ICT Services 4 Education

 

School ICT News Bulletin No. 280 - 28/03/2019

Published by ICT Services 4 Education

eBulletin Items

  1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: IT Educational Equipment Now Available To Hire!
  2. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Hosted SIMS Unavailability - Friday, 29th March to Sunday, 31st March
  3. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: ATF's for Primary Schools for 2019/2020
  4. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Review Your Internet Filtering Policy
  5. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Changes to Service Desk opening hours - Monday, April 1st 2019
  6. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: ICT Services 4 Education Refresh Programme - Action Required

1. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: IT Educational Equipment Now Available To Hire!

ICT Services 4 Education are excited to offer the following for hire to schools, academies, federations or trusts.

 

Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Google Expeditions and Tour Creator Class Set

With VR and AR, teachers are no longer limited by the space of the classroom. Google Expeditions allows a teacher to guide students through collections of 360° scenes and 3D objects, pointing out interesting sites and artefacts along the way.

With Tour Creator, teachers can build virtual field trips or empower students to create their own immersive tours. You can create a virtual reality tour using your own 360° or 180° photos, Cardboard Camera photos, or images from Street View directly in the browser.

 

What’s in the kit:

15 x Grab Viewers with full HD 5.5” Student devices

1 x 10.1” Android Tablet

15 x Anker Selfie Sticks for AR viewing

1 x Transportable Storage and Charging Case

1 x Ricoh Theta V 360 degree camera

 

 

Sphero Bolt Class Pack

Program BOLT with the Sphero Edu app from nearly any mobile or desktop device, discover awesome community-created activities, or just drive and play. Create and customize games and learn to code by drawing on your screen, using Scratch™ blocks, or writing JavaScript text.

 

What’s in the pack?

15 x Sphero BOLT Robots

15 x Inductive Charging Cradles with USB cables

15 x Protractors with heading, directions and clock

15 x Clear Turbo Covers

15 x Maze Tape Rolls

124 x Stickers

Quick Start Guide to get you rolling

Sphero Edu app available for download on iOS, Android, Kindle, Mac, Windows, and Chrome

Sphero Play app available for download on iOS and Android

 

Further information can be found on our website VR, AR & Google Expeditions Hire Equipment (Document) and Sphero Bolt Power Pack (Document)

 

If you wish to book the equipment, please click the following link -  Equipment Hire Form

 

 

 

 


2. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Hosted SIMS Unavailability - Friday, 29th March to Sunday, 31st March

Capita have notified us that they will be performing an upgrade to the Norfolk hosted SIMS platform to ensure that your database is updated with the latest functionality and error fixes. During this time there will be a period of unavailability.

 

This work will begin at 18:00 on Friday, 29th March to 23:59 on Sunday, 31st March

 

We apologise in advance for any inconvenience that this may cause.

 

For more information please contact the Service Desk on 0845 303 3003 or ict@norfolk.gov.uk


3. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: ATF's for Primary Schools for 2019/2020

As you will be aware, National Offer Day is 16th April for your new 2019/2020 Primary school intake. In the past this has been in the form of an ATF (Admission Transfer File) sent to you securely via AnyComms Plus.

 

However, this year the files will not be sent by ourselves and will need to be downloaded via the SAM (School Access Module) which you will have access to. If you have any queries regarding your intake in the first instance please contact your Admissions Officer and for all queries regarding the School Access Module please refer to the guidance sent to you from the Admissions Team at Norfolk County Council. The ATF will be sent to you on or around the period of 16th April.

 

For those schools with our MIS support, we have guides available on the support section of our website to help you import your new pupil data into your MIS.

 

 

 

 

 


4. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Review Your Internet Filtering Policy

Netsweeper filtering has been in place for most Schools and Academies since 2016 and we would like to remind you of the options available to ensure that you get the most from the teaching resources available on the internet, whilst keeping children safe online.

 

Since its implementation, headteachers / principals will have changed in school establishments, so we recommend you take the opportunity to review the configuration you have in place and whether it is the best setup for your School or Academy.

 

To review your filtering options please visit the webpage / form that can be found here - http://www.ict.norfolk.gov.uk/page.aspx?id=1350

 

For more information please contact the Service Desk on 0845 303 3003 or ict@norfolk.gov.uk


5. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Changes to Service Desk opening hours - Monday, April 1st 2019

To reflect reduced demand on the Service Desk between 16:30 and 17:00 hours, we will be changing the hours so that the telephone lines close at 16:30, effective from April 1st, 2019.

 

This means that the new telephone operating hours will be 08:00 to 16:30, Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays.

 

Outside of these hours you will still be able to leave a voicemail, email or raise a request for assistance (RFA) via the website.

 

For more information please contact the Service Desk on 0845 303 3003 or ict@norfolk.gov.uk


6. IMPORTANT INFORMATION: ICT Services 4 Education Refresh Programme - Action Required

Following customer feedback and a review of our services, ICT Services 4 Education have re-designed our Refresh offering to provide a brand new service.

We are pleased to offer an exciting new programme which not only maintains your ICT equipment to the latest levels but also looks at the ways new innovations such as STEM, Coding and Immersive Technology can help you to develop and engage your students. More information about our new offering can be found on the following page: EdTech Enhancement Programme.

However, sadly this does mean that we are unable to continue with the existing programme which will close on 31 March 2019. We hope that you will wish to continue with our new offering whereby any funds you may have already contributed can be transferred directly into the new programme, alternatively these can be refunded back.

Schools who have already had an installation as part of the programme will need to continue their annual commitments.

To launch this new programme, we held pop up classroom events demonstrating the latest kit and to discuss the new programme at -

  • The Kinesis Centre, Norwich City FC, Carrow Road, Norwich, NR1 1JE - 25th March 2019
  • Fairstead Community Primary School, King's Lynn - 28th March 2019

Please note that the new offering will include a project management / admin fee as well as the usual engineer installation fees.

 

What You Need To Do:

Contact ICT Services 4 Education to let us know whether you wish to transfer to the new programme by 30 April 2019.

 

For More Information:

Please contact the Service Desk on 0845 303 3003 (Option 2) or ict@norfolk.gov.uk

 

 


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