MichelleC

https://www.eteach.com/job/itoffice365-technician-1113650?lang=en-GB&frmsrh=Y

I thought I'd pick this up again now we've had digital disadvantage announced too. Despite the headline being £3 million for it I've confirmed with our LEA that it's not new money and that 10% of the Hwb settlement for this year will be going to digital disadvantage. When I queried with the LEA how this is going to impact the funding of their plans was told that there was going to be a 1 to 1 rollout of devices (Chromebooks) to all pupils for split school and home use anyway, so no big deal. I've got in touch with my Headteacher regarding the 1 to 1 as I suspect he knows nothing about it (judging by the conversations we had before lockdown) and I doubt he'll be impressed, I've not heard anything back yet. The LEA's plan to support Network Managers with the massive increase in devices is some more support centrally (which won't last) and CPD! Getting information from the council about anything to do with this project is difficult, if not impossible. It seems someone somewhere in the council has decided how ICT in schools should be running and we're being told what it is only when the need arises. All schools were told to stop ICT spend in February but to submit their spending plans for the upcoming financial year to the council, presumably so we don't spend on something that contradicts the plan! We've already had our internet pipe upgraded from 100mb to 300mb shortly before Feb half term and the deadline we were given for the switches being installed on site was 31st August. I spoke to the project manager for our LEA in January (having spent most of last year not in work I missed the initial roll out) and he was unable to give me any further details on any later phases then. I do know one of the later phases looks at audio/visual because we had a visit booked from a local audio/visual company cancelled when lockdown hit who was going to survey our existing set up.

My guess is 283

Has anyone else seen the new Data Sharing Agreement for Hwb yet? My Headteacher forwarded it on to me asking what the implications are for our school and I'm not happy about it at all. It seems as though they are merging the compulsory need for students to have a Hwb account for online reading and numeracy tests with forcing us to gain consent from parents for pupils to use the additional services that Hwb provides. We already have O365 and GSuite, so have no desire to duplicate these with Hwb. Our LA rep was unable to provide clarification on whether we need to sign the new agreement to comply with the compulsory need for Pupils to have an account. He just said that the Welsh Government have lumped together the impending release of the new Google services through Hwb and the forthcoming online assessment tests into one reason for signing the new data sharing agreement. Since one part seems to need consent so therefore must be optional and the other is needed to comply with statutory regulations it doesn't seem right to have them as part of one agreement (doesn't consent need to be separate from other terms and conditions?). As it stands I'm reluctant to sign the new agreement as it states that we'll be seeking consent from parents for the additional services, which we don't want pupils to have. Does anyone have any insight? Am I reading too much into this?

@VeryPC here, but we've used Pugh in the past.

Minimum order is 25 licenses for that price. I'm currently going through the process of ordering Adobe CC with @VeryPC_Colin_M

We subscribed to ABTutor last year, we won't be renewing later this month as it's really not been great for us. We've found it really buggy connecting to PC's and we've been unable to use any of the internet monitoring features. Every time we apply an internet policy through AB Tutor it stops the machine from being able to access the internet entirely. They've admitted it's a problem with their web handler, but they still haven't provided a solution for my ticket which was logged last November! Funnily enough I got a quote from Katie at Netsupport earlier today, I fear DNA without the Edugeek special pricing is out of my league. I wanted Netsupport last Summer when the first round of special pricing was on, but I got out-voted. I don't intend to look at Impero again, I wasn't overly impressed with my trial last year and their much talked about reliability issues puts me off. I think I somehow missed Lanschool last year, I might look it up to see how it compares.

Slide the blue lever to the right (if you're looking at the back of the case) and push the lid forwards. It took me a while to figure it out if I remember correctly, I also think some of the Flex lids are easier to get on/off than others!

I've also had that circular land on my desk and the exact same problem. Only I didn't try running the software in an unrestricted account first, so I just figured that version of Greenfoot didn't have the SDK version bundled (which I did think was odd as the website said it did) so I downloaded and installed this version separately: Java SE Development Kit 8 - Downloads Greenfoot is now working fine on our restricted accounts.

The Linx comes in a 12" form now too if you fancied something a bit bigger than the 10" (looks rather like a Surface too I believe). I got pricing from @VeryPC_Colin_M recently.

We've getting it too. Can't change external IP's and in our case all schools in the LEA shame the same external IP address. It could get ugly!

Yes, our Solus frequently forgets the connect.ini. I normally copy the SIMS folder from program files from a working workstation, but you can just copy the connect.ini from another workstation into the SIMS folder in program files instead.

Apple can remove the activation lock with proof of purchase. I've always put a request in with our support company who have forwarded the request on to Apple on my behalf. You may be able to contact them online rather than take it so an Apple store as they don't need the device to remove the lock, just the serial number. They do prefer the serial number to be on the proof of purchase, but I've still managed to get a couple removed without it.

Our Headteacher decided he didn't want refurbs last year. If you find yourself in a similar position then we bought all our kit from @VeryPC_Colin_M who I can highly recommend. No problems with any of the kit and a very helpful lovely guy to boot!

I bought this one a couple of weeks ago: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01FJ4UM9A/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 which is now £114 or £121.92 depending on the seller.