Brambletye School

A Real Gem

Brambletye School is a co-educational independent day and boarding school for pupils between the ages of 2 and 13. Pupils are prepared for Common Entrance or Scholarship Examinations to a wide range of senior schools. The school was founded in 1919 at Sidcup Place, Kent and moved to its present site, just off the A22, one mile south of East Grinstead in West Sussex, in 1933. The School facilities are centred on a large country house on the edge of the Ashdown Forest, in its own woodlands and extensive playing fields.

The Challenge

“The IT within our school was previously handled by one of our IT teachers” comments Nick Hollamby, Bursar at Brambletye School. “They managed our entire IT infrastructure and provided support to all members of staff.”

However, when the IT teacher later retired, this presented Brambletye with a dilemma. Should they appoint another teacher as the main IT contact, or should they look for external help?

“We thought carefully about what would be the best option for the school going forward.” continues Hollamby, “We knew how important IT would be for our pupils in this ever-connected and digital world. Providing them with the best IT infrastructure would be so important.”

After a lengthy tender process, Brambletye chose entrust IT Group to be their new IT partner. entrust IT Group immediately got to work and provided the team at Brambletye with an extensive short, medium, and long-term infrastructure masterplan. Once the plan was agreed, the entrust team began implementation.

The Solution

The entrust IT Group identified the need for a school to have strong internet links. In today’s world, where so many pupils have their own devices, and where so many learning resources are online, it is critical that there is enough bandwidth to cope. Therefore, entrust began with a large-scale fibre internet rollout throughout the school, filling each building with reliable high-speed internet.

Upon completion of the internet networking project, the entrust team next turned their attention to Brambletye’s ageing server infrastructure. The team implemented a new suite of servers, procuring them at competitive rates and configuring them prior to installation in the school. The entrust IT Group then turned their attention to IP phones, installing a fully new VoIP telephony system school-wide.

The next part of the long-term plan was to provide cloud-based productivity tools for the pupils and staff. A number of options were considered, including Microsoft 365. Working closely with Brambletye’s requirements, it was agreed that Google’s G-Suite was the preferred option. Once G-Suite was chosen, an onboarding process began which involved assigning all users a G-Suite account, building a Google Classroom environment and rolling this out across the suite of Windows 10 desktop and laptop computers. Staff were trained appropriately to ensure they were ready to go with their new tools when the time came.

“The changes that entrust IT Group made completely revolutionised the IT at Brambletye.” Recalls Nick Hollamby. “Working with Serval provided an opportunity to build on the successful use of computing and create an even more integrated and secure leaning environment. We were able to achieve our goal of making technology a core component of the unique learning experience we provide.”

As expected, the IT restructuring plan from entrust IT Group was delivered on-time and on-budget. The goals of refreshing an ageing infrastructure, providing a smooth support plan for staff, and a deeper integration of technology into lessons were all achieved with impressive results. Serval now maintain the infrastructure and act as an external IT team for Brambletye School, smoothing out the day-to-day issues that inevitably affect a vibrant independent school.

Commenting on the opportunities that entrust’s IT plan has opened up for Brambletye, Nick Hollamby continues: “having entrust IT Group on board removes any of the worries we have that our IT could cause us problems. We just focus on our roles safe in the knowledge that entrust are just a phone call away. Now we can think more clearly about long-term projects. In the near future, we would like to rollout a full CCTV system across the school.