Case Study

OVERVIEW

Brunel Academies Trust, which encompasses 10 primary and secondary schools with a focus on Special Education Needs (SEN), required a comprehensive solution to ensure the safe use of their hundreds of school-owned iPads and Windows laptops. With students using these devices both on-site and at home, the Trust needed a robust system to safeguard their vulnerable students.

THE CHALLENGE: SAFEGUARDING SEN STUDENTS ONLINE

Connor Bailey, an IT Technician at Brunel, manages two of the Trust’s schools and emphasises the importance of strong filtering and monitoring for SEN students. “With an SEN MAT, some challenges are different, but others are the same as in a normal trust,” Connor explains. “They still try to access inappropriate websites, and some students with learning difficulties can be more challenging.”

To ensure protection, especially for their SEN students, Brunel needed a solution that could effectively filter and monitor online activity, providing safeguards both at school and at home.

With multiple sites, he also needed something that provided simple customisation options to meet the needs of various students and reporting to headteachers to ensure everyone had the information they needed.

ENHANCING MONITORING WITH LIGHTSPEED ALERT

To bolster their online safety efforts, Brunel also implemented Lightspeed Alert, which provides proactive monitoring using AI and a dedicated human review team. Lightspeed Alert helps protect against threats such as bullying, extremism, self-harm, and violence, all in line with the latest Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance.

“Monitoring is one of the most important things, especially with the safeguarding guidance from KCSIE,” Connor emphasises. “With Lightspeed Alert, we can send alerts directly to headteachers, so we don’t have to monitor it ourselves constantly. It’s easy to customise too—you can filter by user, searches, or anything else.”

With an SEN MAT, some challenges are different, but others are the same as in a normal trust. They still try to access inappropriate websites, and some students with learning difficulties can be more challenging

FLEXIBLE, TAILORED PROTECTION WITH LIGHTSPEED FILTER

After evaluating various options, Brunel Academies Trust chose Lightspeed Filter for its customisable features and ability to ensure protection wherever the devices are used. “We knew Lightspeed was the best option for us. Before, we were just using filtering through a firewall, but with Lightspeed, we could fully customise it,” Connor shares. One of the key benefits was the capability to filter content even when devices were taken home. The price point also played a significant role in their decision.

An important feature that appealed to Brunel was the education-focused reporting in Lightspeed Filter. The ability to schedule reports for automatic delivery to relevant staff members made monitoring seamless. “The headteachers receive a report every week. We don’t usually need to touch them unless we’re asked, and they’re really easy to view,” says Connor. “With just a couple of clicks, the information is right in front of you. There are great filters you can use in the reports to get exactly what you need.”

While most filtering policies are managed centrally across Brunel’s schools, there are exceptions for students with specific needs. For example, at one of their sites focused on learning difficulties, students have more restricted internet access due to the risks posed by what they may try to access. “We block a lot more websites for them because of what they try to get to,” Connor explains. “For exams, we even have an exam user login where all websites except Microsoft Word are blocked.”

Lightspeed Filter makes always-on protection, customised policies, and automated headteacher reporting simple.

With Lightspeed Alert, we can send alerts directly to headteachers, so we don’t have to monitor it ourselves constantly. It’s easy to customise too—you can filter by user, searches, or anything else.

RESULTS: SEAMLESS COMPLIANCE & FLEXIBLE SAFEGUARDING ACROSS SCHOOLS

Another crucial factor for choosing Lightspeed Filter was its full compliance with UK Safer Internet Centre’s standards, which ensures Ofsted compliance for the Trust. “With six sites, we have frequent Ofsted inspections. They check our filtering and monitoring standards regularly, and with Lightspeed, we can confidently ensure that we’re up to date and compliant,” Connor says. The ease of preparing for inspections with Lightspeed’s tools has been invaluable to the Trust.

Brunel Academies Trust is confident in their ability to provide strong digital safeguarding across all current and future schools in their network. “With Lightspeed, it doesn’t matter where the devices are—you’ll always have filtering,” Connor says. “For us, it makes our job much easier. You’ve got the alerts, customisable permissions, and policies all in one place. It’s perfect.”