Trends & Considerations To Guide EdTech Implementation In Schools

Last month, the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) and the National Association of Advisors for Computers in Education (NAACE) launched the EdTech Leadership Briefing Paper to help school leaders make informed decisions about their school’s EdTech infrastructure.

Based on a survey representative of C.25,000 schools, the briefing paper aims to help school leaders address key aspects of EdTech planning. It also provides a number of leadership questions for consideration as well as a Quick Audit Tool.

Here we’re going to take a look at some of the key questions posed by the paper, and we can help your school address them.

How robust is your broadband and Wi-Fi infrastructure?

The resiliency of your broadband infrastructure is vitally important as both education and school back-office functions increasingly rely on online apps and services. You can ensure a robust broadband and Wi-Fi infrastructure by addressing these three key concerns:

• Backup Connection – The DfE’s Broadband Standards for Education already recommend that all schools have a backup line. Schools Broadband offer a range of backup connection options that will ensure your school continues to function, even during an outage.
• Usage demands and redundancy – Our network, web filtering and firewall services run on platforms that offer high availability and redundancy. Everything runs at a fraction of their overall capacity to offer plenty of room for peak events. And now with our new Telemetry service, you can monitor your school’s usage so you know exactly how much you’re using, and when it’s time to upgrade.
• Security – According to the 2022 Cyber Security Breaches Survey, 70% of secondary schools experienced a cyber security breach or attack over a 12 month period in 2022. And around a third of schools who suffered a cyber security breach experienced loss of money or data as a result. Schools Broadband has won numerous awards for our security services and not one of our schools has suffered an outage due to DDoS in the last five years.

Does your school have a long-term budget plan for updating and maintaining core infrastructures & does your school have a strategic plan to move from on-premise servers to cloud-based technology?

Our trail-blazing adoption of new technologies meant we were the first ISP in the industry to provide schools with cloudhosted filtering and security services; meaning our schools were the first in the country not to have to purchase, store or maintain expensive onsite equipment. Schools Broadband services require no capital expenditure on equipment costs – ever!

Our cloud hosted services are delivered over secure, high-speed internet connections hosted in our high security, climate-controlled UK-based data centres. Your school or Multi Academy Trust can access some of the most advanced filtering and security services in the world, providing a true cost-effective managed service.

How frequently does your school review its broadband and Wi-Fi provision for capacity and value for money?

We’ve talked about some of the reasons Schools Broadband can provide your school a robust, value-for-money service, however the paper raises the important point that it’s vital to ask the right questions of your Internet Service Provider, whoever they are. But how do you know what to ask? Don’t worry, we’ve made it easy. Download our Questions to Ask Your ISP booklet for a simple checklist of questions to ask that will make sure your school’s getting the service it needs from your provider.

If you would like any further advice or information on the questions raised in this article, our friendly team are on hand to help. Just give us a call 0113 222 333 or email info@schoolsbroadband.co.uk