DrBeaker

I'd also suggest some of this is highly personal, confidential and private information BTW.....bit asking what the CEO's salary is. 😂

Up to you ..... But recommend a managed printer / print service these days. (See if you can find anything about these being mentioned in the Meeting digital and technology standards in schools and colleges https://www.gov.uk/guidance/meeting-digital-and-technology-standards-in-schools-and-colleges requirements to back you up) By context... Some SLT don't have CARS that are 10x years old, let alone a printer. Some of our unmanaged ones are 12x years old and have been warned .. numerous times...when they die, they die and won't be replaced.

They have made changes changes to the app and dumbed it down a bit to me in a few ways, but's IT being fussy as we know what it was like before. Compared to Inventry - there is NO contest. I do hope however this is NOT the start of their downfall (taking on too many customers and not increasing support resources to match) exactly like what happened with Inventry.

Because I'm sure as a lot of us have seen - there's a kickback somewhere in the supply/provision chain to someone for getting X number of devices for their Trust/School etc. Don't say it doesn't happen, I've seen it. And most ended up in the bin after a few years of very expensive waste of money

Yep we now have HAF clubs, summer school, revision classes etc in the summer and holidays. One of the few 'perks' in education was having the peace and quiet whilst undisturbed to get on with work in the summer, that seems to be getting less and less now every year.

As @synaesthesia said - never seen a touchscreen board that needs any calibration. i.e. On Smart E70's that wasn't even an option. Otherwise ... Have you tried resetting it to factory settings? Or maybe a custom display resolution in display settings?

Tell your MAT via SLT to get back on site and sort it out. They've caused the problem, the onus is on them to provide you with a fix.

No longer supported by Microsoft, tell them that

As per @Devaleth there was MASSIVE legal complications regarding accessing SIMS etc post-Bromcom move from ESS. This needs to be an SLT issue. Then they'd also be a question of how valid is the data on such an old sysem/copy? Was it not migrated across to Bromcom during the process?

We did have 2x SB680 Smartboards sat in storage for a few years. Is that close enough OR does it HAVE to be the SB640?

Exactly what a lot of us have seen time and time again, over and over with a lot of edtech systems. Yet generally the changes in SLT and the beancounters over time means we repeat a cycle of "We've seen this happen and don't want it to happen to our school AGAIN"

Had Inventry, initially really impressed originally when it was installed. Thought it was quite cutting-edge. Went downhill / worse year after year it seems with issues, lack of support, reliability etc. Went to SignIn, yet far surpasses Inventry at most turns with minimal issues. I don't miss Inventry.

Not a technical problem. This is a management problem. Along with safeguarding etc and seems like management want a solution but can't be bothered with one and fobbed it off on IT to do. Sorry but that's my 2 cents/impression I'm getting. IT already gets put upon way too much for things nothing to do with us. If their chosen MIS doesn't offer the functionality, that's a SLT-level problem.

TOUGH, that's the message SLT need to get through their thick heads with this, sorry. It's an operating cost / OPEX for the school. Same as the electric, gas, water and electric bill is. Tell them you can get a 0% cost, as long as they have NO IT systems anymore. How some of these staff get to be in positions of leadership without understanding some fundamental operational processes still amazes me. I mean if we take the salary of one SLT away for IT budget and IT waste collections, they'd still come to work right... it's "for the kids" after-all? 😂 Not the high SLT salary, surely? Don't bother trying to give them away. It's way too much hassle.

We have the EXACT SAME argument with Art about Photoshop nearly every year. They need to understand how to edit and manipulate images, not just how to operate a particular bit of software... Are we teaching them HOW to edit and manipulate images, or are we teaching them HOW to operate a particular brand of photo-editing software... beginning with A.

I TRUST the IT staff who are there to do their jobs. They know what needs doing as they're the ones onsite. I don't micro-manage them. I don't dictate to them. I give them the authority and empowerment to challenge issues and contractors who aren't doing the standard of work I'd expect. I respect their unique skillset and knowledge for that site. Access, keys, site contacts ... not an IT issue, that's a facilities/site issue. Signing them into site is a reception/admin/office manager etc issue ... again not an IT issue. All you SHOULD need is a name and contact number (work-supplied mobile preferred) a time they should be there and what work they're there to do. (We often find that info is one-way street as we turn up to rooms, locations etc where site work is taking place e.g. painting, repairs, cleaning etc and no-one had the courtesy to let us know) Don't expect your IT staff to stay late picking up the slop from contractors, ESPECIALLY during the summer time. That's wrong and bad management. Suppliers we've got relationships with/proven work etc. Otherwise the summer can be a busy but should be a 'fun' time of the year for IT teams to get work done without constant interruptions.

Let's just feel for the IT guys there as I bet they're getting very little (morale/wellbeing) support on this for them.

Tell them to move with the times like IT folks get told to when there's new systems and we ask for training ...and get told there's none / no time / no budget.

Some complain about on-site, GPO's etc. "move it all to the cloud" they said. But they WORKED. They had years and years of testing, development, etc. and were far more reliable and timely to push out settings and updates etc. Intune seems to do what it wants when it feels like it.

The great enshitification of everything IT related continues

This is what we've seen so many times. Roles that didn't exist at the start magically created, then you find out they're related to someone in the Trust. Excessive amounts of leadership that don't seem to do anything.

Schools, Trusts and government don't generate money or services like the private sector does and can. If I'm a director of a private company and make £20K profits. I can decide what to do with that, even if it's a new car, a yacht etc as long as my employees are paid and bills paid. If I'm a director of a school, I can't generate £20K 'profit' without cutting costs, services, contracts etc I know these are oversimplified examples but you get the point. Private sector can do what they want with their money, the public sector can't and because of it's scarcity should be even more careful. E.g. when we used to replace keyboards and mice we'd try and reuse every possible part but we see the amount of waste of money in every other department and wonder why we bother

Poor management and bad decisions using public money. Same as govt...schools HAVE no money. They have TAXPAYERS money. And should be diligent in spending every penny of that cash.

+1 for these. Brought one in last few jobs after a recommendation from a colleague. Amazing. Knocks the compressed air cans out of the park. Plastic on nozzles cracked but it did get an awful lot of use and only about £25/30 at the time. Just make sure you take the appropriate H&S precautions as they're quite noisy.

AV745 (TechDisplay) https://www.techdisplay.co.uk/ Had nothing but exceptional service from them all these years and nothing is too much trouble. Highly recommended.