mthomas08

I would actually say the time for IT Managers is on the rise. Even for MATs they are going down the route of highly paid professionals to over see the entire Trust. That isn't necessarily Network administrator work either but generally - Your system will have this, I will setup everything and it's down to your School IT Staff to maintain. That School will still have an "IT Manager" who does the budgeting, planning and over see's generally any major projects. I also once saw a job rather local ish to me which was on £45K+ and in all honesty I was tempted to consider it (it was pretty much Network Manager but just for a Trust). I also find more and more Schools (that I see) are going for more experience and qualifications above the standard of employing Ex Students who know how to replace a Graphics Card. Although pay is still lacking compared to Business's I have seen a better pay in todays world compared to the lowest possible pay 10 Years ago when Schools wouldn't even consider another 1-2K to keep an experienced Staff. Now I see Schools willing to pay that extra 2K to keep some one. You only have to see how Schools seriously struggle with IT because they don't have experienced or qualified IT Staff. My current job and my previous job are both examples - no direction just IT Staff fire fighting all day. IT is no different to the site work - it needs maintained unless you go Externally and pay some one else to do it. Unless of course you scrap IT and go back to basics. Was going to post this in the other one but doing it here.

Must of missed this thread so looking through it now: Maybe just me but at that old I wouldn't be thinking of replacing them. Then again because I end up working in systems that start in a mess and spend years trying to get them to the standard rolling age of 5 Years, I've rarely had the chance to actually do it. Personally I think with redundancy and reliability of equipment the standard doesn't apply any more. We have a Virtual Server that was expensive and it's now 3 Years old, it's had no issues so far and seems to be running perfectly still as if it was 1 day old. If parts started to fail often, that's where I would start thinking okay enough is enough. It has enough redundancy though that if parts do fail we can replace with little to no down time. I wouldn't consider this for replacement till it was at least 5 Years old but I would plan for it as a contingency replacement not something I WILL replace until it becomes a concern. Our Hyper V is currently on 65-70% usage/capacity used and is working very well with zero issues. I think on it's 5th year I will think about it but so far, touch wood - no need to even consider it. Storage though.. that really is a whollllllleeee different ball game. That's how I feel towards PCs too. I need to be replacing what most likely will fail or the lack of performance out weighs costs. No point replacing something that could very well be used/useful and is working - especially with budgets being cut for Schools. I also have a meeting today with Governors on proving what I do for cost control (this is important, anyone involved in heavy spending is having one to ones with the Governors). Likewise I am considering Cloud but as mentioned in other posts. Do I like the idea of our Film/Art Students and even a portion of our IT ones saving large files and downloading them to a "Cloud" based solution. BUT because I believe in being thorough even in systems I question - I have asked what costs/work would be involved in a possible new Broadband provider in sticking our internet connection on something fast enough to keep up. Currently we are on 100MB, capacity hitting up to 75% an average due to the amount of BYOD/Internal devices we have. Now consider our internal devices no longer going to servers for data/email internally instead going through our internet. We've already upgraded our Internet from 50MB to 100MB due to capping it consistently (which is why we are still hitting 75% right after we upgraded). Still I like to plan for a New Data server and Cloud based options. Backups, restoring emergencies and restoring Student work from 3 months ago will be on my considerations. Including our reliable the Internet is. I like the idea of saving us a lot of money though

+1 for HyperV. We use it here and used at previous places. Does what it says on the tin and the GUI is very easy to setup, maintain and do what you want. Server Spec - it really depends what you plan on putting on it. I tend to aim for the stars because of any additional systems/developments can be done. 2x Intel processors (good ones), plenty of RAM and HD space - the final two are really essential for plenty of VMs. We currently have 7 servers on ours and still a bit of room for future usage. 1x DC 1x Data Storage 1x Print System 1x Virus Protection Management 1x Imaging System 1x Software Deployment Server 1x XiBo 1x Testing new OS's etc 1x RDP Server Testing We used it for any temp builds while we upgraded other servers so there was no down time that the users noticed. Future planning we have a few more in the next 1-2 Years that we plan on switching to the Virtual Server. Our next server purchase if we don't go Cloud based will also be virtualised which allows us better redundancy and so far in my experience the failures have caused barely to no downtime.

Yes it is an interesting article. I do like the part of: "Many of these schools will choose to work together in multi-academy trusts [MATs] allowing them to share resources, staff and expertise to drive up standards, and, in many cases, better support their sustainability" I really do like that part. Last time I got told that, there was a ton of redundancies, manipulation, scheming and general denial of what was happening. While certain individuals were given big promotions and pay rises. The term "work together" was in fact "take over". Still, I'm sure it doesn't include every MAT.

Glad others have faced this, we too are looking at pulling the plug on Realsmart. Unsure if it will happen this year or next though. Something previous management signed up to with no real testing. I won't miss them, nor the company rep who spent far too much time telling me how crap Microsoft is and how wonderful Google/Apple/Cloud is.

Had some one tell me to get a decent grooming kit. Now I keep my beard tidy with a grade 3 on my shaver. It keeps it trim and tidy then use a clean shaver to do my neck and top cheeks. As much as I would be happy just to leave it, if its too big it gathers more food than my mouth and irritates. Now it's tidy, presentable and makes me face look healthy and thin. At least what women tell me.

Thank you Sorted our issue and all status quo.

Slightly off topic but can someone provide a copy of the latest PapercutMF. Put a long story short, our reseller who goes a little slow needs to send us the link for it. We've got an urgent issue that will be fixed in v16. We got the license which he sent us but still waiting for the link.

Met him once, made me laugh in 5 seconds. Will be missed and another one of the old generation comedy stars. When comedy was just that - comedy. None of this PC crap or social network whining because people don't have back bones anymore. Makes it hard to take when the great comedians are passing away every year that goes by. Now let me go buy some Fork Handles I mean Four Candles.

I couldn't take it serious the second I saw a comment that claimed he is a bigger threat than terrorism. I'm no fan of most politicians if not all, I certainly am not a fan of David but branding him as a bigger threat...... Enough said really.

We still heavily use our Moodle but it's more in house with the SIMs link. Issue from our side is we have things like SLG, RealSmart and a few other services like Kerboodle. The dream world for me would be all those systems in one, which would mean our Students dont need a dozen usernames/passwords..... Our SLG and Parent Pay systems have been proven to work and well, with Parents too. We are most likely pulling the plug on RealSmart which was a waste of money. SLG seems to be more and more relied upon and likewise like Kerboodle.

I would agree. It's why Governors tend to be a broad group, local business owners, parents and staff. It's also why some Schools openly advertise those posts to the Community and not necessarily shall we say "certain" individuals just because they follow the HT's way. Also I am a strong believe in a Business Manager position, not a Teacher but instead someone with more Business/Financial sense. Although I would support let the Teachers run the curriculum side of Teaching, I think non Teachers should also be strongly involved. We currently have a BM/2 Deputies and they are on par with each other. We also have rep in the Governors who's Support Staff. Have to say things seem to be working very positively and Staff generally are working better together.

Likewise from a previous School. It was a nice idea at the time I had my naïve shades on. On paper I thought it would be beneficial, allowing all Staff and Students to have a single logon across the Trust. Generic systems in place, access to everything and anything anywhere. We currently have over half a dozen usernames and passwords for our kids for multiple systems and I completely feel for the kids. Something I am still trying to fire fight/improve. I think at the time when another School in the trust looked at the prices, if I remember rightly it was either a line rental (fortune in costs every single year) or go and organise digging up the street for cabling which again cost an arm and a leg for miles. One thing I do hate for anyone is having multiple accounts, if I struggle to remember everything what do 13 Year olds feel...

Just posted a similar thing, apparently this was already in the BBC Article (even though I couldn't see it but then I did skim through it). We have some clubs here open an extra 30-45 minutes but that's only a few. I get the feeling this way will be similar to the Academy conversions where you can apply to get funding for it, then it will be forced upon Schools a few years later. Just got a Spider sense tingles that Support Staff in particular like us will resort to "Shift" work to cover the hours. If Teachers stick around for an extra hour or two to get their work completed, will this extra 2 hours carry on longer. Can we see Schools being open for longer hours? The knock on effect could be reception open for longer, general School Support open for longer (Colleges/Houses), Admin, Finance. A lot of these knock off at 4 or 4:30 due to not many Students/Staff on site at those times. We are 3:30 finishers, but because of our location most of our Students rely on public transport.

Not quite Academy but as always it's a starting point.... Excuse the fact its the DM, looks like George wants Schools to keep Students for another hour. George Osborne to turn all schools into academies in education system shake-up | Daily Mail Online Wonder how many of us will be expected to change hours instead of getting paid "Overtime".

I just felt like falling out of my chair, if I had coffee in my mouth I'd spit it out. What would you do with this beast??

I have to disagree with you young lady, TV Shows and movies do this often. The only difference is the fact this hit the news otherwise only those directly effected would know about it. London gets used often, especially surrounding the tower of London/bridge/eye and West Minister. In my area that I live in, it's been used quite a few times for TV/Films because of one major feature. As much as it does disrupt my daily life, it does bring nice publicity to the area. Good for tourism too Although in this incident it's very different....

Please keep us updated, I am looking to deploying this half term. This allows us to deploy it, see if it works and resolve any issues with Capita before everyone comes back.

Interesting that I too have been thinking about a plan. Would certainly have to be in stages, do I consider going to the system that has the most largest content e.g. Data. Do I consider going email/exchange, which would certainly stop us needing a new server at some stage. Especially when it can all link to Office 365... Then I remember our internet down time periods and back to the whole "putting your eggs in one basket". We are doing a broadband review so our plan will be relooked at after that.

In my experience if I looked back at 10 Years of failures, the higher % has been non HP. HP on the other hand has had around 2-3 failures which were warranty sorted out in 24 hours (they did come with long time warranty too). For Netgear and other brands that are cheaper, I find the rate of failures is much higher. Only my experience though, at the moment I stick to HP unless it's cheap/urgent but the long term plan is to replace every switch with an HP one. We are currently around 90/95% complete.

I didn't have major issues, there was a queue for the indentity but got kicked, went back in and it all worked okay. After that I enjoyed it and managed to play, rarely saw other players but already know 3 others on it and did some group fun. Only other issue I had was they were already level 3 and I literally just did the identity and I was doing group stuff on hard... Still a load of fun and as long as the content varies, it can be enjoyable. Only level 4 or 5 at the moment so best wait and see how it goes.

I like the one with the telephone, the one where to hang-up you have to actually put the phone down.

I've done it, but yeah like others have said - certainly not giving my mothers maiden name. Sorry to be offensive but I still don't understand why you need this as a "Unique" ID. Could even ask for my first name and initials.

I'd also like to know who is in charge of these individually run Schools, what money they are on and how much the "High End" management who run the MAT are on too. How many Staff were made redundant as a result of "Cuts" and how many promotions, pay rises and new positions that were made as a result. Plus the difference on Staff costs before/after. Just to chuck the cat amongst the pigeons.

Why would they, they have done exactly what they want to do - wash their hands with the whole Education system. As many have said, it's going down the route of the NHS and Public Transport - no longer about doing the "Service" but more about profits or in Education terms "Opportunities" for people who want power, promotions and pay rises. I keep hearing the terms, pay peanuts get monkeys yet we still have those monkeys, they are simply on better salaries. It's actually why I am glad where I work, it doesn't feel like that at all. Compared how a previous job went especially in the later part.