Beechwood School
From Schoolforge-UK
Case study
| School Name | Beechwood Schools Ltd | Role in school | Managing Director |
| School Location | Streatham, South London | Student numbers | 200 |
| Age range | Primary & secondary | Teachers | 20 |
| Computers | 40 | GNU/Linux computers | 26 |
| Length of Time (Start) | 3 years | User GROUP Affiliation | South London LUG |
| Request Assistance? | Yes | Project Leader | Phil Marshall |
| Project URL | http://www.beechwoodschool.com | Contact E-mail | pm at beechwoodschool.com |
| How Project Started: | Initially we wanted reliable servers, decided the M$ route was too expensive, not reliable, no real support, not flexible. M$ workstations, we tried Win 98, no security, WinNT, security better but children can still install poor quality programs (from the internet!) which mess up machines causing reinstallation to be necessary. Also email viruses were becoming an issue. Our move to ADSL also meant that a more complex firewall system was required. | ||
| Why use GNU/Linux? | I knew of the potential of a UNIX/Linux system and you cannot argue about the cost! The enormous flexibility of Linux, although initially daunting, eventually gives you the confidence that problems can be solved. | ||
| Project Description | We are now running Linux servers for file sharing (NFS and Samba), a bastion/choke firewall for our Internet connection and email server. Apart FROM the main server, which is a large P4 pc, the other PC's are old small Pentiums that have been replaced as workstations. Cost for entire server set up including a backup server was <£1800 including network switches, cabling and odds and ends (the old Pentiums I have assumed would have no value.)
Our workstations, all new, are a mixture of P4 and P3 machines bought through a local vendor to our design. They were tested to be Linux friendly. In fact we specify that for any IT item we now buy. Currently most of the workstations run RH7.1/KDE2.1.1 and are used for classroom management use i.e. internet access, email, access to school databases, lesson planning etc. We will continue the change for all our remaining M$ pc's for pupil use as soon as possible (I have run out of time as usual!). We are currently using OpenOffice 1.0 which, although it is early days yet, seems to be an excellent package and very well done. Many other applications that we use come FROM KOffice. Primary school software is limited but we do not need a lot of that anyway. Our children seem to get on to real applications very quickly. |
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| Project Evaluation | Has it been a success? I would say very much so. Most of our staff are not computer literate, but they are able to cope very well with a minimum of training and putting pc's on their desks and asking them to use them is working!
As far as the servers go, that was never in doubt. They are almost fit and forget apart FROM system admin security upgrades and checks. There are no reliability issues with the Linux server software that we have experienced.
Suggestions for improvement: (I think most of this has been said before)
1. Upgrading KDE is far too difficult for a busy school administrator. Our v 2.1.1 supplied with RH2.1 has a few bugs that I would hope v 3.0 would sort out but I cannot get the upgrade instructions to work! |
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| Future Uses | We are already committed to Linux throughout the school. Other projects to come: a lot more PHP/MySQL development integrated INTO the school website, we could do with a VPN soon to link other sites. | ||
| Additional Info | I think LUGs need to be organised to promote/support open source in schools and colleges. Everything is now of such a good quality that this can be done successfully. | ||
| Submitted by: | Phil Marshall | ||
