The Lammas School & Sports College

The Lammas School & Sports College

Revolutionised ICT technology and infrastructure for London secondary school

Established as a new school in 2001, The Lammas School & Sports College is an 11–16 school and was built to serve the ever changing local community of 21st Century Leyton, East London.

The school is a well-resourced PFI school of approximately 800 students and 100 staff . The ICT service is delivered through a PFI contract. School Business Services have provided this ICT service since 2009.

The school’s objectives

The school’s main objective is to constantly improve teaching and learning. In demonstration of this, the school was awarded an improved ‘Good’ rating by Ofsted in their recent inspection and the school continually strives to the ultimate goal of being awarded ‘Outstanding’ and of maintaining that award.

How SBS services helped

When SBS inspected the ICT infrastructure and technical estate, many issues were identified, which were seriously affecting the ability to provide teaching and learning. Each day, the servers and network would crash, losing valuable time and work over many lessons. After a full and thorough investigation all the various elements causing the issues were identified. These ranged from obsolete servers with no operating space, replete with viruses to rogue and slow switch infrastructure.

A plan was devised to replace the switch infrastructure and the server estate, which was swiftly carried out. All existing data was cleansed and re-used, so that no coursework was lost as a result. Due to the new industry standard server and network infrastructure, there have been no system wide crashes, meaning the network is always 100% available to staff and students.

A rolling programme of PC and laptop replacement was also implemented, thus improving the user experience. Printing was consolidated into a range of identical managed devices with a print management solution and is
now printing as it should.

"At the time that SBS took over this contract, our ICT infrastructure was in a fragile state, having had 2 serious virus infections and several periods of non-availability. Staff confidence in our ICT support was poor. On assuming responsibility for the contract, SBS quickly stabilised the situation and began a programme of improvement that has transformed our confidence.”

The interactive devices used in classrooms were all board and projector based from a variety of manufacturers. This proved problematic for commonality of shared resources meaning teaching and learning was often affected. The ongoing resolution to this is the replacement with the CTOUCH range of large format 70” touch screens, which, along with the electronic height adjustment, provide an excellent platform to improve interaction and student engagement, leading to the ever present ultimate school objective of improving teaching and learning.

SBS advised the school when the LGFL 1.0 Internet connection service was being replaced by the LGFL 2.0 service. The transition was carefully planned and carried out so that users did not experience any down time and the service they now receive is much faster and more stable than ever before.

Teachers and support staff received training on the interactive devices and software to enable all staff to effectively use the technology interactively, both themselves and with students.

The impact

Teachers now have confidence that when entering a classroom, the PC will switch on and quickly connect to the network. There will be no issues accessing previously created files or in browsing the internet. Existing Interactive Devices will work as effectively as possible, given their age and technology, but will be replaced by CTOUCH technology for maximum uptime. This coupled with the staff training will result in highly effective lesson delivery to engaged students, who will retain imparted knowledge.

"SBS very significantly improved support for staff and therefore opportunities for students. There is now a very positive relationship between the school and SBS.”

Next steps

SBS will continue to fully support The Lammas School and Sports College’s ICT infrastructure and estate, maintaining the rolling replacement programme of servers, switches, PC’s, laptops and IWB’s (CTOUCH screens), which will ensure uninterrupted provision of ICT services and the continual improvement in teaching and learning

Staff training on the use of interactive devices (IWB’s and CTOUCH screens) will continue to ensure teachers have the most up to date knowledge on the systems and software to use in providing the most engaging and memorable lessons.