Pottsey

Been useing smartwater for years, seems pretty good.

Change the Notts CC IT system so it gives all IT techs a large pay rise. I wouldn’t fix all the problems in the school as that would put me out of a job. EDIT: Thinking about it more might upgrade my server and desktop. In fact why stop there change all hardware so its top of the range and the best of the best.

What about the power buttons? Its not the screen we have problems with its the power button and CD drives which always seem to break on RM’s. It only takes a small amount of force to break the power button clip, as there’s nothing behind it. We often get buttons pushed into the PC. None of our RM screens have been damaged yet. We don’t use the extra tough screens.

Typing of the Dead is great. Often on it at dinner. Improves accuracy and speed.

Cannot seem to find the Toughened RM. Do you have a link? Might have to get some next year if it really is that tough.

“RM. they build bullet proof Education Kit.. as well as SEN Kit” I don’t really agree with that not after using and seeing RM’s in a special needs school. The first problem is they are far too fragile. RM have got SEN software side of things right though. Its the hardware that lets them down.

What companies have experience with special needs? Not aware of any my self. It’s not just the hardware it’s the children. We have had children in the past who get violent when strangers walk in. Most if not all special schools will need a full time on site IT Tech and the same one each day. A, so the children get used to the tech, and B, so the tech can learn the children and what not to do around certain ones.

A fool for sure, I mean he thinks pressing left on the analogue stick then button B trains you to be a sniper and murder.

I often wonder how it’s going affect IT tech in special schools. Half the stuff I am trained to do most other techs would never need to know let alone do. What if it’s the IT Techs jobs to be part of a switch clinic to provide computers access to disabled children? What about all the none standard equipment in special schools like Talkers, Intilkeyboards, pressure pads, switch’s e.c.t to access the computer. Stuff you don’t get in mainstream? You also have behaviour problems like children needing to see regular face’s. So no random techs coming in. I can see/hope a lot of heads keep the current IT techs but change our job title. Half the stuff we do wouldn’t be covered by a normal IT tech so our job roles shouldn’t need changing too much.

3 to 4 years for the most part. The key is to keep away from cheap laptops

As much documentation as possible, well within reason. At the very least all the passwords, IP range and don’t forgot to label at least some of the keys. I normally leave a work related Email address in case of any major problems.

I like the black and red but there is to much going on in the logo. It needs simplifying.

”Under the BSF you ENTIRE ICT Support department is handed over to a 3rd Party Contractor... You will be offered a job with this new company..” What if your IT department is 1 man who spends 50% of his time in classrooms doing classroom working with children as you’re a small school? What about the stuff the IT staff do that’s not covered by the Contractor? What about pensions if your TUPED?

Well everything rolled back and I have a working system ready for September, well apart from the new network points, which don’t work. 3 days and not managed to talk to the guy who did the system quote who is meant to be sorting out this mess and his boss is on holiday. Ringing up or leavening messages is a waste of time, he is always on the phone so cannot speak to me. Not much to do but wait for his boss to get back off holiday.

“think of it as building a platform across the fence to pass food parcels to the POWs and at the same time” I see it more as putting a checkpoint on a busy hallway slowing down traffic so simple jobs now take ages. The idea behind it isn’t bad it just implanted badly. There should be more local control. I can see a lots of lessons plans being scrapped due to problems not being fixed right away. It’s not like a Teacher can make a phone call during lesson and then wait for someone to fix the problem. “Unfortunately I have come across a good number of schools where, in so many ways, it will make more of a positive difference then a negative one.” I agree its positive in some schools the problem is when they come across a school where it will have a negative difference they just ignore it and say look its working in the other schools, listing xx positive school name, so it should work for you.

No we are not part of BSF yet. Still a very long way off.

I prefer not to mention any names as it’s an ongoing problem that’s slowly being fixed and I know the company sometimes read these forums. They wanted to mix the admin network with the classroom PC’s so it’s all the system IP range and system among many other problems. No we are not locked into this. At least not yet. I heard in the long term schools have to go to managed services. But from what I have seen this week it’s a very bad solution. It’s seems silly they go on about all the good points ignoring all the bad points. Simple tasks that should take seconds like changing a password require a phone call with managed services. Want to install software? No you have to wait for someone to turn it into a MSI and send it out over the server. Failing harddisk forgot about a quick swap and getting the PC up for the lesson. There solution to admin having to strick Internet filtering was to relax our Internet filtering and send out a AUP to children so they wouldn’t go on wrong sites. Am I the only one who thinks AUP and relaxed Internet filtering is a bad idea for secondary school kids? To me an AUP should be along side the filtering not instead off. They even told us the system had been implanted in xx other schools and we where the only one with problems. Don’t remember what number xx was, I wonder how true that is. On forums I get the impression other schools hate the system. Its only nice for primary schools without IT techs. This is my mean reason to post. I was wondering what schools have a managed service and who are happy with it. Who are not happy? “Pottsey - i hope you and alot more people like you kick up a fuss about this as this is soon to be the norm.” How do we fight this? It’s not mandatory right now so I am and will kick up a fuss. But what happens when it is mandatory?

Not only do we have a IT Tech but we also have a support contract which means extra 3rd party IT staff in half a day every 2 weeks or more if there is a problem IT tech cannot fix. The problem we have with staff having the same restrictions on the web is we have very strick time based filtering. Nothing works during break time or lunchtime apart from a white list and during lesson time a lot is blocked. Staff don’t need it that strict and they don’t need it off at breaktime or dinner.

It’s been a right mess here. We have a good system that works only we wanted to move the old server to a new more powerful one. We where talked into going AD at the same time only no one told us how restrictive it was, well this implantation of it. Simple jobs that took seconds mean we now need to ring up. They wont give us admin access even changing passwords means a phonecall. Usernames are unfriendly as well. No group policy control. Admin put on same Internet filtering as children tons of problems. Basically it’s a fully managed system taking control away from the school. The install has been stopped in its tracks once we learnt this and we asked for a different system as none of the AD restrictions where explained to us. Any other schools have problem with fully managed system where they cannot do anything? Who likes it and who doesn’t?

Ooo its an STE much better then the other modules. Might be worth a bit on ebay.

Well its not going hard for them to beat the current system. All our staff gave up on it. Totally useless.

Not sure which to tick. Being paid overtime to come in for 1 week and a bit but its time off for me.

Have you checked the teachers are ok with this? Most schools I have been in refuse to let any photos online apart form the head and deputy head more so when names are with the photos.

“Lets take it to the top, Matt Groening, here we come! Chris” Matt Groening! Its clearly Bush’s fault he runs the county after all.

“Out of interest can I ask how you find it offensive?” I am a Pagan myself. It’s not so much the image that’s offensive it’s where it’s placed. If it were a few hills away it wouldn’t be offensive. The site is a religious and historical site that many considered sacred. Childless couples go there and perform certain dances amoung other things so they can have children not to have a giant homer watching them. If this was done on a Christian or Muslim religious site would you all still see it as none offensive? Would you not expect the Christian or Muslim to find it offensive. “HA! "Rain magic"” It’s not that different from prying to god. Do you also laugh at people who pry? Hey its raining isn’t it, must be working.