A primary school in the Devon countryside may at first seem an unlikely setting for technology innovation in education but Stoke Canon Primary School, just outside Exeter, has a history of making good use of IT to assist its 170 pupils. One of the fi rst primary schools to install and network computers in the classroom in the 1980s, Stoke Canon, with the help of its Head Malcolm Hunt, is now at the forefront of the thin client revolution in the classroom. “Our computing infrastructure was beginning to creak and we were looking into upgrading our network and PCs,” said Malcolm Hunt. “We were recommended to look at IGEL thin clients and I was instantly impressed by what I saw.”

Size matters in education
Stoke Canon wanted to create a new ICT suite in the school. “The first thing I noticed was the size of the IGEL thin clients,”
said Malcolm. “Space in schools is a big issue and thin clients enabled us to install more desktops in the ICT suite than we
had imagined possible with traditional PCs. Combine this with the fact that the thin clients have no moving parts and you not
only save on space but also cut down on the heat output from the machines and the power use.”

Long-term return is key
Securing its investment by ensuring that the new infrastructure could be managed effectively and upgraded was also a key concern for Stoke Canon. “With the server-based computing infrastructure, IGEL thin clients and management software we are able to upgrade the servers and manage the desktops from a single point,” said Malcolm. “It means that new software applications can be added easily at the server without having to install the software to each desktop. The thin clients themselves are very reliable and it became clear very quickly that by taking this decision we would be making a good long-term return on our investment.”

Alchemy works its magic
Stoke Canon worked with IGEL partner Alchemy Systems to upgrade the school’s network and install the server-based computing infrastructure using Microsoft Terminal Services. Today, the school’s ICT unit is running IGEL-2100 LX Smart thin clients with an embedded flash Linux operating system.

Kelyan Welsman New Business Manager for Alchemy Systems said: “Alchemy understand the needs of the primary and secondary education market and how to make the technology transparent to the user. It is the knowledge and content which should be in front of the child, not the technology which delivers it, and that’s why we put IGEL’s thin clients into the solution.”

Malcolm Hunt commented: “My experience working with Alchemy and the IGEL thin clients has been nothing but good. Alchemy completed the network upgrade and had the system up and running in just two weeks. The only issue we have experienced is the challenge of running some of the older educational applications which were not designed for use over this type of network and these minor issues are now all being ironed out.”

Remote access is the future
In the future, the school is looking to rollout thin clients into every classroom and is considering allowing remote access
for teachers and parents to the network. “The benefits of secure, remote access would be tremendous,” said Malcolm. “Not only for teachers but also for parents working with their children from home.”

With server-based computing and IGEL, Stoke Canon looks set to continue to be at the forefront of educational technology innovation for many years to come.