Ditto

There have been a couple of updates since the last post! We have a classic rock and hard place with us in the middle. The line is procured by an ethical charity organisation - generally they have been good, but not faultless. We have outsourced IT due to lack of in-house expertise, who attend site once a quarter. From the outset, I made it abundantly clear they need to work together. They've been useless at that! The provider has just raised by mail that the benefit of redundancy has not been achieved and said they'd look in to options, but I doubt in so much as it is a contractual breach. He agreed with my view of holding off cancelling the SoGEA lines until the position is discussed. In the meantime, the outsourced IT technician said the 2 SoGEA lines were removed and he supports cancelling the service. It was the technician that proposed a FTTP and SoGEA mix for redundancy - albeit way to late in the process. He has also 'hidden' the modems from the procuring company and said that would notify us of any problems. The track record of the IT provided doing that is appaling. The procuring company were very good at it. I expect we will end up keeping the 2 FTTP services, just because that is the easy option, not the best technical solution or the most value for money. Couldn't find a sigh emoji, but that's what I need.

After much longer than we hoped, we finally have to FTTP 500/75 lines, each with it's own ONT and modem. With OpenReach's ineptitude it took 3 visits, including one where one of their chaps got stuck at the top of a pole in a crane cradle which broke down. No one knew how to manual bring it down, so in the end he clambered out and shimmied down the pole. I don't suppose HSE would be impressed! Part of the expectation in terms of redundancy was two cable routings. Today, when the second line was to be installed, the engineer was relieved to find the first cable support multiple connections - so effectively virtually no physical redundancy. Running one line at 1000/150 is far less than 2 at 500/75. I'm now wondering if the charity would be better having one FTTP, at either 500/75 or double, and keep one SoGEA line, so there is better physical redundancy. What do you think? My guess is their will be little appetite from the charity for 4G or starlink. Internet down at the office would be bad, but not so critical the budget for the highest level of redundancy is going to be spent. We have a lot of remote workers and the reception could survive for a few hours on a Hotspot.

New York Times have currently got a court order that requires OpenAI/ChatGPT to retain all data interactions - probably the one's you and I have had. It even applies to chats you delete. It does vary by which version you use, but more details can be found in the following blog https://openai.com/index/response-to-nyt-data-demands/

Not in a school, but my charity is trying to install a new case Management System. LM is further diminishing my role as I was historically the the lead on the old system. It's a direct replacement for the old system so it is further devious behaviour to move the work to others. Anyway, I have only been minimally involved in the replacement. It's genuinely going really badly so perhaps being distant from it isn't all bad. The tough but right call would be to abandon it and look again. SLT did pick the cheapest over a more functional rich product and we are seeing the result of that. There's another complication in that we appear to being forced to use another system due to misguided belligerence by an NHS related lead which only accounts for half our work. To cap it all, there's been almost no end user engagement and very little leadership team involvement. As a case study of how not to run a project it would be a great example. It will be an entertaining, and cringe-worthy, first demo of progress to a wider audience.

That's a lot of dough for someone.

Good luck with trying to sue MS for enforced obsolescence with Win 11 requirements - https://www.courthousenews.com/microsoft-sued-for-discontinuing-windows-10-support/

But let's not just ban AI - let's teach the students how to use AI properly and discipline themselves as to how and when to use AI tools.

Talk to your DPO - you might be surprised how some FOI's can be batted away.

Beware Google AI - see https://www.google.com/search?q=would+a+school+itt+get+included+in+dfe+staff+census where it says yes, normally included. But then https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67bdc3c221d07694be8d76a0/2025_School_Workforce_Census_Specification_v1.pdf states clearly it is not necessary to include the same!

Some schools choose to purchase their MIS through a DfE approved framework. You should be able to get lots of info there. See https://www.applytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/choose-lot and look for each of the major providers.

Not at a school currently, but based on former experience, I used to calculate a figure that was effectively annual cost per pupil per year. As it was a new school, it was growing year on year. The cost came down as we grew because I negotiated a deal that allowed for the growth and went for 3 or 5 year deals. I think I negotiated well as when we looked at competitors I could not get very near a similar deal. It was cloud based but the company no longer sells the software (probably pretty easy to work out!). Anyway, I doubt there are any confidentiality concerns here, but from vague memory, I think it was around £10 per pupil per annum reducing to £7 per pupil per annum as we grew.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect expansion. They bought an adjoining property and have invested heavily (£millions) elsewhere on the estate. From the job pack "Technology is a critical component of the School for both academic and operational needs, and the School now needs to move its ICT provision and services to a next level where both the service and the capacity to deliver change and improvement are accelerated." Also a new head started last year. I used to have friends and their kids went there but I don't think I have inside knowledge currently. This from AI though "Claremont Fan Court School has experienced significant growth and development, particularly in recent years. The school's reputation and pupil recruitment have increased, with a 55% rise in pupil numbers in the last two years. This growth is supported by recent acquisitions of adjacent properties and investments in new facilities, including the Sir Sydney Camm science and technology building." So, against my usual cynical start point, I think in this case the fan is not involved! Applications close Monday, so anyone keen will need to get moving!

IT technician, Senior IT Technician an Network manager roles at a school not far from me, paying from £35k to £50k. https://ce1050li.webitrent.com/ce1050li_webrecruitment/wrd/run/ETREC179GF.open?WVID=176178036I They look to have a fairly traditional setup, not much sign of cloud based infrastructure.

A reflective question, but is egress better for protecting PII than a correctly configured M365 Outlook application.

For secondary schools in particular, if you are still on SIMS, I would ask if you have even looked at the alternatives? If the answer is 'No', then you are doing your school a disservice.

Wimbledon lines-people have been replaced by AI - see https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/articles/cvgnmd8v82mo Actually, I don't think electronic line-calling needs the AI label, but AI is a term that seems to be chucked around with gay abandon nowadays. Hawkeye and it's predecessor Cyclops were not originally called AI systems and I don't think the latest line calling technology needs the AI label either. Anyway, I think I might have become a traditionalist against my normal behaviours. I think I prefer the imperfection of line judges, backed up by the challenge system that was in place for quite a few years. Whether it is true or not, I don't know, but I believe the quality of line calling improved with the backup system and I was impressed on how many times they got it right. It was always fun though to watch the well dressed Wimbledon officials faces and body language when they'd got it wrong. Of course, none of them were ever allow to say "You cannot be serious". Roll on Wimbledon!

Well, here's a turn up! It appears I misunderstood the situation - or more accurately it was not made clear to me🙃. The charging port issue has been with the older 'barrel' connectors, not USB-C - in fact the report is that USB-C charge interface had been more robust. The advantages of standardised power blocks/leads seems to be winning though! So, a bit of the opposite of the opposite of where I started 😂. And, the HP contact is a proper contract manager for charities. It was just that an internal contact allowed a fast-track referral allowing by-passing front line sales teams. So we look to have gone full circle from HP to Dell and back to HP. In reality is was because Dell just did not offer a clear an honest discount procedure for charities. As an aside, I'm writing all this on my personal Lenovo 14" x220, i7 vPro, Enhanced Experience 2.0 RapidDrive. 14 years old, I've had it 9, it's still going strong, still quick enough, the original battery lasted years, 2 replacements have been junk! Win 10 - Win 11 MS plans are it's biggest risk to continuing on.

Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors with inbuilt AI - something to give you an advantage or a marketing gimmick?

Thanks for the replies everyone. But, "Oh dear!, looks like trouble ahead". We've had a couple repaired, but that doesn't come cheap. One solution I just discovered is magnetic connectors. Effectively they separate under pressure before damage is done, but you'd want to be really careful on the electrical safety aspect!

For the last year or 2 we have been purchasing Dell laptops. Mine for example is an Latitude 3550, 16MB RAM 512SSD i7-1355U. It has a traditional A/C connector and I have had no issues. Several colleagues have slightly lower specs and I believe may only have USB-C charging options. Following more than one failure of these flimsy connectors, those up the feeding chain are now considering alternative devices. Due to 'internal connections' he is persuaded to look at HP Ryzen laptops - e.g. HP Probook 455 G10, same screen size, RAM and SSD but Ryzen 5 7530U. I don't have a problem of Dell over HP, but I can already beat the 'contact' price which allegedly contains a charity discount - ebuyer do it for £40 less. The question is, do you avoid USB-C only devices like the plague. These machines are intended for use by adult colleagues, but they don't seem to be too far behind the ability of Y9 boys to inflict damage!

Harsh, even brutal, but I'm afraid I have to 100% agree.

It all sounds very good. Although, it hasn't led to good use of English 😂

If you have a DPO, send it that way. If not, get one! In the meantime, pass it to the head.

Pehaps controversially, deception apart, does it matter?! If a RI (real intelligence) setup performs at least as well as a AI setup, Is there a danger we devalue RI over AI?

Over 125,000 signatures and Gofundme has exceeded its target of $16,000 in 26 hours since launch. @ICTDirect_Dave, that's seriously impressive! If you ever fancy a new career, I'm sure most political parties would sign you up in a flash as their campaign manager - although perhaps your passion wouldn't be the same! I bought the first 3 books of the story for my 16 year old, but he is working through other stories. I've been holding off on watching the series until he has read the books, but that could be a few months away, so I might start without him!