Schools: Costs of "Free of IT"

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How much money do we spend a year on IT?

How much could we save if we went Open Source?

How much could we save if we went “Free of IT”?

These are very important questions and require a lot of time to really think through the repercussions.  Good example would be losing a projector which would mean more photocopying so would it save us £5000 a year? No.

Our current IT (if you agree on it or not doesn’t matter it’s a fact).

·         Site MFD printing (plus several small printers)

·         Cashless catering

·         MIS SIMs.net + Learning Gateway

·         600+ PCs and Laptops

·         Site Wi-Fi

·         100 classrooms all with PCs, Projectors, stereo systems and most with IWBs

·         Financial Software

·         ADMIN performing day to day duties of printing (we don’t outsource)

·         IT run events and setup daily screens in areas

·         Exam software

·         Two School websites

The important part to remember is we are a typical Academy in our area.

Although our reliance on IT has dropped in the recent two years mainly because of alterations, checking and planning to make sure it’s serving a purpose (making life easier).  Anything that’s a waste of money is scrapped, anything that fails that doesn’t need to replace is removed and license fees are heavily evaluated.

In the event of further budget restrictions we will implement considerations of Open Source software and removal of any more annual costs.  These though will have implications.

·         Scrapping Office 365 in favour of Open Office £4000 a year

·         Cutting Broadband speed £2500 a year

·         Scrapping Microsoft Windows in favour of Linux £15,000 a year

·         Cloud based email with Gmail – New server cost at some point £20,000-£30,000 one off

·         Cloud based data storage with Google Drive £20,000-£30,000 one off

·         Scrapping all laptops £2000 a year

·         Removing financial software £4000

Before “removing IT” we would consider these options although it would require everyone doing things different and taking IT less for granted surely it would be the first path.

You also have to take in to considerations of employing IT staff to maintain this software, servers and the system.  If you consider only employing an IT Manager who can the simple tasks to system maintenance.  Now some of the above you don’t have to remove but with each item you keep you may have to resort to employing two IT staff costing the School £50K+ because an IT Manager who was qualified and experienced isn’t going to work for less than £25K.  Remember the 50K also includes pensions because Schools have to budget for this.

So what would the knock on effect of removing IT do to the costs and staffing:

·         MFD printing and employing a reprographics person due to the increase of photocopying reliance (BTW we help maintain this PaperCut > MFD system minus engineering calls) £22,000

·         Removal of cashless catering system and employing another member of staff £22,000

·         Removal of register system which collates data from exams, attendance, staff, DFE requirements, assessments and progress.  Employment of a full time attendance and exam officer (perhaps even two attendance because they chase up every late arrival plus data inputting for 100 classrooms per period).  £44,000 to £66,0000

·         Removal of all projectors outside of ICT creating “more” workloads of teachers/SLT.  Employment of additional 4 teachers (I’ve already put this question to a senior member of staff). £100,000

·         Houses (something most Schools are adopting to cover behaviour, communication with Parents etc.) currently employ 1 per house would have to be increase to 2.  £88,000

·         Removal of finance software would require a 3^rd part time worker £15,000

·         Removal of IT for events would require external companies to setup everything lights, sound and IT (I know how much we currently pay and that’s only for lights). £15,000

·         No iMacs, iPads, tablets or laptops.

Although there isn’t sufficient classrooms for additional teachers I will take in to consideration that we have a staff room for those 4 teachers.  So no extra classroom costs (I still think we would need more classrooms to allow classroom per teacher which currently is NOT the case).  Each teacher is currently moving classrooms several periods a week preventing them from pre-writing on boards instead of using projectors.  You have to take in to consideration the time it takes from a teacher to get to another room while also carrying all those books and copies – again lack of IT saving/reliance.

Total cost of the above £328,000.  This is a perhaps slightly over egged amount but realistically it’s potentially creating a large exposure for a School.  Remember a School can’t take risks where the day to day duties are not performed (a lot of these are Ofsted and legal daily School requirements that we can’t pretend doesn’t exist).  The School must make sure it’s able to provide every class with a teacher while still pursuing results and Ofsted “outstanding” grade due to Schools not being allowed to be coasting.  Potentially if you kept the MIS system you can save yourself the majority of this money but that creates more reliance on a senior on site technician being employed putting the total to £152,000.   Remember the “more” IT you keep the more reliance you have on two on site technicians instead of a single one plus annual budgets to replace the equipment and maintain the servers.  Meaning you’re NOT accomplishing anything by creating a “free of IT School” and you’re just being a time waster, troll or perhaps some that is quite clueless (usually the youngsters) who lack experience of seeing what happens in day to day life of a School outside the IT office.

As mentioned before we are a typical Academy and reverting back to “Free of IT” outside the majority of Admin>ICT is possible but costs are very high.  You have to take in to consideration how easy an MIS system takes data where it’s not one single person updating it it’s actually around 20 staff per day.  It’s easier for a single person to locate one students contact details > behaviour > alerts from teachers > what Parents to talk to (not all of them have contact with their children) plus backup contact details.  Which would also mean more paper copies of each parent and updates made often (we currently have 1 part time person who updates all this daily).

What IT would we actually keep if we count ICT > ADMIN:

·         7 ICT Suites of 31 PCs = 210 PCs + 7 projectors and IWBs  (Equipment being replaced recommended age 5 years: 45 PCs, 2 Projectors (slightly over predicted for failures etc) budget required £20,000 including MISC.

·         15 PCs to cover whole of Admin – Included in above.

·         Cloud based email – Free (once breached costs are involved)

·         Cloud based data storage – Free (once breached costs are involved)

·         Possibility of “outsourcing IT” this would only require a single IT technician during term time.   Depending on how much IT kept IT Manager £30,000

·         Broadband £12,000

·         Open Source operating system, Office and others -  Free

·         MPD with Papercut software – Currently annual costs £50,000 (including printers) increase due to copier reliance.  £80,000.

Note: the staff salaries includes pensions which add around 10-15%

TOTAL IT COST:  £142,000

Even if you added up the lowest possible costs of £100,000 a year to employing other staff you’ve still got £242,000 and most Schools don’t even spend this in total.  Even though is a non-egged total we could potentially see a total cost of up to £470,000 to cover current IT of “free IT School” and to cover the extras caused by scrapping IT.

If I’m wrong say where?  Perhaps we would get away with employing less staff?  Perhaps we can employ just a simple technician at £20,000 to maintain a system?

Perhaps we can cut down our printing require and purchase more text books (which again are not cheap but would require students to look after them). 

What about Music would we see more reliance on equipment instead of iMacs?  More instruments etc.

What about Art who produce work on computers would we require more consumables?

Would we see more teacher meetings because again they would need to do that more often?

Some Schools do manage with minimal IT, in fact one of the best Schools in this Country has a Linux system with around 400 PCs.  They have 2 on site technicians and generally reliable equipment.  Their full IT budget is around £160,000 to cover everything – this is an “Outstanding” School and it’s expected that every Student goes off to their choice of University.  Problem is – this School is not a “Free of IT” outside of ICT/Admin.  It still relies on IT Suites outside of ICT, there’s areas with a handful of PCs, they have a projector in every classroom with a few IWBs.  One thing they don’t suffer from is a standard behavior problem and only employ 2 staff to cover the whole “house” system.  Which saves the salary of two staff members compared to other secondary Schools this size.

Education: Free of IT

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Had an interesting topic of discussion, is IT a major negative point in Education.

I have to say I was quite impressed with this post (some good, some bad).

I’ve said quite strongly in other posts that Schools have no sympathy from me if they fall in to a financial mess because of the waste I’ve witnessed.  I’ve fallen out with and argued with a lot of people that IT is not a magic bean.

IT is simply there to make your life easier.  Likewise for home where we get to watch what we want, when we want and how we want because of IT not because of blackboard with chalk.

So what points were raised:

·         Registers reverting back to paper

·         Blackboards instead of projectors

·         Normal boards instead of IWBs

·         No devices in classrooms

·         Only ICT have IT

·         10 years ago we managed

Registers

This is the easy one to defend, a register can be done and dusted in a matter of moments.  When I was a kid a lesson would settle down and be seated then it was time to say “here” while the teacher did the register.

Now this entire process would take a few minutes including the time it took for us all to sit down and be quiet.

This entire process wouldn’t take no longer than it would today using IT – a teacher can logon and be ready in the time it takes for the class to be seated and settled.

That register once saved is then able to be processed to see who is absent first thing.  As a result the attendance office will also be able to contact the Parent using the same register system (with name, addresses and contact numbers).  The reasoning on that absence can also be logged in the same area.

In the event that during a later lesson and a student is marked absent, again this has the ability to flag up on the attendance office who can contact the parent and/or emailing/phone the houses (support staff) to find out where this child is.  It’s useful to note that email is also used in this process which can go out to “All Staff”.

Without this system the School would have to employ more attendance officers to keep up with this demand.  Not to mention who will deliver a paper register? The Student who should actually be in lesson learning not delivering a piece of paper.

Blackboards > IWBs/Projectors

I’ve made this clear in other posts how easy it is to produce work anywhere in the world on a piece of IT and bring that and place on a screen within a minute. 

You can store that and use it later, can email it to share with other staff or save it to a general area.  A piece of work produced for a projector isn’t simply rubbed off a blackboard.  You can show pictures, videos and even use other software packages to make work “more fancy” which in all honesty I don’t fully agree with.  What I do agree with though is saving a year, 2 years or even 10 years’ worth of work to be reused.  I’ve witnessed teachers actually plan their next 12 months of curriculum which makes it easier for them and also allows the ability for a cover teacher to have access to that work.

I’ve slaughtered IWBs and rightly so – they cost around £1000 each.  Half the time they are not used effectively enough but I have to say I’ve seen an increase in this lately.  Which in all honestly this allows me to see why they benefit the teacher.

A teacher can stand in front of the classroom making live changes to something and get the kids focused on the front.  The teacher no longer needs to be sitting at the PC.  There’s additional features that allows a teacher to make live notes which can be quickly saved and revert back to for the students to see.  This enables them to ask questions and answer quick fire ones.

All this is about making things easier and simpler.  I produce all kinds of reports and documents on IT in a saved area.  In the event something happens to me someone else can take over and not the end of the world.

No Devices > Only ICT have IT

Now this is where a focus feels like it’s aimed at which I too have grumbled about.  Those pesky devices in classrooms from laptops to iPads where generally they are not really thought through.  I think this goes back to the whole “be careful what you buy” and have a purpose for it before you even test/trial it.  I completely agree it’s a waste of money to buy iPads when there are cheaper alternatives to browse the internet.  I completely agree that buying a classroom full of laptops for 15 year olds isn’t the best way forward.

To completely scrap IT though? Is quite a naive thing to say especially if you are not experienced enough to understand what teachers do all day.

10 Years ago

When I was a child there was a lot of differences to education:

·         No phone call first thing in the morning for an absence

·         We had to white down what was on the blackboard quick so the teacher could rub it out and write more

·         Schools didn’t have 30 students per class

·         Schools were not suffering with a lack of classrooms

·         Schools had plenty of teachers

·         Teachers had plenty of free periods to do their marking etc

·         No Teacher shortage

·         No mass budget cuts

·         Less Ofsted requirements

·         Less data tracking

·         Curriculum changes

Unfortunately this has nothing to do with IT, this has to do with over expectations of our Schools and effectively “mass” educating the “masses”.  I once visited a School I was taught in and I was impressed but also disappointed in the changes.  It went from having 150 Students per year to 250.  It went from not having a sixth form but to having one with another 200 Students.  I was disappointed at the fact that it only gained one new building of classrooms.  That’s around 750 increased to 1450 students yet the site itself didn’t look like it changed much.

When you look at the state of education in a decade it’s changed an incredible amount.  I’ve worked and spent plenty of time with teachers some of whom are retired.  They told me about many of these changes how they were no longer “teaching” but doing endless amount of data inputting, reports, tracking and marking.  They would tell me about the endless amount of meetings, briefings and CPD expectations that again they were no longer “teaching”.

Again, this has nothing to do with IT but how education is run.  This is not something anyone but the Government can change and let’s face it with all the protests by teacher unions having made a positive impact (no it hasn’t) where do we go?  If these unions can’t change education what hope do any of us have.

The above list shows that IT is not the fundamental issues in education.  IT regardless if some choose to purchase an iMac instead of a Windows PC just to use Office/Internet has nothing to do with the major issues in education.  IT regardless if some one chooses to buy a bunch of tablets is not a major issue in education.

IT is there to make your life easier and if it’s not – it’s failing and should be scrapped.  I am fully aware of the IT spending including staff – we’re talking around 150K per year.

That’s 7 NQT teachers or 5 experienced teachers which still wouldn’t help cut the work load.

As mentioned before this all stems from a need instead of a want.

So let’s pick some more specifics:

Media Tool Access

They can have portable interactive screens with laptops attached. Not in the classroom, and only a few, say one for every four classes. But lessons would be planned generally as much as possible to not rely on them.

So lessons wouldn’t be planned to rely on them – This is an issue you can’t simply walk backwards without IT.  You’ve got to come up with better solutions for that replacement.  When it comes to students sharing equipment this can cause a problem because a student may not be directly taking part.  You can’t share a musical instrument with a group of 4 students.  You effectively give 1 student 5 minutes each and the other 15 minutes that student isn’t actually learning nor taking part.  Plus “portable screens with laptops” – Scrap IT but not completely? …..

Thing is teachers create a plan and that must be adhered to – anyone who knows teaching will understand this.  Even though I completely believe a teacher should have a plan B in the event of failures but this shouldn’t always be the case.  When you go down the route of “changing” things you also have to create a consistency.  Every class should be the same this allows every teacher who uses that classroom to use the IT effectively and quickly.  I believe every classroom should have the same setup which cuts down problems and cuts down training requirements plus the time it takes to turn it all on.  Within 2 minutes a class + the IT should be fully ready regardless what it is.  You also have to remember that the classroom may not be assigned to an individual teacher, it could be 10 or even 20 teachers in that room every two weeks.  Again – do teachers have the time to be fully trained up on everything? No so instead you create consistency.

Sharing of Work

This is not something I see as valuable to teaching I.T wise. I think teachers have regular meetings where they can discuss etc and go over good methods, it depends what type of collaboration they are doing. If it's teaching techniques, meeting face to face is surely better.

Sharing is a fundamental part in Education and although face to face has great benefits.  What happens when you found a very good presentation that can be used by your department?  You have to wait till you have a free lesson and photocopy it.  Then provide that to the rest of the department instead using technology you can email it to everyone or save it to shared area.  That resource is also permanently saved.  I’ve met some teachers who have resources dating back 12 years (no joke).  You only have to spend time in a classroom to see how many resources are being used in a single lesson usually 2-4 files per class.  When you add that up to a day just for a single room – potentially there can be 100s of open resources a day.  The same logic of the internet you can apply on the day to day usage of projectors/sharing those resources.

One thing that’s been ignored is when do teachers have more time to “meet”, they are already swamped by a single department meeting a week and School briefing once a week.  This doesn’t include their monthly CPD evening sessions.  They have little to no free periods which they have to spend marking, assessing and data tracking (all on paper without IT).  So when do they have time for this?

Teachers

In terms of registers, I can only speak from my experience. Teachers tend to mess about taking time to log on to the computer, then onto the student system, then loading up the class. A piece of paper is much quicker for the teacher, the back office might get the hump.

Libraries are closing because the internet is a much better information resource, it's practical to access information via the internet rather than going to loan a book. I don't think it's practical for I.T to be used to widely in education. It's easy to "throw" an iPad at a class.

How long before the teacher is done away with, or the state schools ditch a large number of teachers to a system where students are taught remotely.
I never said not using computers was the answer, students would need to learn how to use computers for practical uses, "a couple of times a week" suggests this. I would expect the I.T curriculum to cater for this, I know the primary one does.

Interesting this one, sounds like the person has a bit of a “gripe” towards teachers and to be fair at times so do I.  I can also praise them hard like I have done in other posts.

Why is a teacher messing about taking time to logon? I’ve seen classes and the teachers spend very little to barely any time logging on and getting ready to teach.  Then again we are a School aiming to be outstanding which requires total behaviour and total focus by the teachers/students.

Libraries are closing thanks to IT, it’s fact – simple as that.  Internet access has great resources and you can find nearly anything – using IT.

Then the last part – “I never said” strange the topic started off about IT shouldn’t exist outside of ICT.  That means only ICT can use the internet to research, ICT are the only ones able to produce work to put on a powerpoint presentation.

It’s either ICT has IT and that’s it or is it – non ICT use what’s needed.  And considering this person has said that paper registers are better.

Using Tablets

You can get systems where you can put paper through a machine and it detects the marks (like a lottery ticket), however I guess a compromise could be reached on registers whereby staff are supplied with a small tablet purely for admin purposes. But I would prefer paper only if I had my way.

It sounds like your school thinks for itself and does not follow trends. A good thing in most cases.

Right this is a very interesting one now we are getting a little bit on the silly side.  We are now talking about not scrapping IT but perhaps completely doing something different just to prove a point.  Looking through the responses now it seems other ways of doing things that “work”.

Switching a system from one to the other can actually increase costs.  A tablet at £100 struggles to last two years unless really looked after.  A PC costing us just over double the price could potentially last up to 8 years with SSDs (we currently have SSDs in our 7 year old equipment and they are running almost as good as new machines).  Although it will be interesting to see how those 7 year old PCs last with the SSDs it certainly makes things viable for cutting down long term costs.  We’ve finally removed all 8+ year old equipment because their specs were simply too low to make a major difference with SSDs.

Then you have to think what can you do with that tablet? Well our full version of SIMs doesn’t work so we would have to use Sims Teacher App (which doesn’t allow everything SIMs Windows does).  We would have to scrap the majority of our department software including our full version of Office 365 Live (because Windows versions and even their online one doesn’t do everything).  Those tablets will not connect up to your projectors, IWBs or even to some of the electronics/science and DT equipment which are Windows only.

So to replace all the PCs with tablets we would be looking at £65,000 including cases. 

We would have to replace the majority of our software (we have done tablet BYOD schemes so we fully know what’s available and it’s not much).  Meaning potentially more thousands spent and some of it is annual software.  We would have to get model specific tablets to make sure they connect up to our projectors (our ones are not compatible).  That would be an additional £40,000 based on a £400 projector or TV that’s compatible.  And before anyone mentions we don’t do £300 projectors because we require a certain brightness and like a projector that can handle being turned on nearly 8 hours a day 5 days a week.

So an estimated of over £100,000 has already been spent making our current system compatible with “tablets” and that’s before we purchase Apps plus create a system that manages them.  You also have to consider the teacher would have to logon to the internet every day instead of just click and go – because our filtering system doesn’t allow it to be any other way.  Every staff member would have to receive training and again because we did tablets we’re fully aware of the issues surrounding them.  We suffer black spots in areas as a result of a fire alarm system so we may have to consider boosters in those areas.  Then there is damages, accidents where even though not many staff had tablets we stil had to replace 5 of them which although is a low number it’s still ¼ of what we had in.  The charging ports are also much easier to damage.  If you consider a broken keyboard or mouse for a PC costing £5 a set it’s certainly not a major if they get broken (which happens often).  To repair tablets you’re looking at an average of £50 per repair or simply replace them for another £100.

You also have to consider the likes of “flash, shockwave, java” which don’t fully work on tablets – again as we found out.  Some websites still are not fully compatible with tablets – we can’t find alternatives because they don’t exist we know we tried.  So again we’re at this place where someone has made a crucial decision without looking at the wider scope making the same mistake as those who choose “let’s get iPads or iMacs” why? Because they are pretty….  Getting tablets for the cheap as chips option is just the same level mistake.

We would have to make sure that site wide coverage of Wi-Fi also was setup at the moment we are about 90% coverage in the areas needed.

There’s also software like Adobe Cloud which is professional media software and the free versions available are not good enough for high quality work.

I will say this, I am going to look at how much we spend towards IT every year and see what the costs would be if it was all scrapped.

Support Staff
An increase of support staff which even I hadn't actually considered or remembered.  We're in a situation where the MIS and cashless catering system makes the School life easier.  This means only a part time and one full time person is needed for attendance (plus other tasks) likewise for the exam officer and data manager.  So for those jobs we're talking about 3 and a 1/2 people.

Straight away we would be looking to employ 2 additional staff to keep up with the missing MIS after all the DFE requires the information and all that data is presented to staff.  A lot of this is about moving forward - in fact it's a huge debate at the moment if all the extras are no longer required only the DFE requirements.  One of these changes occurred recently September 2016 - this is fact.

We would also have to employ another restaurant worker due to the cash system returning where as at the moment each person is scanned through the system almost instantly.  We have one person less than most Schools in our area - in fact I think it's two less while still providing a very good quality service while still turning a tiny profit which goes towards on improving the sourcing of food.

Re-prographics currently has no direct member of staff and without projectors etc we will see a rise in photocopying.  This means another member of staff - who's going to do all this work?  We do all the prospectus etc internally which again is a money saver by the School.

We have a business manager who works hard to prove we are not wasting money.  Everyone under the School BM understands this and also works towards saving money.

So we know we would have to consider employing 4 staff at least to recover just the basics in our School which adds up to £80,000.  This isnt just a guess this is evidence as a result of current situations where at times those departments struggle.  Any extra work load would require more staff.

Who will do it? Teachers? When they currently have no free time. This means even more teachers would have to be employed who cost more than those support staff.  We're talking £25,000 each meaning an additional 4 teachers would cost £100,000.

Sadly the person has made it clear not only will he not change his mind - to be fair he is very young and his posts are not only contradicting him self but refusal to see the bigger picture.

This kind of goes back to why I don't always get along with my own profession who have a habit of reacting quicker than they think.  They lack the experience and general knowledge to realize the bigger picture.

As some one that once used to say "go back to the black board" I can honestly say this is no different.

This is why young people generally don't run Schools and why it takes decades to gain that kind of experience.  You need to see the bigger picture if you will change your mind or not.

#Michaela #Education

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If I was back to teaching I must admit..  the thought would dread across my mind as it does in my current job when I know what to expect day to day.

So is it time we’re hard on education, teachers and students? On what we expect from them all (including us support staff).  I work toward the common goal of improving education in my work place.  Although my primary focus will indeed be the IT system my main aim however is certainly making IT work.  Everyone should be able to walk in to any classroom and it just works regardless.  They are all mirrored which means the IT setup is the same in every room.  This creates a consistency of equipment that anyone can operate on site.  If you would like to know more details read through my other posts.

One thing I wanted to touch base on which I can’t lie I may try and even visit this School: #Michaela

A good link with a video is located here: http://www.teachwire.net/news/michaela-school-book-launch

I’ve seen several responses about the control being issued here but think about it.  What exactly are we trying to achieve in education?

·         Every student is pushed to the maximum of their potential preparing them for the future

·         The School conforms to Ofsted inspections and gets the results needed

So why are people so hesitant over this?  Is it because after all they are children and they must enjoy their youth?  That will not stop.

Once they are 18 they are going to be clubbing, partying and nothing really will change.

We’ve often compared to their lack of chances in life because of their upbringing or home life style but isn’t it time we expect them to be more?

I’ve often disagreed with hard line approaches in education but I can no longer pretend that I want the best for my children.    If Schools pushed along the same lines as #Michaela would we see better results? If we did would we question how they got results and claim exams are easier?  Would we then blame good results on other excuses?  Would we question #Michaela’s student intake?

The video in the link with the Head discussing what she expects from the students actually impressed me.  That is indeed a very rare feat after all I don’t impress easy.

Here is question – Will we see this Schools policies being introduced in others? 

We’ve already seen introduction of severe uniform policies or shall we say Schools enforcing them more.  The majority of Schools have similar uniform policies but we are starting to see more enforcement and we all know why.  It educates the children in to knowing what is expected of them especially when they are coming fully prepared for School life.  This has been proven to have a direct result on behaviour which translates to more learning and better results.

In my job instead of dealing with children who are not always forthcoming I end up dealing with adults who I must admit are in that same category.

A lot of people tend to question what exactly do we put up with?

·         It’s never their fault (even after you prove it they are in denial).

·         It’s not their responsibility (it’s their job to teach even about IT – mine is to setup everything so it works).

·         They will criticise the government for late minute curriculum/education changes (even though they give us last minute jobs endlessly).

·         They won’t care about what happens to the IT in a classroom (you know endless damages, things disappearing and kids playing with PCs).

·         Lack of money for education yet will be happy to spend £5000 on something which will be forgotten.

·         Hate to admit they’re wrong about something even if it’s technical.

·         Seem to think we have the time to solve their fridge failing problem or generally anything that uses electricity.

Now this doesn’t include everyone.

It shows that even adults can be complicated and difficult but we’ve allowed teachers to be like this towards support staff.  We’ve allowed this poor attitude where teachers do what they choose with little to no repercussions until lately where education is being scrutinised very hard and rightly so.  Educating our youth is pivotal to the future of this nation and the world.  The examples we set as adults forever ties to the kids.

So with the ever increase demand for education to work, the shadowing Trusts hovering over every Schools head and with only certain kids from certain areas getting jobs.  Is it time it was really all resolved regardless?

I think so.

Review: 3 Hours of FFXV

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Finally a game that I’m really enjoying and I don’t feel like this is boring at all.  (SPOILERS)

This game feels like an MMO not just a single player running around a single direction.  Do you ever get the feeling this is what XIII should have been?

I’m going to start off with the tiny complaint about this game which is how the first two minutes started.  It doesn’t cut you in to the action nor does it show a gripping story instead it’s the usual teenager saying good bye to his father but has to push a car by hand.

After this though wow this game not only has brilliant quality but the characters that follow you actually feel like personalities.

So what shall we talk about first?

Combat System

I didn’t play the demo, I didn’t want anything spoilt for me at all from the moment I got XV in my hands I wanted to feel this is totally fresh and new.

The combat systems on RPGs especially the standard click kill or the Skyrim type combat have always been “okay” to me.  Final Fantasy XV though nails it and frankly my only gripe is with the camera system.

The combat system allows you to whizz around, hammer hard the enemy, it’s fast and fluid while still providing difficulty.  It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by the enemy especially in fights with plenty to kill with levels close to you.  I can’t complain about how this system is setup.

The night time battles are also a different touch when Iron Giants come after you.  Not to mention fighting birds which can also be a touch annoying with them dive bombing you but let’s face it they are birds.

Graphics

SE have always nailed quality for the time, XIII was beautiful and XV is even more gorgeous to the point where you can’t help but keep an eye on the horizon.  The characters look real, the cars and the buildings all seem fantastic.  I’ve only played this game for a few hours and still it’s like wow to me.

So what have I done?

Not much really I’ve levelled, explored the open area I’m in and barely done anything in regards to travelling distances.  I’m currently at my second stop and I’ve spent the majority of the time killing monsters, gaining levels and generally just enjoying the game.  The good thing is they have added all kinds of little tweaks to this game so it doesn’t feel repetitive.  I’ve played this strange pinball machine, stood listening to peoples conversations, looked through the photos and saved a few, gone hunting, attempted to kill tougher opponents or generally explored looking for more random items for cooking.  And I’ve still barely scratched the surface – after all we can fish too??  I’ve not rented a chocobo yet and done only a few things to the car.  Not to mention the soundtracks added to the car stereo which is again a lovely touch.

What can I say?  This is the game we wanted when XIII was released.  Not just a stunning adventure but an action packed game with plenty to explore and do.  Although I’ve only played for a few hours I don’t feel like wishing to get to the next stop instead I am happy to go at my own pace.  Enjoy the story when it comes, enjoy the fun of the moment.  This is the game we’ve been waiting for.

Well so far so good anyway right?

Education: The No Excuse Policy #Michaela

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Quite an interesting one isn’t it, in society we’ve created this “No Excuse” policy where you commit a crime you’re guilty regardless of circumstances.

http://bennewmark.edublogs.org/2016/12/02/reasonable-exceptions-will-be-made/

Interesting blog post it really is and it’s spot on that we have to support this poor Sally in what she’s gone through.  It doesn’t take a scientist to guess this is one of three things.

Problem is though we have to educate Students in to knowing that how they react to nightmare situations is just as important as talking to someone about these problems.

This all stems from the School which has a “No Excuse” policy that no matter how bad things get you are still expected to behave.  Which I’m sorry to say is a spot on approach.  Students do need to realise that no matter how bad their life gets as an adult they are fully held accountable to their own actions.  Shall we do what the blog post writer has done and come up with the harsh examples?

A man loses his family due to a mass murderer – Society will lock that man up who had never hurt a fly until he killed that murderer who took away his family.  No matter what society will not allow a revenge killing.  I recently saw in the news where a father had killed her daughters rapist and in all honesty most parents would be willing to commit murder for their children.  Problem is though he will now spend a long time behind bars as a result of what he has done regardless if it was justice or revenge.  This means that even our reactions to some terrible life scenarios will not protect us from repercussions.  This means we must educate children that no matter what excuse they may feel they have lashing out at others is not a good way forward.

This young girl Sally has lashed out in her class.  Now I would question a few things on why that Student didn’t feel safe enough in her School to discuss the problems with staff.  If you nail hard on behaviour this makes Students feel safe and willing to discuss any problems at home.  There will be a few closed off who are not willing to talk but you would be surprised how rare this becomes when you make a School environment fully fitting.  Sorting out a child’s behaviour isn’t just about making the School better it also allows children to take more responsibility for their problems no matter how small or big they are.

The way Sally has reacted would suggest that not only does she not feel safe but she isn’t willing to talk to anyone until she lashed out.

Now I am going to do a few scenarios – What if she had lashed out to one particular Student?  What if she had lashed out in the harsh way possible by picking on some one?  What about assaulting another Student, causing serious harm or death because of the pain she was going through?  Are we going to say “it’s okay you have an excuse”.  No – Instead society will punish her harshly and the repercussions of her actions no matter how warranted they may be will hit her hard.  What if she had decided to put other girls that she didn’t like through the same kind of pain?  We’ve heard all kinds of stories over the years one in particular was about a young girl who had purposely setup two others to be raped.  It turns out that the sickening crime happened because she wanted others to feel what she had gone through.  Are we going to have a “It’s okay, you have an excuse” attitude?

Like it or not, you do the crime you do the time.  The only question is if you get caught.  Do we think all criminals come from stable backgrounds? Ever watched criminal science (shows or documentaries) and believe it or not the majority of serious criminal activities are committed by people who have not had stable backgrounds or have gone through harsh events.  Do we have a “it’s okay you have an excuse” society? No we do not and young people must understand that every action has a reaction.

For Sally and many other Students we would be sensitive with them.  Let them know we are here to help and support them but acting out like that isn’t the way forward instead you talk about the problems.  The world let’s Sally know that she is not alone and at School surrounded by adult staff she is safe.

This means I am in complete support of “No Excuses” School environment.