What keeps Education IT leaders awake
Filtering + monitoring duty (KCSIE)
Keeping Children Safe in Education requires filtering AND monitoring across all devices and networks the school controls. DfE's 2023 standard expects evidence — not a tick box.
Ransomware against schools and MATs
The NCSC has issued multiple warnings about ransomware specifically targeting the education sector — Office Web Apps, RDP and unpatched VPN are the recurring vectors.
Stretched IT teams supporting 500+ devices
One IT manager per school is the norm; one IT team per MAT covers 5–20 schools. Tooling has to do the heavy lifting — Microsoft Intune, autopilot, scripted standardisation.
Strict budgets + CCS / NEUPC frameworks
Procurement runs through Crown Commercial Service, NEUPC, NWUPC, ESPO, KCS frameworks. Pricing has to be transparent and framework-compliant.
Engineered for education reality
KCSIE filtering + monitoring
Smoothwall, Lightspeed, Senso, Securly — Servnet deploys and manages filtering + monitoring against DfE's 2023 standard with auditable evidence for Ofsted and safeguarding leads.
Cyber Essentials Plus + DfE Cyber Standards
DfE has published Cyber Security Standards for schools (covering MFA, backup, patching, incident response). Servnet maps your current state, deploys the gaps and supports certification.
Microsoft 365 for Education + Intune
Properly tenanted, properly licensed (A1/A3/A5), with Intune device autopilot for staff laptops and shared-device profiles for student kit. Entra ID conditional access tuned for education.
Immutable backup + DR
Veeam or Rubrik backup of M365 (mailbox + SharePoint + OneDrive) with immutable storage so a ransomware event doesn't encrypt the backups too — addressing the gap many MATs found during 2024 incidents.
The frameworks Servnet supports
KCSIE (Keeping Children Safe in Education)
Filtering + monitoring duty, online safety, DSL evidence. Refreshed annually.
DfE Cyber Security Standards (2023)
Required minimum cyber posture for schools — MFA, backups, multi-factor for admin, incident planning.
Cyber Essentials Plus
Increasingly required by ESFA / EFA grant conditions and academy trust insurance.
GDPR + DPA 2018 (Children's data)
Children's data attracts Article 8 protections; pupil records, photographs and behaviour data need DPIA review.
ISO 27001
Adopted by larger MATs and higher-education institutions.
NEUPC / NWUPC / CCS frameworks
Servnet supplies through framework agreements where applicable for transparent procurement.
Customer profiles served
- ✓Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) — 3 to 50+ schools
- ✓Independent schools (HMC, IAPS, ISC)
- ✓Sixth-form and FE colleges
- ✓Universities (research IT, faculty IT, campus networks)
- ✓Local Authority maintained school clusters
- ✓EdTech SaaS vendors deploying into UK schools
Education IT FAQs
Can you procure through DfE frameworks (CCS, NEUPC, ESPO, KCS)?
Yes — we transact through CCS (Crown Commercial Service), NEUPC / NWUPC consortium frameworks, ESPO and KCS where applicable. We can quote both framework and direct routes so you can compare.
Do you handle KCSIE filtering and monitoring?
Yes — Smoothwall, Lightspeed, Senso and Securly deployments across schools and MATs. We provide the DfE-aligned filtering and monitoring evidence pack your safeguarding leads need for Ofsted.
Can you help our MAT achieve Cyber Essentials Plus?
Yes — increasingly grant funding and insurance requires CE+. We run a gap analysis across all schools in the MAT, deploy consistent controls (Defender for Business, Intune, immutable backup), and support certification.
How do you handle multi-school MATs with one quote?
A single MAT-wide quote with school-by-school deployment plan, single SLA, single account team, centralised reporting. Most MATs see 15–25% cost reduction vs school-by-school procurement.
Education IT briefing — monthly
Vendor releases, education-specific security alerts and compliance updates relevant to UK education IT teams. Once a month, easy unsubscribe.
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Ready to talk to a Education IT specialist?
One conversation. No sales script, no obligation, no auto-renewals. We'll scope the technical detail and price honestly.