National grid for learning has been brought about and we seem to have some compulsory broadband connections forced upon us. So far I found the system unworkable because there are private companies involved. For example I wanted to run the school web server from school but the ISP will not provide a public IP address for the school. They also seem reluctant to re-root I don't think you can really knock LEAs or ISPs for not wanting to open ports in their firewalls to allow traffic into schools. Approximately 100% of UK schools do not have access to the technical skills to maintain a secure network which is exposed to the internet. I say approximately, because there are obviously a tiny few who do, and most of them will have representatives on this list :)
Even when you've had the wit to stick a gnu/linux or bsd box between yourself and the outside world, you are surely fighting a losing battle if you have a couple of hundred windows boxes running IE and Outlook on the other side of it. To compound the problem, you also have a pile of portables which staff take home and connect to the internet, before plugging them back into the school network to unleash their dubious payloads. If I was responsible for this in an LEA I would insist that somebody from the school sat, and passed with flying colours, a very scary network security exam, before they'd get me to open any ports :) -- Phil Driscoll