SBM

Thanks They provide filtering and email. Our website hosting is outsourced, and I've already taken control of our domain so we can move away from the LEA's email service. We can manage filtering in house fairly easily and I'm no fan of their existing filtering which constantly gives me a headache (Edugeek is blocked, for example, and despite a request to have it unblocked it's been 2 weeks and I've not heard back).

Firstly, not sure if this is in the right section of the forum but I didn't know where else to place it. I am starting to look around at coming out of our LEA's broadband service to our school. I need to give 6 months notice to the end of contract, so need to have a decision in place by September. We are a small school, approx 120 children on site with about 100 staff. We are a special school and as such the internet is not used extensively. At most, we will have no more than 20 users on it at any one time. (At the moment, we only have 40 class computers and a further 10 office/staff room machines - most of the children who use the computers work from local programs and do not extensively utilise the internet). We currently pay some £6500 per year for the Broadband SLA. I've obtained some quotes for a 10Mb leased line for about £5k per year. 20Mb would be £5.5k per year. However, and please excuse my ignorance here, but is there any reason I could ditch a leased line all together and go with a business 'unlimited' regular broadband account? We're close to the exchange which is FTTC enabled, so I should be able to receive 20Mbps on a "regular" broadband connection which would cost me less than £500 a year! Am I missing anything obvious?

Hi Synaesthesia, thanks for your reply. I didn't mention in my first post, but we are a "Special School", so the in-class set up is unlike most mainstream primary or secondary schools. We will have 2-3 iPads (or at least that is the plan) per class of 8-12 pupils. The pupils will not have an iPad each and will often be working on different things at different times, depending on the level of the child. The IWBs are often used as a separate learning device either for an individual child or small groups of children (perhaps with vision difficulties or who cannot use an tablet device) so are very much needed. In addition, the lack of Office or integration with our network would be a sizeable drawback for the teachers. This is a huge shame as I think the teachers would love the iPad and at £260 ex VAT for the iPad 2 they are IMO good value. Another option would be to allow them to keep the laptops, but simply purchase a very basic tablet to allow them to take photo and video which would be stored on the servers. Most of the lower end tablets run Android? Can this integrate into a Windows network in any way to allow photos taken on the tablet to be stored on the server? I haven't totally discounted the iPad, especially for SMT, but the downsides to me are that to run SIMS, we'd need to use something like Emerge which carries a high cost. I also wouldn't be able to use SIMS Personnel or FMS unless it was via RDP (or at least that is my understanding), and RDP with a touch screen device doesn't seem the slickest way of doing it. The iPads in class will be pretty much stand alone, without the need to integrate with our existing network except simply having access to the WiFi. I had a play with the HP Elitepad and they are very iPad like with the quality, but as you say, they are about 50% more expensive than the Acer when you include the dock, keyboard etc, and I don't have the budget for this for all the teachers! Ho hum.

Hello, first post on this site but what a great resource! I'm not an ICT Tech, but a School Business Manager just doing some research! Each of our teachers currently have a fairly basic laptop. The laptops are now between 3 and 5 years old and are somewhat tired and are scheduled to be replaced. The teachers (and the rest of my SMT) are keen to introduce tablets for the teachers/SMT, as they can be used to take photos and video for assessment as well as the usual tablet functions. It makes logical sense to me to replace the laptops with a tablet/convertible tablet device. It would need to: Take photos and video; Have access to our file server; Have the ability to use Microsoft Office (365?); Run SIMS for class registers (and for me; FMS); Dock or be able to be connected to a SMART board and speakers. My research has suggested that a Windows 8 device would be the best machine to use. I've looked at a few, and tried out a few at a recent ICT event I attended. I was impressed by the Acer Iconia W510 which I am told will do all of the above, plus have the ability to be used as a laptop (or notebook) when connected to the keyboard. I have found them around £400 ex VAT which is in the ball park I was hoping to spend. The downside was that they did not feel as well made as the iPad (which we'll be introducing in the classroom for pupils) or some of the more expensive machines. I'm looking really for opinions on what device may be suitable, or whether I am in the right ball park with the Acer. One company I spoke to suggested a Microsoft Surface, but as I'd need the full fat Windows 8, rather than RT, the price is somewhat higher than I would ideally want to pay - although I could stomach a Surface Pro for the SMT and something along the lines of an Acer for the class teachers. What do you think?