2022 - Summer Holidays

Welcome to the September 2022 IT Services Update!  This is the first of many regular updates that we will share with staff to provide the latest information on ICT at Badminton as well as some useful links to the most requested guides at key parts of the year.

• Save time - Set teams to open files in the desktop version of Word, Excel and Powerpoint
• Don't use the web based versions of Office - Open files in the full version where possible
• Sync teams folders you use often - NOT THE WHOLE TEAM unless you want your device to go slow!
• Use the full version of OneNote - Much faster than using Teams!
• Check the right staff are members of your Teams - You can add and remove them quickly by yourself
• Squat up on using multiple monitors - Plenty of guides here on how to get things exactly how you want.
• Where to store notes on iSAMS
• Classroom AV Guide - Help with projectors and audio troubleshooting

Struggling with the docks in classrooms? - Plug in your device, shut the lid, windows + P then Duplicate.  Everything on both screens.

Class Teams Clean-up and Rollover for the New Year

Each year we do a lot of work to keep your class teams organised and ready for the start of term.  As with last year your teams fall into three categories which can be managed in separate ways depending on your needs:

• Brand new teams for all 2022/23 Classes - You will need to active them before pupils can see them.
• Last years Teams - Are still there but no longer automated, you have a few options here:
  • Archive the ones you don't need anymore
  • Rename them to 2022/23 if you want to use last years again, e.g. year 10 into 11, 12 into 13
  • Move all the files into the new Team
  • Move class notebook pages to the new team
• 2 Year old teams - Have all been archived.  If you need them back you need to unarchive them or contact us.

Email Signatures Now Work Online

We have upgraded our system that manages your email signatures.  It now works with the web based version of Outlook as well as the Desktop App!  As before if there is an error with your signature please contact HR to make sure your data is correct on iSAMS.

New Office and Apprentice Coming Soon

A huge amount of work over the summer has involved a new office for the team.  We now have roughly twice the space as before and have plenty of room to grow as well as space to have more than one extra person visit us at a time!  We are still waiting on a door so the rest of the team have yet to move in and we have plenty of work ahead to get things organised.  Feel free to come up and pay us a visit if you fancy a nose around, we are next to Geography and F&N just down the stairs from our old office.

Our old office will be converted into a new staff workroom with 3-4 computers and desks once we have cleared out all our rubbish!

We are also in the final stages of recruiting our first Apprentice ICT Technician.   A new role that will allow us to expand the team to better meet the Schools support needs.  A two year post that will provide a great opportunity for someone to kick start a career in ICT whilst injecting some new excitement into the team.

Computer Recycling With IT Schools Africa

To make room for all the changes we have recycled over 100 computers and laptops this year.  Rather than throwing them all away we donated the majority to a charity who will repurpose them and send them of to help Schools in Africa!  You can find out more about their work here: https://www.itschoolsafrica.org/

Office 365 Backups

We now backup all data stored in Office 365, Teams and Sharepoint to a third party company (barracuda) This means in the unlikely event of Microsoft losing our data we have a good backup! In addition we can now recover any file that has even been stored in Office 365 no matter how long ago you deleted it!

Other Changes

The following other changes have been completed over the summer:

• Brand new teaching desks in most of School house, the docking stations have been tidied up and should be much cleaner now.  Apologies for the lack of notice as it was an unexpected change that we had a chance to implement right at the end of the Summer holidays but was deemed worth doing!
• STEM break room has been re-arranged based on staff feedback and we have converted it into two dual screen docking stations, removing the older computers, making more space for tea and biscuits!
• School House 5 and 22 have had brand new classroom IT installed, new projectors, screens, speakers and docking facilities.
• The Art department have gained two new TV screens to replace the old projector in the mezanine and in Textiles
• Purchased and setup 15 new Surface Pro devices for academic staff
• New computer in the new Speech and Drama room
• Brand new Interactive TV screen in one of the Junior School classrooms and moved it to a better wall
• Completed our first Cyber Security Assessment with an external consultant to help inform our future cyber strategy
• As usual we also performed the Academic rollover on iSAMS with the help of School Office, Jen, Marcus and Junior School.  Making sure all timetables and classes are ready for the start of term and all the new pupils have computer logins.

A huge thanks to the Estates team and other staff who work over the Summer and helped make much of these changes possible!