Latest news and updates

How are full Cloud Schools reaping the rewards of implementing a cloud-IT strategy? The current trend in the I.T. sector and, more specifically, school I.T. is moving towards a full cloud I.T. strategy. Cloud schools, as we call them, are schools where all I.T. systems are ...

Why is my school network slow? A slow school network can hinder student learning by slowing down classroom teaching and reducing the number of resources available to them. There could be several different factors that affect the speed of your school’s broadband; in this blog, we will look at ...

The best practice when procuring and renewing school internet. Coconnect is a specialist provider of school broadband and filtering solutions. Since the DFE announced recommendations for schools and colleges to move to full-fibre connectivity as soon as possible, we felt it would be helpful to produce an informative blog about ...

“If there are issues Coconnect generally sees them before we do due to the pro-active monitoring.” SECAT Is a Multi Academy trust in Southend on Sea including 5 primary schools a secondary school and a central office. Terry Dignam is the ICT manager for the trust and an Association of Network ...

The rise of gaming in education and the benefits and risks to students? Over the last 10-20 years, online gaming has boomed. Since 2015 according to Statista, the percentage of children in the UK who play games online increased from 54% to 80% within 12-15 years old. This blog will go further into ...

DFE have set new advisory standards for schools to follow with their Broadband, Safeguarding and Security – Here are the key takeaways. The DFE has offered new guidance for schools to follow to ensure appropriate broadband, safeguarding, and security solutions are in place. These standards have been published to encourage schools ...

In the UK, cyberattacks are at a higher risk with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Here are the Dos and Don’ts of Cyber Security for Schools Cyber security for Schools Introduction: As we all know, cyber security is always an important issue, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine has ...

BETT Show 2022 was an excellent success for Coconnect. Find out about how we found the show: We thought it was a good idea to write a quick blog about BETT. We want to say a massive thank you to everyone who came to see us at BETT 2022. The Coconnect team ...

Cove School: “All we wanted was reliable service and support” Situation Cove school https://www.coveschool.uk/ is a secondary school in Farnborough maintained by the Hampshire local authority.  They have used Coconnect for 3 years and have recently renewed for another 3. Cove currently operates with a 1Gps connection and Smoothwall ...

Connection types: FTTC vs EOFTTC vs FTTP vs DLL This blog will focus on one of the sections in our School Broadband guide, ‘Connection types’ and investigate the pros and cons of each. Our School Broadband guide is a FREE learning resource available and a good starting point for any ...

Since BT announced the PSTN and ISDN switch off, demand in VoIP for UK Schools has increased dramatically. What is a VoIP phone system, and why is it high in demand? Over the last few years, the demand for a Voice over Internet Protocol phone system (VoIP) has increased in ...

Cloud solutions are the present and the future for Schools and MATs. Coconnect is a specialist in schools’ broadband and cloud services for education. We have seen an upturn in demand for cloud solutions recently and thought it would be good to share our knowledge on cloud computing, how it ...

Our friends at Novatech spoke to a Hampshire college regarding future-proofing their IT; we have taken the key bits of information as an informative learning resource.   Due to the pandemic last year, schools across the UK were desperately trying to organise a remote learning infrastructure in a matter of ...

How could the Metaverse change UK Education? In the last month, there has been a lot of talk about the Metaverse, since  Facebook rebranded to Meta as Mark Zuckerberg wants to be known for building the Metaverse. With the technology to make the Metaverse is in development, we can ask, ...

A guide for Governors and Trustees on Online Safeguarding    With the government latest statistic that 9 out of 10 Children are online every day Online Safeguarding is as vital as ever. Coconnect understand that safeguarding is as important as the network and therefore we supply safeguarding solutions carefully engineered into our ...

What is content filtering and how does it safeguard and enhance education for students?   Keeping students safe from the internet is paramount in any school safeguarding policies, with legislation requiring schools to have an appropriate filtering and monitoring service. Schools need to ensure they have a system in place. ...

How proactive monitoring systems are transforming student safety? What are proactive monitoring systems?   In May 2021 the definitions of ‘appropriate monitoring’ for schools and colleges were updated by the UK Safer Internet Centre. The new definition advises that all schools and colleges should consider some sort of digital monitoring, except if ...

School Broadband guide   School broadband can be confusing, with many different things Schools and Multi-Academy Trusts need to consider when finding the solution that best fits their requirements. As Coconnect specialises in providing Broadband and Cloud Managed Services to Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, and Multi-Academy Trusts, we felt it ...

How proactive monitoring technology can help tackle the sexual violence and sexual harassment culture in schools and colleges?  Earlier this year, Ofsted’s ‘Review of Sexual abuse in Schools and Colleges’ revealed that sexual harassment has become ‘normalised’ for children and young people. Many students admitted that they do not ...

Our friends at Novatech produced a blog on what schools are considering for their IT for the next 3-5 years; We thought this blog had lots of helpful information to share.   Future-proofing is a term that has developed a whole new meaning in the last 12 months. The implications of ...

Situation Cantell school is a secondary comprehensive with just over 1000 students. A foundation school, based in Southampton. They have recently moved school broadband providers to Coconnect. We spoke to Mr John Heagren at Cantell School, the network and media manager at the school to find out how it went. Problem &...

What is Cyber Security and what are common Cyber-attacks in School and how to prevent cyber-attacks in schools. We felt like it would be a good idea to provide Schools with more information on Cyber Security and Cyber-attacks, with it being a hot topic. This article will include what Cyber ...

Coconnect are excited to announce we now offer Microsoft Office 365 Cloud-to-cloud backup with Barracuda Coconnect is a specialist School Broadband provider in UK Education. With over 200 Schools currently partnering with and a (98%) renewal rate, we continue to grow and provide cloud-managed solutions to Schools. See what our customer says about ...

Digital Proactive Monitoring – What is it? And how it is an essential Safeguarding tool.   Since considering the UKSIC revised guidelines for Appropriate Monitoring, Schools and Multi-Academy Trusts are first learning about Proactive Monitoring. Proactive Monitoring is an essential tool for schools to use in safeguarding and protecting children from ...

We sat down with Mathew Setchell, the IT Services Lead for Lourdes IT, to discuss why Cyber Security is essential in safeguarding children in Schools. Here are the key takeaways: Lourdes IT is a part of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Multi Academy providing IT to the Academy and other ...

UKSIC has revised its guidelines on appropriate monitoring and filtering. Here is everything you need to know. UKSIC has revised its definitions of what is appropriate filtering and monitoring. These guidelines are offered to support schools in implementing correct filtering and monitoring systems. To help you understand this, we have ...

More and more conversations are happening with Schools and Educational Professionals regarding a VoIP Phone system but what is it and why should schools acquire this solution? Schools and Multi-Academy Trusts in the last few years have started to migrate to a VoIP Phone System. There have been a few ...

The Biggest Challenges of Remote Teaching To say the last 12 months have been a challenge for the education world would be a major understatement. While the COVID-19 pandemic has touched all of us in one way or another and its impact has been felt in every corner of every industry, ...

Sometimes, the technical alphabet soup surrounding cloud services can be impenetrable, even to technical folks! Here, with thanks to our colleagues at Novatech, is the Coconnect guide to unscrambling these terms. Azure Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing service created by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and ...

With the world essentially being told it’s been a naughty boy and needs to spend a few months in its room to cool off during lockdown, it’s never been a better time to be a gamer. We might bemoan the fact that the coronavirus pandemic has robbed them ...

Schools and IT professionals have talked for years about technology “moving into the classroom”. What nobody saw coming was technology replacing the classroom, albeit temporarily. The COVID-19 crisis has had a huge impact on the relationship between education and IT. The rate of adoption has increased and technologies that were ...

School IT reviews are no easy task. Where do you start when it comes to ensuring your school’s tech is future-proof? This checklist will help. Work with a School IT specialist Keeping up with the latest technology and best practice is hard. This can leave you paying more than ...

Start thinking about how this crisis ends: How to build future-proof IT for schools and universities   Remote learning is not a new phenomenon. In fact, the first remote learning service was delivered by radio in Australia almost seventy years ago. But remote learning on a nationwide scale – as prompted ...