A Trusted IT Partner Supporting Teaching & Learning

Background: As a busy school, technology underpins almost every aspect of day-to-day operations. From classroom devices and safeguarding systems to telephony, printing and cloud services, reliable IT is essential for staff to focus on delivering the best education possible.

St Mark’s Primary School already had an IT provider. However, much of the responsibility for managing day-to-day IT issues still fell on internal staff. Support requests often required chasing, problems took too long to resolve, and confidence in the service gradually declined.

Despite repeated discussions with the previous supplier, improvements never materialised, leaving the school looking for a partner that would take greater ownership of its IT environment.

The Challenge:

St Mark’s Primary school needed more than technical support. They wanted an trusted technology partner that understood the unique demands of education, delivered responsive support, and provided proactive advice within a realistic budget.

Delays in resolving issues were impacting productivity and creating unnecessary frustration for staff. Instead of concentrating on educating pupils, valuable time was being spent managing IT problems and chasing updates.

The school also wanted confidence that future technology decisions would be guided by experienced specialists who understood both Microsoft and Google environments, as well as the increasing demands around safeguarding, cyber security and compliance.

The Solution:

The relationship with Elmdale IT began through a standalone phone system upgrade. Following the successful delivery of a standalone phone system upgrade, Charles Applegate, Headteacher at St Mark's Primary School, chose Elmdale to become the school's long-term IT partner.

Elmdale IT invested time in understanding how the school operates, carrying out multiple site visits, listening carefully to requirements and recommending practical improvements rather than simply supplying products.Today Elmdale IT provides fully managed IT support across the school's technology estate, including:

• Managed IT support
• Windows servers and cloud services
• Remote monitoring and management
• Business telephony
• Printers and photocopiers
• Managed endpoint security
• Web filtering and online safeguarding
• Backup and disaster recovery

Supporting both Microsoft and Google ecosystems allowed Elmdale IT to design to design a solution that supported the school's preferred ways of working while remaining secure, reliable and cost-effective.

The school also adopted Securly to strengthen safeguarding and meet Department for Education filtering requirements, with Elmdale IT providing guidance throughout the selection and implementation process.

The Outcome:

Since partnering with Elmdale IT, the school has seen significant improvements in both the responsiveness and reliability of its IT support. Support requests are resolved quickly, staff have direct access to knowledgeable engineers by phone, and the leadership team now has confidence that technology is being managed proactively rather than reactively. Most importantly, IT has become something the school no longer has to worry about.

“Being with Elmdale is a partnership; they work with us as a school and provide effective and efficient solutions so we can focus on the children.” - Charles Applegate, Headteacher at St Mark's Primary School