Tranby (formally Hull Collegiate School) was formed in 2005 following the merging of two independent Hull schools, Hull High School and Hull Grammar. The school is based at Tranby Croft, a Victorian mansion with over 12 acres of landscaped grounds, and is made up of 100 staff members and 800 students ranging from the ages 3-18.
Problem
Technology is a vital part of the education provided at Tranby, and since the pandemic this has given them a platform to build on what they use and develop the infrastructure to support this. Covid has meant streaming of lessons and mobile learning became essential, and due to the nature of the building, seamless connectivity was something which the school struggled with. Thick walls and the intricate layout meant dead spots were common and the signal would often drop.
Alex Wilson, Headmistress of Tranby said: “The developments and upgrades that Connexin have used here in quite a tricky old building, with lots of dead spots, have made it possible for us to deliver remote learning throughout the school and stream lessons, transforming what we are able to do”.
Solution
Working with the school, Connexin upgraded the internal network to operate at speeds of 1Gbps and installed a site wide wireless network providing full coverage of the school. Access points were installed across the site ensuring excellent coverage, signal and performance. The service, which is now being used, has around 100 devices connected at all times and peaks at 250 during dinner times and after school, now allowing students and staff to engage in mobile learning with no interruptions. In parallel with this Connexin have also provided a feature rich VoIP telephony solution which provides ultimate flexibility, increases productivity, improves efficiencies, and reduces costs in comparison to a traditional PSTN/Analogue phone system.
Results
Paul Fong, Director of Digital Strategy and Teaching Development said: “ The network upgrades have allowed us to live stream HD video and audio from the classroom to pupils at home who may be shielding or self-isolating due to the pandemic.
The installation took a few days at best, and even then was during half time, working around our busy schedule, not disrupting any learning what so ever”
Headmistress, Alex Wilson Said: “The developments in our technology have allowed us to move to cloud storage and share documents and materials with colleagues quickly. We’ve been able to adapt events like parents evening, to communicate with parents from the comfort of their own home without having to battle traffic to come into school and have those meetings, revolutionising the way we communicate with our community”
Tranby now sits on par with some of the bigger banks in London in terms of how much data the network can carry. We look forward to working with them again on other projects in the future.
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