Ch-ch-ch-changes!
“It is what it is… until it isn’t!”
Right?
Well, get ready because we are working on a lot of changes this summer… so let’s get to it!
New school branding.
You saw it on the home page, but this is just the beginning. The school is getting a fresh new look, new banner outside, new photos in corridors, new website, new letterhead, new official font (Source Sans Pro), new ID badges… So starting in September, please make sure you start using the new branding!
New Gate systems.
This is just not one upgrade but many.
Out of hours panel (Mytel):
Analogue phone lines are going bye bye, so the “out of hours” panel was upgraded to use a SIM card.
Working hours panel (Paxton)
Hardware upgraded to allow compatibility with Mifair cards. The aim is to allow students to use their ID cards to open the gates.
To make the cards known to the PAxton system, a link between Inventry and the gate system was created. It will allow cards registered on Inventry to be used at the gate without having to re-register the cards. The gate panels basically become inventry scanning units which means you only scan once at the gate or at reception when you sign in.
As we will issue new ID badges with the new branding, these will your only ID for the gates, signing in/out and printing.
When your new card gets registered with Inventry, we will ask you to return your fobs.
Arbor launch!
I have already touched on this in the May 2022 Newsletter. Leaving SIMS is the biggest change the school has experienced in 20 years.
This change also impacts 15 third parties that used to get their data from SIMS. Each of them will need to migrate to a new solution (Groupcall, Wonde, API…).
Update on the status of some of the third parties reporting issues (14/09/2022):
- Careers and Enterprise / Compass Plus – H. Vernon: no alternative sync to Arbor as of yet. They hope to have it ready for the summer.
- Synergy Orchestra (KCC/Cantium) – Cantium: no alternative sync to Arbor as of yet (This software enables secure automatic transfer of core student and attendance data between the school and the Local Authority).
- New ID Card Management – Remote configuration complete, now waiting for the sync to Office 365 to be completed (hopefully Tuesday).
New tool to sync Arbor and Office 365 … new benefits
To sync Arbor with Office 365, we opted for Locker. This will populate distribution lists and teams automatically. It will also create a calendar with your timetable (students will get theirs too). The calendar appears as “Timetable (Ruler)” (Ruler was rebranded as Locker but they haven’t changed this description yet as it could cause issues for old customers).
As we will need to wait for the timetable to go live to see if it all works, this will be a leap of faith for our first year using Locker.
Warning: some mailing lists will change names to comply with the structure of Locker. This includes subjects, years, classes…
Indiana Jones – The Last Crusade (1989) – Leap of Faith Scene
New room configurations
Art and DT are getting a major overhaul.
B40 will be an office for head of years.
B12 will become offices for SSM.
M24 will become a (geography) classroom again.
The building work, the furniture, the networking, the digital displays, the computers… there is a lot that needs to happen in a very small window of time. To add to it, the world of IT is still dealing with the consequences of the chipset/component shortage, the war in Ukraine… so IT hardware will be tricky to come by.
Update on hardware:
- Digital Displays delivered
- Desktops PCs delivered
- Network switches not available for months but NCS will provide temporary loans