I was given this school to see if could change their mind before their contract ended. They had 2 ICT suites the one as pictured was in a pretty bad state. Neglect, thats what it came down to. The first few visits just as i was leaving i would meet a teacher who would go around to each machine logging in, testing the keyboard and mouse. You could see her frustration with the whole situation.
This was my school, even if it was for only 5 month of their contract, that was besides the point. IT is a tool used to help facilitate the teaching and learning. That wasnt happening here. The students would swap keyboard and mouse with the machine next to them, one part of the problem. The layout was also really bad, huge desks and kids had no space to put down a text book to write and use the computer at the same time.
I was expecting the worse, but i began by checking all machines, and despite a 3rd of the class computers having a sticky stating it didnt work, they actually did. Mouse with the buttons ripped off, keyboards with missing keys and the odd display port cable broken. I swapped them out and started to cable tie. A few teachers made some comments, and the kids did hinder progress by cutting the first lot of cable ties. Ownership was an issue too, i needed to make sure that i did my best and then "handed" the room back to the school. I came in during the half term and did just that.
Shortly after, that teacher came up to me to thank me, and said this was the first time she has been able to go in and find all the computers in working order. It was far from perfect, but i wanted it to be in best state as i could make it.
As an added bonus, i put back LanSchool (classroom control and monitoring) which the school had a licence for, but for some reason were not using it.