It’s a sad fact that security can all too often be the poor relative in software and systems design (please note that this blog post is not intended to address system security per se; the OWASP website and / or security expert Troy Hunt’s blog, are good references for that topic).

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At St Mary’s we use Schoolbase from Furlong Solutions, for our MIS - we have done so for several years (indeed my understanding is that we were the second or third official school to have the system in production).

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Like many technically minded people, I subscribe to a variety of IT focussed information sources (RSS Feeds, Newsletters etc); one such newsletter being “Powertip of the day” from Powershell.com.

A recent “Powertip of the day” demonstrated how it was possible to query an online earthquake activity data resource, using PowerShell.  In truth, I didn’t have too much success with this particular example (the data wasn’t up-to-date), but crucially, it set me thinking that this could be an excellent resource for a Geography department, especially when using Firefly.

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One of my favourite blog posts is “I’m a phony. Are you?” by Scott Hanselman.  I was on holiday in France when I read this post, and it gave me a wonderful sense of relief - I highly encourage you to read it.

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At St Mary’s Shaftesbury we use Firefly for our VLE.  I won’t give you a sales pitch on Firefly, but suffice to say, that after a bit of a journey from Moodle through SharePoint we have rested at Firefly – quite simply, at this point in time (history has taught me that things can change!), this product, the company and their approach to IT, is nothing short of excellent.  I like Firefly; I like the chaps and chapesses at Firefly!

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Recently St Mary’s Shaftesbury had a new website built (I would like to register, that whilst I was actively involved in the project management, I did not design this website).

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Frankly, I love IT, and web development in particular.  I also happen to be exceptionally fortunate to work as an ICT Systems Manager, for a wonderful employer (St Mary’s Shaftesbury) with a great boss (@pearcejim) alongside excellent, appreciative colleagues – the surrounding environment, is also quite heavenly – trust me, it beats working on an industrial estate!

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OK, the time has come for a website refresh – it’s something that I like to try and do annually (well, I say annually, what I really mean is that I did it last year). The question, is do I roll my own, as I have always done, or jump into the CMS world?

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