David44

We use SIMS, EduLink One, CRB Cunningham's and currently Pay360. I was half aware that EduLink One could link in with CRB Cunningham's and always thought it would be good to get rid of Pay360 and move parent payments over to EduLink One. Upon further investigation today, it seems that EduLink One can currently only show lunch balances and purchase history. It seems that it can't be used by parents to make payments yet. So, what do you use for parental payments? Is it any good? Does it only allow lunch payments or does it allow you to set up a school shop too?

Hi, We have been using Google Drive for a few years now and have never allowed users (staff or students) to share documents/files with users not on our domain. Although this occasionally causes issues or questions, it doesn't seem to be a major barrier to users doing what they need to do. Users can download items from Google Drive and/or print to PDF so there are usually ways around the restrictions anyway. One argument is that if users have to jump through the extra hoops they are less likely to share inappropriately. The other side of that argument is that once you have emailed a PDF to someone, there is no revoking access to it as there would be if it was shared via Google Drive. We got to this position because a previous Headteacher decided we shouldn't allow external sharing, that decision was made before we even started using Google. I expect if this had caused major issues then the decision would have been reviewed but because it hasn't, it wasn't. The users don't miss what they have never had. Do you allow (some of) your users to share externally using either Google or Microsoft 365? Are we outliers here or are we following standard best practice? David.

We have Chromebooks that are now updating to version 104 and 105 of ChromeOS. Since they have updated to 104, when a Chromebook has a user profile on it, i.e. someone has signed in to it and then signed out, the screen that shows the last user(s) consists of a very dark grey square with black text and it's very difficult to read. These are managed Chromebooks and I have read that ChromeOS version 104 introduced Dark Mode and Light Mode so I suspect it's related to that in some way but we don't seem to have any options relating to this in the Google Admin console other than a user option to recommend light, dark or auto. I am not sure what this actually does but it doesn't seem to change the sign in screen. Chromebooks still on version 103 or lower are fine. Anyone seeing the same? Anyone have a solution?

I should have said, we still use RM CC4 and we don't use Azure so that's probably not a [quick] option for us. It's surprising that it's not a simple option to force updates in WSUS.

Hi, We have a number of machines on various versions of Windows 10 (1809, 1909 and 20H2). We have the 21H2 update available on WSUS and if I sign in to a PC and check for updates it downloads and installs it. Obviously I don't want to sign in to each machine and check for updates manually nor do I want to leave all the machines on all holiday until they randomly check for updates. Does anyone have a reliable method to force a Windows 10 PC to check for updates (and download and install those updates and restart/shutdown the PC too ideally)?

I think that's fair enough in this case. Would you run an .exe from a memory stick sent to you or ask one of your users to do so? Maybe you trust Sandisk but would you run an .exe from a memory stick manufactured by Вирус? Better to have a policy not to run any .exe file.

We use something like this at the moment. We've found that the plastic labels produced by our Brother handheld printer don't stick to the Chromebooks that we have as the lids have a rough finish so we stick an address style sticker on first, it's paper but has a metallic look and feel and seems to stick quite well we then stick the personalised plastic label on top of that. It's not ideal or conclusive to labelling Chromebooks quickly and it looks a bit homemade. How are these when stuck to IT equipment? Do they stay on. I am not after something that can't be removed, just something that can't fall off. Maybe I need to approach this by purchasing a bunch of different labels first, finding the best ones for the job and then finding something that will print to them afterwards.

Did I imagine it or did Wonde's API use to be free for schools? I can't see any reference to that on their site now so maybe I made it up.

Hi, I wonder if anyone can recommend a label printer, letter address label size (96 x 50mm or thereabouts) that can print single labels while someone waits, i.e. within seconds. Here is the criteria. It should be compatible with Windows (lots of these types of products seem to require a mobile app), ideally via a queue on a Windows print server so multiple users can print to it. It should be able to print the label from Word or similar. no funny third party applications or 'label designers'. It should print within seconds (I want to print labels for student Chromebooks while they wait) The labels should last 5 years both in terms of print and glue quality (Pie in the sky, I know some students will peel them off within minutes. I just don't want them to 'fall' off) Replacement labels and other consumables readily and cheaply available. Be able to print one label at a time (we currently print a sheet of A4 which has 10 labels on it, so currently we print 10 labels at a time as the labels tend not to like going through the printer more than once) I imagine the form factor will be something like this... https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08MZTK56Y Nice to have... wireless [rechargeable] battery powered colour printing Anyone else already printing labels in this way? What are you using? Is it any good? Thanks. David.

I'm personally not a fan of asking people for their name when they have signed in to a system. You should already know their name. It would be good if the room number defaulted to their timetabled room too, with the ability to change it of course. These are the types of benefits that a homemade system should have over a third party one-size-fits-all system. If it's easier for people to phone or email, they will phone or email. Especially if you are asking them not to provide any sensitive information. Look at your existing tickets, how many of them don't contain sensitive information?

Surely the youtube traffic should still hit any youtube rules you have set up unless Google Classroom is doing something like proxying the videos. As far as I can see it isn't doing that, Google Classroom just embeds the video like any other site would.

Just out of interest, what's stopping you adding a layer to the PHP/MySQL product that allows an admin person to approve and/or edit the data before it goes in to the ATF(s)?

Do any RM CC4 users see an issue where a UEV users profile path field is populated again in AD (and RMMC), possibly after a 'health check' in RMMC?

Bit of a vague question, has anyone seen an increase in failed payments over the last couple of days? i.e. parents trying to top up their child's School Meal Balance and the system not allowing it. One parent sees a message, "Your school meal balances will update once you receive a confirmation email." but this isn't very helpful, it isn't clear if the email will come from their card provider or Pay360. I wonder if it's to do with the Strong Customer Authentication regulations but I can't see any changes to that which came in within the last few days. Anyone noticed an increase in issues?

Look at https://psgsuite.io/ if you want to do it via PowerShell. That's what we do.

Our HR are good at notifying us but actually the account enabling and disabling is done based on data from the MIS (SIMS in our case). For staff, the account is created when HR notify us, it is then automatically enabled on their start date and disabled at the end of their leave date. The only thing HR need to do is confirm that the person should have an account (i.e. the safeguarding is complete). So, when a member of staff leaves, their account is automatically disabled whether HR have told us or not. On rare occasions this has led to accounts being disabled because the MIS is wrong but that's useful because any frustration caused to the user by their account being disabled is nothing compared to the frustration they would experience if they had not been paid! We have a similar system for student accounts. Accounts are semi-automatically created as soon as they appear in the MIS (actually just added to a CSV file in our case), automatically enabled on their start date and then automatically disabled on their leave date. I've always thought it was a bit of a nonsense expecting departments to notify IT of every new starter, especially students who all have a standard set up process. The MIS is the single point of truth, once the staff member or student is in there, you have been notified in my opinion. The data is in a consistent format then too, it's better than receiving an email that someone will need to read, understand and action. The most difficult bit about starters and leavers (of any type) is going through the various onboarding/off-boarding processes for all the third party sites they may need to access.

Have you tried enrolling the Chromebook or even just connecting it to wireless by using the prompts from ChromeVox? I don't know if it would somehow fix the issue but it would be an interesting challenge and a humbling experience that would make you grateful for your eyesight at least.

What if.... You take a screenshot, then view that screenshot on another device? Does the screenshot show just a black screen or does the screenshot show what you'd expect to see?

How does it look on an external monitor?

A free way to limit log in times is to schedule a task to move the Chromebooks from an OU that allows sign in to one that doesn't (and probably blocks all browsing and/or forces a sign out too). We do something similar for camera use. We allow students to use the camera during school hours but not in the evening or overnight.

Blatchington Mill School in Hove (near Brighton) are currently looking to recruit a Head of Computing (Permanent). Required for September 2022 Further details can be found here: https://www.blatchingtonmill.org.uk/key-information/vacancies/head-of-computing-permanent/

This quote says so much without saying anything. "It's easier than taking a paper register" Okay, that's a great selling point for a product released in 1997 but I can't believe the user base for this product will be people who currently take paper registers. They should be aiming for "It's as easy as taking the register in SIMS" as their very base selling point and ideally "It's as easy as taking the register in other comparable products in 2022". "Critically, it takes just five minutes for Take Register’s data to be synchronised back into SIMS" Why does it take 5 minutes for the data to sync back? Our staff already take registers in EduLink One and this writes directly to SIMS, there is no sync process. Why can't ESS do that with their own product and APIs? "In fact, so simple to use - there is no need for any training". Change this to "We won't supply and documentation, we will expect your local IT support to work out how it works and write documentation for you" And why no mention of the sign-in process, ESS? Anyone with any experience of the broken SIMS ID system will know that this isn't ESS's strong point. Maybe this should be "No training required but you will need to jump through several hoops just to sign in each time and it will stop working at some point for no reason." "Teachers don’t require a specific device to use it, instead it can be accessed by mobile phone or tablet" Change to "Simply install Flash/Silverlight/Java/Internet Explorer 11 and Sharepoint, click through the security warnings and away you go" EDIT: Just did a bit of digging and found this URL... https://qa.takeregister.sims.co.uk/ Seems it really is using SIMS ID, at least at this (QA) stage. I was joking!

Has anyone looked in to getting portable USB chargers? Our students aren't meant to bring chargers in to school at all, they should only be charging them at home. If a student turns up with a non-charged Chromebook they borrow a fully charged spare. We never lend chargers as not all classes have convenient plug sockets and they can be a trip hazard. I've always thought we should lend them a portable charger instead so they can use their own Chromebook. Has anyone tried this?

I've been struggling to get this to work this afternoon. I can sign in to an AD joined Windows PC with Google credentials but it just creates a local profile, it doesn't sign me in with my AD account. I have added the custom attribute to a couple of test accounts, although there are mixed messages about what these custom attributes should be called. The Google documentation says it should be in a category called 'Enhanced desktop security' with a field called 'AD accounts' whereas everywhere else, including the guide linked to a few posts up, says 'Enhanced_desktop_security' and 'AD_accounts'. I have tried both with no luck. Could someone who has this working let me know what their custom attributes in Google Admin Console are called? What about the value? What kind of thing do you have? domain.internal/username domain/username Thanks. David.

https://replit.com/ exists and has SSO with Google, that's all I can tell you about it though as I have not used it that much and certainly not to teach KS2 children.