Broughton Manor School is an independent mixed prep school based in Milton Keynes. It has over two hundred students housed in a mixture of buildings on a pleasant site with an 18th Century Manor House at its centre. The schools IT infrastructure and network had grown organically over several years with Wi-Fi being provided by a small number of low-quality access points and no network links between buildings. The main classroom annexe with 20+ plus classrooms had 3 access points and multiple switches located in cupboards or classrooms to extend the network. This lack of planned infrastructure and reliability, meant that staff had no confidence in delivering lessons using on-line resources or embedding IT into the curriculum.
Chatsworth Schools acquired the school in January 2023 and conducted an IT audit as part of their overall effectiveness survey. Following the IT audit they asked ICTn to survey the school and provide recommendations. ICTn completed an exhaustive survey which looked at wired and wireless connectivity, switches, broadband, filtering, inter-building links, on-site storage, phone systems, security, end user devices. The survey showed that staff were struggling with ineffective and in-secure IT equipment with poor reliability. The use of IT in the classroom was limited and much of the IT was provided as a standalone lesson in the small computer suite. The four main buildings were effectively all running separate networks or had no network provision. ICTn provided an extensive design document recommending a major upgrade of the IT infrastructure including improved Wi-Fi, a fibre backbone standardised switch provision plus security and backup improvements.
Chatsworth Schools took on-board the recommendations and engaged ICTn to carry out the works in the summer of 2023. ICTn Identified that the school would benefit from a new central comms cabinet with fibre links provided in a star topology to edge cabinets in all of the buildings. This provides a 10Gb fibre backbone (with an option to improve this in the future if needed). The works provided over 100 new data points, 27 Aruba internal access points and 3 external access points, meaning staff can use the extensive grounds as a learning environment. The Aruba switches (also deployed in other Chatsworth schools) allows Chatsworth and ICTn engineers to provide high quality remote and onsite support to all schools in the Chatsworth family. Part of the overall upgrade was the commissioning of a new 3CX voip system giving the school site wide telecoms plus major savings on their previous contract. Finally, but critically, security, filtering and backup has been provided using Heimdal, Fortinet and cloud storage to ensure that the KCSIE agenda is fully met.
“ICTn are a trusted partner and their recommendations have ensured that Broughton Manor has an efficient and secure network which allows staff to deliver a modern and exciting curriculum.”
Andrew Greenaway Director of Information for Chatsworth Schools .
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