Highfields School
Case Study
Refreshing the existing Network Infrastructure to provide a better experience for staff and students
About the School
Highfields School (Part of the Lykos Community) are a mixed secondary school in Wolverhampton
In striving to be a good comprehensive school, Highfields aim to respond to continuing change in education and society and seek to combine, in their teaching and learning, the tried and tested with the innovative and exciting developments of the future.
All this whilst providing a safe secure community which includes harmony and a strong belief in the values of truth, honesty, tolerance and respect.
Challenges
Highfields had an ageing infrastructure with limited visibility and control of the wifi network. The school suffered from some black spots which affected Teaching and Learning.
Security and Safeguarding of the students needed to be fit for the modern world
Solution
MFM-ITs comprehensive strategy
MFM-IT were brought in to address these challenges due to their experience working with Educational establishments and knowledge of the sector and specific requirements within the School setting.
The solution included a consolidation of wired networking, upgrade of existing switching and provision of a modern Wifi infrastructure.
The edge security system was also upgraded to ensure an appropriate level of safeguarding and threat protection.
Project Management
Due to constraints around implementation and not impacting on Teaching and Learning, MFM-ITs project management team worked with the schools maintenance and internal IT staff to achieve the upgrade with minimal disruption to the school.
Visibility
The advanced cloud based management of the networking solution gives the schools IT team the ability to easily make changes to the system when required.
Operationally it allows the team to pinpoint any bottlenecks or issues with client experience when using the Schools network
Security
The system allows the School to use multiple authentication sources to connect to the Wifi, which then gets passed to the internet filtering solutions for Safeguarding purposes
“
We are really pleased with the upgrade delivered by MFM-IT. Before the project, we had constant issues with slow speeds and unreliable WiFi, which disrupted lessons and frustrated both staff and students. Since the installation, the connectivity has been excellent across the site, and we’ve been able to use cloud-based learning tools confidently without interruptions. It’s made a noticeable difference to teaching and learning, and we feel well-prepared for the future.
The benefit of using a provider who understands the school environment really proved its worth from the outset. The initial migration was set to take place during a school holiday, but last minute changes meant the school had to stay online to deliver teaching and learning throughout this period. MFM went above and beyond, re-scoping the project and sending a team in over a weekend to ensure disruptive work was completed ahead of the additional study sessions. Huge thank you for your flexibility
Nick Jevon
Chief Operations Officer
Results
What has been the outcome?
The improved wifi connectivity has improved the Schools confidence in being able to use Cloud Based Services effectively for Teaching and Learning.
The internal IT team can now more quickly identify issues that may be causing a poor user experience within the Schools network and resolve whilst proactively monitoring connectivity within the school.
Safe in the knowledge that the IT network is now fit for purpose, the school is able to embrace innovation that provides a positive impact to Education
