Primary IT Coordinators Workshop

1. Primary IT Coordinators Workshop Single School Network & Amsterdam Projects Baglan IT Centre

2. 2 Parts to the Day • Morning • Single School Network Consolidation of the Administrative and Curriculum School IT Functions • Afternoon • Project Amsterdam Introduction of the Neath Port Talbot Learning Gateway

3. Background to Single School Network • The school administration and curriculum systems currently have independent active directories, servers, LAN’s and e-mail systems. This is now hampering school improvement and adding unnecessary technical complexity. In secondary schools the administrative PCs are supported by BITC, the curriculum PCs by the School Technician. This creates further unnecessary complexity. • This project was identified in the BITC Business Plan 2008/09, to be undertaken between March 2008 and July 2009. • What this means: • Consolidation of the Curriculum and Admin Systems. The request has come from schools standards forums. Systems such as e-mail and user storage areas e.g. curriculum data currently stored at school, admin data currently stored at the Civic. This applies to all schools

4. Reasons for Undertaking the Project Teachers and support staff cannot access NPT Intranet from their classrooms and Admin Staff cannot access the schools internet/intranet from their offices Teachers and support staff are using the curriculum e-mail system for administrative purposes but it has not been designed for such use and is not covered by an appropriate acceptable use policy Admin staff e-mail accounts have to be removed from the Central IT Unix server Admin staff cannot currently be included in the closed e-mail system Admin staff require access to e-mail and documents from home Teaching and staff on the current admin network need to share calendars To reduce system failures, and the impact of system failures by reducing the current level of technical complexity within school networks (Business Plan R1) To reduce new system development time by simplifying the infrastructure as BITC resources are being reduced and the service must find ways to sustain service at reduced cost (Business Plan R1) To improve the availability of key ICT systems in secondary schools There is uncontrolled demand by schools for finite broadband and storage capacity which will impede the future use of ICT

5. Benefits Expected Reduced system outages Improved fault resolution times Reduced cost and timetable of future ICT implementations Levels of customer satisfaction do not decrease Schools continue to use BITC services rather than seek alternative ICT service arrangements Improved school standards Helps BITC to work within Budget

6. Current and New User Groups Pupil Users Staff Users ITCO (Management Role) Admin Officers Head Teachers (Management Role)

7. User Data Storage – Example of a Current Teacher U Drive

8. User Data Storage - Proposal for Teacher U Drive

9. User Data Storage – Example of a Current T Drive

10. User Data Storage - Proposal for T Drive

11. Points of Discussion Held with Admin Staff Administrative Applications and Menus Desktop Environment Internet Filtering School Web Sites Access from Home E-mails Storage - Archiving Printers

12. ITCO Desktop – Design Change There is an operational requirement to have a specific ITCO only desktop rather than continuing on the common pupil desktop in a shared manner. Change benefits: The change will enable ITCOs to use the desktop as an easy way of distributing and setting up ICT equipment and components throughout the school. The school recently used their shared desktop to re-configure SIMS on curriculum machines following a failure. They did not however appreciate that the desktop they were seeing when logged on as an ITCO was the same common desktop as viewed by pupils

13. Year 6 Pupils – Individual Logons Implications for staff Implications for pupils

14. Open Discussion Single School Network

15. Objectives of Project Amsterdam To provide a governance structure for all contributing bodies and groups that form the partners for the NPTLG Establish the organisational roles necessary for the ongoing development and support of the NPTLG To provide a learning platform upon which a fully functional Learning Gateway can be developed To provide a single point of entry for all current managed service users Pupils without Home Access options switched on will have no My Site links in SharePoint whether they are at school or at home. They will have to use the current method for accessing their files To establish common standards and quality assurance mechanisms for all administrative areas of the contributing bodies and groups To promote the use of the Learning Gateway to support teaching and learning Planning for the future development of the Learning Gateway for any learning provider

16. Reasons for the Project • To support the provision of a Connected Learning Community by bringing disparate information and data together and presenting it to users according to their unique requirements. • To facilitate schools in their requests, through the secondary standards forum and LLAN ICT, to use ICT to its full potential to support and aid school improvement. • Establish the use of learning platforms in all schools by: • Defining the main functions which learning platforms must fulfil with regards to 14-19 agenda, the promotion of learning communities within schools, the role of schools in their communities, wider eWales and Making the Connections agenda; • Requiring local authorities to establish learning platforms in: • Establishing a closed forum for the review of best practice, • Publishing guidance on accessibility standards and where further advice can be found on how best to ensure that all learners have the opportunity to access learning through the learning platform. • To enable Teachers and other Educators to collaborate on projects and share materials within and beyond the traditional school boundaries, saving time and improving quality. • Through the use of ICT; facilitate, support and enable some of the authorities other education priorities such as Self Evaluating Schools, the Learning Agenda, the Revised Curriculum for Wales, 14 – 19 Learning Pathways, ICT Strategy for Schools and Inclusion and Community Learning. These requests and others in the future will be driven by EDIS. • The potential to bring parents into the learning process by providing them with real-time information showing their child's progression, their current learning tasks and enabling access to relevant learning materials.

17. Benefits Expected To provide a governance structure that enables shared responsibility for the development and progression of teaching and learning facilities within the NPTLG. To provide a robust, reliable, scalable platform that supports the development of a managed learning environment for all learners within NPT. To ensure that everyone who requires training in the operation of the NPTLG will be able to access it and develop the necessary skills. To provide a means for schools to increase parental involvement in the learning process by providing them with real-time information about their children and their learning progression. To raise awareness of the existence of the NPTLG and its facilities that support the development of teaching and learning within the authority. To support and enable some of the authorities other education priorities. To provide a set of shared structures that will enable economies of scale to be achieved in the development and use of training and support materials.

18. What are Learning Platforms? • The term ‘Learning Platform’ refers to a combination of IT services that support teaching and learning. • The learning platform enables, hardware, software and supporting services to be brought together to create more effective ways of working within and outside the classroom. Learning Platforms – Making IT Personal, DfES

19. Developing your schools learning platform A starting point.. Building your school’s platform – plugging in your choice of tools An extended learning platform

20. NPT Learning Gateway- External Home Page

21. NPT Learning Gateway- External Schools Page

22. NPT Learning Gateway- Logged in Home Page

23. NPT Learning Gateway- Individual School Page

24. NPT Learning Gateway- Logged in Teacher Page

25. NPT Learning Gateway- Logged in Pupil Page

26. NPT Learning Gateway- Logged in as a Teacher Curriculum Development Page

27. NPT Learning Gateway - Subject Structure

28. NPT Learning Gateway- Curriculum Development – Primary Portal

29. NPT Learning Gateway- Curriculum Development – Primary Portal – Subject Area

30. NPT Learning Gateway - Logged in School Parent Portal

31. Thank you Thank you for attending today and providing us with valuable information while we create the new system for schools If you have any queries following this event please contact Kelly Gillings on 01639 779500 or k.gillings@npt.gov.uk We will be in contact to confirm the list of requirements as outlined today, and ask if you would like to attend a validation day to test the new system in January