Building a more efficient and resilient network

When it comes to internet connectivity and network infrastructure, the measure of success is efficiency and resilience. In the context of UK schools, this means that students and teachers can get online quickly and access a fast connection — and that there are backups in place so a school doesn’t come
to a stop if a system fails. That’s exactly what we achieved through our work with Fowey River Academy.

Through this capital project, iCT4 transformed the school’s network using the available DfE funding. Our work together also highlighted future areas for improvement. Due to the project’s success and our relationship with Leading Edge, we continue to support Fowey River Academy.

At iCT4, we have developed a Superfast Broadband package to provide UK schools with faster broadband services and robust firewall, safeguarding and monitoring systems.

Introduction

In 2021, we began a strategic drive to streamline Kernow Learning. We partnered with the academy trust to manage their ICT for 21 schools across Cornwall. When we came on board, each school had different internet service providers (ISPs) and safeguarding systems in place. This approach was inconsistent, complicated to manage, financially inefficient and in some instances led to recurring
technical issues.

A roadmap to bring Superfast Broadband to Kernow Learning

We developed an 18-month plan to overhaul Kernow Learning’s broadband. Since iCT4 is independent and has relationships with a variety of technical partners, we started by creating a formula to determine each school’s requirements based on metrics such as the number of pupils, devices, pedagogical aspirations and the available
technologies in the area.

We used our extensive local knowledge of Cornwall’s broadband infrastructure to scope the best solution for each school, whether that’s a superfast fibre connection or alternatives like satellite broadband for schools in more rural locations. As contracts came up for renewal, we used this framework to transfer schools over to iCT4’s Superfast Schools Broadband package (where broadband, firewall, filtering and monitoring are all managed in-house by us).

We also replaced inadequate filtering with a WatchGuard system that has multiple enterprisegrade cyber tools to increase security.

Throughout the project, we supported Kernow Learning with change management to bring schools on the journey with us. Along with monthly management meetings, we facilitated training webinars for teachers that gave them the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about updates to the government’s Keeping Children Safe in Education policy.

The result was a comprehensive ICT solution that provided Kernow Learning with faster, more dependable broadband across all of its schools and the insights they needed to exceed OFSTED and the Department for Education requirements.

For instance, there was now a single login to access safeguarding alerts across all of their schools—a major step towards creating safer learning environments.

iCT4 supported a large secondary school in Truro, Cornwall, to adopt cloud-based technology as a pathway to further digital
transformation.

Introduction

Penair School has 1,190 pupils split over a large campus in Truro city centre. The school required technology to support, aid, and
enhance the teaching and learning experience and were keen to have everything in place to manage and support a move to full digital transformation.

Providing a quality service whilst at the same time reducing costs

The project brief was to provide the feel of an in-house IT team, to successfully adopt cloud services, and reduce IT costs and management overheads.

The team at iCT4 began by moving key services to the cloud, working closely with Penair to provide a fully managed ICT service, ensuring staff were ably supported throughout.

iCT4 played an important part in building teacher confidence in the reliability and resilience of cloud services. This was achieved
through training as well as on-site/remote support - they had as much ‘hand-holding’ as they needed.

Building a strong partnership to enable longevity and a continuation of service for staff and pupils.

Alongside the on-site and remote support provided through this project, the iCT4 team also held virtual ‘drop-in’ sessions to support the roll out of Microsoft Teams and the use of SharePoint.

These were recorded so that staff were able to view the training at a later date.

Highly quality staff were embedded into the school ecosystem, acting as an extension of the internal team. These staff also went on to provide their knowledge and expertise as part of the school ICT strategy group.

Further to the completion of the project, iCT4 have gone on to provide other digital transformation services such as, remote monitoring, patch management, and remote support to allow anyone in the school to receive timely resolutions to any issue.