Cambridgeshire Heads ICT Conference

Purpose: Important Information

Audience: All Headteachers who have not completed a booking form

Learning Together with ICT

Cambridgeshire Heads' ICT Conference

8th July 2005

The Cambridge Belfry Hotel, Cambourne

Last chance to book your place to attend the conference. All attendees will be entered into the draw for their chance to win a DELL D505 Laptop for their School.

You will have the chance to meet the new Deputy Chief Executive, Gordon Jeyes, from the Office of Children's and Young People's Services. During the morning we will have a thought-provoking presentation from Ken Dyson, the lead HMI Specialist Adviser for information and communication technology (ICT), OFSTED, followed by an introduction to the Cambridgeshire Pupils' Portal by Gareth Davies, Education ICT Service.

During the day you will have the opportunity to attend optional workshops, these must be pre-booked in advance. To book please contact Tel: 01480 376670 or email: ict.courses@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Internet filtering

Purpose: To give early notice of changes in the system

Audience: Head Teachers and ICT Managers

During the autumn term, the filtering service which controls the internet feed to schools will change. Instead of the current RM Safetynet system, E2BN will be providing a managed service called Dan's Guardian. This has already been tested in schools in our region. There will continue to be a standard filtering regime which schools will receive automatically. Alternatively, schools will be able to choose from four different levels of age-appropriate filtering. In addition, schools may purchase their own cache server and manage the filtering regime themselves. The ICT Service is about to launch a special offer to schools for these servers.

Please look out for more detailed information which will be circulated during the autumn term.

Sims End of Year notes

Purpose: Information

Audience: Secondary Schools

IMPORTANT - SECONDARY END OF YEAR NOTES NOW AVAILABLE

The Secondary End of Year Notes are now available on the Portal. Search for Sims and select Sims Year End, the secondary notes are at the bottom of the list.

It is advisable to meet with the Timetabler, Curricular Manager and School Administrator who are the key people involved in the end of year process, to make them aware of their area of responsibility. It is important that the instructions are followed in the sequence as outlined on the notes. It is imperative that no one is logged onto the Sims .net when carrying out the procedure. Please make the necessary backups before proceeding.

Starz - the new Pupil Portal

Purpose: Reminder for subscriptions

Audience: Headteacher and ICT Coordinators

We would like to remind you that there are only a couple of weeks left to subscribe to the new pupil portal if you wish to receive a free subscription (worth £200) to InfoMapper.

Congratulations to Ridgefield Primary School who were the first to sign up on 20 June 2005 at 2:20pm!

The cost of the annual subscription for nursery, primary and special schools is £2.50 times the number of pupils on roll. e.g. 200 on roll, annual subscription £500.

E-Learning credits may be used to pay for the subscription.

Subscribe before 15th July and you will receive a free one-year subscription to the amazing new online mapping tool, InfoMapper, giving access to OS maps and aerial photographs (and more) for the whole of the East of England and other parts of the country. Also maps and satellite pictures of the whole world. Normal price £200 p.a.

Secondary schools may also subscribe to some features of the new system (see website).

For full details of the new service visit www.starz.org.uk

To subscribe please complete the attached form and return to the Education ICT Service.

More ICT News on the Portal...

Do you regularly check the ICT News page on the Portal? It features all the latest ICT-related news of importance to Cambridgeshire's schools.

To take a look, simply search for "ict news" from the portal front page, or select 'ICT News' on the ICT Service home page (www.ict.ccceducation.net).