GrumbleDook

I'll declare my interest here ... I am a FITS Trainer, have sat on the advisory board for The FITS Foundation and have been active in promoting (and supporting) FITS since 2001. The fact that it is derived from ITIL (both v2 and v3), has a healthy smattering of PRINCE2 in there and also goes into more detail around understanding management ... I think FITS has the edge on ITIL in schools. That is ... as long as you have buy in and understanding from your SLT. The other benefit of FITS is that it is a framework ... you don't have to roll it all out ... and you don't have to go to the nth degree with things. A helpdesk / supportdesk / servicedesk ... it can centred around a fully integrated piece of software, which contains all your tickets, SLA management tools, CMDB, asset register, definitive software library, etc ... or it could simply be based around the little exercise book which staff log requests into. Personally I also think it has a greater emphasis on communication and working with others. Professionally, I think your career will do better with ITIL, especially if you are going to work outside of education, but I would recommend FITS to start with and then ITIL afterwards (along with PRINCE2).

Being honest ... I am aware that I can be like that as well at times ... and when you have a vision you can get caught up with making things other have said to you fit into how your mind thinks about things. Having a few others around you the help with the sanity checks is a *good thing*!

In some places you need that single person for vision ... but the strategy is something that is prepared and delivered by a group ... it has to be for it to work. Sometimes you do need a single voice ... an evangelist ... and if there is only a single person that has to do everything then they really do need to be able to balance all sides.

I saw similar done with a bunch of teeth which were used for the production of Hogfather shown on Sky. At a Discworld Convention a bunch of us were lucky to get a handful of the teeth used in the tooth Fairy's castle ... and you should have seen the fun we had with them!!!

I don't even have to ask you who it was who would have said that (and he is a member here!)

In my last place we used Syscap on our laptop scheme and it allows you to be vendor agnostic. Apple do a scheme directly, or you can get it via an ASE / AASP such as Square, KRCS, Solutions Inc, etc.

A darling girl ... getting close to 3 years old. And I am pretty sure that collectively we are all Dads ... I have always considered EduTech to be the son we all try to make sure doesn't turn out like us!

This is where it gets into a 3 way deal. I have seen with other folk in the market where the data is collected and processed by the data controller (a school), with the services provider being the data processor insomuch as their system performs that tasks at the request of the data controller. The data owner (the parent) is then included in the agreement and the services provider will also complete tasks for them ... which also makes the Data Owner into a separate Data Controller, but using the same data. At the end of the agreement the school is removed as a data controller and that role is handed solely to the parent (who has already taken on the role). It is not between the parent and the services provider as to what happens with the data. The school does need an end-of-agreement document which clearly shows that the sole relationship is between the parent and services provider and that they no longer have any role to play. The fact that the parent agrees to a separate agreement to start with helps. It can be a tad murky and to some extent you are not requesting it be deleted but ensuring that you no longer have access to it and that the only people who do have access are the data owner / controller and the services provider. If this agreement cannot be put in place then yes, you have to insist that the data is deleted. Also you must make sure that if there is any data that the parents don't have the right to access (is data related to the teachers which the parents do not need such as dob, etc) then you have to ensure that this is deleted. It gets a little murky and so you need to go through the data classes and data sets used and mark off which as just for the school, just for the parent or actually for both ... whilst the child is in the school / nursery. You also need to check your information and record management retention schedule to find out how long you have agreed to retain data ... remembering that this can also be in hard copy (ie print off reports and then get the online stuff wiped!)

@jmak as this is for Early Years then the children will be under 13 so the data belongs to their legal guardian / parent.

Invest in a conslutant to help you spend the money! My rates are reasonable (well ... to me they are!)

There are a number of ways you can create loops and incorrect rules in most filters. Some will get spotted and dealt with immediately, others will sneak up and take you by surprise ...

Slightly OT here but just wanted to say something about the above. 2-factor authentication around MIS transfers is a good thing and the fact that staff lose their fobs is a bad thing. Are staff disciplined when this happens? Once is understandable but I get the impression from the sound of frustration in the above post that this is a bit more regular than that.

Many thanks for your reply ... it covers off a lot of concerns but there are a few things that you might want to word a little better. The above really does give you a carte blanche to do a fair few things that you have said you won't, if you look at it carefully. You don't explicitly mention that you are processing the data purely to deliver the service you are supplying to the school / EYP. A company without ethics could take the above to mean that operating simply means delivering the service, promoting means sales and marketing (remembering that I have just signed all rights over to you on this even though you have just said you won't use the data for this), improving and developing (always a good thing ... but who looks at the data to help with this? Do you have a 3rd party development team or is it purely in house?) And then you say that you can do any or all of the above even after we have stopped using the service? Can you outline your processes for what would happen if an EYP provider says that all data has to be removed and destroyed (part of their risk analysis around data protection). I know it might seem that I am being very negative but I am just trying to show how things can have emphasis in the hands of the wrong people ... there are some dodgy operators out there.

There are times when I need to wear a formal tie and most others wear old school ties (must become a member of the old boys club for my school to get one ... never gotten round to it), club ties for whichever rugby / football / golf / squash club they play at (or that they just drink at to be honest), whichever forces association they are in or ties from whichever College / University that they went to ... I would prefer A and B to be hard-wearing and stain resistant but C to be silk and to be very special ... not for work-wear.

Tie / lapel pin and / or tie slide? Cufflinks? The chance to your name embroided on a shirt would be good ... and personally I would like to get a version of my avatar (the one created by @SYSMAN_MK) would be nice ... but I know that would be pretty hard to organise, so perhaps it could be arranged that we can organise doing it ourselves if we by the EG shirt? (I know technically I could take an EG shirt and get it done now but I wouldn't want to change the shirts without permission as it is EG branding ... if you get where I am coming from).

@SimpleSi as a parent, if I found that little Eric's picture had been taken I would be fine with that and sign an agreement on it ... If the school / nursery wants to use it in their website / marketing materials or as part of a resource for staff CPD or to help other children / families in the school / nursery I could agree to it ... But to have the school host that photo with a company that has the right to reuse it for its own sales and marketing, long after little Eric has left the nursery ... Then I would take umbrage. The fact that I might not have given the school / nursery to hand that data over to a third party to be processed (privacy notices folks!) or if I have and it is subsequently used for things I did not agree to (sales and marketing) is a breach of the DPA on the part of the school. I am careful where I store pics of my little one and this is especially important for looked after children / children in care / vulnerable children. There seems to be no way of including them as an exception so in my initial risk analysis that would rule this system out. Perhaps with dialogue with the provider things could be sorted ... But not right now.

I would also go with never on a personal device due the camera function ... I would have to see if it sticks a copy of the picture in the local camera roll. If not then you could get away with it ... It depends on what else it stores locally, but remember the amount of personal data that a teacher may have on a home machine due to marking, planning, etc ... It is hard to say never on a personal device. The fact that it is a mobile phone makes it more accessible as a target for theft or increasing the chances of loss. This has to be taken into consideration in your risk analysis on the data protection. The locking of IOS devices (complex pass phrase and not just a PIN) combined with setting the device to wipe after x attempts (10 by default but can be set lower via application of a profile via MDM) is a good move on school *and* personal devices. Explain to staff about people seeing all their text messages, accessing their personal FB account, personal emails, etc and see how quickly they lock their phones! To be honest, they seem have done a lot of work on this and it could be a good app. Before I would use I would have to take a closer look at their entry with the ICO to see who they are sharing data with (their data protection section only talks about how they will process it, not who it might be shared with or who will process it as a result) and I *really* don't like the section about me owning the data, but they have the rights to use, repurpose, etc forever ... If I upload a photo of a child's work I do *not* want them to have eternal rights to it ... but that is a personal stance on IPR.

To add to what has been said above I would also make sure you take into account all of the other things your school might get from or do with your LA ... Admissions, free school meals, HR, Finance, advisory services (those outside of direct ICT / tech advice) etc and find out how data is exchanged, what the dependencies are and the implications if you are not part of the whole LA wrap-around (this will vary greatly from LA to LA). The toolkit is a good place to start but you also need to make the school aware that just because they are paying the LA less (or no) money it might increase costs in other areas ... We have seen this with some of our schools where they now have the money and have gone elsewhere for payroll etc and it is actually costing more because although the external payroll service is cheaper they are spending more school staff time on it. YMMV.

It depends on whether you want to get the certification or get a deeper learning about ITIL, share experiences and context ... the former can be done via self-study but a training course is brilliant for the latter. QA have been good on other courses for this so I would presume that they would be the same for the ITIL courses. Other training providers are available and you could also consider FITS Practitioner as an option as well.

I'm not so much worried about which floor the server room is in for this survey ... that question was mainly to give examples weights so that the consideration of threat to raised floors ... not that many schools have raised floors in their server rooms.

Royal Mile Whiskies is also good for ideas.

If you are buying whisky then find out if they prefer a lighter one or something with more of a peaty flavour. There is no point wasting a decent Islay (Ardbeg, Lagavulin, etc) or a Highland Park or Talisker if they want an Auchentoshan or Old Putney (you can guess my preference!)

In a discussion with a friend (a Data Centre Manager) about how different school servers can be from school to school we hit on trying to see what a typical server room looked like, and whilst he enjoyed looking at the server room thread he wanted more quantifiable information ... so to settle a disagreement would folk care to answer the following? What type of school are you? (S - Secondary including Upper schools, P - Primary, M - Middle, J - Junior, I - Infants, N - Nursery, O - Other and please add SP if special provision or ALT for Alternative education such as PRU) How many learners do you have? Approx dimensions of your server room Is your server used for any other task (e.g. office, storage, etc)? Was your servers room a conversion (eg no - dedicated room, yes - previously a toilet)? How many Racks do you have? What make(s)? Dimensions (eg 19" x 42Ux 1200) How is your rack filled (e.g. 4U - UPS, 10U - servers, 5U - switches / routers, 4U - patch panels, 3U - Cable Management, 16U - spare / blank) How much power is available and drawn per rack (individual rack)? What is the BTU output of the equipment in your rack (individual rack)? What is the weight of your loaded rack? What is the max cooling load of your A/C (BTU/hr) If you don't know any of the answers then just say "Don't know" ...

I would say that a fair few schools don't listen when they are being told what they will get, or the people the information don't actually pass it on to those who will understand. In recent experience any issues with speed have been down to the limits of the line (2 meg is 2 meg ... I wish there were funds to upgrade all schools to good fibre lines, but the running costs of that can be over the top as well), technical line faults (MPF lines degrade ... and there is some poor quality copper out there with too many joints to mention), technical services faults (central proxies do have issues ... and that can be a problem ... and the sooner folk report the issue the sooner it gets fixed. Having had phone calls from schools moaning about issues only to find that they haven't logged service calls does not make me sympathetic), technical hardware faults or mis-configurations (Exchanges have issues too ... I got as annoyed as everyone else when I found that some newer Cisco routers where not auto-negotiating properly and dropping to 10 half), attacks on the network (intentional or accidental due to config errors or local issues within the school (triple NATing before you even get to the router can make your life interesting ... as can putting a 10/100 switch between your router and your core switch and forgetting you have left it set to run at 10 half). I have only seen 3 occasions when the core feeds on the local (ie not YHGfL) RBC (under the last contract) have been saturated and they relate to major sporting events when silly amounts of folk turned on iPlayer (including folk on council offices).

So if you were told that you were getting a 100 meg bearer and that at least 50 meg would be for you, but you are likely to get more as the other users aren't likely to be maxing out their lines ... so if you get 80 meg one day but only 50 meg the next this is the reason why? I get the feeling that Gloria is trying to get across that, in spite of saying to some schools that the line is shared, the expectations are different to reality ... and that at least they are being open about this rather than using marketing speak to hide things or to push blame around ("You have a rubbish connection to $VLE_provider because your LA throttles you" even though VLE provider has already said that they only have a 100 meg feed to allow *all* their schools to connect ... as an example I have heard in recent months).