{"id":21785,"date":"2023-12-21T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lightspeedsystems.com\/resources\/case-studies\/united-learning-trust-keep-devices-safe-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-beyond\/"},"modified":"2024-12-05T23:47:05","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T23:47:05","slug":"united-learning-trust-keep-devices-safe-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"case-study","link":"https:\/\/www.lightspeedsystems.com\/en_au\/resources\/case-studies\/united-learning-trust-keep-devices-safe-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-beyond\/","title":{"rendered":"United Learning Trust Keep Devices Safe During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"
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United Learning Trust is the largest multi-academy trust in the UK with 75 primary and secondary academies and a further 15 independent schools.<\/p>\n

Dave Munro has worked as a Senior Technology Specialist at United Learning for 18 months, helping to procure new academies, as well as giving them any necessary assistance with IT. \u201cWe have a team of technology specialists throughout the trust who provide guidance, advice, and support to the IT teams on-site or to third parties,\u201d he tells us. \u201cWe\u2019re there as an extra layer above the schools helping with projects, procurements, and any initiatives that are being pushed out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\nThe Challenge: Impromptu, 1:1 Remote Learning
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One project that Dave and his team didn\u2019t foresee was the COVID-19 pandemic which forced schools around the country to close and create impromptu plans for remote learning and 1:1 deployments. This was a simpler task for individual schools, but for a trust of United Learning\u2019s size, they were going to need the right solutions for scalability and safety. The first hurdle was finding the right devices for students to continue learning at home and, after researching the available platforms, they decided that Chromebooks were the simplest and most cost-effective option. \u201cWhen we went through this process, we wanted to find a solution which would have as little impact on the IT teams on-site as possible\u201d Dave recalls. \u201cWe went for Chrome devices because we knew we could centrally manage them and we knew the filtering would need to be centrally managed as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave knew that students using the Chromebooks without any restrictions wouldn\u2019t be appropriate, so finding the right safety solution before they were deployed was imperative. He discovered that Lightspeed Systems\u00ae was offering extended trials of the Lightspeed Filter\u2122<\/a> for schools that needed immediate filtering and monitoring on remote devices. \u201cQuite a few of our network managers in the schools informed us of the extended trial of Lightspeed Filter, which we were keen to take advantage of\u201d he reveals. \u201cWe had a very short period to get this implemented. We had Chromebooks landing on-site, with the tech teams setting them up with Lightspeed Filter and then issuing them out to the students who were in isolation allowing them to continue their learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

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We wanted to find a solution which would have as little impact on the IT teams on-site as possible.<\/p>\n

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