Regents Park Community College
From Schoolforge-UK
Case Study
Regents Park Community College is a state-funded secondary school in Southampton. The Technical Administrator for Information Technology from 2003 to 2006 was Tony Whitmore.
Open Source Software Use:
- Internet Access Control - The CensorNet project (based on Debian GNU/Linux and released under the GNU GPL) is proving very popular with teaching staff, as it allows internet access to be controlled within classrooms. We have also been able to block access to web sites that it would not be appropriate for Southampton City Council, who filter web content for all schools, to block. Teaching staff say that learning has improved when internet access can be disabled. It runs on a desktop-spec system and proxies and filters approximately 500 client systems.
- Intranet Facilities - We use an old Dell desktop system running Debian GNU/Linux to provide intranet facilities including a UseMod wiki and STORM which allows staff to submit support requests over the network rather than using a paper based form.
- File Storage - We use a dual-Xeon SCSI server running Debian GNU/Linux and Samba to provide quota-ed storage space for all 1300 users, allowing us to allocate a quota of 100MB per user. There is considerable scope for expansion of the system in the future. The files are scanned for viruses by ClamAV. A similar system provides shared access file storage for collaborative work.
- Shared Software - We use a dual-Xeon SCSI server running Debian GNU/Linux and Samba to share CD images, central software installations and other shared resources.
- System Image Deployment - Ghost 4 Linux is used for system image deployment, alongside vsFTPd.
- Groupware - SUSE Linux OpenExchange is used to provide groupware and local e-mail facilities for users via the web interface and Microsoft Outlook plug-in.
- Desktops - The school's desktops all have OpenOffice.org (in addition to Microsoft Office), Audacity, PDFCreator, WinGIMP, ffdshow and VNC installed, all of which are FLOSS projects.
- Network Management - We use the Nagios software to monitor our network devices, along with mrtg to keep an eye on our wireless access points. We also run an Undernet IRC daemon to allow the ICT Support Team and ICT Technicians across the LEA to communicate. Some of the ICT Support Team use Ubuntu desktop systems.
