Sherston Primary School: Virtual Desktop Computing increases ICT Availability

Sherston Church of England Primary School, in Wiltshire, has approximately 150 pupils ranging from 5 to 11 years old. Sherston's Head Teacher, Nick Bowditch, was very focussed on creating an environment where each pupil had access to an individual PC, rather than maintaining the current situation where they had to share in groups. Also, the existing PCs were beginning to age and were due for a full refresh.

Nick had heard about NComputing from other head teachers in the area and decided to contact KL, one of NComputing's leading UK partners, for advice. Following a full survey of issues, requirements and site assessment KL recommended NComputing's X550 virtual desktop solution.

Challenge: To double the number of PCs in the ICT suite, replacing the existing suite of PCs with a solution which cost less and delivered more and thus improve the learning environment for the pupils.

Solution: To deploy NComputing's X550 Virtualised Desktop from KL.

Results: ICT procurement costs have been halved, whilst access has been doubled. Teaching time in ICT lessons has increased dramatically, and the teaching environment has been made substantially more conducive to effective learning. Reliability has improved and future desktop refresh costs have been massively reduced.

View the PDF case study here or read in full below.

Sherston Church of England Primary School is located in Wiltshire with approximately 150 pupils ranging from 5 to 11 years old. The school is a relatively new build, and has a designated open-plan classroom area dedicated to ICT. Equipped with 30 seats and desks, but just 15 desktop tower PCs, the suite has proven to be of huge benefit to the pupils in their use of ICT. However, Sherston's Head Teacher, Nick Bowditch, was very focussed on creating an environment where each pupil had access to an individual PC rather than sharing in groups. Also, the existing PCs were beginning to age and were due for a full refresh.

The challenge of affording a significant increase in the amount of ICT in school, along with the need to conduct a full ICT refresh within highly constrained budgets, is a scenario all too familiar for many schools. Not only that, but with increasing demands to lower operational costs, increase reliability and ease of use, as well as reducing caron footprint, many head teachers are facing an apparently impossible conundrum. So how is the problem solved?

"Our ICT suite is a real asset to the school" explains Nick. "We have doubled the capacity that we had, at a fraction of the cost. Additionally, there is no clutter on the desktop as the PC towers have all gone. At the beginning of the school day we simply start each of the host PCs and all the other workstations automatically come on line".

Nick adds "Because of the extaordinarily low cost of running NComputing's virtual desktop, we can leave the whole thing running all day with almost no cost. This means that computers are available to the children all day, with little or no teacher supervision. Additionally, there is no noise or heat from the units, which makes the learning environment so much better for pupils and teachers alike". One of the real selling points of this system is that "each pupil can work on different applications from a single host exactly as though they had their own PC. All the benefits of dedicated PCs with none of the fuss, and much lower costs!".

Costs Down - ICT Up!

"I'd heard about NComputing from other head teachers in the area who had deployed the technology in their schools." recalls Nick. "Considering the apparently conflicting challenges of reducing costs whilst increasing ICT availability, I decided to contact one of NComputing's leading UK partners - KL - to come and talk to us."

KL met with Nick and talked to him at length about what he was really trying to achieve. As with most schools, Nick and his team were trying to balance the availability/cost problem. Sherston had a well-equipped room and were able to deliver ICT lessons to classes of 30 or more pupils at the same time, but with shared access to PCs. Clearly, the advantages of each pupil having an individual PC are obvious, but the affordability isn't. Additionally, as with any size of PC or laptop deployment there is a significant challenge for the teacher in regard to the amount of time and knowledge they need to have in order to manage the physical technology, whilst delivering an active and instructive lesson. Also, the sound and heat generated by nearly 15 PCs running at the same time has major impact on the teacher's ability to be heard, and on the comfort and learning environment for the pupils.

"It is tough enough being a teacher at any time." comments Kieran Lees, KL's managing director. "When a teacher runs an ITC lesson, they not only have to deliver the curriculum but also have to deal with the boot-up and shut-down time of every PC or laptop, as well as trouble-shooting any technology problems that occur during the lesson. These could be pupil-generated, or be genuine technology issues on each individual PC. Irrespective of the cause, nature and severity of the issues, the teacher is expected to sort it out whilst delivering a lesson to the rest of the class. In reality - in a 30 minute lesson - by the time the class are all seated, the PCs are running, and problems are sorted during the lesson, the teacher is lucky if they get to dedicate 50% of the time available to actual teaching."

So what was the solution? After completing a full survey of issues, requirements and site assessment, KL recommended NComputing's X550 virtual desktop. The ICT suite now runs with 4 host PCs and 27 workstations in total.

Cooler, Quieter - A Better Teaching Environment

The desktop virtualisation solutions are quieter and produce virtually no heat, making the environment for students and teachers so much more comfortable. Also, because the units are so small and can be easily hidden and secured, the likelihood of theft or vandalism - with all its resultant headaches - is massively reduced.

Desktop virtualisation works because today's PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of applications only use a small fraction of the computer's capacity. The 'virtualisation' hardware and software taps into this unused capacity so that it can be simultaneously shared by multiple students. Each student's monitor, keyboard and mouse connect to the shared PC through a small and very durable access device.

The access device itself has no CPU, memory or moving parts - so it's rugged, reliable and easy to deploy and maintain - and if the worst should happen, it's a fraction of the cost of a new PC to replace.

By spreading out the cost of the shared computer schools and colleges can provide up to five times the number of workstations for the same money.