You are welcomed to an exciting technology conference happening at Shrewsbury’s Theatre Severn from 10am on Wednesday 25 September 2019, called TECH Severn.

TECH Severn is a free event for Shropshire’s residents, parents and teachers to better understand and experience existing and emerging technology.  The event will host industry leaders in digital technology and follows an extremely successful event which was held at the same venue last year.

As well as all of the other exhibits, those attending will be able to take advantage of the education zone where security and education specialists will be on hand to offer advice on keeping families safe online and on popular education software. You will also have an opportunity to experience the latest virtual reality first-hand.

So far, confirmed speakers include:

•  Rachel O'Connell from Trust Elevate to talk on social media and its influence / security issues for young people and families.

• James Squire from Warwickshire Police to provide talk on cyber crime, security risks and strategies for being safe / protection online.

Join in with a Tech Safari and experience the education zone – we look forward to seeing you there.

For more information, visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tech-severn-2019-tickets-50902962130

We’ve now moved to Sophos Cloud, which enables us to effectively manage virus threats and “clean-up” devices remotely. For schools that subscribe to Service Desk we will monitor and resolve these threats remotely as soon as we’re made aware of them to ensure your devices and network are kept safe.

For schools that don’t have Service Desk support, you will be emailed notifications from Sophos direct advising you on the type of threat, and which device it’s affecting.

If you wish to subscribe to Sophos Anti-Virus or would like more information on the cost of this service, please email shropshireict@shropshire.gov.uk.

Pupil Premium Import

The Pupil Premium Import was made available to all schools in July via the Key to Success website.

Have you downloaded it and imported it into SIMS yet?

For information on how to do this, please visit the Shropshire Learning Gate via this link: https://www.shropshirelg.net/services/shropshire-ict/sims/pupil-premium/ to view the Pupil Premium Guide at the bottom of the page.  If you need help, please contact the SIMS Support team.

School Autumn Census

The School Autumn Census in on Thursday 3 October 2019. Detailed guidance notes will be available (for subscribing schools) nearer the time here: https://www.shropshirelg.net/services/shropshire-ict/sims/school-census-primary/.

We started the process of upgrading schools that have SIMS Support with Shropshire ICT to the latest version of SIMS (7.188) in preparation for the census in July. We aim to have completed all upgrades by the end of September 2019, so please don't worry  if we have not yet upgraded your school.  

Autumn Term SIMS Training Requests

Do have any new starters who require  some SIMS training or feel you could benefit from support with  a particular area or process in SIMS? Then this might be a perfect opportunity to use your 3 hours on site support  with a member of the SIMS. Please remember each school has 3 hours each term included in your SIMS Support Service Level Agreement with Shropshire ICT.

Please contact the SIMS Support Team using the contact details at the end of this update to book. We recommend giving us as much notice as possible so we can try to accommodate your request.

Over recent months we have been improving our managed service offering for Schools.

This service includes the following benefits over the standard support package  –

• Service designed around education customers and their needs.
• All aspects of the schools’ ICT is managed under one contract and one point of contact.
• Realtime monitoring of network performance and live alerting to security incidents.
• Single sign on to applications.
• Work anywhere – staff can work remotely from any Internet connection having the same access as in school.
• Regular management and service update reviews.
• Annual proactive ICT surveys and recommendations for equipment and purchasing options.
• Microsoft licensing included.
• Rented server option – no need to invest in expensive server purchase upfront.
• Set inclusive technician time for on-site visits when required.
• Majority of all requests / incidents can be done remotely.
• Dedicated account management.
• Apple, Microsoft and Google integration – The schools choice all managed and update remotely.
• Document collaboration over multiple school sites. Staff can work collaboratively on documents stored centrally.
• Google G Suite, Classroom and Chromebook integration available for managed service customers.

If this is of interest and you wish to improve your current support arrangements, please get in touch with us on the contact details at the end of this newsletter and a member of staff will be to able discuss your needs and help you with any questions you may have.

Cyber Security 

Our team continue to raise awareness of cyber security within Schools. This is a high priority for everyone to ensure our systems are kept safe and users are aware of the methods used by attackers to compromise systems and theft of information.

Over the past year we have had over 130 security incidents of staff clicking on phishing links within emails and accounts being compromised.

Phishing scams are getting more difficult to identify and we ask users to always be vigilant when receiving emails that they are not expecting or look suspicious. If you have any doubts do not open such emails and contact our support desk for assistance.

We recommend all staff to watch the following videos. They cover all the essential basics of cyber security awareness.

https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/training/top-tips-for-staff-web/story_html5.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PavQNqxgEZI

If you have any security concerns please contact our support desk for advice on (01743) 254230 or ict.support@shropshire.gov.uk

Support Ending for Windows 7 Computer Operating Systems

You may remember us mentioning this in the last newsletter but it's so important we thought it was worth mentioning again! Windows 7 will be retired by Microsoft on 14 January 2020. 

After that, technical assistance and software patches that help to protect your systems will no longer be available. It is strongly recommended that you move to a later version of Windows before this date. It is unsafe to continue using unsupported software after this end date, as no security patches will be available to protect devices.

If you have any security concerns please contact our support desk for advice on (01743) 254230  (opt 2) or ict.support@shropshire.gov.uk

Tech Severn Conference 25 September 2019

School Autumn Census Thursday 3 October 2019

SIMS Autumn Upgrade (version 7.190)  released Friday 1 November 2019 (subject to change)