How do I disable future iOS updates till later date to prevent problems with non iOS compliant Apps?

Question

Hello first time post here so excuse me if my posting etiquette is off and this seems lengthy.
I am a beginning tech (4 months) in a school district that has started the 1 to 1 initiative with iPads (iPad 2).
There is a huge learning curve I am facing as I don't know hardly anything about the new piece of software - apple Configurator. (A side note I was issued my very first iPad in the same time working for the district. BTW liking the iPad a lot).
I am looking for friendly beginning user info on how to operate the Apple Configurator - suggestions? At this time I have only served in an observer capacity as it assigned to someone else in the district to do. However I know this person would appreciate another mind to help out  around the problem so I need to get up to speed.
This a story of bumps and scrapes and bruises on the 1-1 initiative in the district and its 4 major hiccups have occurred (that I observed).
I am hoping others have discovered these problems and figured out a way to handle them or avoid them and would be willing to share what you did.
Here goes...
The district started the 1-1 initiative roughly 3 years ago. They had a person in the middle school (way before me) in charge of the iPads. They used the IPhone Configurator device to manage the iPads. My understanding was this was very slow. That person was finally able to retire and took their knowledge they had of the iPhone Configurator utility that they used with them.The district chose to start using the Apple Configurator software this year for iPad management.
We have a brand new person that has been put in charge of this. The person did not know the software either (nor did anyone else in the district).This person has made great strides to learn the software. However there has been some issues along the way:
        1. The school where the iPad 1-1 initiative is a middle school. The students are assigned the same iPad for all three years. As 6th graders come in they are issued an iPad. As the 8th grade finishes up, they head on to high school and the iPads gets recycled to the next 6th graders walking in the door. Each grade level has there own set of apps, so the (finished) 8th graders iPads get reset for the next 6th graders walking in.
The issue is (my understanding) is that the volume purchase apps did not always revert back to the Apple Configurator/App store spread sheets before the iPads were reset. It took an act of congress with Apple to refund these apps because they were lost. Mind you we have 400 iPads in just this school alone so you can see why it was important to get these Volume Purchase Apps refunded to put on the new 6th graders iPads. $$$
         2. When the iPads were given to the students, the Apps would not work and all they would do is shake for a second. The iPads were recollected and redone. Time away from the students and classes.
        3. The iPads were refinished (with all the apps reinstalled) and given to the students. Then the students were given instructions in class how to manually setup their exchange email accounts on their iPads. Turns out the restrictions on the iPads (from the apple Configurator) were set up so the email info they put in could not verify with the exchange server. They wouldn't send or receive. So the iPads were all recalled back (time away from students and their classes again) and redone with the restrictions/ apps reinstalled.
        4. Most recent problem... iOS6 came out and all of a sudden we find out that two of our biggest 3rd party Apps were having problems with it. So it made the Apps at that point worthless. (These are paid for - expensive, most used by the school Apps).  Well there was no way to prevent the students from updating to IOS6 on their own (mind you they can't get to the App Store) but they can do the iOS6 update whenever they want. Before the problem was discovered, students were prompted by their iPads and they started doing the iOS6 update. I discovered this and immediately had the secretary send out emails to everyone do not download this thing because it was making problems for existing installed Apps. Of course there are were a few more students that were like "this don't apply to me right?" and they downloaded it anyways.
So after 3 weeks of these apps not working, App update/releases were finally given and they are working again. So far we have only fixed some of iOS6 kids that are in need of those two broken apps.
Now we are at a crossroad with the other 95 installed apps to consider ... if we let the students update to iOS6 to fix the two broken apps will it interfere with the other 93 apps that are working under iOS5.1...
This iOS update thing would be better considered in the summer time for us (for future iOS updates).
So I need to know is there away to prevent this in the future? Is there away to hold off the iOS updates till summer? I've seen people say control it by blocking it through the network but it doesn't prevent them from doing this at home. Where in the apple Configurator can we control this?
Thanks for reading.

Answer 1

You will not be able to block IOS 6.  You can try blocking it with a webfilter or firewall but if the students take these home or connect to another network or iTunes they can get it that way.   You will find that the vast majority of all apps will work with 6 or have been updated to work with it by now.