Chichester High School

Sussex, U.K. 1,500 students. Scalable wired networks for BYOD.

Combining a boys’ school and girls’ school into one coeducational institution was difficult enough. Having to simultaneously upgrade and merge separate technology infrastructures in order to deliver an outstanding educational experience to all 1,500 students simply added to the challenge.

Located in Chichester, West Sussex, England, Chichester High School for Boys and Chichester High School for Girls are secondary schools for students ages 11 to 16. The schools’ alumni, such as Tim Peake, a current European Space Agency astronaut, have enjoyed success in their careers thanks to the high-quality learning experience that the schools provide. However, time had taken a toll on the schools’ networks.

Much of the curriculum relies on wireless connectivity. Teachers’ laptops are the foundation for delivering lessons and online content. In addition, students can bring their phones and tablets to school and use its free, open wireless environment. However, with the rapid growth of wireless usage, the slow, obsolete wired network could not keep pace. Because of the large number of students logging in at once, it could take up to 20 minutes for students to log in, which wasted valuable teaching and learning time. Inevitably, connections were dropped and network performance slowed to a crawl.