Unley High School is a comprehensive secondary school in Adelaide that pursues excellence in all areas. It has a proud record of academic success, sporting involvement, student well-being and connection with families.
For a school that strives to do “The Utmost for The Highest”, Unley High School actively seeks continuous improvement in technologically enhanced pedagogy.Its 1,550 students and their parents as well as the 160 staff, place high value on Unley High School’s IT environment. Continually assessing needs, potential improvements and future-proofing, led to a campus-wide network refresh being undertaken as part of a major capital works project.
In the context of today’s advanced technological learning environments, reliable and fast internet connectivity has become a crucial component within the classroom. Konrad Date, the Computer Systems Manager at Unley High School, emphasises the significance of this digital shift. He notes, “Unley High School comprises roughly 160 classrooms and meeting spaces, all of which require reliable internet connectivity to support modern teaching and learning technologies. In addition to wired desktops, we accommodate approximately 1500 wireless devices engaged in various internet activities, including video and audio streaming. Our 10Gbps internet connection, facilitated by SABRENet, ensures robust and dependable connectivity, instilling confidence in our digital learning environment.”
The relationship between Unley High School, SABRENet, and ISP partner AARNet has its roots in a fortuitous interaction back in 2012. “Our involvement with a CEGSA Conference (Computer Education Group of South Australia, now called EDTechSA), facilitated by Ralph Leonard, then President of CEGSA and a representative of SABRENet, highlighted the limitations of our existing ADSL2 and ISP in meeting our rapidly growing internet usage needs. The superior internet speed experienced at the conference underscored our need to upgrade.” With SABRENet’s dark fibre infrastructure already in place, connecting to it was a straightforward process. Unley High School has maintained its connection with SABRENet ever since, reflecting the successful initiation of this partnership.
SABRENet’s swift and dependable connection, brings significant value to Unley High School’s classrooms, offering flexibility and adaptability to meet emerging needs. “Following the completion of our capital works and comprehensive network upgrade, we’ve introduced an additional SABRENet connection to our new building, aiming to diversify our internet access. Consequently, we are exploring offsite backups and replication to a data centre, conveniently located nearby in Kingswood,” says Konrad. Unley High School takes pride in being the first school to collaborate with AARNet via SABRENet, a partnership that began with a 1Gbps connection in 2012 and has since flourished. Konrad attests, “Our internet connection has remained consistently reliable and fast. The service and advice we’ve received from SABRENet, in conjunction with AARNet engineers, has been exceptional.”
