Education Bradford

Extending access, broadening learning

The organisation ‘Education Bradford’ was formed in 2001 when Bradford Council awarded Serco a ten year contract to provide school-focused educational services. The aim of the contract was to help raise standards in schools and to narrow the gap between Bradford’s and the national performance. Several years on, and now delivering a managed broadband service to hundreds of Bradford schools, the ongoing success of the organisation’s initiatives depends on a totally resilient internet service.

With involvement in numerous educational projects within the borough that all harness the power of broadband technology, Education Bradford is acutely aware of its responsibility to deliver an always-available online service.

Our managed internet service has supported the organisation’s initiatives from its very beginning.

Transforming teaching

ntl:Telewest Business relationship with Education Bradford began several years ago with a contract to supply low bandwidth broadband communications to Bradford schools. However, the growing emphasis in recent years on the effective use of information and communications technology (ICT) to support learning and teaching in schools has meant that the provision of high speed internet access has become more important than ever before.

ntl:Telewest Business has helped Education Bradford keep pace with ICT developments by providing a fast, effective, secure and highly scalable network.

Meeting guidelines

In 2003, in response to the Government’s ‘Harnessing Technology’ strategy and subsequent Department for Education and Skills (DfES) ICT guidelines, Education Bradford approached us to help with the development of the Bradford Learning Network.

Mark Chambers, IT Curriculum and Learning Manager, Education Bradford, explains: "The aim of the Bradford Learning Network was to develop a collaborative education infrastructure linking 190 Bradford schools. However, this required a significant network upgrade to meet the minimum government guidelines."

Choosing a partner

From the outset, Education Bradford planned not just to meet but exceed these guidelines. They chose to partner with us to make this possible, as Mark explains; "ntl:Telewest Business’ experience in the education sector, as well as extensive local knowledge, secured them the contract. They were able to offer us an exceptionally flexible and scalable solution at an affordable price."

Janet Flannery, Account Manager, ntl:Telewest Business, adds: "Our Managed Internet Access solution provided Education Bradford with a fully managed Cisco switched fibre network. This offered 10Mb network connectivity to primary schools and 100Mb to secondary schools, significantly exceeding the government minimum requirements, and providing a flexible, future-proof solution."

The project also saw us partner with leading applications and infrastructure provider Synetrix to provide network management services, including firewall provision, content filtering and security services.

What it has made possible

As a result of the project, 190 schools in the Bradford area are now able to access e-learning applications, instructional tools and multimedia applications. Mark adds: "Such a high speed network means schools can access the internet and e-mail as well as web-based education resources. Further links to a server farm – run and managed by Synetrix – also allow access to software resources."

Education Bradford’s plans don’t end with the Bradford Learning Network, though. Its most recent project focuses on building resilience into the existing links, ensuring schools are provided with continuous connectivity at all times. Once again, ntl:Telewest Business is contracted to provide these second supporting links at speeds of 2Mb for primary schools and 8Mb for secondary schools.

Mark explains: "Internet access is an increasingly essential service for schools, and as a result their investment in IT is considerable. In an average sized secondary school there’s probably up to 1,000 PCs, so we have to offer a service that is able to support that many users and that amount of technology. Our latest project with ntl:Telewest Business will ensure that, if the fibre link fails, there will still always be continuity of services so that learning and teaching will be unaffected."

Mark concludes: "Our relationship with ntl:Telewest Business is crucial to our ability to deliver on our commitment to transform teaching and learning now and in the future. It’s their reliable, available network that enables us to provide access to educational content and services and support personalised learning. We couldn’t manage it without them."