Adopt a Primary

A topic I see occasionally popping up especially for Academies and Secondary Schools.  With costs of IT Support high when you take in to account equipment, software, support and staff it really is a hefty cost.


So a simple - Yes, I would seriously consider adopting either personally or professionally a Primary School.


How would I do it? Professionally (adoption more by the School than my self)


The first task I would perform is evaluate the entire Primary IT:

• Servers
• Networking
• Computers
• Software
• Need or Want

Checking all these for age, make, model, reliability and future proofing.  With Primaries now looking at IT similar to what Secondary's were 7 years ago - it's more of a "need" than "want" and must be fit for purpose and work.


The School that NEEDs IT
My advice for the Primary would be to make sure their equipment it self was future proof, spend the money now to ensure reliability.  It's quite simply to create two servers both synchronised with one being housed at the Secondary School and another being at the Primary.  This allows easy maintained, administration and major tasks carried out.  This includes day to day, backups and essential reliability work to be dealt with.  Two servers on site, the secondary server would be primarily software, data storage, imaging and anything else the Primary needed.


Depending on the size of the School it wouldn't need to be two massively expensive servers but the more costs = the more future proofing and availability.


The popular word of course Virtualisation


Infrastructure
It would also be critical to install good quality managed switches, my choice has been HP although they are expensive they seem to last easy 10 years with barely any failures.  Any cabling and trunking to be professionally installed and in any classrooms that could potentially have IT installed.


One day a week - Technician
Currently we can't really spare a man of my team, but given we have cancelled our BYOD Scheme and things are slowly coming to plan - we could soon. 


Work together with Management
This is a crucial part, many times I have seen technicians fall out with Primaries because agreements were more tongue in cheek.  Make it a simple agreement, keep it short and always electronically.  Make sure the Primary is aware of any non day to day jobs are planned well ahead of schedule.  A good example would be installation of new computer areas, if there is no trunking, networking etc then we are talking about a lot of work.


So make it very clear that one day a week jobs need to be alerted (preferably sent by an email), any jobs not done by email can be performed but must be recorded/signed off.  This allows some one in my position to see the kind of day to day jobs.  When I look at our day to day jobs in simple IT areas, we are talking about reimaging a pc, replacing a monitor and installing the occasional update.


Always plan for a contingency budget in the event of a failure, this can also be put towards any IT replacements/improvements before the new financial year.


Why IT in Primaries
The simple fact is, IT is every where and Pupils need to be aware of how the world works.  I've encountered Students where they have had zero clue about IT and are being left behind by those who know what they are doing.  Everyone has a device these days, you still see offices with pcs, the doctors, banks, supermarkets and even garages.


Plan, Plan and Plan some more - Look to 3-5 Years
Although totally unrealistic to plan for 5 years time, it's not unrealistic to consider it.  Keep in mind to keep things working for that long at least.


Don't quite agree? let me know.