Frequently Asked Questions:

It is free of charge for schools to keep the data they store on the Somerset Learning Platform (SLP) with Somerset County Council (SCC).

There is no cost for SCC’s ICT Team to set up your school’s new tenancy. We will move all your current data from the SLP to the new tenancy.  This can all be done with an Office 365 A1 Licence (see Appendix 1 for details of what is included in each type of licence).


School Domain Name:

To get the best out of your tenancy, we would recommend the use of a meaningful domain name to give your school a clear identity.

You could use a free name from Microsoft (orgname.onmicrosoft.com) but we would recommend buying a domain name that is your school’s name.

A small cost and hosting charge each year is charged if you choose to buy a school domain name following the format orgname.somerset.sch.uk. Please see Appendix 3 for details of these charges.

However, some schools may already own a domain name for a website which could also be used.

SCC ICT Team is happy to host these domain names for you at a nominal charge every two years.

The SLP will end on Sunday 3 April 2022.

All services currently hosted on the SLP will stop working on this date.

The SCC ICT Team need to ensure that all school data is moved from the SLP to the school’s new tenancy prior to this date.

Some schools have already moved to their own tenancies, but SCC may still hold your school’s data.

The SCC ICT Team has heard from schools who believe they have already transferred but their data has not been moved. As this data is owned by schools, the school needs to request for this to be moved to their own tenancies.

All schools are to complete this data migration move by the end of March 2022. This applies to all school data, including that belonging to Governors.

SCC ICT Team is happy to help all schools make this move. There is no charge for moving your data.

Please contact us by completing this self-service form (hosted on Assyst, you will need to log-in).

More information is contained in section 4.

All schools must complete this self-service form as soon as possible.

Please note: the form is hosted on Assyst, so you will need to log-in.

If you have not used Assyst Self-Service before, you will need to setup an Azure B2B account using the following link:

Log Schools and Traded calls through Self Service.docx

If you encounter any problems or have any questions, please contact the SCC ICT Team by emailing: sccict@somerset.gov.uk

If your school has not already chosen a cloud solution, there is funding from the Department for Education (DfE) that you may be eligible for.

Please click on the following link for more details: www.sccict.co.uk/dfe-scheme

Microsoft 365 is built using the cloud to store, manage and interact with your environment and is accessible anywhere there is an internet connection.

Hosted email means that all email, shared calendars, and address book information can be accessed anywhere you have an internet connection.  Every user starts with 50GB of mailbox storage and allows you to send emails with attachments up to 25MB.

Microsoft’s software is fully compliant with industry security standards. This includes:

  • HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and
  • FISMA (The Federal Information Security Management Act).

Your school can therefore be assured that your data is under constant protection.

Benefits of Microsoft 365 include access to:

  • Documents anywhere that you have internet access, you don’t need to use the same computer.
  • Easy sharing of teaching resources and documents between school staff and/or students who may be working in multiple locations, whether from home or in the classroom.
  • An internal social networking app to help make connecting, collaborating, and sharing easy and efficient.
  • Microsoft Teams which is equipped with instant messaging, voice calls and HD video conferencing.

Your school can pay to subscribe to Microsoft 365 (see Appendix 2) .  Subscription gives you the advantage of only paying for what your school needs.

Yes, if enough schools request to be added to the Global Address Book using their new tenancies.

Your school will need to register an interest in being added to the Global Address Book by selecting this on the Assyst form (see section 4).

Note: these differ to Microsoft 365 licence charges – see Appendix 2.

A comparison between Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Licences can be found here:

Microsoft Modern Work Plan Comparison Education 2021.pdf (azureedge.net)

The pricing for Microsoft 365 can be found here:

Agreement Type: Academic

Currency GBP

Product Family Product Title ERP Price Purchase Unit Billing Frequency
M365 Education A3 Original Microsoft 365 A3 for students 3.60 1 Month(s) Monthly/Annually
M365 Education A3 Original Microsoft 365 A3 for students use benefit 0.00 1 Month(s) Monthly/Annually
M365 Education A5 Original Microsoft 365 A5 for faculty 9.10 1 Month(s) Monthly/Annually
M365 Education A5 Original Microsoft 365 A5 for students 6.70 1 Month(s) Monthly/Annually
M365 Education A5 Original Microsoft 365 A5 for students use benefit 0.00 1 Month(s) Monthly/Annually
  • Subscription –  SCC ICT can provide a .uk domain name with an approved provider.  The cost is: £8.97 (excluding VAT) payable every two years. The benefit of setting this up with SCC is that it will be auto-renewed after and a bill will be automatically generated and issued to the school directly for payment.
  • Named server hosting  – If you require for SCC ICT Team to host the school’s named server within the Azure environment, please contact us to discuss the charges by emailing: sccict@somerset.gov.uk

See this document for advice on the migration process:

SLP Migration Process – Advice for 3rd Parties