School Daze
Okay, so here goes.

I have been working as an IT Technician in a Bristol School for two months and I am already having enough. The job itself isn't too bad and my boss and co-worker is pretty decent but there are other problems that exists. The big thing that's going on now is that we are having a new school build through the government's building schools for the future programme, which means we'll have a £30 million shiny new school come september. This is where things have started going wrong.

- Our project manager who is supposed to be in control of the whole project has told us very little abou whats going on and my boss has regular meetings with her to find out what the hell is going on and what we're getting. She also has an amazing ability to make you feel inferior to her and make you think something is always your fault.

-The specification for the IT system was drawn up the deputy head and a teacher, who later on said she knew nothing about computers. We are getting a very nice shiny new network with VMWare and IPTV and Digital signage but which is a bit overkill for a school.

-With the aforemented IT system, we aren't getting any training. Day 1, we'll get the blame when things go wrong because we don't know what we're doing an having to wing it.

-Masses amounts of money have been wasted. Our first cartridge spend for the school year was going to just over £70,000. Our current spend, for a year, is about £7000. Money have been spent on £90 seinheiser heaphones which will get stolen within the first few weeks and no money has been set aside to replace them. The school is getting ~300 desktops and MORE THAN 500 LAPTOPS. To me, this is retarded but the consultants (who are a bunch of lying btards) says we need this and the school has gone along with it. A website will also be bought for £3000 when I would happily do it myself.

So, bad management? Hell yeah. Ton's of unhappy teachers, kids who couldn't give a shit and Senior Management who think this will be the end of all our problems.

EDIT: Moar to come in another post.
(tb2571989 dies at precisely, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 12:12, 14 replies)

"a £30 million shiny new school come september."
Cotham School, by any chance? The nice new building on Cotham Brow? I run the gauntlet past that building site every morning on the way to work!
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 12:16, closed)

I've heard about that
but no, will be one in Filton.
(tb2571989 dies at precisely, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 12:20, closed)

I hope you've been downing pints
Of Black Rat in the Porter Stores Rakky!
( JeffTheDogFucker Can you dig it?, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 16:06, closed)

I was thinking this
.
(The Oscillating Gibbon is eating curried squid, Mon 14 Jun 2010, 10:32, closed)

Yep
it can be simply astounding what clowns can become responsible for gigantic amounts of money. Never there to pick up the pieces though..
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 12:17, closed)

Some of the things are OK
VMWare is not such a bad idea (although other [better] hypervisors are available). You could run all the clients on Linux (for security and control) and host a virtual image (Windows if you must). If the little dears do manage to screw a desktop, just revert the image. All their file can be held (and backed-up) centrally. Total network control with ease.

Laptops? Huh? You'll need to chain them to a desk to stop them being stolen. I can't see students doing much heavy work, could get away with mostly small desktops (say a Fit2-PC or similar) and just a few big boxes for when needed. Use the money saved for some decent wide screens as that is easier for group work.

£90 for headphones? WTF? Plantronics, with mic your for about £15. More than good enough for school work.

I feel sorry for you, and I feel sorry for my wallet as more tax if spunked on crap like this. Still, at least the consultants are raking it in, eh?
(SpangleDangle >->)))'>, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 12:29, closed)

well
we were told we were getting VMWare, like it or not. Thankfully the network is going to locked down so tight it's going to be restrictive.

Laptops, yup. I would prefer to have all tower pcs but nope, laptops it is.

£90 for heaphones, along with 60 x £160 pairs for the music dept :'(

and the consultants...must be laughing.
(tb2571989 dies at precisely, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 12:50, closed)

from experience
of working in a couple of schools virtual images will give you great flexibility and laptops aren't that bad, you'll be able to lock them into secure trolleys and the end of the day and just think about the mass lan party's you can organise ;-) (from experience, smirnoff ice is very sticky, doesn't like keyboards, but RM will quite happily believe that one of the brand new 25 laptops delivered tested and working has failed over the weekend)
( notmyrealname, Fri 11 Jun 2010, 11:35, closed)

they
sould be good but the laptops dont fit into the trollys bought for us. Dammit.

Still, good point about the LAN parites...*grin*
(tb2571989 dies at precisely, Fri 11 Jun 2010, 13:46, closed)

revert the image?
no need, just use a program like deep freeze, Lancashire County Council is one of my major clients and they use it on all their library public network machines, cracking bit of software.
(Kip, Sun 13 Jun 2010, 12:59, closed)

well
"theres no money" :(
(tb2571989 dies at precisely, Tue 15 Jun 2010, 8:58, closed)

Bummer.

(Kip, Tue 15 Jun 2010, 13:56, closed)

Jeezuz
All that AND you can't sleep with the pupils.
(MrOli is ugly, but in the morning you will be sober, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 13:44, closed)

well
single as I am, I don't know if I'd want to touch the chavvy twunts. Some of the 6th formers are OK though.
(tb2571989 dies at precisely, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 14:53, closed)

Ask
Ask the project manager for the risk register and agreed project scope.

Then read it carefully.

Then sack her.
( Razor What the fuck - a sig?, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 13:51, closed)

worryingly enough
I don't know if such thing exists. She's probably eaten it by now.

A large number of people would be glad to see her go, but if she did the whole prroject would grind to a halt as shes told very little to everybody else and in the eyes of senior management she's done nothing wrong. Halp?
(tb2571989 dies at precisely, Thu 10 Jun 2010, 14:55, closed)