The importance of backing up data

I read an interesting story in the Daily Mail recently that suggested a Science Tutor had managed to walk off with a year's coursework. If true, SLT have a lot to answer for. Every company, school's included should have a backup strategy in place.  In my old school, I was responsible for that strategy to ensure that coursework was not lost.  So here is a quick summary of how you can make sure important information and data does not go missing:

1. Subscribe to a cloud based backup service such as Google Drive. For educational users that 25GB of free space. Students can then keep a copy of their important documents in a safe place.  This is what I do to ensure that my current department's documents are all backed up.

2. Make your own off-site backup. This could be as simple as making a backup of the Server, once a week and taking it home. (In a smaller primary school, the technician could do it and pass it to the head teacher).

3. Make every student responsible for backing up their own work. I made every student taking the BTEC course sign a very clear contract where it said that they were responsible for keeping copies of all coursework and no additional time would be given for those that did not.  I was very clear where students were allowed to take coursework home that they were responsible for keeping a copy at home and on the school network.  A long time ago, when I was merely an ICT teacher we had a disaster that wiped the entire school network. The only people who lost nothing were my BTEC students and I.

Backing up work is a boring subject until you have a disaster and then everybody prays and hopes that somebody did it! Don't be a victim, backup as much as possible!