DrBeaker

For home use yes. Put 2x AP's and the controller in during Xmas (busman's holiday eh?) and worked fine since then. For a PoE controller, it's impressive and rock-solid. I know TP-Link can be the butt-end of jokes, but most stuff I find is pretty solid to be fair.

There's also plenty of reports and evidence that some 'new build' schools are far worse than the ones they've replaced. Large open spaces means too much noise, loads of wasted space etc. e.g. https://nation.cymru/news/new-school-plagued-with-behavioural-issues-not-fit-for-purpose-teachers-union/ https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/executive-head-crisis-hit-pencoedtre-28457650

@mikeprice true There's good and bad, competent and incompetent, overpaid and underpaid in all strands of school staff to be fair. Leads into the discussion of devaluing of IT jobs again though when IT professionalism is seemingly treated in less regards than site staff. I've seen it myself however when building and site issues have had botched repairs or repairs ignored yet an increase in management staff. Not fixing the issues leads to the 'broken window' theory and lower staff morale and issues with students learning and behaviour in a poor environment.

Let's be honest here... 1) There IS money but it is NOT being spent on building or IT infrastructure, but on top-heavy management structures within academies up and down the country. e.g. I know exactly what I do all day, every day. I couldn't tell you what some of the SLT do all day long however yet they cost more. 2) Then there's the issue of having competent site staff who actually know what they're doing.

All of these DFe standards link into the thread on devaluing of jobs here i.e. More and more and MORE is being asked of school IT Technicians - demands, responsibility, SLA's etc. Now the DFE is saying about 'acceptable levels of downtime'. Yet most IT staff get to overtime, no TOIL, no flexible working etc compared to teachers or estates teams to be able to sort out 'downtime'. Yet in most cases the pay level and compensation packages of school IT Technicians aren't matching suit. No wonder why there's a recruitment crisis in the public sector.

^ THIS 100% I add up the cost and send the costs onto them/finance department etc. It's up to SLT/Pastoral teams after that with the teachers. ^ THIS 100% It's 100% a classroom management issue, which is down to behaviour and control of the classroom - which is down to teachers. As part of core teacher standards - to control and manage behaviour If you put 30x new keyboards and mice in an IT room unusued for 6x weeks- they wouldn't magically have missing keys, unplugged cables etc. Honestly - my 2 cents. Don't bother as guess who will end up being responsible for checking the cameras. Yep, you guessed it. The IT department. Been there done that in the past, when we did finally have 100% proof of an incident, SLT did nothing about it. So that money was totally wasted.

I wouldn't mind a copy of the original BECTA document if you don't mind PMing me a copy please?

Use token keys. Pushback the issues to SLT. Otherwise SLT will happily make IT the enemy/scapegoat for it. YMMV and just my 2 cents - but Staff shouldn't have to use their own mobile phones for it, especially so with the lower-paid support staff.

Make it a requirement of purchasing (your IT tech spec) that monitors have to have a standard kettle lead plug - end of, or IT don't support it. I don't even buy my own monitors with barrel-style connectors for largely the same issue.

Labels get pulled off despite all our attempts. We put them back on again, they get pulled off again. Ultimately IMHO that's down to student behaviour/classroom management and teachers/Pastoral to sort. If you really want to get into it - As part of DFe teacher standards (#7 - Manage behaviour effectively to ensure a good and safe learning environment) - so they're not doing their job by letting this happen. One reason why teachers get paid far more because of upholding these 'professional standards'. As the labels don't remove themselves do they? Been there done that, got the T-shirt with the room checks - Honestly... Waste of your time, won't be recognised as being proactive etc. Equipment doesn't randomly break these days as much as it used do. As the keyboards and mice don't randomly loose keys during the day themselves, do they? The signing in and out should be an admin thing, not IT. Good luck and we ALL feel your pain with this. Just keep the IT stuff working. Anything else is down to teachers and SLT to do their jobs.

If you did, you could easily sell this to schools! YMMV and this is my own 2 cents - But at some point teachers should act like the professionals they're supposed to be and follow the rules set out to report issues. The rules and processes are in place as 1) they work and 2) keep everything flowing smoothly and 3) track/audit misuse and damage and 4) show HOW MUCH WORK the IT team does behind doors to keep the systems running. Bear in mind we don't do this to be unhelpful as we have to do this for the above reasons. They know what classroom and block they're in, as they have to be in that room to teach the students. So "I don't know" doesn't fly with me.

Not showing for me either in the Play store. I was wondering about this myself.

Always ALWAYS used the Logitech R400 ones. They lose them ... but cheap enough to replace....especially when I recharge them the replacement cost. Being pretty much idiot-proof helps as well.

Hi All, Did anyone hear any news on this at all? NEOS were the best trainers we ever used and are after something similar.

What about the DfE Covid laptops being a waste of public funds then my friend? Academies with excessive salaries being a waste of public money?

No - this should be treated as a proper project and require kit and infrastructure that is totally new and meets today's standards. Including proper building designs for server rooms, air con, comms cupboards etc. Would they take the old toilets, sinks, piping etc from the old school?

Yep unfortunately I suspect many of us weren't alone in very last-minute thinking on that front. I know for one thing I had to think of something in less than 1x hour on a Friday and get it ready for the Monday including priority delivery - in the middle of a pandemic. A lot of DFe devices had 64GB eMMC SSDs that wouldn't fit the Windows image.

Some devices require you to change the whole top panel instead of just the keyboard. They're intentionally designed to be disposed of and not repaired, but replaced. The cost of parts and labor to do that is more than the device is worth. Deliberate planned obsolescence I'm afraid.

Clearly no-one in schools apart from IT support understand device/endpoint lifecycles - DfE laptop firm profits soar by nearly 50% to £207m https://schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-laptop-firm-profits-soar-by-nearly-50-to-207m/#:~:text=Pre%2Dtax%20profit%20leapt%20by,performance%20has%20exceeded%20all%20expectations%20%E2%80%A6

I hope to God, that the company who supplied Covid DFe laptops is not involved in any of these 'frameworks'

The spec is atrocious. Wouldn't give you £30 for the devices. Generally non-repairable as well.

Hi, Apologies not had chance to check until today. Checked my lists and stores etc but I don't have any of those I'm afraid. Honestly thought we did but must be thinking of a previous place where we definitely did have some (even the EMP-S3). Given that I would recommend saying it's too old and more economical to replace with a new brighter projector with better image quality.

Don't reinvent the wheel, if it's something they want use a commercial service like @jthompson suggested. Then they'll probably find the cost for it is more than they're gaining in lettings income and go back to pen and paper/diary anyway.

I believe when they end updates the device's life has ended. Thought they had 2x years guaranteed and that was it? Running it past without future updates is a security risk for management to decide on.