Getting connected with RM Education was a smooth process for Ruskin Junior School

The Background

Ruskin Junior School is based in Swindon and is part of the Blue Kite Academy Trust. It has just over 300 pupils in Years 3-6.

The Challenge

The school had been having some problems with their previous connectivity provider. The service was unreliable with the network connection regularly delivering slow download speeds, and sometimes being totally unavailable. Most of the school’s operational systems are online which meant they couldn’t access the information and tools they needed.

The Solution

The school worked with their IT services provider to identify potential new suppliers, and they completed the initial scoping and costing work to move to a fibre connection with RM Education. Hayley Ward, Pupil Support Administrator, said ' We knew that a stable and quick connection was really important to us, so we could access important school systems whenever we needed them. Any supplier we chose to work with had to be able to deliver a reliable service.'

Once the school had made their decision to go with RM work began to move the service. Hayley said:

The work was done over the summer holidays when key members of staff like Hayley were not always available. RM worked flexibly, arranging calls and appointments at times that worked around holiday commitments.

All of the changes happened behind the scenes so nobody had to have any training or learn to do anything differently when they got back to school after the holidays.

The Benefits

Both students and teachers have seen a real difference in the speed and reliability of the internet connection. Content streaming is now much quicker and teachers are much more confident about using streamed content in class because they know they can rely on it working first time every time.

Now all of the school’s online systems e.g. educational apps like Reading Eggs and Mathletics, ParentPay and parent communication tools, are accessible and time isn’t wasted waiting for the internet connection to come back.

The school haven’t had any reason to use the support service for RM but they are reassured that if they ever do, there’s a team of people waiting to help at the end of the phone. Having experienced a very poor support service from their previous provider they knew how much time could be wasted just trying to get things fixed, a situation they were keen to avoid going forward.

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