Academies Finance Professionals Power Hour - School Technology Services

and welcome to today's Power Hour the last um sadly the last of 2024 um we've got a packed agenda for you today with a um lovely presentation from the digital and Technology standards team next slide please so just before we make a start just to run through the the usual housekeeping to let you know the session is being recorded and you will receive a copy of the recording in the slides uh after the event so if you'd like to ask any questions at any time during the event um just use the chat box and if you know who who your questions directed to that's even more helpful now we can't answer any questions that are specific to to your particular trust but we will be popping a generic uh contact email in in the chat box um should you need to get in touch with us though we might not publish all the most similar questions but um if you like a question if it resonates with you then please use the upvot button um and we'll try and answer as many of the most popular questions and as many others as possible at the end of the event there will be a tell us how you did survey that's a really important part um because that helps us to shape these events and bring you the topics that you'd like to hear more about I'll just hand over now to the team thank you hi everyone thank you so much for joining us today um my name is Laura lillow um and I work as a policy adviser at the department for Education um I've been with the department for around nine months um but prior to that I worked as a teacher in both primary and secondary schools um for over eight years so today what we're going to be covering are two aspects of our service the first is around the DFE digital and Technology standards which are a set of 11 standards supporting schools to understand the technology that they should have in place and the requirements that that technology should meet to ensure a safe secure and reliable digital environment for all staff and pupils within the school we're going to be talking through what the digital and Technology standards are why they are relevant to you and how they can support you in your role the DFE digital and Technology standards support you with the what but we also want to provide more support with the how So based on that we have recently launched a new service called plan technology for your school which provides that support on the how and that's going to make up the second part of our power hour today um so as I said I'll will be speaking to you about the digital and Technology standards and then I'm going to hand over to my colleagues Adam and Sasha to speak to you about planed technology for your school next slide please thank you so what are the digital and Technology standards and how can they help you to get safe and reliable Tech next slide please the 11 digital and Technology standards are a core set of Standards developed to support schools and colleges to understand their digital environment and to know what type of technology that they should have in place they will help you to understand the minimum requirements that your technology should meet and as outlined in the Box on the left hand side of the slide they're to be used by everyone involved in planning and the use of Technology within schools and colleges meeting the standards can help schools to make more informed decisions about technology leading to safer more cost-efficient practices and new learning opportunities for students so they were designed to help schools know what good looks like and they help you to understand what you need to consider the benefits and risks and what to ask from your suppliers so for example they can help you um to ask to provide detail of what sort of cabling or firewall you need to your supplies next slide please thank you these standards um should be used as guidelines to support your school and college to use the right digital infrastructure and technology for ease of understanding um we have grouped the 11 standards into three buckets although we don't present them this way in line they are uh connectivity in purple on the right in pink is efficiencies and optimization and in the middle in blue is Safety and Security over the next few slides we are going to be zooming in on four of the standards that may be most relevant to your role as a school business professional leader or Chief Financial Officer so under each heading for example leadership and governance there are standards that then sit underneath it helpful information such as the importance of meeting the standard how to meet the standards and the technical requirements are included we've developed these standards and our new plan technology for your school service in collaboration with the sector to make sure that they're as relevant and useful to you as possible and we always think about the standards as being the foundation of technology in schools so to be able to realize the full benefits of Technology including capitalizing on the edtech market and utilizing generative AI schools first need to have that safe and reliable technology in place next slide please so how and why are the standards relevant to your role and where can they be most useful to you next slide please thank you so anyone involved in the planning of technology in a school can make use of the digital and Technology standards the role of a business school business professional in meeting these standards and for schools and colleges is crucial for several reasons so for example Your Role might involve strategic planning your you may play a key role in strategic planning in your school or trust which might involve helping to develop a digital technology strategy that aligns with your school's overall development plan and the standards can help you with this so your input might include keeping registers relating to hardware and systems up to date and contributing to the disaster recovery and business continuity plans Your Role might also involve budget management and it's likely to make up a good proportion of your role so you might for example be responsible for budgeting for technology procurement and maintenance and that might include ensuring that the school has the necessary resources to implement and maintain digital technology the standards can help you understand the tech requirements so that you're able to make the most of the budget that you have available to you Your Role might also involve risk management so you might be responsible for conducting or ensuring that it support have conducted a cyber risk assessment annually and that they're reviewing that every term this is essential because it helps to identify potential risks and helps you to put measures in place to be able to mitigate them and your role might also include ensuring that new equipment is correctly installed through liasing with the ICT supplier or your in-house support team Your Role might also include staff training so you might may play a key role in providing training for all staff on things like General data protection regulation requirements and cyber threats this training can help your staff to understand and adhere to the df's digital and Technology standards finally Your Role might involve monitoring and evaluation so you may be asked to monitor the school's adherence to the DF digital and Technology standards and this might include regularly reviewing your school's digital technology strategy and making necessary adjustments next slide please thank you so we are now going to zoom in on the key standards that might be most relevant to your role so we're going to be zooming in on four today they are the digital leadership and governance standards uh the connectivity standards which cover both broadband and Wi-Fi cyber security standards and finally laptops desktops and tablets for each standard that I'm going to be talking to about um that will be split into two slides so the first slide will cover the benefits of the standards and include a quote from our user research and the second will outline what the standards cover and some practical useful questions that you might be able to ask of your senior leadership team or suppliers to make make sure that you are meeting those standards so the first standard that we are going to zoom in on is leadership and governance on the left I have outlined some of the key elements that the digital leadership and governance standards support um your school to do and on the right are some of the key benefits associated with meeting those standards so the leadership and governance standards support assigning roles and responsibilities in order to develop a comprehensive digital strategy that has led the needs of staff and students schools and colleges should assign a member of their SLT or senior leadership team to oversee its implementation and we do understand that every school is different and that there might be several people in your school working on digital technology but the most important point to make here is that assigning roles and responsibilities help schools to prioritize and plan technology including supporting staff to implement that digital technology secondly the leadership and govern standards support developing a digital strategy so schools need a plan to coordinate uh the leadership resources and training to use technology and your digital technology should be aligned with your school's development plan reactive spending can be expensive and can present poor value for money but planning in advance can help the budgeting and implementing technology with greatest longevity as well as supporting maintenance and refresh plans the leadership and governing standards will also support you to maintain registers including a contract register an asset register and information asset register these can provide valuable insights into the Digital Data equipment and system used in your schools and or college and it is crucial for implementing the other standards registers can facilitate effective management of these assets and help to keep track of your purchasing and Licensing ultimately saving money when you're renewing your software and Hardware it is also worth noting at this point that an information asset register is a requirement under your data protection responsibilities finally the leadership and governance standards can support you with disaster recovery and business continuity plans which ensure that schools and colleges can quickly recover and continue operations in the event of an a disaster or disruption which is again crucial for implementing those other standards you should have a process in place to review and update the disaster recovery and business continuity plans including those related to your digital technology it is always best to be prepared for the worst case scenario when it comes to cyber incidents or other emergencies so to ensure business continuity it's a really good idea to print out hard copies of your disaster recovery and business continuity plans including the summary documents and it's a good idea to keep these documents in a secure shared folder in the cloud and making sure that remote access is granted to your Disaster Recovery team as well next slide please thank you on the right hand side of the slide in the dark blue box I've outlined what the digital leadership and governance standards include there is uh additional information on our digital and Technology standards page on the gov.uk website um which hopefully one of my colleagues will be able to share with you in the Q&A on the left hand side there are some potential questions that may be helpful to ask to ensure that your school is meeting the standards and we will be sharing this presentation with you after the event so you will have access um to the questions so no need to note them down uh next slide please we are now going to zoom in on the connectivity standards which as I mentioned previously covers Broad band and Wi-Fi we believe that connectivity is the foundation on which all other technology sits good Wi-Fi allows portable devices like laptops and tablets to be used in every classroom within the school which can amplify good teaching practices and support a cross-curricular approach to digital skills the Broadband standards outline information about the Broadband your school should have in place including the minimum speeds that your Broadband should meet fast reliable Broadband supports teaching learning and those Administration needs your contract that you have should State what type of broadband you have um and knowing this information can help you to work out if your school needs to upgrade its Broadband which can involve investment the Broadband standards will also help you to assess your backup Broadband so backup Broadband is uh an additional broadband connection that your school can use if your uh primary Broadband fails for any reason it should keep your schools core operations running until your primary Broadband is fixed finding out if your school does have backup broadband connection could include working out if your school needs to install or upgrade its backup Broadband which again can involve investment we'll now move on to the Wi-Fi standards having a reliable secure and widely available wireless network that is centrally managed can help your school to do several things including supporting quality teaching and learning reducing the risk of cyber security incidents and avoid um avoiding disruption to online activities can reduce the risk of losing internet access um which also of course can disrupt learning um it can also help you to easily and securely manage users and guest access um and finally it can support making time and cost savings a reliable Wi-Fi network will reduce the amount of external it support that your school needs um and it will also support moving to the cloud which can come with efficiencies in terms of Staff time and cost so for example moving to the cloud will allow you to take advantage of energy saving features which ultimately will save money as well um next slide please thank you we know that upgrading Wi-Fi networks can be a significant cost so it is really important to get it right again I've included some suggestions of questions that you can use to check Wi-Fi documents or subscriptions or you can ask your it support to help you the technical specifications on the standards are something that you can take directly to suppliers to ask them to ensure that those specifications are met the standards on wireless can help when you're assessing where your school is currently in relation to them and can help you to plan ahead and understand what work needs to be done in the coming years in the blue box I've also outlined the connectivity standards um which as as I mentioned covers both broadband and wireless standards next slide please thank you the next standard that we're going to focus on is cyber security unreliable technology makes schools really vulnerable to cyber attacks and ransomware is the biggest threat facing the education sector with over 120 incidents um being reported since August 2023 as I'm sure that you know schools are critically dependent on technology and online services but we do know that it's a challenge to maintain I infrastructure processes and cyber awareness which unfortunately means that schools become easier targets for cyber criminals meeting the cyber security standards reduces the risk of these cyber attacks and help schools to increase their cyber resilience the cyber security standards can support your school um to carry out a cyber risk assessment to ensure that those risks are mitigated and prevented cyber instance are expensive um and can cost a school thousands of pounds in this case the old saying of prevention is better than cure is is very relevant unfortunately School business professionals and Chief Financial officers are most likely to be targeted by fishing emails as they handle the money within a school it is there or particularly important for them to do their cyber training and be aware of the best practice for cyber so that they can be a line of defense to protect their school cyber attacks might also mean that a school can't open and school offices can't take calls people's data might be leaked leading to safeguarding instance in 2022 one in five schools were infected by viruses spy wear or mware and in the cyber security breacher survey in 2024 over half of primary schools and almost three quarters of secondary schools identified a cyber breach or attack within the last year which is an increase from the last cyber breacher survey meeting these cyber security standards will help mitigate these risks and ensure that the pupils in your school can continue to Lear safely finally the cyber security standards can support developing a data backup plan having a data backup plan in place means that if a cyber incident does occur important data can be restored and pupils can continue learning and business in the school can continue as usual the standards will help you to meet the 321 rule of data backup which is three copies of data on two separate devices with at least one of those being off site next slide please thank you so you might find the following questions useful to ask your it technician or third party technici service and asking these questions will help you to assess where your school is in relation to meeting the standards and will support safe and reliable technology in your school and just another reminder that we will be sharing these slides after the power hour so you will have access um to all of these questions again the cyber security standards are outlined in the blue box on the right next slide please the final standard that we are going to be zooming in on today um are the laptops desktops and tablet standards schools have a autonomy of choice on the type of devices that they purchase and use and it can be a really important part of how schools de deliver their teaching and learning we also know that laptops desktops and tablets can be extremely expensive and a costly investment and that often School business professionals have responsibility for that procurement the laptop desktop and tablet standards outline that schools should think about how they plan on using devices before purchasing them so device strategies that are not implemented properly could lead to lar learning learning outcomes uh for pupils devices that are not fit for purpose are less likely to be used leading to PO value for money the laptop desktops and tablet standards can also support with implementing safe and secure devices devices that are not L secured and don't have appropriate filtering and monitoring systems in place can increase the risks of safeguarding issues and the risks of cyber attacks and data breaches as well I'm sure again that I don't need to tell you that cyber attacks can be extremely costly all new devices must be compatible with existing filtering monitoring and security systems and if existing devices are not compatible with existing filtering monitoring and security systems it's a really good idea to look for for alternative Solutions before using that device we also know that it can be really difficult to plan for and choose the best devices for your school um ensuring that devices that you intend to purchase meet or exceed the requirements in the standards mean that you can feel confident in the knowledge that the devices are safe secure stable and reliable ensuring that devices meet the specifications low is the likelihood of mware rantom Weare potential data breaches and present good value for money devices can be one of the biggest sources of energy used in schools or colleges if the standard is not met there is a risk of increased costs by using more energy than you need creating unnecessary waste um and it can also negatively impact the environment taking an energy efficient approach to buying setting up using and disposing of those devices can help with cost savings um and SU stainability next slide please thank you again this slide covers some useful questions to ask of your senior leadership team and it suppliers to support you with meeting the laptops desktops and tablet standards um I also want to draw your attention to the QR code on the bottom right hand side of the page um and that will take you to a get help buying for Schools page the get help buying for schools offer uh free and impartial advice from DFE procurement Specialists um and that service includes a team of procurement Specialists that can save you time and money by offering free support when you're buying any goods or services for your school so the procurement Specialists can offer advice and guidance to make sure that you are buying compliantly at any point even if your procurement process is already in progress I really hope that this presentation has given you a good overview of what the digital and Technology standards are how they're relevant to your role and hopefully some practical materials uh to help your school in meeting them as I mentioned previously and as we have heard from our users the digital technology standards support schools with what with the work they need to do um but we also knew that new more support was needed on the how in response to this we have developed and recently launched our plan technology for your school service which aims to support your school in meeting the digital and Technology standards I'm now going to pass over to my colleagues Adam and Sasha to talk you through how it works and just to say thank you so much for taking the time um today to join us and over to you Adam thanks Laura uh so welcome everyone I hope that was helpful um I'm here to speak to you a little bit more um about Service uh Laura's mentioned plan technology for your school move the next slide please uh so to support schools further in meeting uh these standards that we've we've talked through today and accessing opportunities as well that technology uh brings launched a new service this is called plan technology for your school uh the services free to use uh and has been developed with school leaders and Technical experts to help all schools understand the condition of their existing technology identify where they can gain the most by making improvements uh see what why and how it matters and what benefits can bring and understand how and where to start in making those changes uh to find the service you can just search plan technology for your school on go. UK or you can scan the QR code that's on your screen right now anyone that's involved in improving technology in a school can make use of the service including uh School business professionals uh senior leadership teams it leads uh it support network managers and also govern us uh schools can make use of the service to get personalized recommendations on how to develop their technology helping you make more informed decisions about uh the technology you have and uh supporting you to create safe and secure environments for staff and Learners plan technology for your school aims to help schools meet df's digital technology standards uh which as laa has talked about already today uh can lead to more coste efficient practices improve and improve reliability of Technology uh we'd welcome everyone to try and use the service um just quick flag that you'll need DF sign in uh to use this but we have guidance within the service that's that how you can help set that up um by using the service we hope uh you can uh help to understand uh where you are against the uh standards that we've talked through today um and at the moment you can assess yourself against a uh smaller set of uh standards than all of the ones we've spoken about we adding to this over time and as a live service we'll continue to expand on this um over the coming weeks and soon we hope to be releasing filtering and monitoring as another um standard you'll be able to assess yourself against within the service um as I say we're expanding the service over time um to support schools across more and more aspects of uh developing and managing a digital strategy uh if you'd like to be part of our research to support this we'll add a link uh to sign up to that in the chat and doing this will help us make sure we continue to build build a service around your needs uh and create a service which works around uh yourselves uh I'll now hand over to my uh colleague Sasha um who's going to give you a demo of the service and show you a little bit more about how it works I think you're on mute so you may just want to jump back to the start there sorry yeah thank you uh sorry uh thank you everybody for joining and thank you to Adam and Lara um to for talking about the service um I'm going to show you how it works so we can you can put in plan technology for your school or simply School Technology into the search engine uh and you can see the second result the.gov do result uh takes you to the page where um there are initiative listed in that area that the department um uh has put forward uh here are there are the digital and Technology standards as Lara has said they describe what good looks like um in terms of School Technology but we have gone further than that and we have created the plan technology for your school service um you do need a DF sign in in order to access it if you don't already have an account uh you can register for one here I already have an account so I will sign into the service so this service is still in development uh there are more things to come um and the next one is going to be filtering and monitoring um for for for the for this service the next topic is going to be filtering and monitoring um I'll just have uh let's just have a look at what the questions look like uh for example um uh part of the leadership and governance standard roles and responsibilities um the first page tells you a little bit about how to prepare for answering questions on this topic whom to involve uh a little bit about the benefits of meeting this particular part of the standard and what you might need to find out before you start answering these questions so do you have someone in your school who is responsible for overseeing digital technology I do have a person like that uh is this person part of your senior leadership team they are uh are there a grid responsibilities recorded in a format that can be shared I'm not sure uh does this person resp does the person responsible for dig digital technology work with other stakeholders they do and is there a formal process where you can discuss and challenge proposals when making decisions about digital technology uh well let's say we do have a process like that at at at our school but it's not a formal one um then it allows me to check and change my answers and if I save my qu uh my answers here uh it takes me back to the first page and you could see that you've got a new recommendation so let's have a look at that uh okay there are five different kind of bits of of recommendations there I'm not going to go through them all but let's have a look at support and challenge um in terms of digital proposals CU there I said um uh we don't really have an official forum for that uh so the recommendation is to introduce such a forum because it's a shared responsibility within the school uh it also suggests how often meetings should take place for example at least once a term uh and more often if there are important digital technology changes so if you need to discuss something um the you can also have a look at um all the recommendations you can print them out uh you can download them and share them with the stakeholders at your school um as I'm sure you would need to do because it's a it's a um there are a lot of people within the school who will be involved in um making decisions about your digital technology and uh at last I would like very much to invite you to use this service is to have a look at it um and uh we we always welcome any feedback uh thank you very much and I will now hand over back to Pam please hi thank you that was really informative so i' just like to say a huge thank you to our presenters L Lara Adam and Sasha for delivering such an informative presentation on digital and Technology standards really important part um uh as I'm sure you'll agree um of uh policy in schools um I hope you found that useful um sorry can we have the next slide please do we have the next slide please I'm just waiting for the feedback slide to come up and um then we're going to ask you to um give us your comments and your opinion um because that's really vital in helping us to bring you useful information on and advice uh on the topics that really uh you'd like some help with so just bear with me a second I'll just find out where our links have gone to colleagues do we have the um links to the feedback survey please that we can share I can't see it I'm afraid I can't see it on my screen perhaps if someone else can see it could you give me a thumbs up can't see it this end perhaps if we could post into the chat colleagues um are we able to post the link in the chat and we'll just stop there for for a few moments just to pause and see if we can bring up the feedback for him apologies about this we are not the experts as I'm sure you can tell there we are thank you so much brilliant okay so if you've got your mobile device to hand if you can scan the QR code or use the link in uh the presentation there um please do give us your feedback as I say it's vital um and uh all of the topics that we've brought to you over the last 12 months um have been topics that you have asked us uh that you'd like some help with so fantastic okay so I'm just about to hand over now to um bring the um presenters back on screen and we've got some time for some question questions and answers so let's have a look okay I think the chat's been quite quiet today um perhaps the presentation was so comprehensive it's covered everything that you can think of but um if there is something um by all means do get in touch uh with the contact details that we we've shared thank you very much uh Pam uh perhaps try um encourage some more questions um I can just start off by covering uh one of B frequently asked questions around the digital and Technology standards um so one of the common questions that we get asked is are these standards going to um become mandatory so is important to note the digital and Technology standards themselves are not statutory um but some like the filtering and monitoring standards relate to statutory requirements that schools um do need to meet so you might have seen those linked to um in keeping children safe in education for example um there is also an expectation within the Academy's trust handbook that all trusts um are working towards meeting their cyber standards as well I don't know if we have had any other questions come up um in the Q&A or in the chat um there's there's one um I think it's it's been answered but I think we'll just cover it anyway um uh Lara um James has asked about if there's any plans to the standards between primary and secondary um because they're likely to very different needs with secondary likely to have uh an onsight team um so have that that technology base um whereas primary needs will be different they may have uh um uh don't need don't necessarily need remote access so primary we'll have perhaps an IT technician visiting is that something that you can uh you can respond to please thanks so much um for that question Sam sorry Pam um in the meantime just before I answer would it be okay uh to ask Daryl to uh start sharing his his screen again um I'm just sharing my screen at the moment that would be really helpful and and then I'll get on to that that answer for you um so in relation to uh that question that was us any plans to split the standards between primary and secondary um we are mindful that there are those different contexts um across the school sector and as I mentioned previously I started my career in a primary school um and ended up teaching in a secondary school so I am very very much aware that those contexts um are very different um within the standards currently there are already um some variations um between the different standards so for example uh we recommend um 100 MB PS download speed for primary schools um and one gig for secondary schools um currently we don't have um additional plans to split those standards further um but it is something that we are constantly um keeping under review um and it is really helpful to have that question asked that's great thanks very much Lara um another one's come in um says what's the best way forward to help with moving from Windows 10 into Windows 11 is that something you're able to to help with uh sorry Pam is that a question is that a question for me sorry yes it was what's the best way forward to help with moving from Windows 10 into Windows 11 is that something that that your team would cover laa um yes um so there is actually patching um available that Trust might already be aware of um that patching is one for the first year uh 2 for the second year um and3 for the SEC for the third year um so while that transition is happening those patches are available um for schools to make use of um I have actually also seen that there is um a another question that's been uh posted in the chat um around uh cyber secure um and the question is how do um the standards linked to cyber secure and are is cyber secure referenced um in the standards so I'll just pick that one up as well um so cyber secure is not mentioned within the standards um but it is a DFE funded schol uh tool so for that reason we do um encourage schools to use it um and that tool has been designed specifically for schools and keeping schools in mind um so uh it provides a really relevant Baseline uh for schools to determine their cyber resilience um and it is an interactive tool um so it can be used within School Improvement and business planning processes as well lovely thanks very much Lara um just having a quick look through the chat see what else we've got coming in um may not be able to answer this one um but um someone's asked if there will be funding available associated with meeting benchmarks yeah it is it is a really common question and we are very much um aware the budgets are extremely um tight in schools um so schools trusts and local authorities and further education providers um currently make decisions about how they use technology for learning um and how they manage their own technology budgets um our plan technology F your school service um which Adam spoke about and Sasha demonstrated for us support schools um to um plan and spend their technology budget effectively um aside from that between 2021 and 2025 uh the department is uh delivering 250 million pounds of funding to ensure that every school has access to G gigabit capable internet infrastructure um and to improve connectivity to over 3,700 schools um in particular areas that have been identified uh with higher needs we do understand that um schools will face barriers and can face barriers to meeting the standards um which is why we have um committed to that that additional funding as well but we do really encourage um schools to make use of their digital and Technology standards um and planed technology for your school so that they can put their planning process um interface and make the most of the budget that they have available yeah Laura PL if it's okay I'll just come in on that as well and just elaborate a little bit want where plan technology for your school can can support schools in that space so we we're very aware that a lot of technology is very expensive for a lot of schools and um the the way that plan technology for your school can help is that by coming up with a more strategic approach to how schools spend on Tech is a way to breaking out of a cycle where maybe um schools are feeling that they're having to be reactive um to replace uh uh Solutions or technology and when it it breaks it becomes problematic within a school um so coming up with a plan and a strategy can support that efficiency over longer term and reduce the cost of Technology over the long term um and that's really where we're trying to uh support schools with that service planed technology for your schools to to make better use of that planning truly helpful thanks thanks Paul thanks Lara um yeah quite a long one here um in the the plan technology for your school service does this have the ability to manage multiple skills under a single login for instance a multi-academy trust having a view of all their schools but allowing individual School leads to fill out the majority of the data required for that site how easily can the information be shared between SLT it's a great question P that's that's one for me for sure um so at at the moment um the way that the service works is that um individual schools are ble to go through and complete their assessments as uh as Sasha demonstrated um we're working on functionality within the service to be able to letter a school that is Within part or um within a trust sorry um to view all of those responses collectively and as we talked about the time we're expanding on the functionality of the service throughout the course of the the year it's not um by no means finished in terms of what schools can make use of at the moment so it's very much a need that we're aware of and some functionality that we we've got teams at the moment developing to use over time to allow better use of that view um just that there's a second part of that question which I think was around sharing and collaboration and at the moment within the service you are able to I think Sasha demonstrated uh the ability to print out school's recommendation so there's a paper based way that um uh trusts could consolidate responses in that that way shape and form and within a school level you can also um copy uh a link within the service across to share and Co cooperate collaborate with colleagues that may need to help answer questions or respond to particular aspects of the the service really helpful thanks Paul um we've we've got another one here um I think it may be for you um can we have some more information about the patching can it be used on any device we believe we'll have to buy brand new PCS uh Circa half a million hi sorry L do you want me to just come on screen uh thank you guy yeah yeah sorry um so Microsoft have um agreed to sort of provide that um fairly cheap security patching um for Education institutions um so when it gets uh the security patching for Windows 10 gets switched off that's going to be October 2025 um you can get in touch with your it supplier or I think you can buy directly through Microsoft as well sort of those security patches um there are kind of a range of other options of things you could do with um old devices don't know you've got um Chrome OS Flex which is another type of operating system that you can use um to sort of rejuvenate old devices um that might not otherwise be able to use sort of Windows 10 or Windows 11 or other operating systems that require a bit more capacity I'll pop the link in the chat as well that's really helpful thank you um another question uh asking if there's a template or framework uh we could use to develop a digital strategy for a trust yeah it's another great question um so we don't currently offer that within the service and there's a reason that which is that um a strategy for an individual school is dependent on a lot of factors within that school which is why we're building a service to be able to uh react and respond to um school's unique better circumstances and then draw that all together into um into some some more strategic uh aspects but uh again looking at how we can introduce that in the future um to allow schools to get a better View and and and draw together different aspects of a digital strategy over time through the service we mentioned that that it's definitely something that we'll we'll build on over time um just a quick flag that we do have some other um templates that are available through the service and they're linked across both the standards content um and uh through plant technology for your school they're there to help schools where we do know that there's difficulty um or complexity involved in in um uh coming up with a uh template or a particular bit of documentation information asset registers for example um from a starting point um of a blank piece of paper so we're there to try and help provide an an offer that can give you a starting point for that it can also help you as a school if you've already got um something or a bit of documentation that fits that mold and to just validate your thinking and and check your practice at the moment with uh with what we offer that's brilliant uh thank you so much um I think that's just about all the questions in the chat unless anyone else has any anyone in the panel has any tips or hints to share I mean I know there's been lots of uh helpful links shared in the chat um if there's any last words from anybody otherwise we can uh move on come I'll make one last um play if I may is already in the chat um but we we've put a link in there to um anyone um in the session interested and participating in our in our future research help develop not just our service but wider ones within the department it really really does help us out and it helps us make sure that what we're doing and what we're developing next can can be centered around the experiences of of schools that's very much what we're trying to achieve here um so I'd encourage anyone if you are interested ple please do um go back and and sign up through that um we have got uh some research that we'll be doing in in January and February um and we're really ke for participants to take part in that so um I'd encourage anyone to go back and have a little look at that or I think or biom share it with colleagues within your go that's fabulous thank you so much well thank you so much to all of the team uh for that that presentation and uh thank you everyone for joining us today um just before you leave uh just quickly if we can let you know what's coming up in the new year um in January we have the the annual accounts return and February we have a session on counter fraud so that just leaves me to wish you all a restful uh period over the the coming weeks and look forward to seeing you all again in the new year thank you very much e e

2025-01-05 23:53

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