Inclusive Education

A survey of 200 ICT decision makers in the education sector by Computing magazine shows that nearly 85% of them feel that budgetary constrains through public sector spending cuts will make them review the way in which IT services are provided within their school or educational establishment.

Current figures are that desktop and server management is managed in-house by the vast majority of schools, though the focus is shifting as more and more schools come under the Private Finance Initiative scheme and see their IT services being taken over by the likes of Dell and other large manufacturing and service providers.

Whilst it is widely recognised that the quality of teaching and learning within a school is the prime factor in raising standards, the provision of high quality equipment along with a suitable maintenance schedule and rapid response is essential in ensuring smooth delivery of services.

If you’re currently considering IT outsourcing as an option, then please get in touch by commenting on this post.

With all the bad weather currently affecting the country, parents are glued to local radio stations listening for the name of their child’s school before heading out on a potential long and perilous journey.  Information about school closures is a potentially patchy affair, with each school contacting a variety of information providers in a bid to inform parents of school closures.

We have therefore decided to construct a central web site at schoolclosures.info to hold national school closure information to provide a single point of reference for parents wanting to know about school INSET/training days, closures due to bad weather or to check holidays – in effect any time a school is closed to pupils.

This also supports schools in delivery of their business continuity procedures by providing another communication medium through which to communicate with parents.

The service is free and there and no plans to introduce any charges for this service.  The site will be fully searchable on the name of the school as well as having the usual facility to browse an entire authority.

If you would like more information, please get in touch at enquiries@schoolclosures.info

Colleges and schools are being targetted by yet another scam, this time billing for online advertisements at around £600.  Payment is usually requested to “The Yellow Pages 24″ company with either an address in postcode area W1 or with payments directly to an account in Germany.

Taking advantage of the frequently hectic pace within school administrative teams, bursars and finance officers receive an official looking invoice requesting payment; due to pressures of work, many are passing them for payment without the necessary checks and balances being put in place.

School based colleagues are urged to always question any requests for payments which do not have an existing approval to spend attached.

We have created a petition on the Number 10 web site calling on the Government and the Opposition to safeguard funding for Higher Education and Further Education after the next General Election.

Our petition can be found at: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/higher-ed/

Schools and education providers can benefit from an excellent offer from T-Mobile with 12 months pre-pay mobile broadband now costing only £127.65 + VAT (where applicable).

In addition to providing Internet access for remote schools/educational establishments, this offer also allows Traveller and other mobile communities to stay in touch with their base school and to continue their education throughout the travelling period.

More information is available by following this link.

Not heard of BT Internet Rangers?  You may not know the name, but you may well be familiar with the concept.  This BT sponsored programme promotes intergenerational learning with the pupils taking the role of the teacher/tutor.  Instead of tutoring peer groups or younger students, instead pupils devise and deliver training courses for grandparents.

The BT Internet Rangers site provides pupils with lesson plans, certificates and even example homework to support their learning and has examples of successful schemes from across the UK.

The scheme also provides an incentive to pupils by awarding prizes to the most successful Internet Rangers.

The site doesn’t seem to be regularly updated, but should provide you with a method of starting off a similar scheme in your area.  Get in touch if you’re already taking part or are thinking of taking part and we’ll see whether can set up a support group via the site.