Has anyone's academy moved away from Office? Consequences?

[ThrallsWife]

The latest in a long line of ideas. Our academy trust is moving away from MS Office, to embrace whatever the new thing is called they'll use instead.

Of course, this is one way of getting around the whole copyright thing (we all know that anyone worth their salt takes their existing resources to the new place of work - this would prevent such a move if everything is in a different format).

BUT here's my big issue: so far, we get MS Office free on up to 5 devices at home, curtesy of being a teaching member of staff at a school and one of the few remaining perks. It's been invaluable for so many things, including my children's school projects.

Does anyone know what happens if their academy trust is moving away from the Office suite? Will I now have to fork out hundreds of pounds at home to keep all my old stuff? Will I not be able to move any of my current resources over once I leave again?

If they are moving over to Google, documents are mostly compatible with office. I’m at a MS school but have been on a couple of interviews this year at Google schools and had no issue with any of my MS documents working just fine. Likewise, every document they sent me worked perfectly fine in office.

I don’t think this is something you need to worry about.

I've worked in a Google school. Everything is easily converted from MS to Google format, although sometimes formatting goes a bit wonky when taking a PowerPoint to Google Slides or vice versa. It's not a copyright thing.

If you have a licence for the software at home then your trust must subscribe to the A3 or A5 package, which are pretty expensive. Most Microsoft schools are on A1 which is online only.

Thank you, so is it likely that I will lose my license? That would be pretty gutting given that my kids are still using MS in their schools.

Oh, and its not Google. It's an obscure(ish) app I've never heard of before.

You can sign up for a free personal Microsoft 365 account, as can your DC, which will give you web-based access to all of the MS Office apps, plus a OneDrive so you can copy all of your resources over to there. You won't have to delete the software from your home device but once the licence lapses you will likely only be able to open files as read-only in the desktop app, and you will need to use the web app to edit.

Would you be willing to tell us the name of the obscure app?

Are you sure it’s MS office that is being replaced and not the school MIS?

I’ve never heard of Office being replaced with one obscure app.

I feel that something has got lost in translation here.

It's definitely Office we're moving away from, yes.

I can't remember the name of the app we're meant to be using; there's been little time to get to know it so far. I don't know whether we'll move over straight in September or whether we get a little more grace period.

Ah, I found the app. It's called Explain Everything.

It really explains very little.

I’ve used Explain Everything. It’s an interactive whiteboard app, like the old Smart and Promethean apps if you ever used them. It can’t replace the entirety of MS Office, only PowerPoint (and you can import your existing presentations). They will still have to have a package for word processing, spreadsheets, mail etc.

As PP said, that won’t replace Office as a whole. Check with the school whether they are keeping office alongside it or replacing office with something else. They won’t be replacing office with just that one app though. They will need something for emails, spreadsheets, word processing etc.

Office as a whole seems to go. They have not talked about a replacement for anything else yet, but mentioned that other things like OneDrive will go, too.

It just seems a ridiculous concept - OneDrive alone is invaluable in storage space, given we're also not allowed any external storage devices.

It is nuts that they aren't talking about implications for anything other than PowerPoint. We’re a MS school and changing that would affect so much more than lesson presentations and even the broader Office package. A lot of our automated systems would stop working without power automate and losing one drive, teams etc would have huge implications.

I’d ask them what they are replacing those things with.

God they cannot swap office for explain everything
i have used that, it’s decent enough, though i have moved over to freefrom
But it’s not a substitute for excel, word etc.

What are they proposing to store and analyse data with? Because you can import Excel into Explain everything but I don’t think you can create data sheets?

They are not (not on a departmental scale; whole-school we have a data storage system, which is crap, too). It's really worrying.

Like I said, my big worry is the loss of cloud storage as well as the potential personal loss of my license for my devices at home, which would feel like a huge pay cut if I had to replace it out of my own pocket. And that's not just staff, but all students who currently get this for free, too.

Just like the recurring proposal to replace laptops with tablets - they cannot do everything a laptop can.

Ok, I get why you’re worried and upset about that, but was that part of your job offer or official employee benefits? Because if not, and I say this with sympathy, I dint think there’s much you can do?

I would clarify fairly urgently what you will be using for spreadsheets, word processing and mail. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that someone senior has completely misunderstood what Explain Everything can do and does not realise the limitations of its use.

That being said, and while I appreciate that it is galling to lose a perk, you were unusually fortunate to have access to an A3 or A5 subscription for so long. These packages are usually unaffordable for schools and you are very unlikely to find it again if you move to another school. A family subscription for Microsoft 365 costs £7.99 a month or £79.99 a year, and you would have the benefit of being in control of the subscription. I think you might need to look at this as one of those 'nice while it lasted' things.

Honestly, it's always been a standard part of teaching in any school I've worked in, and I've been working in many different schools during that time, so I have never queried the perk.

I was also under the impression that schools got at least some apps in the package free as part of MS's drive to ensure the next generation of people will be seeing it as an essential part of their computer life - what changed?

I pay around £80 a year for a family Microsoft office account. It's not 'hundreds'.

The free A1 365 provides desktop client apps for use in the building, not the five licences to be used by staff and students at home. A1 covers mobile apps only, not desktop. I’m not familiar with the details but I believe Microsoft are making some changes to their education subscriptions from August. This might be behind the change now - you would have to ask.

If A3 or above subscriptions are the norm in your area then presumably your children’s schools will be able to meet the gap? If so you will be able to use their school email addresses to continue using the desktop software.

I get an annual subscription to Office365 via one of the online discounters. Places like Groupon usually have it, I don't think I've paid more than £40 for an annual family subscription. Then if my school decided to do as yours is doing, I'd still do everything in Office, and just import PowerPoints into the Explain Everything software if I really needed to. If your school won't let you download Office apps to your school computer, I'd just use the web version. No way would I risk not being able to keep my resources if I left. Given the number of unpaid hours I do, I consider every resource I make to be made in my own time, so it belongs to me.