TwistedHelixis

I am so glad you have said this. Its what I was thinking, but never having used these its all a bit of a guessing game.

What what, that sounds great. I'll do some research on this :0) Just need to absorb everything you have typed :0) Already applied and had a chat, but they are really constrained in what they can offer. Originally they said they would set Wonde up for us, but I can probably do that myself as its a third party system. I have asked about GAM (nothing back yet) but i am worried they will just go in and do it, and I will still be no wiser, if that makes sense. I might be wrong but think it makes sense for me to do it all the way through so I can fix things later.

Long time user of G suite in the school but only for the staff, who are using 80% of it's features. Most Staff are still using MS Office and saving through File Stream. I am trying to think through the process I will need to complete in order to migrate all the pupils over to G Suite, but need some advice / help. I have done this thought process a few times in the past but always end up giving up :-( Hopefully by the end of this tread I will have a list of steps I can follow :0) BTW this is for a primary school. So my first few questions are..... Would you recommend moving all pupils (KS1 & KS2) over to G suite or just KS2? Currently the pupils all logon to laptops as the year group. Will they need to be setup with individual laptop logins or can they still use G Suite? Would setting G Suite to always log off between sessions help in the case?

The last round of Windows updates are apparently causing issues with Chrome, along with printing issues and a few other app based issues, might be this.

This. I also find the mouse pads really annoying on Lenovo. With Dell also look at the Vostro laptops, I got some recently that were £200 cheaper each than the Latitude equivalent, also had 10 gen cpu vs 8, upgraded battery and it had 4 years warranty. Also wish Samsung were doing the same kit as before:-(. All our school Samsung laptops are really old and still in good working order. I purchased a Samsung ultrabook for myself, one of the first touch screens, think it was 2012 and I am still using it as my main laptop, runs VMs and everything very fast still. Only paid £650 for it, so well worth the money.

Yes, BUM.

Cheers. Need to keep things cheap and have gone with the following Microsoft LifeCam Cinema Webcam - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-LifeCam-Cinema-Webcam-Silver/dp/B009BT67A8/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=microsoft%2Blifecam&qid=1592210172&sr=8-2&th=1 Logitech Z200 PC Speakers, Stereo Sound, 10 Watts Peak Power - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-Z200-Multimedia-Speakers-PC/dp/B00FSF2OSS/ref=sxin_7_lp-trr-1-eu_b69d56a053d525aee92c547586449b60d0fa6420?cv_ct_cx=usb%2Bspeakers&dchild=1&keywords=usb%2Bspeakers&pd_rd_i=B00FSF2OSS&pd_rd_r=1fa3d2ac-6573-445c-9eb5-ebc2eae0983d&pd_rd_w=tmxaR&pd_rd_wg=aUs5D&pf_rd_p=2590e595-20e6-4548-bc45-6e9a5aa7e81a&pf_rd_r=DNHHGYBVA3551YPQ4P0S&qid=1592210558&sr=1-4-73b378b6-230c-4fda-930d-f31261f038af&th=1

The head has a desktop computer in her office and has been borrowing another teachers laptop to do video meetings. She has just asked for the equipment so she can do video meetings from her desktop. I assume she will need a camera, mic and speakers. Has anyone recently purchased these or have any recommendations?

Just requested a quote?

We are thinking of upgrading MS office 2013 to 2019 but might not have the funds to do all the computers so might only do some. Does anyone know if there are any issues with Office 2013 opening files created in 2019?

Sign up for G Suite for education. Install Backup and sync on the server. Pick folders to backup. Google Drive will automatically do file versions and also keep the files for as long as needed.

They do FMS online? is that the same as the onsite version?

Found this which might help someone - Keeping G Suite and Google Classroom in Sync with SIMS – Daily, Automated and Free https://edtechschool.com/keeping-g-suite-and-google-classroom-in-sync-with-sims-daily-automated-and-free/

One of my primary schools is desperate to move away from SIMS / FMS and really wants to use Arbor, but this doesn't come with a finance package. This has been a sticking point for about 6 months now as FMS does pull information from SIMS, so we would be losing some functionality. Is there anything similar to FMS but cloud based, or any recommendations? Cheers

Whenever something from G Suite has gone wobbly it has nearly always been a firewall / port or filtering issue. We even realised that the autocomplete was not working for adding users to a shared drives (not a folder shared from Drive), and we were having to type in the full email address for each user we anted added to the shared drive, even though autocomplete worked fine in email, calendar Google Drive etc. EDIT - Turns out here is even a port for this. Although we don't use Classroom at my schools yet, I know schools that have said how solid it is.

I normally end up getting the consumer versions anyway. Example, Dell Latitude's are the business / school versions of the Vostro's, but the Latitudes are heavier, the bevels are much thicker, they cost more and also have ports we will not use. Both can come with the same warranty of 5 years and you can also get the battery switched out on the Vostro for a longer lasting one.

Our last batch of laptops lasted 7 years. Don't buy cheap and they last longer

Its a bit like a poor mans 2 factor authentication, if some steals a laptop they have no way of booting it up and we don't need such crazy windows passwords, so the staff don't need to write them down and stick them on the laptop cover.

I might be misunderstanding what you are saying so sorry, but we use the pin number during boot up option, so the hard drive cant be booted even with a TPM chip in the original laptop, unless the correct number has been entered. EDIT - after the correct pin has been entered the laptop boots up and the user needs to enter a normal windows login password

I set them up with a pin number. I actually use the same number on each laptop, as it stops the teachers writing it down, as they can ask each other for the number if they forget. Bitlocker will lock the device after a few failed attempts, so guessing the number does not work.

All the primary schools I look after have the hard drives encrypted using bitlocker. Back at Christmas one of the schools was broken into and a bunch of laptops stolen including the bursars, they were all found intact down an alley as they obviously couldn't boot into the laptops. Bitlocker took no time to deploy but saved us so much hassle.

My wife is also a teacher and the staff also get the laptops from the trolley, apart from year 6, who are old enough to get one each themselves.

You can start tomorrow :-p

I look after 4 primary schools that have had laptops and tablets for many many years, the staff always get them from the trolleys and return them. In the past 5 years i have had zero damaged tablets and one damaged laptop but that was just a a single key missing from the keyboard.

Do you think that would be more of an issue for secondary aged pupils and above? I can see older kids being rough with them but in primary schools the pupils are always being supervised, it will probably be the teaching staff that get them from the charging trolley etc.