15 March 2017

Bryanston School is set in 400 acres of Dorset countryside.

Set in 400 acres of Dorset countryside, Bryanston School has 670-plus pupils, mostly boarders at fees of £11,882 per term. Alumni inaclude the adventurer Ben Fogle, actors Emilia and Freddie Fox, the painter Lucian Freud, and Rachel Johnson, writer and sister of Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

In a 12-month project, 400 wireless access points – managed by two mobility controllers – were fitted throughout the campus, which comprises more than 30 buildings. The technology is from Aruba (now owned by HP) and was installed by Pervasive Networks, which was bought by Capita for £17.5m in May 2015. Aruba says pupils and the 300 staff can now take advantage of digital learning. One of the software packages they use is Boardingware which was developed by a New Zealand company.

Aruba says pupils log their activity on stationary tablets around the school and teachers monitor this with a smartphone app. It means they always know who is present or absent, and the school can also analyse how pupils are spending their time.

Aruba Beacons have been installed to allow pupils to activate resources when their mobile devices are nearby. They then complete the task and move to the next beacon. The beacons are used in conjunction with eLockers. These work as a drop folder where teachers and pupils can upload resources (including video clips or PowerPoint presentations), and students can upload assignments and take group feedback.

Bryanston also has a custom app called eChart, available through the wireless access points, which allows teachers to mark work and for assessments to be shared with parents, house parents and tutors.

In addition, Aruba’s ClearPass Policy Manager is integrated with iBoss Secure Web Gateway. This lets a school block access to certain sites and close down network access for certain age groups at certain times, whilst still allowing users flexibility in the devices they use.

Furthermore, Aruba says pupils are able to log on to devices safely and securely to the school network with minimal technical support.

Aruba AirWave Network Management, is used in conjunction with ClearPass. This is designed to provide visibility, clear diagnostics and planning capabilities for the school’s wired and wireless network. Devices can be tracked at any location within the school and faults rectified.