TL;DR: Even a brand new connection can fail for reasons nobody controls. The DfE says schools should have a backup connection. The real questions are what you need to keep working, and how independent your backup really is.
Your broadband is the school’s connection to the internet. A backup connection is a second line, often slower, that keeps essential services running if the main one fails.
Registers, the MIS, email, cloud-based learning and often phones all depend on the internet. When the connection drops, much of the school day is affected. A backup line won’t stop a fault happening, but it can keep the essentials working while the main line is repaired.
A school had a new full-fibre connection installed. The speeds were excellent and everything worked as it should.
About a month later, the internet went down.
The cause wasn’t a router setting or a faulty computer. It was rats.
A problem beyond the school gate
The internet provider traced the fault to a cable chamber down the road, outside the school grounds. Rodents had chewed through the fibre.
This wasn’t a quick fix. There wasn’t enough spare fibre locally, so a long new run had to be brought in from further afield, then wrapped in protective mesh to deter animals in future.
The provider responded within its agreed timescales. But a big repair still takes time.
“How do we stop this happening again?”
That was the school’s first question. Our Director of Technical Services, James Meer, gave them an honest answer: “We literally can’t stop it happening again.”
The provider had done what it could. But accidental damage, roadworks, equipment failures and problems outside the school can all still cut a connection.
What the school could change was what happens next time.
The backup nobody thought they needed
A backup connection had been suggested before the outage. At the time, it didn’t seem worth the cost. Afterwards, its value was much easier to see.
A backup line doesn’t need to match the main connection. “Yes, it’s slower, but it’s there to tide you over while the other line gets repaired,” James says.
Its job is to keep the essentials running: perhaps the MIS, email, internet-based phones and the cloud systems the office relies on, even if some classroom activities have to pause.
It’s also worth agreeing in advance how the backup takes over, ideally automatically, so nobody has to scramble when the main line drops.
What the DfE says
The DfE’s broadband standard says schools and colleges “should have a backup broadband connection to ensure resilience and maintain continuity of service”.
It’s a “should” rather than a legal requirement, and schools are expected to be working towards the broadband standards by 2030. The guidance also suggests resilience is best put in place alongside a new connection, or as soon as possible afterwards.
Not every backup protects you equally
A second connection reduces risk, but only if it’s genuinely separate from the first.
Recently, a school in a Trust we support reported that its WiFi was down. The team checked and quickly found it wasn’t the school at all. The whole village had lost its connection. In a case like that, a backup running through the same local infrastructure could well have gone down too.
That’s why the DfE suggests combining different types of connection, so a single incident is less likely to take out both.
Five things to check
- What would stop working if our main broadband failed?
- Do we have a backup connection, and does it switch over automatically?
- Are our main and backup lines different types of service, using different routes?
- What response times has our provider agreed if we lose connectivity?
- Which systems would we prioritise on a slower backup line?
Planning for the day it fails
At ekte, we help schools work out what they need to keep running, and then the most sensible way to protect it. Our page on broadband for schools explains how we approach connections and resilience.
A good connection matters. Knowing what happens when it fails matters just as much.
And sometimes, as this school found, the cause is something nobody could have predicted when the cable went in.
Consider what would happen if your school’s broadband failed tomorrow morning. Identify the services you couldn’t operate without and whether you have a reliable way of keeping them connected.
If you’re unsure how resilient your current connection is, ekte can help you explore suitable backup arrangements and understand the options available.
Start a conversation: sales@ekte.uk
