The Challenge

Oxley Christian College frequently reviews the fit of its ICT to the school’s vision, which includes a focus on eight key learning areas. Oxley leverages premium technologies to assist students develop the critical skills of flexible, analytical, reflective and creative thinking to solve problems, communicate ideas, organise activities and collaborate with others.

Charmaine Peck, Manager of Oxley Christian College’s ICT Services, says: “The words we use are resilience, agility, collaboration – to be able to handle anything that comes our way and to thrive.

The school’s digital learning program is about “finding the right technology tools to mirror what we want for our students, for our school.

“It is so important to have synergy between what teachers & students are using in the classroom and at home – in terms of both devices and Apps. Learning time in the classroom is so valuable. We want teachers motivating and challenging their students rather than solving technical issues.

“Our technology partners help us not only prepare Oxley for a positive future, but to also minimise the impact of change on our staff and student learning,” she says.

The College comprises not only the school buildings but an onsite church, property services, an early learning centre, and basketball courts for hire. Oxley also supports an international student body, mainly from the Asia Pacific.

The Solution

Becoming a Microsoft Lighthouse School
Since 2014, Oxley’s evolving, best practice learning management system has standardised 1:1 device use across Senior year levels and all teaching staff. The school’s commitment to a Microsoft ecosystem for learning and administrative areas maximises the return on its investments.

Adding a managed services and procurement partner.
With the growing dependence on technology, “we recognised we also needed to find a partner with expertise across all areas of technology, including training, to help us achieve our digital learning program goals. We interviewed many potential candidates but CompNow stood out as the best fit,” Charmaine says.

To extend the life of equipment, at every three year device refresh, the older staff machines are cascaded to students in the younger years as part of the school’s expanding 1:1 digital program.

The latest refresh
Now on the third refresh of Surface Pro equipment, CompNow and Oxley’s latest procurement project oversaw the rollout of 157 Surface Pro 7 devices with Microsoft’s Office 365 suite, as well as fully integrated 50” Surface Hub interactive whiteboards into the newly opened Junior School. Oxley’s ongoing building program includes a new middle school, due for completion in 2022, which will incorporate 13 of the large 85” Surface Hubs.

Integration of Pros and Hubs
A fleet of Surface Hubs was the next natural step. The move away from unreliable, inefficient interactive whiteboards, data screens and projectors to the Hubs removed the constant need for teachers to do time wasting calibrations.

Synergy at work again
The integration of the Pros 7s and Hubs saves additional time and reduces class disruption. Between the Surface Pros and Hubs, Microsoft Teams functions like Chat and Breakout Rooms are used to recreate classroom environments for remote learning. And the Whiteboard App is proving to be an ideal presentation tool for sharing ideas and content.

While working with students remotely can have its challenges, Oxley’s teachers can be in the classrooms teaching as they would normally, Charmaine says. “The difference in having the integrated Surface Pros and Hubs makes it as close to the real thing as you can get. With the Hub view, all the faces are up and clearly visible so teachers have a better chance to read those vital, small expressions and body language. It allows for connection, engagement across the class. Everyone is energised.”

Tuning Oxley’s environment
Microsoft’s InTune is the management suite for the College’s Surface devices. Charmaine says of the recent rollout of new staff devices “it would normally take us two weeks to do the asset tagging, imaging etc for 150 machines. InTune has cut that device preparation time by half. It’s a great solution for us.”

Day to day, InTune keeps all devices and security up to date. “And it also helps us with other demands such as when we go into NAPLAN. We can remotely push the browser lockdown to all devices and schedule InTune to automatically remove it later. It tracks all devices to see if there are any problems and fixes them remotely,” she says.

Hot swapping because learning time is precious
“Class time is very precious to us. We have so many support structures in place to ensure that technology is always a plus, that it has no negative impacts on student learning,” Charmaine says. One of the key services delivered by CompNow is to provide an on campus hot swap so if a student brings in a faulty device it is fixed or swapped out within a day.

Making it easy for parents – the CompNow portal
As part of its service portfolio, CompNow designed a mandated portal through which parents purchase their children’s devices. “It makes it so easy. They don’t have to worry about what to buy – all the information is there for each Year’s digital program requirements,” Charmaine says.

Synergy with CompNow
“I love the fact that I can pick up the phone to our Account Manager at CompNow and say ‘We have this problem and CompNow will go the extra mile with a lot of enthusiasm to fix it,” she says.

The Benefits

With the inputs from Microsoft and CompNow, Oxley’s students experience the same quality education – whether on site or learning from home or a classroom overseas. “With today’s hybrid learning scene, every child gets to sit up the front of the class,” Charmaine says.

“We have great support from CompNow and Microsoft to match our school’s vision. They are the cornerstones of our digital program and do everything to help us deliver quality teaching and learning experiences.”

The achievement of Lighthouse School status gives Oxley Christian College “early access to Microsoft’s latest education focused technologies and their delivery, which is great for our 5 year planning. And we receive funding for things like training or automation suites that help us reach those essential productivity gains,” she says.

On the same page
Oxley continues to realise benefits from its single platform, up to date environment. “We’re incredibly proud of our whole digital learning program and its positive impact on students’ learning experiences. From an IT management perspective, we’re putting the technology and support structures in place to help everyone step up. We just couldn’t do it without our Microsoft relationship or the assurance of working with CompNow. They and we are very much on the same page,” Charmaine says.

Having teachers and students using the same device “has been wonderful because when teachers are doing their explicit teaching or modelling something, the students can see and easily apply that learning the same way because they’re using the same device,” Charmaine says.

With the integration of the Surface Pros and Hubs, “whether in the classroom or learning from home, our students receive consistent, quality teaching. They’re getting meaningful feedback from teachers and can update or correct their work – all in realtime. That’s so beneficial.

“And during lockdowns, staff don’t have to sit in front of small screen with small icons of students. With the class projected onto the Hub’s large screen, they can see at glance all reactions and effect of the lesson on every student,” she says.

“I love seeing children come alive with learning. Having wonderful tools to help make that possible is essential. We’re so blessed by the technology we’ve had brought to us and the support from Microsoft and CompNow. They empower us do our jobs as educators so efficiently and effectively” Charmaine says.

Read more about our collaboration work with Oxley Christian College to provide bespoke Microsoft Training
Oxley Training Case Study