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We can't be the only ones scratching our heads over this one! Supply staff. Schools can't run without them but from an IT and safeguarding perspective, they sit in this really awkward middle ground. They need enough access to actually do their job on the day, but they're in and out so fast that proper account management often goes out the window. So what are you all actually doing? I know a lot of schools are still handing out a shared "supply" login at the front desk. I get why as it's quick and easy when someone rocks up at 8:15am, and need to be teaching within 30 minutes. But then MFA comes along and suddenly nobody can agree whether it should be on a phone, whether it should be a hardware key, what kinda device they get to access, do you just generate one-time passcodes... and then the password gets written on a Post-it, and before you know it you've got no idea who's actually been logging in and whether the account has been reset nightly. Most of this has just grown organically because schools are busy and people are just trying to get through the day. But I think it's worth trying to figure out what a sensible approach actually looks like, especially as Cyber Essentials and general expectations around account security keep moving the goalposts. Are you using named accounts for supply? If so, how are you turning those around quickly enough when someone's booked last minute? Have you found a way to make MFA work that isn't a complete nightmare in practice? Or are you still in the "we know it's not ideal but here we are" camp? Not here to judge anyone, cause I know this is a constantly moving target. I'm genuinely curious what's working (or not) for people, and how we can work this out as a sector.

The Head has asked me for teachers to receive a popup message reminding them to take the register at 5 minutes past the beginning of each lesson. Our teaching staff have their own OU within AD, so something that can target users (not computers) this way would be ideal. I need to ensure they don't get irrelevant reminders at the weekends or during holidays, but receiving them when they have a free period wouldn't be the end of the world. Does anyone else have a solution for this in place? I've tried with msg.exe (simply unable to target users on a domain without knowing the PC they're logged onto), and also psexec & schedulded tasks to run vbscripts, but I'm struggling to get anything working reliably. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi all, SLT would like students only to be able to email teachers and not other students, we are running exchange 2003. Does anyone have any ideas the best way or if this could be done? Any help would be appreciated, thank you

I am always up for a spot of teacher bashing given the trials that they put me through but I thought I'd take the time to remember those good teachers that I had met along the way while in school as a comparison. I was lucky enough to have a few good teachers throughout my education which gave me hope for the entire species A physics teacher that had us read and discuss The Physics of Star Trek: Lawrence M. Krauss, Stephen Hawking: Amazon.com: Books and had everyone bake a cake for the class as part of the study of the application of energy to materials. An economics teacher that got us to do reports on the economic impacts of things that actually effected the country as a whole and who randomly taught us gearing with Lego as a parable to economic theory. For every entitled narrow minded teacher that screams about their lack of ability to plug in a power cord there are at least 0.25 ( ) teachers forging the tools for logical and creative thought into their students minds. If only for balance this thread should stand for all those teachers who do a great job and inspire rather than damage the youth under their tutorledge. I hope others can chime in with their own experiences of great teachers, if only to provide a comforting light in the darkness.

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I'm a software engineer who has been researching the MIS systems schools are currently using. I've seen a lot of feedback on this website regarding why users like one system over the other, but would love to get more feedback as we are looking to create a new piece of software. I understand that the industry doesn't need a new piece of software, but our approach isn't to build something that already exists better. Rather we want to rethink how schools/teachers/parents use the systems around the education of their students/children. Any feedback on what you love about the systems you're currently using as well as some of your pain points would be great.

Hi, It has been a long time since I posted on here. I was wondering what you all think of the LGFL change that happened today regarding staff passwords. Traditionally, LGFL have always allowed approved support and nominated contacts to view passwords for staff. This allowed us to issue new passwords to the staff. If the USO Sync was in place, it also meant we could login as a staff member without having to disturb them to check their machines. LGFL have now taken this ability away - citing GDPR compliance. I take issue with this for 4 reasons: 1. We did not receive notice that this was happening. I am asking LGFL if any was issued. 2. I am no GDPR expert but I have spoken to a few. I do not believe that having the ability to see users passwords was a breach of GDPR. GDPR is all about informing people what is happening with their data and protecting it as much as possible. It would actually be more relevant to hide the staff mobile numbers for example. As long as the staff are aware that we have the ability to see their passwords, then GDPR compliance should be met. Also it probably would have been better to give staff the ability to hide their passwords from support should they wish. 3. In the real world, this change is very impactful. An example is that during half term we are undergoing a change (coincidently LGFL related) at one of our new schools. During half term we are wanting to check various computers and teacher logons. This is now not possible as we cannot see their passwords and the staff are not contactable during half term. Any resets of passwords are going to the staff mobiles and we will not be able to access them. 4. LGFL have stated that 'In order to make it simple and efficient to reset staff passwords we would encourage staff to verify their mobile numbers.' Again, there has been no lead-in time to set this up or prepare. I would be interested to hear if you are affected by this change and what your thoughts are.

[TABLE=align: center] [TR] [TD=align: left]The Role Fernhill School are seeking to appoint an enthusiastic, suitably qualified teacher of Computing at Key Stage 3 and 4 to join our team from September. The subject is popular within the school and the accommodation is well resourced and spacious. A passion for developing young adults is essential: this entails a commitment to all learners, to excellence for all, and a belief that a good school can and does make a significant difference to learners’ life chances and levels of attainment. The Candidate The successful candidate will: have a proven track record of teaching computing at KS3 and KS4ave experience in teaching the OCR GCSE Computer Science syllabus have experience in teaching the OCR GCSE Computer Science syllabus be confident to teach Python and possess a programming background have a passion for the subject and the ability to inspire our students be an excellent classroom teacher who can challenge all our learners to achieve their very best have relevant qualifications and experience, including a DfE recognised teaching qualification be an innovative teacher, focused on raising attainment Staff Vacancies | Fernhill School https://teaching-vacancies.service.gov.uk/jobs/teacher-of-computing-fernhill-school [TABLE=align: center] [TR] [TD=align: left]Our Headteacher would love to meet you and we guarantee that anyone who visits our school will want to become part of our exciting team. To book a visit please contact Cindy Reynolds on 01276 702545 or email [email protected][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Hi All I have a budget of about £10k and i need to use that to enable 10-15 staff members to work from home. my thinking was in order to be very cost effective I can recycle the old desktops we have at the school and set them up for remote access, the main objective is to prevent staff from downloading documents to their personal devices and by using a remote desktop hosted in the school we can contain that. is there a better more cost effective way to do this ? what would be a good cost effective software to allow them to remote in to those machines ? we use the LGFL connection at the school but I find their offering of remote desktop to be overcomplicated and not very intuitive below are the things we cant do allow them to login to office 365 from their personal laptops provide them with school hardware at home I appreciate your input on this issue !

Hello everyone, I'm not quite sure where to post this, but since it is a hardware lease, I thought this would be the more appropriate place. Does any schools here provide individual laptops to all their teachers? We're trying to cut down on costs and this question has popped up. Could you please provide feedback. Thank you. Kindest regards, Paul

In the school I work at multiple teachers can teach a single class. To display this information I know i can use Nova & do this report: Reports > Curriculum Analysis > List of Classes for a Year(s) Is there anyway I can display this information just using the SIMS reporting engine? Thanks, Liam

Hi Everyone, I'm curious as to what procedure you have in place for any student teachers you have in your schools. What do they have access to? You see they want: network logins to access the computer, Gsuite logins to access the shared files and access to the photocopier(we have papercut set up). We're trying to find the most efficient solution for students to be integrated without them having access to areas they shouldn't as they're not our employees? is it to treat them as such and make them sign their souls over to us to use our systems? How do you do it? Thanks