The Project:
Ruskin Infants School is based in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire with 190 pupils on roll. The school had an ageing WiFi network and insufficient cabled network capacity to support their existing teaching and learning requirements – which was uncovered during the due diligence process prior to conversion to joining the Lion Academy Trust in January 2020.
Challenges:
At the point of joining the Lion Academy Trust, the school was reliant on poorly installed domestic-grade network infrastructure with large areas of the school premises experiencing no wireless coverage at all.
Following a full network audit, Simpli-Fi needed to install a temporary network to give the school full connectivity whilst the team installed the permanent upgrade required to support the mobile devices the school were introducing as part of their transformation to meeting the Trust’s operational standards.
The agreed programme for delivery of the installation of the dedicated leased line into the school was delayed by that provider with no mitigation of the delay being possible – meaning the school faced opening without a fully operational network on the first day post-conversion. The Simpli-Fi team, at no additional cost to the school, worked over the preceding weekend to deliver a fully commissioned and configured temporary network to accommodate all staff and pupil devices for launch on the Monday morning.
This interim solution was still significantly more robust and widely distributed than the legacy network and enabled the school to launch the Trust’s new curriculum in all teaching spaces from the outset.
The Solution:
The first requirement was to deliver a full rewire and upgrade to Cat6 cabling, along with installing a new comms cabinet and termination point for separately procured fibre-broadband. This was procured through Simpli-Fi’s partner installation company and project managed and overseen by the Simpli-Fi account management team. All legacy domestic-grade network infrastructure was removed prior to the installation of a new Ruckus wireless network, as part of the agreed Simpli-Fi managed WiFi service.
The Result:
“The team did an excellent job, working against an extremely challenging timeline to ensure we were ready to activate all new digital devices at the launch of the school year. The requirement to replace much of the infrastructure meant that a temporary line needed to be installed to meet the deadline. This was accommodated quickly and efficiently at no extra cost to the school, whilst the necessary upgrades were completed.”
Craig Nel – Project Lead
