Having been involed in several of the Bristol BSF schools I can tell you a little bit about what to expect. For each school you will reciece new servers and networking (wored and wireless) along with some laptops and a large number of desktops. Northgate run a managed service so that will mean that you no longer have complete control over your IT infrastructure, hardware and software. For most schools it is a massive change with the focus being educational delivery using as much as IT has to offer. Interactive white boards, projecters, cashless catering, electronic registration along with a managed portal (MLE, Managed Learning Environment) offer many new ways to get educational content to the students and offer teachers better personal control over the content. As much as this is a new setup for Northagte it will be just as new for the teachers and students alike. There have been some teething problems but they have been ironed out for the most part, so by the time deployment happens for you things should be a lot more robust. However, these new tools can only be as good as the person using them so it will take time for the full benefit to be seen. All it all the general feeling I get from the teaching staff is that it has had a positive effect for all.
