I wouldn't try & fix it by restricting the workstations! I've encouraged some of my very brightest kids (including several finalists in the British Informatics Olympiad) to try and hack the Netware servers and hack the Reborn Card system. They have never succeeded. The Guest account has exactly the same profile as Student! Using your analogy, I would be more than happy to leave my car unlocked, with a big sign on it saying, "Please help yourself", if I had a magic wand to restore the car to its original position and condition in 30 seconds flat! RoyG

It's just a glorified Recycle Bin that works really well. Part of Netware. RoyG

Not so! Netware Salvage will recover any file recently deleted (recently is usually about a week, dependent on spare HDD space on the user volume). Conceivably if a kid only noticed that he'd lost his home directory weeks later, the files modified on the day he ran the scrote's vbs so not on tape via the daily backup would not be recoverable. It hasn't happened in the 7 years we've been operating our present policy. RoyG

Also not a problem, Netware Admin has a very effective salvage facility which can recover anything deleted in the past few days. I've very, very rarely had to use it. Not so fast old fogie rebel! ...So you're saying there is or there isn't the possibility of permanent data loss?? I wouldn't be rash enough to say that there was zero chance of losing data (multiple server HDD failure, nuclear attack.....) but it's as near zero as makes no odds. RoyG

I'm very happy to be challenged - happier still to be a geriatric rebel!! RoyG

How does a teacher ensure in a classroom that little Jimmy is doing his geography assignment not reading a comic? Does he get support staff to prevent any comic getting into any classroom?! Again a question of culture - it's the teacher's problem. OK, we help - the layout of the Computer Rooms means that all student screens are visible and even a teacher(!!) can spot 3d snooker from 10 paces! If the teacher is one of the lazy variety that just sits at the front & lets the kids get on with it, I don't see why I should be the one to enforce discipline! Combination of County firewalls plus BorderManager takes care of that. I'm sorry if I gave the impression that we don't bother with ANY security in the school, it's just the workstations that are open access with the Reborn cards taking care of them. The servers are locked down as securely as we can manage!!!

Not a problem, Novell BorderManager logs all webpages visited by users, regardless of whether it's via IE or Firefox. It's still tedious! Also not a problem, Netware Admin has a very effective salvage facility which can recover anything deleted in the past few days. I've very, very rarely had to use it. I believe it's a question of culture - the more you restrict, the more the kids will fight. I've tried the heavy restriction option which drove me & the kids barmy, but very much prefer the "try what you like, it doesn't bother me" approach. This doesn't imply total freedom for the kids, obviously effective web filtering is essential. It's also essential to ensure that data is 100% secure, with backup & restore systems on servers, workstations & laptops. I can only repeat that in my school's particular situation the policies we have adopted have been really effective. The main benefit has been that all but a minute handful of the kids really appreciate the relative freedoms we've given them, with students, teaching staff & technical staff working with, rather than against each other. RoyG

A software version called EZBack RoyG