John Jones appears to have all the answers with regard to Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and seems to be putting the blame squarely on IT support staff (Vice-like grip, letters.computing.co.uk).

Maybe if the education system employed teachers who were actually IT-competent, and did more to check on what the pupils are really trying to do with their computers in lessons rather than concentrate on their work, we wouldn't have to block such "innovation".

The only things we have to block is YouTube - because there is little related to education on there - social networking, proxy-bypass and games sites because the pupils cannot control themselves enough to not play games or chat when they should be working.

It gets to the point that we're having to manage behaviour because a teacher cannot.

I've never had to turn a teacher's idea down because of "firewall issues", but I have had to disappoint them when they purchase outdated software designed for Windows 95 or NT or is not designed to be run on a  network because they didn't speak to us first.

Perhaps John has watched far too many TV commercials for teacher training where all the little darlings are polite, friendly and willing to learn.

Instead of "advising",  perhaps he should spend some time in real schools and see the problems we face on a daily basis - threats, abuse, blatant attempts to bypass security, theft and damage.

If the pupils and staff don't respect the equipment we manage, they can hardly expect any respect from us.

Andy Davis