Thundridge CoE Primary School Case Study
A one-day migration from a legacy analogue PBX to a cloud telephone system with school-wide emergency broadcasting.
Replacing an ageing school telephone system with reliable calling and emergency broadcasting
Thundridge Church of England Primary School needed to replace its legacy analogue PBX with a modern telephone platform that could provide dependable communications throughout the school.
Intuity proposed Intermedia Elevate, a cloud communications platform that would deliver telephone service to classrooms and administrative areas while providing enhanced features for the headteacher and reception team.
The requirement
The existing analogue telephone system no longer provided the flexibility or features the school required. Fifteen new desk phones needed to be deployed around the site so staff could make and receive calls from the rooms in which they worked.
The school also needed improved call handling for its headteacher and reception team without introducing an unnecessarily complicated system for classroom users.
Safeguarding and emergency communication
A key requirement was the ability to issue an immediate broadcast message across the school during a site emergency or safeguarding incident.
The selected solution therefore needed to send a simultaneous announcement through the speakers of every compatible desk phone, helping school leaders communicate urgent instructions quickly and consistently.
The Intuity solution
Intuity designed a cloud-based solution using Intermedia Elevate. Moving the school away from its local analogue PBX removed the need to maintain ageing on-site telephone hardware and introduced a platform that could be managed and supported more easily.
- Fifteen new IP desk phones deployed throughout the school.
- Cloud telephone service delivered through Intermedia Elevate.
- Outbound calling available from every designated room.
- The school’s main telephone number presented on external calls.
- Enhanced call-handling features for the headteacher and reception.
- School-wide emergency announcements through desk-phone speakers.
Careful holiday deployment
The installation was scheduled during the school holidays so engineers could work throughout the site without disrupting lessons, staff activity or normal safeguarding arrangements.
The legacy system was replaced, the new phones were deployed and the required services were configured within a single working day.
Testing and handover
Intuity tested internal and external calling, presentation of the main school number and the additional features provided to the headteacher and reception team.
The school also completed its own testing of the broadcast function to confirm that emergency announcements could be heard simultaneously through the desk-phone speakers across the site.
The result
- The legacy analogue PBX was successfully replaced with Intermedia Elevate.
- Fifteen modern desk phones were deployed across the school.
- Staff gained the ability to make outbound calls from each designated room.
- External calls consistently present the school’s main telephone number.
- The headteacher and reception gained additional call-management features.
- The emergency broadcast function was tested successfully by the school.
- The complete deployment was finished during the school holidays in one day.
“The Intuity team was amazing. They had everything set up and tested within the first few hours of being on site, installed all of the phones and made sure they left everything clean and tidy. I would highly recommend them.”
Headteacher, Ponsbourne School