Why Every School Needs a Backup Internet Connection (And How to Choose One)

Every school needs a reliable backup internet connection to keep teaching, safeguarding and communications running when the primary line fails. Ten years ago, a school internet outage was an inconvenience. Teachers reached for textbooks, the office used the landline, and everyone carried on. Today, the picture is very different. When a school’s internet goes down, it takes safeguarding systems, attendance registers, cloud-based lesson resources, parent communication platforms, MIS systems and, increasingly, the telephone system with it.

Despite this level of dependency, a significant number of schools still operate with a single internet connection and no backup. They are, in effect, one severed cable away from a full operational shutdown. This article explains why backup connectivity has moved from a nice-to-have to an essential part of school infrastructure, what happens during a real-world outage, and how to choose a failover solution that actually works when you need it.

What Happens When a School Loses Its Internet Connection?

The immediate impact of an internet outage depends on how much of the school’s infrastructure is cloud-dependent. For most modern schools, the answer is: almost all of it.

Safeguarding Systems Go Offline

Cloud-based safeguarding platforms like CPOMS and MyConcern become inaccessible. Staff cannot log concerns, check historical records or escalate issues to the Designated Safeguarding Lead. In a situation where a child’s safety depends on timely information sharing, this gap is unacceptable. The inability to access safeguarding records could mean that a pattern of concern goes unnoticed at a critical moment.

Registers Cannot Be Taken

Most schools now use electronic registration through their MIS. Without internet access, staff cannot mark attendance, which means the school has no accurate, real-time record of which children are on site — a fundamental safeguarding requirement. Paper fallback processes exist, but they are slow, error-prone and difficult to reconcile with the digital system once connectivity is restored.

Teaching Is Disrupted

Google Classroom, Microsoft Teams, interactive whiteboard content, online assessment platforms and educational apps all require a live connection. Lessons planned around digital resources simply cannot be delivered as intended. Teachers must improvise, often with no notice, and the learning experience for pupils is significantly diminished.

Communications Break Down

Email, messaging platforms and parent notification systems stop working. Schools using VoIP telephone systems lose their phone lines entirely, meaning parents cannot call the school and the school cannot contact emergency services via their normal number. This is arguably the most serious operational impact: a school that cannot be reached by phone during an emergency is in a vulnerable position.

Administrative Functions Halt

Finance systems, HR platforms, timetabling software and catering management systems — all cloud-based, all offline. The administrative team cannot process invoices, update staff records or manage the day’s logistics. The knock-on effects can take days to resolve once connectivity is restored.

How Often Do School Internet Outages Happen?

More often than most people realise. Internet outages can be caused by a wide range of factors, many of which are entirely outside the school’s control:

• Physical damage to cables — roadworks, construction projects near the school, agricultural activity and even rodents chewing through fibre all cause outages regularly across the UK
• Exchange or provider faults — equipment failures at the local exchange or within the provider’s network can affect entire areas for hours or days at a time
• Planned maintenance — providers sometimes schedule maintenance during term time, and the notice given to schools is not always adequate or clear
• Weather events — storms, flooding and extreme temperatures can damage above-ground and below-ground infrastructure
• Cyber attacks — DDoS attacks can overwhelm a connection even without breaching the network itself, rendering the internet unusable

A single outage during the school day can affect hundreds or thousands of pupils, disrupt safeguarding processes and create significant operational problems that persist long after the connection is restored. The question is not whether an outage will happen, but when — and whether the school is prepared for it.

What Does a Backup Internet Connection for Schools Look Like?

A backup internet connection is a secondary circuit that activates automatically when the primary connection fails. The key word is automatically — a solution that requires someone to plug in a USB dongle, reconfigure a router or call the IT support company is not a genuine failover solution. In a real emergency, there may be no one available with the technical knowledge to intervene manually.

Automatic Failover

The backup connection should detect the primary circuit’s failure and switch traffic within seconds, not minutes. Staff should not need to do anything. In many cases, the switchover should be seamless enough that users are unaware it has happened. The school continues to function — safeguarding systems remain online, registers can be taken, phones continue to work.

Technology Diversity

The backup should use a different technology and, ideally, a different physical route to the primary connection. If your main circuit is a fibre line from Openreach, a backup that also runs over the same Openreach infrastructure offers limited protection — the same fault that takes down the primary could also affect the backup. A 4G or 5G cellular backup uses an entirely separate mobile network, meaning a fibre fault does not affect the backup.

Sufficient Bandwidth

A backup connection does not need to match the primary circuit’s full speed, but it must provide enough bandwidth to maintain critical functions. As a minimum, the backup should support safeguarding system access, electronic registration, email and basic communications, and the VoIP telephone system if the school uses one. A 50 to 100 Mbps 4G/5G backup is typically sufficient for these essential functions, even if the primary circuit is 500 Mbps or above.

Filtering on the Backup Circuit

This is a point that many schools overlook. Traffic routed through the backup connection must still pass through the school’s filtering and monitoring systems. A backup that bypasses filtering creates a safeguarding gap — one that could go undetected for the duration of the outage. Your provider must confirm that KCSIE-compliant filtering applies to all traffic, regardless of which circuit it travels over.

Proactive Monitoring

The best backup solutions include proactive monitoring — your provider detects the primary circuit failure, confirms the backup has activated and begins working on restoring the primary connection before you even need to call. You should receive an alert, not have to raise a support ticket.

What Should You Look for in a Backup Connectivity Provider?

Not all backup solutions are equal. When evaluating options, consider the following factors:

Education Sector Expertise

A provider who understands schools will design the backup to prioritise safeguarding and critical systems rather than treating all traffic equally. They will also understand the urgency of school-hours outages and respond accordingly, rather than applying generic business support timescales.

Fully Managed Service

The backup should be fully managed — installed, configured, monitored and maintained by the provider. School IT staff (where they exist) should not need to manage failover configuration or troubleshoot backup connectivity issues. The whole point of a backup is that it works without intervention.

Clear SLAs and Regular Testing

Your provider should commit to clear service level agreements covering failover activation time, backup bandwidth guarantees and primary circuit restoration targets. Equally important, the backup should be tested regularly. A backup connection that has sat dormant for months without being tested might not work when you need it. Look for providers who conduct scheduled failover tests and share the results with you.

Why DfE Standards Require a Backup Internet Connection for Schools

The DfE Digital and Technology Standards explicitly reference resilience as a key consideration for school connectivity. Schools are expected to have considered what happens when their primary connection fails and to have a documented plan in place.

While the standards do not mandate a specific backup solution, schools that operate without any resilience plan are increasingly exposed — both operationally and in terms of their statutory duty of care around safeguarding. Ofsted inspectors are becoming more aware of technology infrastructure during inspections, and a school that cannot demonstrate how it maintains safeguarding systems during an internet outage may face difficult questions.

How Much Does Backup Connectivity Cost?

The cost of a managed 4G/5G backup connection is typically a fraction of the primary circuit cost. For most schools, the investment is between £50 and £150 per month, depending on bandwidth requirements and the level of management included.

Compare this to the cost of a full-day outage: supply cover for disrupted lessons, manual safeguarding processes, parental complaints, missed communications, the administrative overhead of catching up on registration data, and the reputational impact on the school. When you consider the true cost of an outage, the return on investment from a managed backup connection is immediate and significant.

How Broadband4 Delivers Backup Internet Connectivity for Schools

Broadband4’s backup connectivity service is designed specifically for schools. We provide automatic failover using a variety of technologies that are completely independent of the primary fibre network, whether it be carrier diverse leased line, Fibre to the Premises (FTTP) or Starlink. The service is fully managed — we install, configure, monitor and maintain the backup so the school does not need to worry about it.

Critically, KCSIE-compliant Smoothwall filtering and monitoring applies to all traffic, including failover traffic. There are no filtering gaps. We detect the failover, notify you immediately and begin working on restoring the primary connection. We also conduct regular scheduled failover tests to ensure the backup is always ready when needed.

Secure Your School’s Backup Internet Connection

If you would like to discuss any of the points raised in this article, or if you are reviewing your school’s connectivity provision, our team is here to help. We offer a free, no-obligation connectivity review that assesses your current setup against current standards and identifies any areas for improvement.

Get in touch at broadband4.co.uk/contact or call 01425 880081 to arrange your free review.