Leased lines for schools and academy trusts

What a school needs from its internet connection

A school's internet connection carries more than most businesses of the same size. Hundreds of laptops and tablets log in at the start of a lesson, cloud learning platforms and the management information system run in a browser, teachers stream video to the whole class, and staff save work, join video meetings and make calls. Add cameras, door entry, updates for every device and visitors on the Wi-Fi, and the line is busy from the moment the gates open.

That pattern is hard on a shared connection. Demand spikes at the same time every hour, and upload matters as much as download, because video, cloud saves and backups all send data out. A BTnet leased line answers those problems directly:

• Dedicated bandwidth. BT describes BTnet as fully uncontended, so the speed you order is reserved for the school. See contended vs uncontended.
• The same speed both ways. Upload matches download, which helps with video, cloud learning and backups. See symmetrical internet speeds.
• No fair usage policy. BT's help pages say BTnet has no fair usage policy, so a heavy day of video and updates is not capped.
• BT's service levels. Availability, on-time delivery and latency service levels with service credits under BT's terms. See the BTnet SLA.

The DfE broadband standard and BTnet

The Department for Education publishes broadband internet standards for schools and colleges as one of its core digital and technology standards, which schools should be working towards by 2030. The standard says schools and colleges should use a full fibre connection, and it names a leased line as one of the ways a full fibre connection is described. Copper connections do not meet it. Here is how the main points line up with BTnet:

The DfE suggests moving at the end of an existing contract or as soon as full fibre is available, and says new contracts on other connection types should allow a change to fibre when it arrives. If your current contract is near its end, now is a good time to ask us for a BTnet quote.

Choosing a speed and bearer for your school

The DfE figures are minimums and capacity targets, not a ceiling. A one-form-entry primary and a large secondary with a sixth form have very different peaks, and so do schools that rely heavily on video or cloud backup.

Think about the bearer as well as the port speed. The bearer is the physical access line; the port speed is the bandwidth you pay for. A school that orders 100Mbps on a 1Gbps bearer can use Bandwidth Flex to raise the speed within that bearer later, on BT's notice and charging terms, rather than waiting for a new line. Our leased line bearers guide explains the trade-off.

Two practical points from BT's terms and the DfE standard:

• BT says real throughput is typically 5-10% below the port speed because of network and IP overheads, so allow for that when you compare against the DfE minimums.
• The DfE notes that speed in classrooms also depends on internal cabling, switches, routers and wireless access points. A fast line feeding an old internal network will not feel fast.

Our bandwidth sizing guide walks through how to add up peak use, and the leased line speed test guide shows how to check what you are getting.

Filtering, safeguarding and Cleanfeed

Schools have a statutory responsibility, set out in keeping children safe in education, to have appropriate filtering and monitoring in place. The DfE's filtering and monitoring standards describe how school leaders, the designated safeguarding lead (DSL) and IT support should work together, with governing bodies and proprietors holding strategic responsibility.

Here is what BTnet does and does not do in that picture:

• Cleanfeed as standard. BT applies Cleanfeed to BTnet, which blocks pages on the Internet Watch Foundation's list. It is a baseline, not a school filtering system.
• BTnet Security as a layer. With the Cisco Meraki managed equipment option, BTnet Security adds content (URL) filtering, intrusion detection and prevention and malware protection. Whether it meets your filtering needs is for your DSL and IT support to judge against the DfE standards.
• Monitoring is separate. The DfE describes monitoring as watching what users do on devices. That sits with your own safeguarding tools and processes, not with the internet line.

BT's terms also say BT does not guarantee security against unauthorised access, which is another reason to treat the line as one layer among several. We will not tell you that a connection makes a school compliant; we will help you see where BTnet fits alongside the filtering and monitoring you already run.

Firewalls and who manages the equipment

The DfE expects a firewall as part of every school's internet and network system, either on site or as an edge service run by your supplier or IT support. BT's three BTnet plans split that responsibility differently:

Talk to your IT support before you choose. If they already run filtering on your own firewall, wires only or the Cisco router plan usually avoids paying for two overlapping layers.

Resilience and the backup connection

The DfE standard says schools and colleges should have a backup connection, so that the internet is not a single point of failure. It describes a combination of connections of different service types (its examples include a leased line combined with FTTP), multiple routers configured for automatic failover, and redundant power on core network equipment, and it says the backup should be in place alongside a new connection or as soon as possible after.

BT offers three resilience options for BTnet: failover to a standby line, load balancing across two lines, and a lower-speed back-up line. Each adds a second BTnet access line, with the equipment on the same LAN segment, and which option you can have depends on your configuration, routing protocol, speed and what is available at the site. BT's terms also make you responsible for secure, continuous power at the site, including back-up power, which fits the DfE's point about redundant power.

Because BTnet's options add a second BTnet line, how your backup plan lines up with the DfE's wording on different service types is a decision for the school or trust and its IT support. We can talk through BTnet's options and what each one covers, so the decision is made with the full picture.

Multi-academy trusts and several schools

Trusts often want the same standard of internet at every school. Each school takes its own BTnet service, so a large secondary can have a 1Gbps port with resilience while a small primary takes a lower speed on a bearer with room to grow, all planned together for the trust.

Schools often connect to each other and to central systems through encrypted VPNs between firewalls, using each school's static IPv4 addresses, and reach cloud platforms directly. BT says it uses Direct Private Peering to reach Microsoft, Apple, Google and Amazon cloud services, so traffic to them does not cross the public internet. Read more in multi-site leased lines and a leased line for Microsoft 365 and cloud apps.

Planning installation around the school year

Installation dates are BT's: every installation is subject to a site survey, and BT gives a Customer Committed Date after it. BT's help pages say a BTnet installation can take up to 70 working days, depending on the survey. That is long enough to cross a half term, so plan backwards from when you need the line live:

1. Start early, ideally a term before your current contract ends. See BTnet lead times, and ask whether BTnet Express, which BT delivers with easier-to-install cabling, could suit your site.
2. Prepare for the survey. Have the site manager available, building plans to hand and a view on where the comms cabinet is. See what happens at a site survey.
3. Check land and buildings. If the school does not own the building or land, landlord or owner consent through a wayleave agreement may be needed. Extra engineering work is covered by excess construction charges.
4. Plan access. BT's terms ask for site access in Business Hours (08:00 to 17:00) unless the order agrees otherwise, and BT can charge as if the service were installed if access is not given within five Business Days of its request. Plan who will open the site and look after visiting engineers under your safeguarding procedures.
5. Book someone for acceptance. You have five Business Days to carry out acceptance tests after BT says the service is ready; if you raise nothing, the service is treated as accepted. See preparing your site.

Holidays can be a good time for engineering work, but only if someone can open the site and be there for the engineers. Let us know your term dates when you ask for a quote.

How Forever Communications helps schools

Forever Communications is an Authorised Supplier for BT, and we supply BTnet to schools and trusts. For schools and trusts, we can:

• Review what your connection carries today and size a speed and bearer against the DfE figures
• Help you choose between BT's three BTnet plans with your IT support
• Set out BTnet's resilience options so you can plan your backup connection
• Prepare a written quote for one school or every school in a trust
• Help with survey, wayleave and site preparation questions as your order moves through installation

If you are also replacing the school's phone system, Forever Communications supplies BT Cloud Voice for schools too, so the line and the phones can be planned together. Pricing depends on your sites, speeds and options, so ask us for a quote. Contact us with your postcode and term dates.