Cheltenham Bournside School and Sixth Form centre are a large secondary school and sixth form centre with Academy status in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Known for their use of technology to enhance learning, by harnessing the potential of tablet technology; the school place heavy demands on their IT infrastructure.
School of the Future
Bournside has been described as a “school of the future”, encouraging students to bring a tablet computer to school, to use in their lessons. With 1700 pupils and over 1500 devices, demand for bandwidth is high. The school were operating on a 100/100MB leased line connection costing over £10,000 a year. However, with increasing use of ICT the school found they were often maxing out their connection. However, as schools across the UK will know, heavy cuts to school budgets means every penny counts, and savings have to be made across the business.
We have always been pleased with the quality of SWGfL’s internet services, so when they were able to offered increased bandwidth at no extra cost, they were the obvious choice of supplier for the school
SWGfL worked with the Head of IT Services for the school to create a service renewal offer. His key requirements included wanting to ensure he still had a safe, secure and reliable connection that ultimately was affordable.
Due to extensive work between RM and their Telco partners, SWGfL were able to offer the school a 200/1GB connection for less than they were currently paying. Doubling the bandwidth, and saving costs, whilst still ensuring safety and security were included as standard.
Being able to continue to benefit from the SWGfL safetynet was an added bonus. The filtering system and recent improvements to the usage monitoringis extremely effective and provides piece of mind with so many students accessing the internet from their own devices
What has this meant for Cheltenham Bournside?
With a strong ethos around the use of tablet technology in the classroom, it is vital the school have a network which can support their ambitions. The school want to engage learners born into a digital world, and for them to become responsible digital citizens. They enhance learning by taking new opportunities that only new technology provides. Learners are enabled to become independent enquirers, making decisions about how to present their work, and take charge of their own learning experience. Enabling differentiated learning within and beyond the classroom. In the classroom teachers have noticed a faster connection, especially when streaming content online. They are no longer restricted by maxing out their available bandwidth. All whilst making cost savings in line with budget cuts.
The school’s bandwidth requirements are likely to continue to grow in future but with SWGfL having significantly upgraded our broadband infrastructure, it should be a straightforward process to increase our internet speed further if and when this becomes necessary.
