StevieM

I've got the first 5 series(es? What's the plural of series? Alternatively, what's the singular of series?) on disc, along with the four DTD movies. Still got series 6 & 7 to look forward to. Now there's an idea for when my brother asks me what I'd like for my birthday. Edit: Oo oo and series 8. Edit - Edit: I can't see any video. Is it Smoothwall getting in the way?

Improve my trumpeting skills. Just bought myself the Grade 3 Jazz pieces. The plan is to enter myself in the autumn term. EDIT: Enter myself for the exam!

You could have at least put the hood up to make yourself more like your avatar.

7 weeks??!!! I want to come and work in your school!! Our kids get a day short of 6 weeks and, because of INSETs, the staff get 5 1/2. We're hoping for a server upgrade, including 2008 to 2012 transition and our first foray into virtualisation. Just waiting on the final quotes...

Another option would be to create an RSS feed, to which parents could subscribe and be alerted when the website is updated. Yeah, right! The only person who generates content on our website is me (apart from the newsletters).

That's really kind of you to offer to donate a prize, @hardtailstar. Let me just go and get my 'Bring me the Box!!!' t-shirt and gobstopper from Stock2ber... (yes, it's STILL going!)

We have a text messaging service, which we use to notify parents of any issues that arise at short notice, e.g. after-school club cancelled, school closing due to adverse weather conditions, etc. Other than that, it's just our website. I've got to say, though, that I'm really proud of our school website, which I built from scratch several years ago (when I new absolutely NOTHING about building websites) and have since completely overhauled. Despite it's almost gargantuan proportions (300+ pages), I am regularly complimented by visitors on how easy it is to navigate and find exactly what they are looking for. It is (usually) updated at least once a week during term-time, even if that is just to make the weekly newsletter available to download as a pdf. Personally, I don't really see the point in a school app, particularly if it is just for one platform. I have, however, considered creating a cut down, text-based version of our website featuring basic current information, but it's not on my list of priorities. I can access it on my Windows phone without any bother. Nor is there much point, for us, in a termly email. I do a monthly round-up of all the newsletters on our main site, and all past newsletters for the current academic year are available to download. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to post a link to our website on here or not, but feel free to PM me if you (or anyone else) would like to take a look.

Going back to the OP, although @cdunn93 has almost certainly already left the (burning) building, I'd recommend sticking with paper registers and buying an OMR to reduce the workload for admin staff!

I don't think ANYONE has even remotely insinuated that. The fact that we have done a head-count/taken a register may not be necessary for the Fire Brigade, but it may be necessary in accordance with school/LEA/government safeguarding children guidelines. If this is the case, it would be the Fire Brigade telling US how to do OUR job. And just a few FTFYs Simple opinions [The Fire Brigade] don't need one. If the school governors says we need one, then we need one. Won't be any use [to the Fire Brigade] to have one. It may well be of use to the teacher/school. They may not be accurate. However, teacher's are generally pretty good at taking registers. They get enough practice! They would be ignored [by the Fire Brigade], not by the school. ...but they may help to save a school's reputation in a negligence claim or, heaven forbid, a corporate manslaughter charge. If, by taking a register, I am reassured that every child for whom I have responsibility is safely accounted for - I would be happy to waste my time by taking a register twenty times over.

The Greens are the only party I will (and do) vote for when I get the chance - i.e. European elections, which are also PR so I know my vote is actually counted. Any other time, I always spoil my ballot paper.

Saying that, it would serve another purpose. If I knew I had 27 children in my class and I had 27 children lined up in front of me, I would feel a heck of a whole lot better!

That's because they've got a patch over one eye!

You can pass the information on to the fire crew when they turn up, who will then (as you rightly suggest) ignore it and continue with their sweep. However, when the inevitable backlash comes from parents/LEA/press/solicitors etc., you can say, with confidence, that you identified the issue and took appropriate steps to inform those involved in the rescue attempt. Can you imagine if the school's response was, 'We didn't know little Johnny was still inside because we didn't weren't sure how many pupils there should have been.'? Whether it serves any other purpose, at least doing a head-count is going some way to covering your own back.

Surely all you would need would be a number of children in each form group, rather than the specific pupils. If a form teacher knows that there should be 27 children in the class and there are only 26 at the assembly point, does it really matter who it is?

Really!!?? You are wise beyond your years, young man. I'd always assumed you were probably mid-30s...ish (that's meant to be a compliment, by the way!). As a forty-something non-voter (well, spoiler of ballot paper) I just want someone I can actually vote FOR! I used to have a badge that I wore regularly around election time that read, 'Don't vote. It only encourages them!'. Now THERE'S an idea for a new t-shirt!

Hahaha! Thanks. After reading that bit of extra information from @localzuk, your post now makes perfect sense.

What I don't understand about cabinet ministers is that very few of them have ever had any experience in the area of which they have responsibility. They have romantic ideals about what they would like to see happening, but absolutely no understanding of what actually happens in real life. Perhaps the next Speaker of the House, should be someone who has never worked in politics. PS I've just put a notice about Gove on the staffroom board... and a big smile on our DH's face!

Wow! I take it your establishment is a little larger than my 360 seat KS2 school.

That's a BIG price difference! We could license 12 processors and 12 VMs for the price of a single DC license. Server Standard subscriptions definitely look the way to go then. Thanks, again.

Thanks, @localzuk. So just to clarify: If we were looking at a two processor setup with 4 VMs, I could either purchase two Server Standard subscriptions or 1 Datacenter subscription and we'd be covered?

Thanks, James. I'm still a little confused though. I've been quoted for an outright purchase of 2 x Server Standard licences and CALs for all current devices by two different providers and, on average, it works out about 6 or 7 times as expensive as a quote for an annual Server Standard and CALs OVS-ES based on FTEs. With Windows, each device must have an existing licence for a qualifying OS (i.e. W7 Home Premium) before we can use our volume licence to upgrade to Pro or Enterprise. Is it the same with Server? Do I need to purchase the licences in addition to the subscription? If this is the case, would it be possible to simply purchase a single Server Standard licence (to cover two physical processors) and a Server Datacenter through OVS-ES to enable me to upgrade the OS to cover multiple virtual machines? (By the way, I have emailed our current reseller about this but it usually takes a few days to get a response to questions over licensing.)

We currently have an OVS-ES subscription for Windows and Office, but we'd previously purchased Server 2008 and CALs outright. Now that we are looking at replacing our server and upgrading to 2012, I thought it would be worth adding it to our subscription but I have a few questions. Is there a requirement to purchase a COA like there is for the Windows subscription? If we purchased a Server 2012 R2 subscription, would that cover multiple installations on both physical and virtual machines? Would CALs based on the number of FTEs cover all devices? Do we need to specify a particular version of Server? Any advice would be really welcome, as I find the whole licensing thing a bit of a minefield.

To which the only response can be (a very high-pitched) 'Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!'

I certainly hope those thanks were given by proxy. If not, get off your laptop/tablet/phone and get on with your honeymoon!

Friends of the Earth are campaigning to make it easier for schools to install solar panels. Read the info, sign the petition and help to make it easier for schools to 'Run on Sun'