..with multi-gigabit Internet classroom connections to deliver better visibility and class of management across the school

Great Baddow High School is benefiting from robust network performance and fast WiFi since installing a new enterprise-grade WiFi 6 and next-generation edge switching solution from Redway Networks.

Great Baddow High School is a comprehensive secondary school based in Chelmsford, Essex. In a school where its students have most of their learning delivered via laptops, being able to get online with reliable WiFi is a priority for users. The school's mixed estate for WiFi and networking was outdated, under-supported and couldn't support the online demands of the school's 1600 students and 1500 network devices.

Rob Fuller, Head of IT Systems at Great Baddow School says:

"Following the Covid pandemic we'd invested heavily in new laptops and equipment, but not in our underlying infrastructure. As we adopted more school devices, we started to see major creaks in our network which was a mix of Ubiquity WiFi and ad-hoc network switches. We also had no single management plane so identifying network issues was time consuming. We needed a more superior wired and wireless network and that offered better performance and could be managed and maintained easily through a cloud-based solution."

Great Baddow contacted education wireless experts, Redway Networks who offered great technical advice and the school knew they were the supplier they wanted to work with.

Redway Networks' engineer and Rob's IT support team worked closely together using industry leading tools such as Ekahau to create a predictive wired and wireless design that met the school's requirement to provide multi-gigabit connectivity to its classrooms. The school selected Cambium's WiFi 6 cloud-based access points and edge switches with a HPE Aruba enterprise core. The school's whole edge network is now cloud-based and more robust with fast WiFi connectivity and complete network visibility meaning any network issues can be highlighted and dealt with quickly.

Rob says:

"Redway Networks delivered a fantastic project, and our network has been transformed from a collection of underperforming parts to one unified platform with scalable, high-density WiFi with switches optimised for multi-gigabit connectivity. We now have the network performance to support e-learning. We're not doing anything new, but what we are doing can be done more reliably, which has given staff more confidence when using ICT in the classrooms."

For more information, visit Redway Networks