Secondary Schools - how much do you pay for your Broadband per year?

[mikes]

Interesting the wide variation on pricing.

 

Going 200MB on a 1GB bearer doesnt seem to save you *that* much money which is interesting.

 

I see you are from Wales, are you a LEA school? have you been pressured into signing up with your LEA for a PBSA (public sector broadband aggregate) link including their filtering?

We were told to use it; we pay £6 per user per 3 years (introductory offer, it will then be per year I think) - this includes their smoothwall.

 

Unfortunately the smoothwall is very basic making it hard to do diagnostics when sites aren't loading; and the uptime is very hit and miss. Our connection was completely down until 9:30am this morning; we then ran a Surpass online maths test with 30 pupils, and it kept timing out for over half of them. Our LEA blame PBSA and vice versa.

Really wish we could get an actual third party link as we are expected to run computerised GSCEs now.

[TDupont992]

I see you are from Wales, are you a LEA school? have you been pressured into signing up with your LEA for a PBSA (public sector broadband aggregate) link including their filtering?

We were told to use it; we pay £6 per user per 3 years (introductory offer, it will then be per year I think) - this includes their smoothwall.

 

Unfortunately the smoothwall is very basic making it hard to do diagnostics when sites aren't loading; and the uptime is very hit and miss. Our connection was completely down until 9:30am this morning; we then ran a Surpass online maths test with 30 pupils, and it kept timing out for over half of them. Our LEA blame PBSA and vice versa.

Really wish we could get an actual third party link as we are expected to run computerised GSCEs now.

 

That's one of the issues with Smoothwall, if you're using 'Someone elses' or, it's not on site it's usability and functionality decreases. It isn't good for MAT or decentralised usage :/ Especially if your DSL's want any access to any of the data

[PotNoodleTech]

I see you are from Wales, are you a LEA school? have you been pressured into signing up with your LEA for a PBSA (public sector broadband aggregate) link including their filtering?

We were told to use it; we pay £6 per user per 3 years (introductory offer, it will then be per year I think) - this includes their smoothwall.

 

Unfortunately the smoothwall is very basic making it hard to do diagnostics when sites aren't loading; and the uptime is very hit and miss. Our connection was completely down until 9:30am this morning; we then ran a Surpass online maths test with 30 pupils, and it kept timing out for over half of them. Our LEA blame PBSA and vice versa.

Really wish we could get an actual third party link as we are expected to run computerised GSCEs now.

 

Yes Wales and LEA broadband. Whilst I have got quotes for getting a separate line and filtering we did not end up going down that route. Our internet is fairly reliable and really, we can survive with it as it is. as you said, not having full visibility yourself is a problem. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of room for improvement from the LEA but as it stands we are not having a negative impact on our pupils outcomes.

 

Now, if you are having a negative impact on your pupils outcomes (teaching and learning) as a result of your LEA then it is up to your headteacher to decide on a path forward. There is no legal obligation for you to use your LEA broadband for general internet use (you may technically have to use it for admin and teacher PCs e.g if SIMS is hosted or email or any other systems are LEA only) but for the other several hundred PCs you could get a 1gb line and fortigate filter and crack on. The only caveat is the head and governing body takes on the responsibility regarding filtering from the LEA and that may not be something they wish to do as currently if anything legally bad happens you can say "it's the lea".

 

PM me if you want to discuss further.

[Uber22]

100/100 mb £279 per month. plus a new sophos xg firewall 7k with 3 year licence