Joskos Solutions helps Elm Park Primary School achieve its vision of 'ICT everywhere'

Elm Park is a new two-form entry Primary School in the London Borough of Havering, which opened its doors on 3rd May 2011. Joskos Solutions are proud to have been commissioned to realise their vision of ‘ICT Everywhere’ in their brand new state-of-the–art site.

This video showcases some of our engineers’ and managers’ excellent work in installing and supporting Elm Park Primary’s ICT infrastructure.

Elm Park’s previous limitations

• 2 laptop trolleys, each with a WAP on top.
• Each trolley had to be plugged in and configured every time it was brought into a classroom.
• Classrooms had old-style long-throw projectors which were uncomfortable for teachers to use – shining in their eyes and casting shadows on the board.
• The single school hall had no audio-visual facilities – a portable projector and speakers had to be brought into the hall every time audio-visual facilities were required.

The solutions that Joskos implemented

Elm Park now has true ‘ICT everywhere’. The school has moved from a largely fixed ICT environment to a mobile solution with excellent wireless coverage throughout the school site. At the same time, Joskos addressed all of Elm Park’s previous audio-visual and network limitations.

Solutions Specifications

1. Open ‘Heart Space’ in the middle of the school with 16 Apple iMacs.
2. 5 trolleys of laptops and netbooks. Two of the trolleys are Netrollers – this was a recommendation which we made which was taken up by the school, to enable use of netbooks on field trips, and in the playground.
3. 40 iPod Touches which can browse the Internet, and copy, paste & print documents, as well as acting as still & video cameras and with access to many educational applications.
4. Wireless everywhere – teachers love the fact that they have wireless Internet anywhere, and can do their lesson planning (PPA) in any part of the school, using any portable device.
5. 2 virtualised Windows servers, supplemented by an Apple server and an Admin server.
6. 3 Samsung TV screens around the school in the main Reception, Dining Hall and Staffroom to show visitor information and to promote pupil achievement.
7. Superb audio-visual solution: In each of the two halls Joskos designed and implemented a complete audio-visual solution including a ‘flight box’ containing a projector, handheld and lapel mics and CD, DVD & iPod players.

Key Features of the Solution

Windows and Mac – the Best of Both Worlds

As well as providing ICT Everywhere, the school wanted to have the best of both worlds – Mac and Windows. To achieve this, Joskos worked with Toucan, the Mac provider, to integrate remote desktop provision so that Mac users could access all curriculum software on the Windows server, via a virtualised Terminal Server. So now from Macs, users can run not only Mac-supported software, but also non-Mac supported applications such as Read/Write Inc.

Site-wide Ruckus Managed Wireless Network

Lessons using ICT are not limited to one room. To provide more stimulating lesson environments, teachers can move their class throughout the school – each pupil with a wireless-enabled device – to any open area, one of the Halls or even outside the building.

Green IT using Virtualised Servers

Using just two physical Windows servers, Joskos provided the school with 5 ‘virtual’ servers.

Ongoing Support

Joskos now provide ongoing support to Elm Park Primary in the form of a half-day a week visit by a Joskos engineer supplemented by remote support from the Joskos Service Desk. Our Service Desk can remotely support and configure not only your school’s server but also each individual client device – desktop, laptop, printer etc. So we can resolve a great many issues as soon as you contact us without you having to wait for an engineer to come to the school.

Click here to read what Vicki Knox , Head Teacher of Elm Primary said about Joskos