There’s plenty of talk about what’s around the corner in education technology. The impact of artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and automated assessments are all likely to feature more heavily in the months and years ahead.
However, for most educational institutions, school ICT (information and communication technology) is about everyday technology concerns that aren’t making headlines or forging new frontiers, but are vital for them to function and compete right now. As a report in FE News revealed, UK schools are at the top of the global classroom for embracing technology. While this can be a positive from an education point of view, it makes the need for high-quality schools ICT an acute challenge.
Schools are seeking ways to:
- Purchase durable hardware for students at affordable prices
- Stay compliant with mandatory legislation around data privacy, safeguarding and eSafety (risk protection agreements are high in school leaders’ minds here)
- Streamline workloads for marking
- Monitor students’ work
- Protect networks from misuse and intrusion
Our school needs great IT, but there’s a problem…
Before an IT provider puts their hands up and rushes to deliver a bells-and-whistles solution, they need to understand the peculiar landscape of educational IT.
Budgets may be limited for IT and cyber security, to put it mildly. Where businesses may have more leeway to shift pots of money around, schools are more likely to be tied to modest sums. Providers with anything but pragmatic schools ICT solutions will be marked high for imaginative thinking but low for their understanding of financial realities in education.
Meanwhile, some schools will be low on IT personnel in-house. This means an IT provider must provide a degree of guidance and education they may not be familiar or comfortable with.
Finally, long gone are the days when cyber security is a nice-to-have. It can be brutal out there and the depressing fact is criminals see schools as a soft touch. (An even more depressing reality is that they often are.)
Intersys offers complete school ICT services
Intersys has provided IT to schools for more than 15 years. Our teams visit schools daily as part of managed services contracts. We also help education clients with specialist cyber security services, procure hardware such as laptops and tablets, and have developed award-winning software for a long-term SEN academy partner.
Our people have an understanding of the needs, challenges and aspirations of the educational environment through daily contact with school leaders. All of our teams working directly with schools are enhanced DBS-checked and familiar with good practice and protocols in educational settings. We can provide complete school ICT services or augment your in-house team, complementing their approach with our specialist skills and methodology.
We are a growing business, taking on more clients and employees, and we are actively expanding our services in the education sector.
If this sounds like it might interest you, you’re probably going to want some assurance that we’re as experienced as say we are…
Schools IT services case studies
A good place to start is our case studies. Read about our:
Ongoing schools IT services for the largest SEN school in Europe
Cyber breach response for a secondary school
Swift removal of a damaging virus and enhanced security for a secondary school
We are also:
- ISO 27001 certified
- Cyber Essentials certified
- A Microsoft Solutions Partner for Modern Work
Specialist IT and cyber security for schools
To investigate a little deeper and see if our school ICT services will be right for your team, take a look at these pages:
A comprehensive overview of our schools IT support services.
Our fast-response service helping schools shut down data breaches.
Our procurement service sourcing computers and laptops for schools.
A guide to writing your school cyber security policy.
Find out more
If you’d like to find out more about how we help schools run more efficiently and securely, get in touch. We serve education clients in London, Essex and the South East on location and remotely and can provide remote services to you outside of this area.