07 March 2024
Westwoodside Church of England Academy school is situated in the heart of the village of Westwoodside, Doncaster. Each member of staff works tirelessly to provide students with an exciting curriculum and learning environment, with ICT in every classroom to ensure children are prepared for the modern world.
Addressing the limitations
Having invested in front-of-class technology and mobile devices to help improve curriculum delivery, Westwoodside’s wireless and network limitations needed addressing, and a planned for upgrade within the budgets available.
The school network infrastructure was a mixed estate, refreshed and replaced six years earlier. Like many schools, the pace of accelerated device procurement meant that the network was struggling with wireless coverage and capacity issues.
As a trusted Department for Education (DfE) framework provider, Primary Technology’s infrastructure team were aware of the ‘Connect the Classroom’ programme – which was launched by the DfE with the aim of helping schools by providing grants to fund upgrades to enterprise wireless, switches and cat6 data cabling - and it was quickly identified that Westwoodside would be eligible for funding. As the schools managed IT support provider, Primary Technology discussed the eligibility criteria and helped the school complete the application process with the DfE.
Laying the groundwork
Primary Technology conducted a comprehensive technical survey and network audit that reviewed the existing data cabling, access points, switches, and network cabinets. This appraisal of the entire infrastructure was used to produce a future-proof solution suitable for the school for the next 10 years, one that was designed to meet the DfE’s technology standards for switching and wireless.
Primary Technology supplied, installed, and configured enterprise-grade Meraki MS355 switches with a 10-year licence and support. The MS355 units are managed through an intuitive cloud-based interface, providing full 10G multi-gigabit (mGig) access switching for demanding enterprise and school environments. The cloud managed switches serve eight high performance Meraki MR46 wireless access points. This series of access points are designed for nextgeneration deployments in offices, schools, hospitals, and hotels, offering Multi-User MIMO technology to allow a larger capacity of connections at one time.
In addition to indoor coverage, an outdoor access point was installed with dual antennas to extend coverage beyond the school building and reach outdoor areas. A floor standing network cabinet was installed to house the new network hardware and this was connected with Cat6A cabling to maximise network performance.
Future-proofing across sites
One of the major benefits of Connect the Classroom is the ability for schools to improve wireless coverage across their sites.
Westwoodside has benefited by not only receiving fully funded enterprise-grade switching and wireless, but by having improved coverage and capacity in areas where WiFi was especially poor. The school now has the capacity to support their front-of-class technology and growing mobile device fleet, without any performance constraints.
The solution provides seamless access to a high speed, reliable wireless infrastructure with a peace of mind 10-year licence and support. The investment from the DfE to provide funded wireless will serve a positive purpose at Westwoodside, providing staff and students the best user experience and help them achieve their teaching and learning objectives.
“We had been planning to try and upgrade our wireless in the coming years, so it was fantastic to learn about the DfE funding that was available,” said Carolyn Tuscher, business manager. “Primary Technology helped guide us through the whole process and completed the works to a very high standard. We are delighted with the end result. We now have great WiFi coverage, especially in areas where our old WiFi struggled due to the number of mobile devices we have in school.”
