Thursday 17 September 2009

We have a new member!

Adam W will be off for a few weeks! Our congratulations goes to him!

Sunday 12 July 2009

Friday 26 June 2009

Swine Flu

Due to this instance of Swine Flu in a Bradford School please see this swine flu article which discusses prevention in ICT.

Thursday 16 April 2009

Log into Health Check (aka Nagios & Network Monitoring) with your Job System username and password

You can now log into the Health check/Nagios/Network monitoring with your Job System(aka eduneer/crm) username and password.

The URL to login direct is http://secure.primaryt.co.uk/nagios

The URL to login to the job system is http://crm.primaryt.co.uk

Enjoy :)

Friday 10 April 2009

Referrals for Technical Support

Getting Referrals for our technical support is simple.

To receive a referral please contact one of the schools we provide technical support for.

If you chose to contact Education Bradford ICT Helpdesk then please we are keen to point out that Education Bradford ICT Helpdesk are not to be confused with the Curriculum ICT team who continue to have a good working relationship with us.

For each school you contact we give that school discount off their technical support for the following year. We want you to talk to each other as we believe that is the most honest way to hear how hard we work for your school.

Below are some schools testimonials:

The service Primary Technology provides our school has always been reliable and efficient. The majority of our ICT issues are effectively resolved within our weekly allocated timeslot. However if we have had a high priority problem that has needed urgent attention outside of this time, Primary Technology have always been contactable by telephone or in extreme case have made an extra visit to school to help us resolve the matter.
Rachel Snowdon, Thorpe primary

We have worked alongside Primary Technology for a number of years and never cease to be surprised and delighted at the level of support and attention to detail provided. Whether helping with strategic planning, ICT policy or everyday computing issues, Primary Technology always provide excellent support and guidance.
Maureen Cairns. Head, St Winefride's Catholic Primary School

We changed over from our previous provider to primary technology in April 2008, there is no looking back. The level of services provided reminds me weekly that we have made the right choice. I look forward to developing our school facilities with our new found confidence in ICT
Siobhan McAuley. ICT coordinator, St Columba's Primary School

Lapage review their IT support provider in 2007 and decided to go with Primary Technology, having received a number of bad experiences during the previous year. The school has not looked back since; we are very pleased with Primary Technology and now feel that we have moved forward considerably in both having a reliable and efficient IT structure and in the confidence of our staff in their use of IT throughout school. Primary Technology has played a crucial role in the strategic ICT development in school and this is well on target to achieve all our aims. The support we receive for this is very good.
Ginny Wood. School Business Manager, Lapage Primary School & Nursery

Since we subscribed to Primary Technology's technical support we have received fantastic help and consultation on a weekly basis, with improvements that allow us to move ICT forward and plan for the future. The services are quality, good value and highly recommended!
Yvonne Broadbent. ICT coordinator, Low Moor Primary School

We changed our technical support provider this year and have not looked back! The passion and commitment to ICT shown by staff at Primary Technology is great. They have helped increase staff confidence in ICT with network improvements that have ensured our ICT suite is always fully booked and fully functional!
Helen Malt. ICT coordinator, Woodside Primary School

Primary Technology provides a complete primary school IT support package. They combine extensive up-to-date knowledge about cutting edge IT hardware with an awareness of what could be used to enhance pupil learning. The Newby Primary ICT curriculum has been greatly helped with the introduction of wireless networking throughout the school, which has greatly helped the teaching and learning of ICT.
Michael Latham. Head teacher, Newby Primary School

Primary Technology provide excellent primary school services. They proactively look after the primary school network and provide an excellent level of professionalism towards all staff members at the school. When providing a quote for ICT provisions they are always unbiased, helping us choose the correct products for our budget whilst not adding any fees to the purchases.
Alex Llewellyn. ICT co-ordinator, St Joseph's RC Primary School

Primary Technology is a great asset to the school. Whilst working on the school network and providing ICT solutions, they are always very professional, pleasant and never leave until all jobs are completed. The introduction of Primary Email has improved communications throughout school and increased the efficiency of the school admin department.
Elaine Gledhill. Administrator, Marshfield Primary School

We have received excellent support, strategic consultancy, development and creative ICT network solutions from Primary Technology for a number of years. Their engineers who are always on call to respond to any queries have transformed our school ICT development. Thank you.
Mrs. J Coyle. Head teacher, St James' Primary School

We are continually delighted with the support and level of service received from Primary Technology. Their ICT engineers understand the demands placed on staff in a busy school environment and their excellent support relieves school of technical issues, thereby allowing staff to deliver the ICT curriculum efficiently.
Janet Beecher. Administrator, St Columba's Catholic Primary School

Primary Technology has worked alongside school staff to help us improve the ICT provision. They have given valuable time and advice to help us make the right decisions that have enabled ICT to move forward across the school
Catherine Balderston. Head teacher, Wycliffe CE Primary School

Primary Technology has been supporting our school for just over a year. In that time they have transformed our use of ICT, helping to inspire teachers and pupils alike. When setting up our Mobile Learning Project, the Primary Technology team were always on hand to consult on the latest ICT developments and provided valuable insights into the potential of hand-held learning, including their own Primary Email system.

Since our initial discussions we have seen mobile learning progress from a single idea into a school-wide project. The wireless solution installed by Primary Technology is flawless throughout school and the technical support is second to none. I really couldn't recommend a better ICT support team!
Bob Quartermain. Head, Wilsden Primary School

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Bradford Primary Schools sophos configuration docs

Updated docs are available to staff members on http://brains.primaryt.co.uk/docs

Publicly viewable version below:

Primary Technology Primary school
Sophos configuration


Written by Adrian Rhodes
Revised by John McLear
Published by Primary Technology on Blog tracker http://primarytsupport.blogspot.com
On the 24/03/2009

John@primaryt.co.uk
Adrian@primaryt.co.uk






Before we begin…

Sophos should be downloaded from the sophos website using your username and password.

Before creating the policies ensure that ensure that Enterprise Manager is synchronized with your
AD structure and that you have created a user in AD for the sole purpose of doing sophos updates
i.e. create a user called “sophos” with a random password and join that user to the “domain
admins” group to ensure it has rights to access the machines.

%Servername% is the server name of the sophos server (IE 2k3server)
If you are unsure of your server name then this document may be a bit too advanced for you! Please call us on 0845 68 01274 or email us at support@primaryt.co.uk for advice.
This document is only relevant for Bradford Primary Schools including those on the BLN and other internet services.

If the school is not on a Telewest/Virgin Media connection then you may need to change the SMTP server settings when you configure email messaging.

If you have Primary Technology Edumon/remote monitoring services installed and configured, your system will periodically check sophos to ensure viruses are being handled as documented.

This installation procedure takes 1 hour

Updating Policies

Default Policy
This policy is applied to all servers, and devices that never leave the school premises.

1. Primary Server tab should be pointing to \\%SERVERNAME%\InterChk\ESXP then add the username and password that you created at the start remembering to include the domain with the username domain\sophos no proxy settings need adding as it is all done internally

2. Secondary server tab is left blank for the default policy

3. Logging can just be left as default

4. Schedule should be enabled and set to run every 60 minutes

5. Initial install source should be enabled and pointing to the same directory as your primary server by default.

Teachers Laptop Policy
This policy is applied to any devices that are attached to the school network and are taken off site.

1. Primary Server tab should be pointing to \\%SERVERNAME%\InterChk\ESXP then add the username and password that you created at the start remembering to include the domain with the username domain\sophos no proxy settings need adding as it is all done internally

2. Secondary server tab should be pointing direct to sophos which can be selected from the drop down box, the username and password for this address is currently (March 2009):

This username and password is only available on the private version of the docs. http://brains.primaryt.co.uk/docs/

3. No proxy settings need adding as the users probably won’t have a proxy set up at home

4. Logging can just be left as default

5. Schedule should be enabled and set to run every 60 minutes

6. Initial install source should be enabled and pointing to the same directory as your primary server by default.


Anti‐Virus Policies

Default Policy
This policies is to be applied to all devices except the servers

Ensure “Enable on‐access scanning” is enabled then under the On‐access scanning options check the following settings:

1. Scanning should be set to normal with none of the scanning options enabled, on‐access scanning behavior is best set with read, write and rename enabled however if machines in your school are particularly slow disable the read scanning
2. Extensions should be set to scan only executable and infectable files along with files that have no file extension.
3. Windows Exclusions should have an entry entered for C:\windows\csc which will stop your machines grinding to a halt during synchronization of offline files, do not exclude remote files.
4. Mac Exclusion & Linux exclusions can be left disabled.
5. Cleanup should be set to automatically delete viruses and spyware whilst doing nothing for suspicious files (because sophos isn’t all that smart and removes VNC as it thinks its suspicious)
6. Back at the main policy page now HIPS runtime behaviors can be left with all 3 options enabled.
7. Disable Desktop messaging.
8. Enable Email messaging using smtp.blueyonder.co.uk and put your email address in the recipient field.
9. SNMP messaging can be left as disabled.
10. Event log should always be enabled with the default settings plus any others if you so choose but there shouldn’t be any point.
11. Back on the main policy page again Authorization can be left as default.
12. Under scheduled scanning click Add, set it to scan local drives only on every day of the week at a time that is suitable (during lunch if the school don’t use the computers much then or just after school finishes are normally the best times) then click configure.
13. Set scanning to intensive mode and to scan inside archive files along with adware/PUA, under cleanup set it to automatically delete viruses and spyware as well as automatically delete adware/PUA.
14. Once more on the main policy page click extensions and exclusion, under extensions tell it to scan all files, there should be no exclusions at all.


Server Policy
This policies is to be applied to all servers on the domain


Ensure “Enable on‐access scanning” is enabled then under the On‐access scanning options check the following settings:

1. Scanning should be set to normal with none of the scanning options enabled, on‐access scanning behavior is best set with read, write and rename enabled however if your servers are particularly slow disable the read scanning, do not allow access to drives with infected boot sectors.
2. Extensions should be set to scan only executable and infectable files along with files that have no file extension.
3. Windows Exclusions should left blank, do not exclude remote files.
4. Mac Exclusion & Linux exclusions can be left disabled.
5. Cleanup should be set to automatically delete viruses and spyware whilst doing nothing for suspicious files.
6. Back at the main policy page now HIPS runtime behaviors can be left with all 3 options enabled.
7. Disable Desktop messaging.
8. Enable Email messaging using smtp.blueyonder.co.uk and put your email address in the recipient field.
9. SNMP messaging can be left as disabled.
10. Event log should always be enabled with the default settings plus any others if you so choose but there shouldn’t be any point.
11. Back on the main policy page again Authorization can be left as default.
12. Under scheduled scanning click Add, set it to scan local drives only on every day of the week at a time that is suitable (out of school hours but not so it conflicts with any backups been run on the server) then click configure.
13. Set scanning to intensive mode and to scan inside archive files along with adware/PUA, under cleanup set it to automatically delete viruses and spyware as well as automatically delete adware/PUA.
14. Once more on the main policy page click extensions and exclusion, under extensions tell it to scan all files, there should be no exclusions at all.

Monday 23 March 2009

SIMS Integration & Data Extraction

Thanks to the folks at ANB Software who have developed a tool to automate the creation of Active Directory users directly from SIMS data, the time taken to setup each server has drastically reduced.

Contact Primary Technology for more information or check out the website for ANB Software.

Thursday 26 February 2009

Carbon Neutral ICT in Primary Schools


Is making your school environmentally friendly important to you? It should be - The government is planning to make all new schools carbon neutral by 2016.
So what can you do right now to start moving on the right path and what is Primary Technology doing FOR you free of charge to make your school a greener place to be?

All schools who receive technical support receive:

• Shutdown scripts which turn off unused computers at 4pm
• Electronic Timers for Laptop trolleys which only charge when charging is needed
• Replaced CRT monitors with LCD monitors.
• Carbon reports with ICT purchases upon request.
• Recycling of old ICT equipment, printer toners, computers etc.

Some other ways to reduce Carbon usage:

• Replace your ICT suite with a mobile ICT solution, freeing up the old ICT suite to be used as more efficient area.
• Use recycled paper to print onto
• Change printing settings to use less ink
• Turn off Bluetooth and lower LCD brightness on laptops

The best school method:

Get the whole school involved!

Allocate a certain area of energy usage to each year group/class and then brain storm per class. Monitor usage before and after and provide an educational reward for the class who manages to save the most amount of energy.

Tuesday 3 February 2009

Snow day!

We have had a few requests today about how we will continue our service through this snowy blip on our radars.

We will continue to work remotely for your site doing as much as is possible across your school and others. We will be mostly doing preventative maintenance, updating your school inventory.

If you would like a log of our access to your school and what work was carried out please request this from your engineer.

Have fun in the snow!

Thursday 1 January 2009

Primary Technology launches Primary Inventory snap in tool, free for technical support customers. – January 2009

The Primary Inventory Snap in tool is a tool which automatically performs a hardware inventory on all of the equipment inside of your school. Making the inventory process much quicker/cheaper and easier. The only thing it can’t do is an inventory on IWB/Projectors and LCD/TFT panels.
All schools who subscribe to Primary Technology technical support will have this tool installed by default in January 2009.

Your school will not see the difference on a daily basis however if you log into your portal page via www.primaryt.co.uk you will see an inventory option.

This tool will also feed back to your engineer if you have any computers running with specifications less than those approved by Becta.

Have a Floral Christmas 2008 – All Bradford schools who subscribe to technical support receive a bouquet of flowers and a card from Primary Technology

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic new year. To help you get started we have sent all Bradford schools who subscribe to technical support from Primary Technology a beautiful Christmas boquet of flowers and a Christmas card. The card features one of our Hero’s children and the image is downloadable Here.

Please recommend our technical support package to your friends & colleagues.

Technical support packages now come with free annual eFits report and consultancy session – March 2006

Primary Technology now does “extended framework for information technology system” (eFits) reports for all of the Primary Schools supported by any Technical support package. The purpose of this report is to fulfil the schools requirements to budget for up to 3 years for ICT expenditure. The eFits report is an extended fits report. Fits reports are naace reports, accredited by Becta which enable a school to look at ICT leadership and provision where support is concerned. The extensions Primary Technology provide ensure the school has the correct strategic vision based upon the correct technical information.

To read more on the technical support packages offered by Primary Technology please visit www.primaryt.co.uk/support

To view an example eFits report please see..

Naace mark for technical support awarded to Primary Technology December 2005

Primary Technology has been awarded the most prestigious quality assurance mark available for technical support providers in education. We are extremely proud of this achievement. The Naace mark is provided by Naace and signifies Primary Technology’s commitment to the education sector. Through the Naace mark certain service changes have been made. We now constantly audit and monitor our progress and processes inside of schools, also a complaints procedure now exists and is available at www.primaryt.co.uk/complaintsprocedure

More information on the naace mark is available at www.naace.org

Primary Technology launches as a technical support provider for Bradford Primary Schools – August 2004

Due to large demand in the Bradford primary schools sector we have decided to launch Primary Technology as an ICT technical support service available to all Bradford schools. Our current 5 customers who are each individually subscribing to the service have had quality of service guaranteed.

We believe the reason for this demand is due to a poor level of service being offered previously by other providers. Market research shows that 60% of the Bradford schools are looking to change their provider.

Primary Technology will have several unique points of sale:
Firstly, a very high quality of service, this will be ensured through building strong relationships with the schools and with hardware/software providers inside and outside of the Bradford district. Staff will be key to this so our employment and training process is key.

Secondly, Primary Technology will focus its technical support service purely on Bradford Primary Schools. This will allow Primary Technology to build a dedicated and specialized team to deal with today’s and tomorrow’s problems in an extremely focused manner. Future expansion into other LEA’s is an option and something that will be considered annually in the AGM.

Thirdly, automation will be used to ensure high availability. By providing automation we will try to encourage and harness new technology that works inside of either the LEA parameters or those chosen by Primary Technology. Decisions will be made with Becta and other educational advice taken and will be subsequently implemented across all Bradford schools. An example of this is to encourage all Bradford schools to use the same anti virus software. By doing this we can monitor the software remotely and train all engineers to become experts in this one package. This will save time allow for quicker expansion as we progress into our growth years.

For more information on Primary Technology please see http://www.primaryt.co.uk