The short answer: School Wi-Fi usually drops in certain classrooms because the building has outgrown the network. Common causes are home-style routers, too few access points, thick walls, prefabs, old cabling and too many devices per room. A proper school Wi-Fi upgrade starts with a site survey. Next comes business-grade equipment on tested cabling, with separate networks and central monitoring.
This guide is for principals, deputy principals, boards of management and ICT coordinators in Meath, Cavan, Westmeath, Louth and Dublin. It covers the usual causes, what a planned upgrade involves and the questions a board should ask a provider.
Why school Wi-Fi drops in some classrooms
Oide Technology in Education publishes a WiFi Network Guide for Schools. With a suitable system, it says, teachers and students “should not experience any ad-hoc or intermittent drops”. So, if one room keeps losing signal, something specific is usually wrong. Finding that cause is the first job of any school Wi-Fi upgrade.
In our experience, the same few causes come up again and again:
- Consumer or broadband-provider routers doing a job they were never built for.
- Too few access points, or access points placed in corridors rather than classrooms.
- Thick stone, brick or concrete walls, plus prefabs and extensions that sit outside the main signal.
- Old, damaged or untested cabling back to the switch.
- A full class of laptops or tablets all connecting at the same time.
Oide is clear that “WiFi systems suitable for home i.e. domestic use, are not suitable for schools”. Similarly, the Department of Education’s wireless guidance for primary schools notes that concrete and brick walls weaken Wi-Fi signals. Older buildings can need more access points than first planned.
Check the broadband before planning a school Wi-Fi upgrade
Equally, not every dropout is a Wi-Fi fault. Oide points out that the problem may lie with the school broadband connection or other equipment. For that reason, it recommends asking your IT support company to check all of these together.
Also, schools on the Schools Broadband Programme can contact the Broadband Service Desk about the connection itself. Sometimes, the fix turns out to be a damaged cable or a setting, rather than new equipment. A good provider will tell you that honestly.
What a proper school Wi-Fi upgrade involves
In short, a planned upgrade follows a clear order. Each step builds on the one before, so skipping the survey usually means paying for mistakes later.
Start every school Wi-Fi upgrade with a site survey
The Department’s guidance recommends that providers visit and carry out a detailed site survey. It also adds that a high-quality survey “is much more than a simple physical walk-through”. In practice, the provider measures signal room by room, using floor plans. They should also ask how many devices each room uses at once, and for what.
Business-grade access points and firewall
After the survey, the school Wi-Fi upgrade design sets out how many access points you need and where. Typically, these are business-grade units, mounted in or near classrooms. Each one draws power through its network cable from a managed PoE switch. Meanwhile, a business firewall sits between the school network and the internet. The NCSC’s quick guide for schools advises a firewalled connection, with firewall controls monitored and tested.
Separate networks for staff, pupil devices and guests
Staff, pupil devices and visitors should not share one network. Oide advises “a separate SSID (Network Name) for Teachers, Students and Visitors”. After all, this protects school data and keeps the network running smoothly. For instance, a visitor’s phone should never be able to reach the office PC that holds pupil records.
Content filtering that suits your pupils
Filtering is part of the broadband service provided through the Schools Broadband Programme, which offers six filtering levels. As a result, any school Wi-Fi upgrade should work alongside that filtering, not bypass it. Your provider should check that local network settings don’t undo it.
Tested and labelled cabling
Above all, Wi-Fi is only as good as the cabling behind it. New runs should be Cat6 or better. In fact, the Department’s guidance recommends Cat6a or higher for new access point cabling. Then, every cable needs a label and a test, and the school should receive the test results. That record makes a school Wi-Fi upgrade far easier to maintain.
Central management and monitoring
Finally, one central console should manage the whole system. That way, faults show up quickly, and updates reach every access point. Ideally, your ICT coordinator can see whether access points are online, without having to log in to each one.
Hypothetical example
Imagine a 12-classroom primary school with two prefabs. The signal drops in the prefabs and the back corridor. A survey finds one home router, two extenders and no cable to the prefabs. The fix: new cable runs, access points in each problem room and three separate networks.
Questions a board should ask before approving a school Wi-Fi upgrade
Before signing off, the board or principal should put these questions to any provider:
- Will you carry out a site survey and give us a coverage map?
- How many access points do you recommend, and why in those locations?
- How many devices per room is the design built to handle?
- Will the school Wi-Fi upgrade give staff, pupil devices and guests separate networks?
- How will the new system work with our Schools Broadband filtering?
- Will you label and test new cabling, and hand the results over to us?
- Can our ICT coordinator see the system status from a single console?
- What warranty, support and training are included, and how do we report a fault?
- Can you provide references from schools with similar buildings?
Moreover, Oide suggests getting more than one quote. In addition, it offers schools objective advice through ictadvice@oide.ie if a proposal needs a second opinion.
Wi-Fi, devices and data protection
Overall, a reliable network supports everything else on the school’s digital plan. If you’re also reviewing laptops and classroom displays, see our guide to managing classroom devices. Likewise, the Data Protection Commission’s Data Protection Toolkit for Schools explains schools’ duties as data controllers. In practice, separate networks help keep pupil data away from guest devices. To check the IT side more broadly, try our free Cyber Health Check.
How Sweeney Computer Services can help with a school Wi-Fi upgrade
Oliver Sweeney founded the company in 1985. Today, we support more than 50 businesses and more than 10 schools from Hurdlestown, Kells, Co. Meath. In particular, our own team carries out the survey, cabling, access points and firewall work. We can also certify Cat6 cabling and hand over the test report.
After installation, we can monitor the network as part of our managed IT support. Our helpdesk runs Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm. Read more about our Wi-Fi, networking and cabling work and our IT support for schools.
A quick sense-check
Classrooms losing Wi-Fi?
Book a short call with Michael Sweeney to talk through your school’s network and next steps.
