Stover School reaches milestone

IT investment for expanding school

Stover School near Newton Abbot has completed the first stage of an ongoing investment in IT following a significant increase in pupil numbers at the school.

It has turned to the IT specialists of Francis Clark, who have undertaken a full audit of the school's former IT facilities, made recommendations and worked with the school to complete the first stage activity.

Growth at Stover School began four years ago when two local schools, St. Bernard's and Wolborough Hill, closed. Stover School, which had previously been a girls' school, found itself with boys for the first time as well as increased numbers in its Preparatory and Senior schools.

This led to the school restructuring its approach and adopting the Diamond model of education, where pupils are taught in a co-educational environment until Year 3 after which they are taught in parallel single sex classes until they reach A-level stage.

Sue Bradley, Headmistress at Stover School, said: "Our pupil numbers have almost doubled over the last 10 years and we have had to reconsider our teaching facilities to accommodate girls and boys. To do this we have built our Millennium building for Art, Photography and Media studies, a £1.4 million science block and refurbished our Preparatory school. It soon became clear that our current IT provision, both for pupils and for the running of the school, was starting to feel the strain, which is why we turned to Francis Clark for help."

Over the last six months experts at Francis Clark have made their recommendations and put in place stage one of the project, which includes 160 PCs and two new servers. All the PCs have been connected to the network, and the network itself has been extended. The project has also included the installation of a new computer suite in the Preparatory school.

Phil Mortimer, technical director at Francis Clark, commented: "Stover School is making a significant investment in updating its IT capacity, both for the pupils and for the school's administration. By the time the project is finished it will have one of the most innovative and future proofed IT systems in a school in the region."

Sue Bradley added: "We are delighted with progress so far. It gives us a more forward-thinking, reliable and dependable framework for computing in the school, and it gives us room for future growth as the school expands."

Stage two of the project will include a number of additional services to the school, including the provision of email facilities for the 60 girl boarders so they can remain in contact with home.