grumpy_git

Our NM spends ages sorting out the cheapest quote and doing things as best can be done within the budget. Yet on the other hand if it's the head's pet project, money is literally thrown at it... I expect cuts won't affect the latter, though.

This works with other companies. I think the law states that they can't offer something to a new customer and deny it to a customer of more than 6 months standing without a good reason - or something to that effect, anyway. This is one industry where threatening to go elsewhere really does work - Virgin Mobile couldn't offer me anything better, until I mentioned that I wished to switch to another provider... As for Media, we had a £7 per month discount applied indefinitely after a complaint - so if you've had bad service, whack off an email - you never know.

We have an improving situation, at least... the situation a few years ago was inkjets and cheap lasers all over the shop. As time goes by we're removing and centralising into "print areas" for example the whole Technology department has a print area, covered by CCTV, with a large A3 colour inkjet and an A4 mono laser. Likewise one in the library. The two admin offices have a mini-photocopier each, though one also has a small colour inkjet for the occasional item that needs it. Other areas still have far too many, though, but at least it's improving.

They are entirely banned up to Y11 here, any kids who need to bring them in are asked to leave them at reception. Needless to say this worked alright a few years ago but is totally unworkable now. We are all supposed to give kids a detention if we see them with one, but the room would be overflowing if it was enforced. Usually, I'm not bothered unless they're pratting about with it in some way, and just warn them that they could be put in a detention if they were seen by a member of staff. One of the tech teachers decided he needed them to bring phones in as part of his project... without telling/asking anyone else... which caused a few raised eyebrows!

They give a free lunch to teachers who have to work over their lunch break, but not for us! I'd see it as a hindrance, anyway, since lunch is often the best time to go and dive into classrooms to fix things, and we usually get a rush of visitors to the helpdesk then too.

That one was never worked out, we have the same problem! Which is another waste of money - every summer do we have roofing contractors up there sticking felt patches on the roof to try and keep it watertight for a bit longer. Every summer do the decorators go into the corridor to re-paint all the corridors ruined by water. By about christmas, the roof is leaky again and the corridor damaged. Should we replace the roof? "No money". But we've got enough money to waste it on roofers and decorators year on year, whereas if we spent a few years' money rolled together we could have a new roof and save a small fortune!

I do agree that there is far too much of the "pots of money" mentality. The school gets given money for something, and it has to spend it on that *specific* thing - even if we don't really need it. A case in point - we have a few skylights which constantly leak and need repaired every couple of months. Around March time, the (now retired) caretaker went to the finance manager and said "look, these skylights are leaking badly, I'm spending hours of my time each day mopping up the mess, can we get the glazier in to replace them" - and was told there was no money in the routine maintenance budget, the only money being in the budget for repairing damage or vandalism. Of course, that night the caretaker went on the roof with a few stones... and the skylights were replaced the next morning .

Admittedly, we have implemented some cost saving here. We now have a member of the site staff who is a qualified joiner, so rather than paying a fortune for contractors to do things like putting doors or partitions in. However, they have recently forced a member of staff who had 30 years experience in the building industry to leave - he knew everything about building regulations etc, and we would never be taken for a ride by contractors as they couldn't get their bullshit past him. Now he's gone, a dotty lady with no experience whatsoever is supposed to be overseeing it - I can see us being taken advantage of from a mile away! Some of the waste which goes on is ridiculous. We spent about £2,000 on getting an ex-OFSTED inspector in last week - the report which he produced *I* could have written! I'd wager he copies and pastes the tripe, changes a few words, and sends it to the school every time he does this! One of the other things which has annoyed me in the past is the amount of cover teachers have been given to go to meetings etc - these being teachers who have a 50% timetable so they can do their management role as well, and yet schedule meetings for the time they're supposed to be teaching! Hopefully the crackdown on cover will stop at least some of this...

I wonder if there's any mileage in creating a page of links to various posters which are freely available, since this question seems to be asked every so often? I will pretty shortly have a series of "How to do basic things in UNIX" posters which I'm writing to decorate a computer lab at uni, if they're of any use to anyone!

We have a wee noticeboard in all of the IT rooms, but it only displays dull stuff such as the AUP, printing arrangements, and a few posters scattered about urging people to back up, log off, put headphones away tidily etc.

As I understand it, the £65 fee is waived if you're a volunteer, but if you're an employee it needs paid either by your employer or yourself. I can imagine which one it will be! (But here's an interesting one; outwith school I'm on a local committee for which I'll need to have it, so I suppose I could do that and then use that within school).

I believe the first "network" was in the early 1990s when one of the maths teachers set a few machines down the side of a maths classroom. In 1998 the first two proper ICT rooms were put in (but for 4 years, 'computer studies' had been taught with said few machines!). 2002 another room opened, 2003 upgraded to CC3. Oh, and we had an admin network from 1993ish which was provided by the County Council. Several of the office staff still shudder when it's mentioned. In 2005 it was removed and normal network machines put in. Although, the contents of the old server's HDD were dumped onto the office staff shared area, and there it remains. So, if ever we need to find a letter to a parent about not having the right shoes dated 1994...

Does your (prospective) employer offer any scope to change your working hours? For example, if you could arrive and leave half an hour earlier it might help avoiding the rush hour. (I did some work in London, albeit temporarily, and agreed to work 6.30am until 3pm for exactly this reason).

Secondary school w/1200 students Approx 120 staff (teaching and support) 550ish machines 6 servers RM CC3 Responsibility for all AV equipment, telephones, CCTV etc. 1x NM 1x Technician 1x Assistant Technician 1x very part time Technician (me!)

If a direct debit is taken incorrectly then the bank need to provide a full and immediate refund - see the DD guarantee. I'm not sure whether they are obliged to refund charges in these circumstances, though. When my rent was taken incorrectly because the landlord is disorganised, they gave me a £28 courtesy discount next time around (even though it didn't cause me a charge!).

Exactly, this (I believe) is what the legal spat was all about - whether it actually costs the banks £38 to deal with a bounced cheque. £5 seems sensible enough.

We use the same for all except the 6th form computer room. 6th formers know that if they don't keep them in decent condition they'll be taken out and replaced with plastic - chairs in almost immaculate condition a year later. I like the flooring - all our IT suites are carpeted, which looks naff, stains easily, and gets chewing gum stuck in on a regular basis.

We decided a while ago to offer some old machines to staff without one in their office - on the understanding that they knew they were old and not very much use. A few teachers took the offer up, and they were duly installed. One teacher happy, and just uses it to do word processing or email. Of course, teacher then leaves and replacement rings up wondering why he can't do all sorts of fancy stuff with it . (One of those sort who joins the school and, hell, even before the end of his first day has given us a huge list of what he wants done yesterday).

I've not touched Access in *years*, but the following in Excel would do it if you had 'John' in A1 and 'Smith' in B1, stick this in C1 = "09" & B1 & LEFT(A1,1)

Sod's law dictates that all is quiet and still so you decide to take a machine to bits, or go and sort out a projector, or do something which involves not being interrupted... ... and you get the machine to bits and have components all over the desk ... ... and in bounces a teacher with an "urgent" problem!

Staff back tomorrow, students on Thursday/Friday. The projects we're involved with are basically finished, but others not so. One of the science labs flooring went down today and the sinks were delivered. Therefore giving them a day to plumb in the sinks, put the gas piping in, put the cupboard units in, worktops, paint the whole thing, put shelves up etc, oh and kit it out. I can see that happening...!

Presently we're waiting on a couple of rooms having building work finished before we can do anything - thus the computers are all ready to go, they just need a bench to sit on and electricity to power them! The builder has promised he'll have it finished by tomorrow... hmm... I predict the next few days will be spent heaving machines all over the place!

I used to take (presumably) the same attitude as you - last summer I was doing 9 hour days at school then coming home and doing another 2 hours of paperwork, email-writing, planning and machine rebuilding from home. The planned days off I had went out the window entirely and the two I did have I ended up doing some work from home on anyway. And yet there were still things not finished until October, teachers whining, and the head when describing all the building works didn't have one word of thanks for us. And they still owe me overtime...

It's only a bank holiday in some areas! Though I'm currently in an area where it's today, the chances of the school paying for extra hours on a bank holiday at enhanced rates are practically nil!

The motorman has the ability to contact the control room via his radio system in such cases - though you'd need to pull the communication cord to get his attention. The announcements thing is silly, IMO - London Underground realised that information was poor, but have made up for it by putting in loads of silly announcements. "There is a good service operating on the Piccadilly line" etc.