Woodmansterne School integrates 44 Interactive Flat Panels into new facilities

Over 40 Interactive Flat Panel (IFP) displays from global electronics manufacturer BenQ have been integrated into Woodmansterne School in London, as part of a large-scale transformative expansion and dedication to providing exceptional educational facilities to its students.

Building a state-of-the-art secondary school to accompany its primary school facility, Woodmansterne School appointed experienced education technology integrators, Partnership Education to specify and manage the AV integration for the five-fold expansion.

Increasing its student intake from 350 to 2000 pupils, Woodmansterne School specifically requested an interactive display solution which would be easy to use for students ranging in ages from 2 – 16 years, as well as its staff.

Specifying the 75” RP750K IFP from BenQ’s RP Series, Partnership Education installed 44 displays throughout classrooms, support rooms, dedicated music studios and library to encourage active learning. Featuring 4K resolution, 20 multi-touch interactivity and BenQ’s exclusive EZWrite software, Woodmansterne has future-proofed its site for students as they progress through their school years.

Sam Palin, executive headteacher, Woodmansterne school:

“We love the greater display size BenQ were able to provide, that was a key feature for us and we were also able to put a couple in the library and in the support rooms. I would also say the support we’ve had in terms of training has been really good so absolutely, I’d recommend BenQ.”

BenQ provided teachers with initial training with the IFPs as well as ongoing support and additional training twice a year, ensuring all staff felt confident with the equipment and can use the full educational software toolbox of features on offer. As a result of the large roll-out, Woodmansterne has entered BenQ’s list of “super users”.

Woodmansterne’s IT department utilised BenQ’s exclusive Account Management System (AMS) to provide teachers access to their lesson plans and materials on any display throughout the entire school, as well as gain remote access for display maintenance and service.

In addition, Partnership Education specified cutting-edge equipment across five IT suites with 3D printing facilities, to dedicated music studios and a high-tech assembly hall. The school operates on a dual fibre network system integrated by Lynx Networks, with the primary and secondary sites operating independent networks.

After the school had suffered with delays and quality issues from its previous project, the overall challenge for Partnership Education was to deliver the project on time and within budget.

Palin continues:

“What Partnership Education has done has worked in harmony with us. They’ve been completely committed to delivering on budget and delivering ahead of schedule. For me personally, we went from the worst experience a headteacher could have on a new build to one of the best experiences that you could have.”