The Summer Holiday Work

Follow me on Twitter
It's been a while since I posted a decent IT related page hasn't it? So let's get started with the summer job list.


Although Schools are shut and there are no teachers on site we still carry on with work.


New IT Areas
Due to the scraping of the BYOD scheme we are proving more IT suites.  These areas are to be used for the new year 7s primarily.


What gets done before we start?

• Networking
• Power
• Trunking (to perfection too on location).
• Extra work (tables, securing equipment).
• All back to a central area (we don't have cabinets in every classroom.
• Tidied (even though I've personally done the tables).

So what next?

• Installation of equipment
• Tidied cables
• Patches and switches installed
• All connected
• VLAN setup
• Imaged
• Named correctly
• Final check
• Asset tagged and serial taken

Recycle IT
Most of the old stuff can't be eBay sold or would simply take far too long to get it all organised and collected.  Quite a list of stock we build up, majority of it doesn't work and if it does - it will be too old to be used.

• Monitors
• Switches
• PCs
• Printers
• IWBs
• Amps
• DVD Players
• Speakers
• Cables galore
• Netbooks
• Tablets

Annual Maintenance

• Windows Updating servers and rebooting.
• Deploying any PC updates.
• MIS update (SIMs.net).
• PaperCut update.
• Projector filter cleaning (all 100).
• IT Suite reimaging (about 15 of those).
• Keyboard and Mice checking on all IT suites.
• Screen cleaning (about 600 - not the new ones)
• IWB cleaning (about 80-100)
• PC cleaning/dusting (500 or so, not the last 18 month purchases)

Additional Offices

• New PC
• New telephone
• Generally all setup and tidy

Moving Offices (quite a few)
Some staff move offices over the summer and new staff arrive, this means:

• Telephone altering (or moving)
• PC moving
• Printers and scanners
• Spreadsheet updating

Printer Checking:

• Toner check
• Paper order
• Unpacking paper and filling up stock

List of Reimaging for Staff
Several staff PCs have been reimaged or even some new equipment installed to improve the state.  We also have done a few re-cable jobs again to improve the state of the room.


Unknowns
There's always the unknowns, phone system suddenly decides to fall over, staff member moving classroom isn't happy about a piece of equipment in a room.  Although the majority of staff don't come on site during the holidays there is always a few who pop in.


Serial Tags
With every piece of kit being installed or moved in any way we have to log serial tags.  So this keeps our audit updated.


Personal Requests
We get plenty of these, if you think how many have technology at home.. it's a huge list.. and because people don't realise how much work we actually do.. they assume "we don't do much" during the holidays.  It's another example on why I #NoSympathy for teachers who say they "work at home" during the summer.  When I get around 25 days off a year, they too should only be getting that number - after all a Mon-Fri job is a full time one - not part time.


Have to remember that a lot of the above can only be done during the holidays, it's the only periods where we get enough time to actually re-do classrooms.