When a school decides to do things properly
How I redesigned a school's network infrastructure from scratch — from the inside
There's a huge advantage in knowing a problem from the inside. You know exactly where it hurts, where time gets wasted, where the temporary fix became permanent without anyone really noticing.
I also teach IT at this school. So when they gave me the network upgrade project, I wasn't just gathering a client's requirements: I was finally getting my hands on something I experienced first-hand every day in the classroom.
THE STARTING POINT
On paper, the project looked like a simple replacement of access points and firewall. In reality it was much more: a complete rethink of the network infrastructure of a school with over 150 students and 20 staff members.
A network that had grown messily over time, patched up here and there, with all kinds of devices connecting without any clear logic. It worked, more or less. But it wasn't secure, it wasn't scalable and — above all — it wasn't suited to a modern school environment.
WHAT WE DID
The first step was network segmentation. Today the school has separate VLANs for staff, students, guests and mobile devices. Everyone sees only what they need to see, nothing more. In an environment with minors, this isn't a technical detail: it's a responsibility.
We then redesigned the rules between the networks. Students can use the printers, but in a controlled and traceable way. A small thing, a big difference in day-to-day practice.
The firewall and access points were replaced entirely. Wi-Fi coverage was redesigned starting from the building's actual floor plan, and DHCP was reconfigured to handle all connected devices with room to spare — and in a school, between smartphones, tablets and laptops, there are far more of them than you'd think.
We added failover on a dual connection, fibre and 5G. Because when you're in the middle of a lesson or the electronic register, an outage isn't just an annoyance: it stops everything.
Finally, the physical infrastructure: all the network cables were replaced and certified. Sensitive devices are on wired LAN, everything else on Wi-Fi, with communication between the networks where necessary and appropriate.
THE NEXT STEPS
The project is still ongoing. The next steps are centralising the data archive — currently scattered across NAS, local drives and servers — and migrating to Microsoft 365 Education, to bring advanced email, collaboration and centralised identity management to the whole school community.
A THOUGHT
Working in education is different from working with a company. The infrastructure you build isn't there to optimise a production process: it's there for young people who are studying and for teachers who do their best every day.
That changes the way you design. It changes the priorities. And — for me at least — it also changes the satisfaction when things work.
Are you considering a similar project for your school or institution? Let's talk about it over a..
