Ditto

I looked at the Ikea gaming tables and hit an issue as I need 140cm wide and the higher quality ones were overbudget - at the higher price I probably would have gone with SecretLab desks. The more standard ones looked fine, but what swung it this way is going for something that'll hopefully impress a 14 and 12 year old, rather than something I would get myself. So, I've taken a bit of a gamble and order the ones on the oddly named site https://www.elegantshowers.co.uk/home-furnitures/gaming-desks.html which is where the manomano site linked to, but at a high price! We'll just have to wait and see if they turn up in time for Xmas. On TrustPilot they have that annoying profile of high 5* and worryingly high 1*, but not much in the middle. Manomano's profile is very similar. My protection is always buying on credit card. On the chairs, I found the Vinsetto ones on a lot of sites including Amazon and generally very good reviews. So I ordered the black/grey ones from Amazon and they arrived this morning. I'll try to remember to give an update in the New Year and again after 3 months heavy use!

I have three suggestions: Seek legal advice Listen to legal advice Proceed based on legal advice Seriously, I doubt ESS would be reluctant to use their legal teams. DfE really ought to comment on this topic again very soon.

Given the size of the sign, I would have thought it was for people with challenged eye-sight!

My minimal experience is 100% consistency between LFT and PCR - that's a tiny sample. Neither is going to be perfect and PCR has the downside that it can show positive long after you are passed the infectious stage. So much so, that after a positive PCR, you are advised on to re-take for another 90 days.

Well lots of swear words to that . I was LFT positive yesterday, PCR confirmed overnight. I had one other contact beyond the household!. Symptoms mild so far.

I'm on 2013 so command sequences may be a little different but I think they should all have an equivalent. This has got a little more interesting! I d/l the file you shared as an Excel Workbook and tried to work from there. It's definitely protected. Go to Review and you click Unprotect sheet and it ask for a password. In this Excel file, I can't even get to column Z. In fact if I am in column Y and press right arrow, it does that really annoying thing of jumping to Column A on the next row. That's usually achieved with VBA code which I can't see. It also means the data validation button is grey out. On the xlsx file that you shared read-only, I can get to column Z onwards and can see your formulas. I think Data validation and formulas in Excel and Google Sheets are slightly different even if they can achieve the same thing. None of the drop down lists show up either. Now, I copied your shared Google Drive file to mine. Now I can see all the drop down lists and see all the validation code. This seems to be a way of by-passing the locked sheet which feels somewhat suspect (Having checked, it's a documented work-around and you can do the same with Open Office). What you can see now is all the drop down lists use a hidden sheet called REFERENCE. If you click right on any sheet, (in Google Drive or the Excel), you can unhide it. So now back to the issues. Issue 1 - @David44 has covered - you can just change to warning and perhaps turn it back on for final saving Issue 2 - I couldn't reproduce this one - it's as if it's got the validation column C. Issue 3 - basically the same as Issue 1 Issue 4 - this would take a fair bit to resolve - see https://infoinspired.com/sheets-vs-excel-formula/array-formula-differs-in-google-sheets-and-excel/ Issue 5 - this is weird. On the face of it the validation looks fine. If you enter a valid 07 mobile number it rejects. If you change the data to warning rather than reject, it accepts it. If you set the font colour of column Z to black, it's easier to see. You'll have to ask google about this one. To conclude, maybe you could sort a native Google sheet out, but it'll be hard work. Perhaps to support multiple input, give each data entry person a Google sheet and combine after.

If you already have PurpleMash from 2Simple, might be worth looking at 2Blog. I doubt it's worth a new subscription just for the blog piece though.

Welcome back - what role and what sort of organisation? I wouldn't dare attempt to summarise the last year! Current hottest topic at the moment - perhaps that's the 3 year contract ESS are pushing.

Just a quick bump Most likely will order tomorrow, so can provide an update in the new year based on experience.

Passes authentication in my honest opinion.

Catching up with the thread. My single biggest take-away is the need to take legal advice on the contract. For those that have the contract, is there a clear unequivocal definition of 'Initial Term'? On the "Renewal Term, is there anything to suggest it wouldn't be another 3 year period?

What's the penalty for pulling out of the 3 year contract once you're signed. I understand the predicament the school leadership and governors are in. Are ESS relying on this? Yes, I think so, and every school that reluctantly signs is a win for ESS. There is another option - dispute the legality of the renewal, whether individually or collectively. In my eyes the school has been 'bullied' into a 3 year renewal. I'd like to see schools/academies/trusts treat that in the same way as they should treat bullying in schools.

I knew my local area case rates were high, but having checked the data it's even worse than I realised. Based on the smallest regions (Middle layer Super Output Areas or MSOA), we have been third in the UK for the rolling weekly average for the last two weeks! I'm hoping it starts to drop soon. My eldest has just gone back to school after 10 days isolation. The other three householders managed to escape a positive LFT. I'm putting that down to the jabs (I'm triple jabbed), him mostly sticking to his room and I'm going to say good fortune. Fortunately he was asymptomatic, but he did get rather too used enjoying room service .

Do you know the value of the contract? Some are of the opinion that a three year renewal *could* require going through a procurement process anyway? I do believe that's a disputed point however.

I did attended and it was interesting and informative. Stone King were very keen no one recorded the event and they went to lengths to ensure no competitor's were on call or ESS staff. Basically, and I think quite reasonably, they wanted school/academy staff or, as in my case, governors to be the only ones in attendance. So, in part I'm reluctant to say too much. I did ask if I was able to comment on the webinar but they didn't have a chance to reply. I suspect there's nothing to be too concerned about in the meeting on that front, but I am erring on the side of caution to respect their requests. That said, I can report TES have made the following report, https://www.tes.com/news/exclusive-sims-legal-bid-considered-100s-schools, which comments on Stone King so I think people will draw their own conclusions. *** EDIT - apologies to @Seb1780 - I've only just spotted earlier reply linking to the same! ***

I see. My work does involve a tiny bit of NHS interaction, but it's basically a data submission. Without knowing more about the role it's hard to advise in detail. Given your Master's, I suspect you will be well qualified, but do you have practical experience as well as both together is often the best, but we all start with no real world experience. From what I've seen, Excel is used a lot! So, be up to date on that and data validation techniques. I've also seen Power BI used widely, so having knowledge on that would help. I would suggest being prepared on DPA and GDPR - know that NHS is going to have a lot of sensitive data so prepare for questions about confidentiality. Beyond that, without a nit more info on the role it's not easy to say. But good luck, be confident and let us know how it goes.

I'm going to be refitting a room out for our two lads. They'd picked out some tables, but they'd picked out standard beech laminate and I don't want the room to look too much like an office! Any comments/opinions/suggestions or suggestions for something in a similar price range for what's listed below. The tables are: https://www.manomano.co.uk/p/elegant-1400x600mm-gaming-computer-desk-with-led-lights-studio-workstations-home-office-pc-table-for-24273234-inch-monitor-with-mouse-pad-headphone-hooks-and-cup-holder-black-28887880?model_id=28868762 Similar but from another supplier. https://outshinegaming.com/collections/gaming-desks/products/surge-gaming-desk On the chair front I have these: https://www.manomano.co.uk/p/vinsetto-stylish-racing-chair-recliner-w-footrest-padding-pillows-wheels-white-26982638?product_id=27278919 I'm aware of another thread that discuss chairs, so need to revisit that.

It's much the same issue as when there is a power cut, or the internet is down, or for facilities when the boiler breaks down. But yes, it is frustrating when you're the messenger only, but not the one in control.

Is this job at a school?

I think maybe I have a different d/l from the gov site as the one I found is password protected. Have you a link to the source of your file. I know with the one I found, it is xlsx only, but really they should provide ODS too.

Stepping back a little, I ask myself why the private equity backed firm bought ESS and what is their goal. Clearly profits are going to be key and that worries me. Given the action they have taken, the hard line, and the storm it has created, it doesn't appear they aren't taking steps to nurture their current customer base. You have to be concerned for the reduced number of schools that remain with the product as it'll be a smaller pool to prop up the profits. But I expect they have modelled it. Even if they retain just 50% of the market, that's still massive and a lot of income, and presumably fairly secure for the next 3 years. I'm not sure if this has been asked, and it seems too obvious so I've probably missed it, but what is the notice period for the three year contract and what is the penalty to leave? I presume it's not still 3 months, otherwise everyone would just sign-up and give notice when they are ready.

Advanced Learning did incremental UI updates, so in the cloud and remaining there. One issue with this approach is that the incremental plan gets interrupted by other priorities. At one point, we had v1, v2 and v3 of the UI running in different parts of the system. In my role, using much more functionality than most, it still generally worked but it wasn't a great experience. For most teachers it was OK as the areas they used were consistent, but for year heads and other SLT, it did cause a few issues. This was mostly UI though, not client-server to cloud. Does anyone have any examples of an incremental change from client-server to cloud? For SIMS with al it's third party add-ons, I can only imagine that massively complicates life. A little bit of research reveals a few papers on the topic, from companies such as VMWare, AWS and IBM. Here's the IBM which is pitched at a not too technical level. That paper suggests one of four options at the out set Rehost - a.k.a. "Lift and Shift" Refactor or re-architect Replatform Retire/replace an interesting read if this stuff floats your boat.

Ah yes, saw that - thanks!

Are the (s) really seconds on that page or should they be ms? - - - Updated - - - What was the reason for the down time on November 30th and what was the resolution?

Would a serious bug at anytime be unusual?