Concero UK

newsletter I S S U E

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S U M M E R

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HOW TECHNOLOGY HAS IMPACTED ON SCHOOL LIFE GIVING OUR SCHOOLS THE CHOICE

BROADBAND WHAT ARE YOUR OPTIONS?

E-SAFETY

SAFER INTERNET DAY 2015

CURRICULUM SUPPORT

INTRODUCING CENTRASTAGE

WORKING WITH BSF SCHOOLS

NOW INCLUDED IN YOUR SLA

OUR NEW DEVICE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM

HOW WE HELPED KING’S CE SCHOOL

MAKING THE MOST OF IT

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welcome

I am proud to introduce our very first newsletter!

Our newsletter aims to not only inform you of the work being carried out by Concero but to also keep you updated on what’s available in the world of education and technology.

In this issue you will find information about how you can save money on your broadband provision (page 13), the investment we have made to improve our remote support through Centrastage (page 15), E Safety, the 360 Safe Tool and how you can make use of it (page 12), along with articles on work carried out in our schools.

This newsletter will be published every six months, and we want it to be as useful and informative as possible, as well as being an enjoyable read. To ensure this is the case, please get in touch to let me know if there are any future topics you would like us to cover, or if there are any special projects up and coming in your school that you would like us to feature.

Happy reading!

Emma Dyas, Customer Relations Manager

networking

contents Breaking the mould

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The times, they are a changin’

6

Cooperative trust model for schools

7

The Royal School, Wolverhampton

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Meet the team

8

Office 365

9

2Simple 9 What have we been up to?

10

E Safety

12

Broadband 13 Working with BSF schools

14

CentraStage 15 Get the most from your IT support

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Come and join us!

Our network meetings are a fantastic opportunity to join with other schools in your local area to share ideas and discover new opportunities to work together. Just some of the subjects we will be covering in these meetings are: Meet the team – An introduction to some key members of the Concero team.

Broadband provision – What are your options and how can we help you save money?

360 Safe Ofsted guidelines – Latest information for your school.

Office 365 – What are the benefits?

Google Chrome Books – A talk about how they are being used in the classroom, including the opportunity for you to have a look at one.

Purple Mash – A presentation by Purple Mash themselves on their products, including an introduction to 2Simple - 2Build a Profile.

Free software and apps – Are you making the most of the free resources available to you and what do we recommend?

Dates and locations are listed below: • Monday 27th April, Doxey Primary School, Stafford • Tuesday 5th May, St Martins Primary School, Bilston • Wednesday 6th May, St Christopher’s Catholic Primary School, Codsall • Thursday 14th May, Oakmeadow Primary School, Wolverhampton The meetings will start at 4.00pm, will last around one and a half hours and light refreshments will be provided.

Please call us on our main number, 0333 111 0004 to reserve your free places.

thank you A special thank you to all who have contributed to the very first issue of our newsletter.

Jodie Parker Headteacher at St Nicholas’ First School in Codsall David Anderson Acting Deputy Head Teacher at St Christopher’s Catholic School in Codsall Nick Walton Networks Manager, The King’s CE School, Wolverhampton Diane Oliver Business Manager, St Mary and St Chad First School, Brewood Tish Keech NAHT Executive member for West Midlands Ben Dyas Business Development Manager, Concero Alan Foster Curriculum Development Advisor

http://sq1.concerouk.com/• Tel: 0333 111 0004 • info@concerouk.com

Breaking the Mould We are living in an exciting time where the ever-expanding range of hardware, software, and cloud solutions is vast, making teaching and learning possibilities seem almost endless.

Working with schools operating a variety of infrastructures, and belonging to different authorities, has enabled us to have a complete overview of the technology being utilised in education.

RM systems were typically the preferred setup in Staffordshire due to the simplicity of the integrated management tool. They were designed to cater for teaching staff to manage school networks themselves at a time when the demand for IT provision was significantly less. As information technology has evolved over time, schools have become increasingly reliant on more complex and varied solutions, often combining the use of IPads, touch screen televisions, latest Windows operating systems, tablets and much more, resulting in the essential requirement for technical support providers like ourselves.

Single server solutions and vanilla systems have been in place in authorities outside of Staffordshire for several years now. To benefit our schools, our team have established good working relationships with other third party companies (including Entrust), and we are pleased to hear that Entrust are now recommending both single server and vanilla solutions to schools in Staffordshire. This has given schools the confidence to explore their options, something we have always encouraged them to do.

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A number of our Staffordshire schools have moved over to a single server solution, and here just a few:

• St Lawrence Primary School, Gnosall • All Saints Primary School, Trysull • Birches First School, Codsall • Woodseaves Primary School, Stafford • Brewood Middle School, Brewood • St Mary’s First School, Wheaton Aston

“We had received quotes from other providers but saved a significant amount of at least £5000 using Concero.”

St Mary and St Chads First School in Brewood were the first of our Staffordshire schools to go ahead with a server migration. Below Diane Oliver, the school Business Manager talks about her experience: “Through the fantastic support from Concero we moved from having two servers, admin and curriculum to one. This has proved to be infinitely better as now admin can communicate with our academic colleagues much more efficiently, being able to access the staff and pupil drives directly.

We had received quotes from other providers but saved a significant amount of at least £5000 using Concero.

I would recommend migration to a single server for the above reasons but in addition because Concero are able to work remotely more efficiently and oversee the whole of the school in one place.

This has given us confidence in the systems being maintained. We were the first school to migrate the admin server over which meant Entrust IT and Concero working together. Following this all the gremlins were worked out and now there is a fluid and smooth procedure to migrate the service.”

We appreciate that every school operates uniquely, and we always aim to accommodate this by giving them the freedom of choice, and offering to them a range of alternative solutions, ensuring we meet their individual needs.

Looking to the future...

As more schools are converting to free schools, cooperatives, academies and multi-academy trusts, we are providing assistance for those who seek out alternative solutions to systems such as SIMS and SAP. We have also helped those who have become SIMS direct customers who have purchased their products and support directly through Capita.

Technology is constantly changing and more companies are converting their products into cloud based solutions. Office 365, SIMS and PS financial are to name a few.The increase in cloud storage and internetbased educational resources could potentially mean that in approximately 2 years’ time, there could be no requirement for a physical server in school.

As your IT support provider, we are here to advise and help you during these changes, and are happy to answer any questions or concerns you have along the way.

If you would like to talk to us about any of the items mentioned in this article, please contact our Customer Relations Manager, Emma Dyas on 07581 149373.

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The Times, They Are a Changin’ As a newly qualified teacher in 2002, I remember my first class having, at the time, an old pull-down (roller type) blackboard. However, talk was in the air of these new state-of-the-art boards, which were soon to be available. Interactive White Boards they were to be called and we learned that they were to be linked to the Internet - Breath taking was the only word I could conjure up at the time.

Then fast forward 12 years and the majority of my lessons nowadays are spent, blogging, researching or teaching computer programming on an iPad using the latest App. As a history graduate I studied extensively the effects of the Industrial Revolution on Great Britain during the reign of Queen Victoria. Nowadays it’s a new technological revolution and so swift in its advance that is almost impossible to stop. It is also somewhat problematic even trying to pause and reflect on its impact because one feels that if you stop, even for a moment, you’ll be left behind.

On a c o n fe r e n c e a few years ago with Sir John Jones (The Magic Weaver) he stated that: 80% of our Year 1 children will be doing jobs, when they leave school, that haven’t yet been invented!

A sobering thought for many but as an intrinsically motivated learner who relishes the ever-changing world of education I’m rather excited by it all.

So as educators what do we have to do to embrace this new phenomenon? I am aware that for some practitioners it scares the living daylights out of them. Nevertheless, the greatest teaching resources that they have at their disposal is right in front of them every day - the children themselves.

It’s all good sharing ideas and good practice with fellow colleagues but how often do you share ideas with the children in your class? When was the last time you said to a child, “I’m unsure how this programme works, could you show me please?”

We never want to create a situation where: ‘If a child wants to enhance or learn more about computing then they have to go home to do so.’ Instead schools should act as laboratories where all the exciting things happen. Trial and error is commonplace, schools become an environment where mistakes are reflected upon and then modified; also a place where successes are celebrated and shared.

The biggest shift that I have seen in my 12 years of teaching is the emergence of Tablet Technology – A one-stop device that almost makes many of the traditional learning tools redundant.

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Everyday items that were commonplace in classrooms only a few years ago are now almost historic. Just observe some of the Reception children who sit in front of PCs and try to change what is on the monitor by swiping their finger across it. Many learners would look agog at items such as: Digital cameras, calculators, video machines, DVD players, iPods, overhead projectors even PCs themselves!

In my opinion to fully integrate computing into a twenty first century classroom there has to be a marriage of traditional skills and new technology.

Optimal learning skills such as estimating, reflecting, hypothesising, evaluating, skim reading and mental a d d i t i o n cannot all be left as a sacrifice at the ‘Great Altar of the Apple.’ We have to be proactive in our approach.

A great example of this is the App ‘Morfo” where students and teachers can take an image of a historical character and make them come to life in the voice and thoughts of their own. Or many of the maths games that reward students for their quick number recall.

Bob Dylan sang in the 1960s of a world where ‘The Times They are a Changing’ – In this new millennium the times my friend have significantly changed – for better or for worse could be debated for eternity. Nevertheless, as lead learners we need to embrace this new technological revolution and run with it – who knows where it will take us. Remember that nothing in this world was ever achieved without enthusiasm and children quickly catch on that enthusiasm and thinking is contagious.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR...

David Anderson, acting deputy Headteacher at St.Christopher’s Catholic Primary School, Codsall. danderson@st-christophers.staffs.sch.uk

The Royal School, Wolverhampton The Royal School in Wolverhampton has a long history of providing first class education to students from around the world. However, the Senior Management Team identified that if they were to continue their success they needed to invest heavily in their IT infrastructure and equipment.

Concero were approached by the Headmaster Mark Heywood.

The school knew that they wanted a reliable, high speed network however they didn’t know how to achieve this. After performing a thorough audit and testing of the current setup a project plan and cost estimate was put forward. We helped the school to understand the benefits and drawbacks of the plan put forward, along with a number of alternative options. The SMT quickly agreed that the plan put forward by us was the most suitable and cost effective in the long term.

Having won the contract we are now close to completing the first stage of the school upgrade. We have installed a new 10GB fibre backbone throughout the teaching areas of the site, along with new enterprise level servers and a cloud based wireless system.

This has been done with minimum disruption to the school and whilst maintaining the current archaic system originally in place. Staff and students will soon feel the benefit of this fast and reliable system, which includes the latest touch screen desktop computers and 802.11ac wireless enabled laptops.

This is only the beginning of what is an exciting project for this prestigious school. Concero continue to work with the SMT to ensure the project is delivered on time and within budget.

Ben Dyas, Business Development Manager

Cooperative Trust Model for Schools What is a Co-operative Trust Model and why is it beneficial for a school to become part of one? We asked Tish Keech: “The education landscape continues to evolve rapidly the combination of the Government’s reforms, including the autonomy agenda and amendments to the Ofsted framework, is placing greater emphasis on school to school collaboration in all its varieties. Whilst collaboration is not new to schools, the range of matters they have to collaborate on and the importance of collaboration to the success of the learning community have changed significantly. Cooperative Trust Schools are just one type of Multi school solution which include: Informal/ formal partnerships, Hard Federations, Trust Schools, Multi Academy Trusts, Umbrella Trusts, Collaborative Partnerships and Collaboration Companies.

Trust schools are Local authority foundation schools which are supported by a charitable foundation – a trust. They are maintained by the Local Authority but have charitable status, own the land and assets, employ the staff and are responsible for admissions. In this way they are similar to a voluntary aided school. The trust is made up of the school or schools and partner organisations working together for the benefit of the trust. The trust appoints some of the governors (a minority) and holds the land and assets in trust for the benefit of the school and the governing body of the school retains full powers over the strategic direction and governance of the school.

Key to Co-operative Trusts is the fact that they are underpinned by the Co-operative Values of: Self- help, Self-responsibility, Democracy, Equality, Equity and Solidarity. Every Co-operative trust School becomes part of The Schools Co-operative

Society, a supportive network of over 840 schools across the country and is also supported by the Co-operative College which provides legal and logistical advice during and after conversion.

Local schools, Chairs of Governors from Wolverhampton and some neighbouring Staffordshire schools have been exploring the Cooperative Trust model. Two meetings have taken place in the last few weeks with speakers presenting case studies and information on the benefits and the process of conversion”.

Heads heard from: • Bernadette Hunter - headteacher of William Shrewsbury Primary School in Burton upon Trent and from the Burton Cooperative Learning Trust, • Andy Steggall - headteacher of Moorhall Primary School in Sutton Coldfield and from the Learning Trust for Excellence, and • Sean Rogers, Lead on Cooperative Trusts at the Cooperative College.

For further information: Schools Co-op Society (SCS) www.co-operativeschools.coop, Resources - www.co-op.ac.uk tel: 01618193008 or 07545925326 email Sean Rogers- sean@co-op.ac.uk .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR...

Tish Keech NAHT Executive member for West Midlands District12@nahtofficials.org.uk 7

Meet the team Curt Stewart – IT Helpdesk Co-Ordinator

Meet Curt, a valuable member of our Central Support Team. Curt spends his working days responding to and resolving tickets and IT problems remotely. He has also been assisting schools in their transition to multi-academy status by implementing new financial systems, such as PS Financials and FMS which is supplied directly to schools through Capita.

Curt liaises with these third party companies on behalf of our schools to ensure transitions such as these are completed seamlessly.

He is also responsible for providing technical assistance with SIMS upgrades, coordinating Office 365 transfers and also the organisation of server migrations by liaising with both authorities and schools. He is also your main contact in the ble Curt is contacta event of server failure n ai on our m and in many cases can fice number of rectify problems of this nature remotely and 0333 111 0004 quickly resulting in as little downtime as possible for our customers. Curt is an excellent team member and thoroughly enjoys a good working relationship with all of our customers, third party suppliers and associates.

Curriculum support - now included in our SLA! Meet Alan Foster, our new Curriculum Development Advisor!

Historically schools have felt a sense of security in subscribing to services from Local Authorities. However, due to the rapid demise of services they are able to provide and the uncertainty of their longevity, schools are increasingly looking to commercial providers like ourselves, as an alternative.

When doing so,we believe that it is essential they find one that shares the same moral imperative that underpins the work of schools along with the accountability for the outcomes which the children achieve. It is upon this foundation we build our company and for this reason our values are deep rooted in education.

By listening to our schools, it has become clear to us that much more than just IT support is now required. Alan is here to help you not only ensure that the educational resources and hardware you have in place are being used to deliver the curriculum effectively, but also to help you make the right decisions when investing in your IT infrastructure. Alan’s support will help to identify any areas in the curriculum where additional provision or training is required. He will then work with you to develop a strategic plan.

Alan is a welcomed addition to our dynamic ICT support services, and we hope that you will take advantage of this opportunity.

Alan has spent a number of years working as a primary school teacher in schools in Wolverhampton and Sandwell.

He spent 13 years as an ICT Teacher Advisor for Staffordshire Local Authority, and during this time he has gained a wealth of educational experience by delivering support to teachers embedding the use of ICT across the curriculum. In recent years, he has obtained the status of CEOP Ambassador, and more recently Alan has been involved with Espresso training and consultancy.

To book your curriculum audit, find out more about the extensive curriculum support packages offered by Concero, or if you have any questions or concerns regarding the computing curriculum, e-safety, Office 365 or any other staff training requirements, please contact Alan during term time on 07946 681197, or you can email him at afoster@concerouk.com.

Expanding our team further...

My name is Ben Dyas and I am the new Business Development Manager at Concero.

The array of equipment and programs available can lead schools to purchasing unsuitable devices or learning platforms. Working alongside our Curriculum Advisor, Alan Foster, I aim to advise schools on the most suitable and cost effective solution for their needs.

My role does not stop there. Once the items are ordered I can assist in planning the installation of devices or programs to ensure minimum disruption to schools. For larger projects I will carry out a project management role and liaise with third parties on your behalf. The main point I would like to make is that I am here to help you with your IT planning to ensure the infrastructure and devices you invest in enhance the learning experience you provide, and not cause any unnecessary extra work for busy teaching and administrative staff.

I am contactable on email, bdyas@concerouk.com and by phone 07946 682455 during both term time and school holidays, and I look forward to working with you in the future.

Ben Dyas, Business Development Manager 8

Learn more about From the curriculum audits undertaken by Alan so far, it has been identified that 2 Simple and their range of products are extremely popular in schools. 2Simple themselves have recently attended our offices to present to our team to help us understand more about what they do. We were really impressed with what they had to show us, so much so that we have invited them along to our network meetings in April/May to present to you.

Read on to find out more about 2Simple and their range of products:

Purple Mash, an ever growing website filled with creative tools, games and curriculum resources to support and inspire children at school and at home. A suite of creative tools allow children to become someone else, paint pictures, record work using desktop publishing, make music, create animated books and animations. Included within Purple Mash, 2Code is a complete solution to the new coding curriculum allowing teachers with no prior knowledge of coding to deliver engaging and challenging lessons.

Serial Mash is a growing online library of gripping fiction books for children aged 7-11. New books are added each half term and chapters are released on Mondays to keep readers on the edge of their seats. A range of teacher resources including multiple choice questions, Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar questions, open ended questions and an extended writing activity provide a range of challenges linked to the new Literacy curriculum.

2Build a Profile is a formative assessment and record keeping Build a Profile app designed to save time and revolutionise the way evidence is captured and managed throughout the whole school. Using tablets, 2BAP provides Leaders and Managers with a simple and fun way to log children’s achievements against the UK’s Early Years Profile and the new National Curriculum. It enables them to securely build individual portfolios with just a few clicks, saving hours of record keeping time.

Through our buying power, we are able to offer a range of 2Simple resources at discounted prices.

To find out more, please contact Alan Foster on 07946 681197.

The majority of the schools we support are now using Office 365, not only as an online email system, but also a learning platform alternative. The ability to be able to build school sites within Office 365 make it possible to share work and communicate effectively with both staff and pupils in school.

Office 365 has changed so much over the last 12 months and will continue to develop as time goes on, and we would like to help you make the most of what Office 365 has to offer.

To find out more about the capabilities of Office 365 and how it can assist your school, please give Alan Foster a call on 07946 681197.

In the meantime, here are just some of the benefits:

• Free solution • Unlimited online storage • Fully backed up and supported by Microsoft • Access emails, calendars and documents from anywhere and any device with internet access • Choose who administers your email accounts 9

What have we been up to?

Defibrillators in schools We made a donation to St Mary and St Chad First School in Brewood to help them buy a defibrillator for their school.

“The importance of having a defibrillator in school has been highlighted to us learning that over 600 children die from Sudden Cardiac Arrest annually, over half when in school. We approached our parents for support and were overwhelmed by the response both from themselves and their work places. In addition CONCERO UK LTD were very supportive and donated a significant amount towards this purchase.

Having a defibrillator on site protects both pupils, staff and the local community as there is only a small window of 3 minutes from the heart stopping to be able to use the defibrillator.

Waiting for medical help is likely to take much longer than this – therefore having one on site could save lives.

We’ve attended...

The Bett Show, London Once again Bett put on an impressive display of the latest technology available in education. One of the most noticeable changes we felt was the replacement of projectors and whiteboards with interactive TV screens. In fact since Bett, we have arranged some trials of these TV screens for some of our schools.

Emma Dyas, Customer Relations Manager

ICT Innovation in Education, Conference Manchester This was an exciting conference with a number of workshops once again emphasising the growing inclusion of portable devices in the classroom. The most exciting element of the day was a workshop presentation by Sam Aaron from the University of Cambridge demonstrating Sonic Pi software and how coding can be used to create musical notes or sounds. Sam Aaron is available to come into schools to work with pupils and teachers at no cost at the moment while funding lasts. To find out more, please contact me, Alan Foster on 07946 681197.

Training has been given to staff and parents and so we feel well equipped to deal with an incident.

The defibrillator we have is designed specifically to deliver an electric shock to a child or adult by the flick of a switch, it gives explicit verbal commands and will not give any shock unless the device has checked that it is essential.

We would like to express our thanks to Concero UK Ltd for their generosity.”

Diane Oliver Business Manager, St Mary and St Chad First School

Why do you need them?

The emergency services average response time to a cardiac event related incident is 8 - 10 minutes.

12 people under the age of 35 die every week due to sudden cardiac arrest in the UK (reference).

For every minute that goes by, a victim’s chance of surviving a Sudden Cardiac Arrest drops 7-10%.

70% of cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital environment.

About 95% of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital.

Effective bystander CPR, provided immediately after sudden cardiac arrest, can double a victim’s chance of survival.

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If a defibrillator is used and effective CPR is performed within 3-5 minutes of cardiac arrest, survival chances increase from 6% to 74%.

The Education Show, NEC, Birmingham This was a great opportunity to see what is happening in the world of education and the resources available, especially in connection with the use of electronic devices, software and online resources. There is an increase in the number of online providers for core subjects enabling access in school and at home, allowing pupils to extend their learning outside of the school environment.

Easter Egg Hunt, St Nicholas’ First School, Codsall Sponsored by Concero “Despite blustery conditions on Sunday 29th March, we had an amazing turn out for our first ever St Nics PTFA Easter Egg Hunt. We hope our children and grown-ups enjoyed finding the hidden clues as well as visiting the game stalls in 1R and cake stalls in the hall.Thanks to Rev Simon who came to be on hand for a chat and activities also.

We will publicise the amount raised and winners of our Spring Draw raffle in due course. Thank you to the PTFA from Miss Parker for your hard work to make it all happen! Also a special thank you to our IT providers Concero UK who sponsored the event, providing Easter eggs for all of the children who completed the hunt!”

Jodie Parker, Head Teacher

SAFER INTERNET DAY 2015 Competition time!

In line with Safer Internet Day 2015, we took the opportunity to hold a competition, inviting all schools to design a poster to highlight the dangers of the internet to children.

We received some absolutely beautiful designs making it difficult for us to select a winner, however Lottie Delaunay from St Pauls Primary School in Stafford was chosen for her colourful and detailed poster. You can see some of the other entries on our Square One Internet Page.

The Winning Poster

The Prize 'Lottie, her class and others in her school enjoyed a day with the Store Van Music Company on Thursday 26th of March performing their own music using the Garage Band app for IPads. It really was a wonderful and unique experience for the children at St Pauls, and I personally was lucky enough to witness first-hand the incredible work which Neil and his team carry out in schools.

A classroom was set up with an abundance of IPads, speakers, an electric guitar and drum set along with other musical equipment. All children involved thoroughly enjoyed every minute of their school day, and I was extremely impressed by the behaviour of all of the pupils at St Pauls. I think it is safe to say, a fantastic day was had by all!.'

Emma Dyas, Customer Relations Manager

“The session was a fantastic experience for the school, it was very professional and linked in with both IT and music. The two gentlemen who ran the session were brilliant – the children responded well to them and they were very knowledgeable and talented. Thank you for providing the experience for our school.”

Mrs Evans, St Pauls Primary School

“We don’t believe the current music curriculum is good enough for the learners of today We’re here to help in whatever way we can to ensure that our learners can take the learning and experiences generated from Store Van Music, to change not only the way they learn across all sectors but positively impact their lives through creativity and achievement.”

Store Van Music Company

To find out more about the Store Van Music Company, please visit their website: www.storevanmusic.com

E Safety Assemblies Not only did we hold a poster competition, Alan Foster also delivered a number of child-friendly assemblies on how to use the internet safely. Children responded to this enthusiastically and the mention of online games such as Minecraft, Moshi Monsters and interestingly, You Tube really captivated their attention.

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E-Safety The increase in accessibility to the internet via mobile devices at home and school, has once again lead to the issue of e-Safety being the subject of scrutiny by Ofsted. The recent updating of key features for good and outstanding practice, highlight the need for schools to be vigilant in the practice of e-safety with all members of the school community.

Social networking sites such as SnapChat, Instagram and Facebook make it easier for young people to upload images of themselves without necessarily thinking of the consequences. The increasing number of teenagers publishing inappropriate images of themselves online, and texting these images to ‘friends’ (sexting) is causing considerable concern, particularly in high/secondary schools.

The need to have robust e-safety policies in place has never been more vital to protect both school staff and their pupils. As part of his E-safety role Alan has been advising a number of schools on updating policies and practice, training staff, parents and students on the need for e-safety, and raising the profile of the 360Safe online tool to help schools achieve good and outstanding practice.

360 Degree Safe Mark Schools that are able to show good practice in their e-safety policy and procedures can apply for the E-Safety Mark.The first step toward gaining the award involves an online application to SWGfL and submission of a completed 360 degree safe self-review tool, in which the school has reached at least the benchmark level in all aspects (shown on the online tool).

Prior to the application, Concero can provide consultancy support to assist the school with the assessment process.

Following the application, the Assessor will check the completed 360 degree safe self-review tool to ensure that the school appears (in its responses) to have met the benchmark levels and is ready for an Assessor to visit. The school is then visited for a half day visit and is informed at the end of the day whether or not they have been successful.

Chad Vale Primary School are the only school in the Birmingham area to be awarded the 360 Safe Mark. Here is what Kerry Grosvenor, IT CoOrdinator had to say about the award and the part Concero played in helping the school achieve it: “Chad Vale Primary School have achieved the 360° E-safety award this week, a nationally recognised standard of excellence in keeping children and adults safe online. We are the first primary school in Birmingham to gain this award and the children, staff, parents and governors are very proud!

E-safety is an issue which is paramount in the lives of us all, but particularly for school age children. They live their lives surrounded by technology and are already far more internet-savvy than most of their parents.

Educating about E-safety is vital for us at Chad Vale and we have led the way in Birmingham in providing this for our children and families.

The 360° Safe audit framework allowed us to identify our strengths and areas for development at the beginning of the process, 2 years ago.

It gave us practical suggestions for action and we were able to fully embed online safety throughout our school policies, procedures and curriculum. As the final assessment report states: “At Chad Vale Primary School both the policy and leadership for E-safety are excellent” A dedicated E-safety page on our school website has been created and contains many useful links to helpful websites, with downloadable content for parents to be able to use within the home environment. Our Twitter feed (@chadvaleprimary) is also used to model our excellent practice and share resources and ideas, and we are nearing our 10,000th tweet!

Our E-safety group of children in Year 5 and 6 act as role models to the younger children ensuring online safety is discussed and monitored on a regular basis. This is vital in handing responsibility to the older children in the school and helping them to develop their leadership skills when training the younger children, teachers and parents. The assessment report confirms our “real sense of team responsibility for e-safety and a very positive, safe environment for the children.

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Concero our technical support team, also helped us to achieve this award through proactive maintenance of our school network. This involves a remote daily health check of the servers to ensure they are working at their optimum capacity. Windows security updates are provided as routine. They provide regular scheduled onsite support through our technicians, and /or responsive support via our helpdesk (telephone and online logging system) to maintain any network/ technical emergencies that require a school visit.

In the future, we plan to share our successes with the wider community helping and supporting other schools to develop their use of technology and online safety. To get in touch, please email” enquiry@chadvale.bham.sch.uk

360 Safe Tool - Are you making the most of it?

It is surprising to us how many schools remain unaware of this incredibly useful E-Safety tool. This article provides more information about it and how it can assist you with ensuring maximum internet safety in your school.

The annual analysis by Professor Andy Phippen of Plymouth University confirms that schools using the 360 tool over a period of time have improved their e-safety provision. Focusing on those schools registering in 2010, the data clearly illustrates consistent progress and improvement to better equip them to protect their school, staff and parents but most importantly their children.

The report also concludes that Ofsted’s inclusion of e-safety into their school evaluation framework in September 2012 has had a positive and marked impact on schools e-safety activity and progress. The data suggests a dramatic 32% increase in activity.

In line with this data, Ofsted have recently updated their inspection guidelines once again.

A copy of Professor Phippen’s report can be found on the 360 Degree Safe website - www.360safe.org.uk.

What to know more?

Alan Foster is an accredited 360 Safe consultant, and is available to provide you with more information, and assist your school’s application on request. To arrange a visit from Alan, please give him a call on 07946 681197, or send him an email on afoster@concerouk.com.

Broadband Many schools are now converting to academies, multi-academy trusts, co-operatives and free schools, and in addition to this, a number of the schools we support have broadband contracts which are due to be renewed within the next 12 months. For these reasons, schools are looking to alternative solutions, often outside of the authorities.

In addition to providing IT support we also assist schools in obtaining best value from the services they require. We work with a number of broadband providers that have been researched and are recommended by ourselves. By providing broadband to numerous schools we have been able to negotiate reduced pricing, a discount that we happily pass onto our schools.

Schools who have already sourced their broadband services from alternative companies have in most cases saved over 50% on their existing costs, whilst continuing to maintain and often improving their internet performance. The transition has been seamless and these schools have enjoyed the freedom of being able to apply their own firewall permissions to set groups of staff and pupils.

Exa Communications are just one of the companies we work with and to give you more information on their products and to answer any questions or concerns you may have about changing your existing provider, we have invited them to attend our network meetings in April/May. Exa Education is the UK’s leading independent Internet Service Provider to the education sector, supplying award-winning products, services, and technical support designed specifically for schools. This dedication ensures that they understand and cater to the specific needs and requirements of a school, with a contract retention rate of over 99%.

As an authentic ISP and member of the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA), they are dedicated to providing you with the fast, reliable connectivity services you need. All Exa Education connections are uncongested and dedicated to the individual school, meaning speeds, consistency and reliability are assured.

SurfProtect® Cloud content filtering is inclusive ensuring that you will never be restricted by a filtering policy that doesn’t fit your needs.

If you would like to know more about alternative broadband providers or would like a tailored quotation for your school, please call Ben Dyas on 07946 682455.

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• • •

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Best-value services Broadband products designed specifically for schools One-year only contracts Contract retention rate of over 99% Control your own filtering, allowing you access to YouTube in school Education-supplied and managed firewall Competitive pricing Come and talk to them at one of our network meetings!

13

Working with BSF schools

Knowing of Concero UK, as Network Manager, I decided to contact them and sound them out. They were local, they ran another similar sized school network in the vicinity and they understood virtualisation.

evaluation. Soon, servers were upgraded, email systems were migrated to other solutions, costs and tentative dates were negotiated for external suppliers to commence work.

The first meeting was swiftly setup and it was obvious immediately, to all at King’s, that the knowledge was there, the staff were capable and approachable and the subsequent quote, tailored to our support needs, was negotiable and acceptable.

• Very quickly, Windows servers, laptops and desktops were upgraded to the latest operating systems and the Apple Macs, I-pads etc. were all talking to each other and the new network.

The lead engineer attached to the school was Bradley Clegg who immediately picked apart the network and explained how it worked to my technician and myself. He organised in house training for us and generally reported back his findings to our Business Manager. Everyone was “kept in the loop”.

The school subsequently employed a third technician and Concero UK organised

We have supported The King’s School in Wolverhampton since the summer, 2012 and have provided them with technical advice and assistance throughout their BSF project. School Network Manager, Nick Walton talks about this experience and the part we have played in supporting and developing their new systems.

“September 2012 and the King’s CE School opened up after a two year rebuild under Building Schools for the Future (BSF) with the installation of a brand new “state of the art” network. Sadly, the network had

Did Concero help us to achieve our goals?

Definitely! been designed as a managed service but for many reasons this was not to be and as such was not a viable school solution.

Obvious, to all, that the present two ICT members could not manage to run this considerably enlarged school network on their own, it was deemed by both myself as the Network Manager and the school leadership team that external help needed to be found quickly!

Log on times were slow, software did not function as it should and we could not make changes locally as our access rights were insufficient. Staff and students alike were quickly frustrated at a network that should have been a joy to work with, but was not!

Various companies were approached for costings for support but due to the size and nature of the city wide network, not many people were enthusiastic to take on board a project over which they could not totally control.The school was tied to the City,legally, King’s CE School could not yet pull away!

Would I recommend them?

Definitely! training for him and we were now starting to cope in an increasingly difficult situation!

We had system failures, beyond our control due to inefficient third party support at the hub of the citywide network, but, day to day running was better, but not acceptable.

Concero UK were asked to prepare an “Exit Strategy!”

Fast forward a year and the King’s CE School made the decision the time was ripe to pull out of the constraints of the new network and totally rebuild our school network in a way that would work for us as a school.

To exacerbate the problem, on the same Campus was a special school we had to consider! They wanted to break away from King’s CE School and Concero UK had to factor this in too!

The “Exit Strategy” was put into operation!

Timing is critical for a project like this and in reality you can only do it safely over a summer shutdown, when it would be six weeks of implementation and testing whilst still keeping vital functionality for exam results. We could perform some valuable preparation, during the coming months, but, the actual switch over had to be during the summer!

We had to plan and test and in conjunction with Concero UK, compiled a timescale and hardware/software analysis.Hardware upgrades were deemed necessary, only simple things like ram and hard drives, but, none the less, essential.

Licensing was a key problem, but, Bradley Clegg organised meetings of all external suppliers and some alternatives for

• Safely performed Data migration and backups were paramount and solutions were quickly implemented, tested and tweaked, if necessary, to work as they should.

• The existing wireless solution was upgraded, and thoroughly tested working in conjunction with Meru, the OEM supplier.

• Log on times for fixed Pc’s and laptops were tested and found to perform dramatically better than the previous solution, particularly over wireless!

September 2014 our new network was presented to staff and students upon their return to school.

As with all projects of this nature there will always be teething troubles and this project was no exception. However, the performance upgrade was immediately apparent to all. Laptops booted up quickly, log on times were dramatically reduced, we could now make changes to cure problems as/if they arose and within a very

Would I use them again?

Definitely! short time the network was working as it always should have!

Now, just two months later, the technicians are more relaxed,the staff are experiencing less problems than ever before.We are now a proactive department NOT reactive!

So what does the future hold?

The relationship with Concero UK will continue, albeit at a different level, as the solution they have put in place is more reliable, easier to manage and fit for the purpose intended. The nature of ICT is ever changing with new software, new hardware and technologies that constantly evolve.As a department we see some of this, but as a company Concero UK are better placed to advise us of new strategies with in the workplace!”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR...

Nick Walton – Network Manager The King’s CE School, Wolverhampton n.walton@kingswolverhampton.co.uk

CentraStage Each and every working day our technicians proactively monitor your school systems, looking for and fixing most problems before they have become apparent to you. This daily routine maintenance involves our

technical team checking your backups have gone through successfully, your antivirus is up-to-date, essential and critical updates are applied and your system is kept healthy.

We currently resolve over 55% of all tickets logged with us remotely. As schools are becoming more familiar with our ticket logging procedure we anticipate the demand on this service will increase further, emphasising the need for our remote technical support and daily proactive maintenance checks.

Improving our remote support and proactive maintenance

With this in mind, and due to the vast and ever-increasing range of devices and infrastructures across schools under a number of authorities, we have identified a need for a system which allows us to manage everything from one central point. It is for this reason we have chosen to invest in a powerful device monitoring tool – CentraStage.

CentraStage allows us to remotely support, audit, manage and monitor the following devices: • Servers • Desktops • Laptops • Tablets • Phones • Printers In fact, it allows us to manage any device which is connected to your school network.

What does this mean for your school?

• Firstly there is no additional cost, this is an investment which has been made by us to improve our existing service to you and is included in your SLA with us. Like anything new, we will be trialling this over the next 12 months to see how well it works, and therefore welcome any feedback from you during this time.

• As more than one technician can connect into different machines on your network remotely, this means more efficient and speedy technical remote support resulting in faster response and resolution times.

• IPads and Android tablet devices can now be supported remotely, in the past these devices have required onsite technical visits.

• Informative real-time reporting is available on your network health, server space, update statuses, virus checks and much more.This will be provided to you through our quarterly customer summary reports.

• Quicker turnaround time on school audits (all devices can now be located and checked remotely), including serial numbers and specifications.

If you would like to find out more about CentraStage, please call our Central Support Team on 0333 111 0004.

CentraStage Benefits • Centralised management platform for servers, desktops, laptops, tablets, phones and other devices on your network • Remote support for IPads and other tablet devices • No additional cost to your school • Faster and more accurate real-time reporting on your network and devices • Multiple remote sessions can be carried out at one time.

• More efficient pro-active maintenance 15

Are you getting the most from your IT Support?

What else do we do?

We thought that you might like to know that in addition to IT support, we also offer the following services to all of our customers:

1. Report everything through our helpdesk

• Extensive curriculum support packages

All tickets raised through this are marked, tracked and assigned to somebody to oversee. Anything that falls outside of this (for example, an email direct to a technician of ours) is not and risks being forgotten or not being handled in accordance with our SLA.

• Broadband provision priced from £1956

2. Encourage staff to create tickets themselves

• Hall Projector Cleaning priced from £100

Staff can raise tickets via email, telephone or online through our self-help portal http://support. concerouk.com or http://sq1.concerouk.com which is set as your browser home page in most cases. This allows our technicians to communicate directly with the member of staff concerned rather than speaking through a third person. This ensures the correct messages are passed back and forth, faster turnaround times are achieved and communication as a whole is greatly improved.

• Hardware/software advice and purchasing

• Websites priced from £1200 • Offsite backup priced from £477 • Free anti-virus solutions

• Network meetings - our next ones are being held during late April/May All of these services are offered to you at highly competitive prices, whilst ensuring a high quality service.

3. Assign the correct priority to the ticket Making staff aware of these priorities and timescales will help them to identify and assign the right one for their request which then helps us to meet their expectations.

Priority

Respond within

Resolve within

Operational Hrs

Urgent 1hrs 8hrs Business hours High 4hrs 1 day Business hours Medium 1 day 3 days Business hours Low 3 days 7 days Business hours 4. Read and respond to emails from our helpdesk Each time a ticket is opened, updated or closed an email will be sent to the member of staff who reported it. Important information or requests for further information will be contained within these emails.

5. Complete the satisfaction survey When a ticket is closed, the member of staff will receive an email stating this and requesting them to complete a very simple survey requiring them to select a face which describes their feelings as to how we handled their request.

Awesome

Just OK

Not good

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter, and if you have any suggestions on content you would like to see included in our next one in September, please email Emma Dyas at edyas@concerouk.com