School Network

The BRGS school IT network is carefully managed by a very dedicated Mrs King and meticulously maintained by unknown representatives of an unknown external IT solutions company - [probably Microshaft] who are also believed responsible for IT systems in 95% of other schools in the Lancashire area.

Stability

• A true feat of modern architecture, the school network is based on Windows 7 but it still uses the Windows XP interface due to security fears.

• The School System has in-built failsafe that automatically closes down the system whenever Technology deadlines are looming, just for a laugh...

• It is a well known fact that when the school system is said to have "gone down", the school system is still actually functioning well, but the Administrators have just decided to add another security measure to prevent the system from being "hacked"

• The system still runs on Internet Explorer, an amazing feat and one that must surely be proclaimed to the world! A school IT system running on Internet Explorer? Must be a first! Half a lesson is spent closing pop-ups, whereby this could be rightly avoided with the simple use of the Mozilla Firefox; a far superior browser with similar functionality and appearance to IE but unfortunately not the industry standard so not supported by so called industry experts. In the Past IT Administrators did consider installing this on several computers, but due to the fact they cant add security restrictions to Firefox, they removed it, but the few pupils who tested Firefox in school, couldn't get enough, and downloaded it at home, knowing it wouldn't last long in school...

• A common feature of all "computer lessons" was the teacher hosting the lesson having to ring the IT department, usually because the students couldn't log on.

Pop Ups... OF DEATH

• A well used feature from about 2006 onwards was the IT techs sending a pop up to your computer, along the lines of "I can see what you're doing, stop it". While undeniably successful, it did make all students feel like a criminal while using Hotmail for LEGITIMATE work, lest the IT techs block you.

Paranoia

• Did you know that your every move is logged while at school? Why is this? It's quite obvious that 98.6% of all internet access is to check email or play games so the admins have very expensive snooping software so they can read your mail! (The other 1.4% being hackers from outside the school who are trying to gain access to the network, hence the "Fort Knox" security levels)

• Even the ability to right-click with a mouse has been removed. Just think of the damage that students could do with this simple function being enabled - like "Run As" or "Copy" & "Paste" ooooooh. They would be able to right-click all over the place, and wreak havok with the school sub-systems, and bring down the whole network. It is a good job that they decided to disabled right-clicking, otherwise, I would fear for the safety of the school users.

• It is a well known fact among the few students of the 6th Form Computing Sets that Mrs King is highly paranoid about being "hacked". Precisely what there is to hack in the school system remains unknown. Perhaps embarrassing pictures of drunken teachers...

• Due to this paranoia, the Administrators have set everyone's account on the school network to the lowest possible, preventing people from typing in address bars, to hiding the root drives on the computers. Even the teacher's accounts have been limited.

• Teachers have revealed insights into what was once an impenetrable school network, showing that every teacher, and those ranking above teachers have access to a program which allows the user to see exactly what is going on on a student's "workstation", and they also have the ability to take control, and thus terrify the student into thinking his/her computer has become possessed.

• After the 2006 summer holiday, students returned to find that the 'Admins' have futher increased the fortress that is the school network, after working endlessly over the Holiday, the Admins had come up with yet more security systems, making the network comparable to Fort Knox.

Useless

• Unfortunately, the degree of security imposed on the system by Lancashire Council has made it incredibly difficult to get any academic-related work done, as any website you may have found helpful to your work, you will find it too, has been blocked.

Rumours

• Somebody overheard a conversation going on inside the ICT office about a forthcoming installation of MS Office 2010..... If this is true I suggest a mass exodus now!

• Apparently the school recently paid a six figure sum to virtualise the core servers and 75 classroom computers - we've yet to see them....!