Twelve things to check before the children come back

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Twelve things to check before the children come back

The Start of Term IT Checklist. One page, written for heads, business managers and office managers — not for IT people.

Why this one

Almost every IT problem a school hits in the first week of term was already there in August. Kit doesn’t fail while it sits idle. It fails the moment somebody switches it on and expects it to work in front of thirty children.

The whole point of the list is to be the person who switches it on first.

  • Four sections: the week before staff return, leavers and joiners, devices, and the five-minute jobs everyone forgets.
  • A short section at the end on the three checks that matter most, if the rest has to wait.
  • Written to be printed, ticked and handed round. Most items take minutes.
1. The week before staff return Five of the twelve shown
Power everything on a full week early — servers, switches, access points, whiteboards, printers.
Check the backup ran over the holidays — and then restore one file from it.
Log in as a real staff account and a real pupil account. Not the admin account.
Test the wifi at the edges — the hall, the library, the mobile classroom.
Confirm filtering and monitoring alerts go to somebody who is actually in school in September.

Plus leavers and joiners, devices, and the jobs everyone forgets.

Send me the checklist

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Want a second pair of eyes on it? We support primary schools and trusts across Staffordshire, Cheshire and Derbyshire. Happy to walk the checklist with you and say honestly what needs doing and what doesn’t — book a free 30-minute call.