Built for Schools.
No Per-Device Licence.
No Renewal Headaches.
Ubiquiti brings switching, Wi-Fi, routing and cameras together on one powerful platform — without per-device licensing.
Ceidwad helps you choose the right Ubiquiti kit for your school, sized to your site and budget rather than the top of the price list.
Build your network once. Own it outright. Keep control.
One School or an Entire Trust. One Platform.
Manage Wi-Fi, switching, gateways, security and cameras for one school or a whole Trust from one platform, while each school keeps its own network and internet connection.
Ubiquiti solutions for schools
These are the four things schools ask us to price, chosen for the environment rather than the price tag.
Wireless
Reliable, high-performance school Wi-Fi, planned for classrooms, halls, offices and the shared spaces between them.
Switching
Modern switching with the performance and connectivity a school network is now asked to carry, from the core to the classroom.
Gateways & security
Network gateways that give the school visibility of its own traffic, and control over what happens at the edge of the site.
One console
Switching, Wi-Fi, gateways and cameras managed in the same place, so the network stays understandable after the person who built it moves on.
This isn’t our opinion. It’s the DfE’s.
Two of the DfE’s six core digital and technology standards set clear expectations for how a school network should be built. Here’s what they ask for.
Tick what your network has today. Nothing is saved or sent.
Your network report card
Your network is at Early days.
Strong: everything ticked. Solid: three quarters or more. Building: two fifths or more. Early days: less than that.
Start with: Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) · 1, 2.5, 5 or 10Gbps · One per classroom · 1Gbps
Take this to your head or governors
We’ll email a one-page summary of this report card: your level, what’s in place and what to start with. No account needed.
The DfE isn’t saying replace everything because it is old. Neither standard sets a refresh cycle. The trigger is replacing something that is underperforming or unsupported, not the age of the kit or the deadline.
Start with the school, not the shopping list: your buildings, occupancy, applications and future needs, with resilient switching and central management built in from the start. For the planning itself, the DfE points schools to its Plan technology for your school service.
From the DfE wireless network and network switching standards, two of the six core standards for schools and colleges. Both updated 24 June 2026. Schools are asked to be “working towards meeting it by 2030”.
The same four standards decide who gets funded.
The DfE runs a programme that pays for upgrading wireless access points and network switches, and whether a school qualifies turns on the wifi standards above.
the programme funds upgrades to wireless access points and network switches
the DfE funds the work; the school procures the supplier, and the work must meet DfE specifications
Schools receiving targeted intervention through the RISE programme are eligible if they fall below the DfE’s wifi connectivity standards, and the DfE contacts them directly. We have no part in that decision. What we can tell you is where you stand against the four standards below.
Using the latest wireless network standard approved by the Wi-Fi Alliance
A fully functional signal throughout the school or college buildings, and externally where required
A solution that can centrally manage the wireless network
Security features installed to stop unauthorised access
The school chooses who does the work, and it must meet the DfE’s specification. We supply switching and wireless hardware built to those standards.
Contact us for more informationProgramme details, including selection criteria, are set by the Department for Education and change from time to time. Read the current guidance at gov.uk/guidance/connect-the-classroom.
Three ways to build it. Two survive a failure.
Three ways to build the same network, put through the same failures. Pick one and watch what survives. Two are genuinely resilient; the third is the one we walk into most often.
True high availability, with stacking.
All clear
Every device online, every spare path ready.
Swipe to see the whole network.
The stack behaves as one logical switch, so a member can fail and its neighbours carry on without reconverging. Fewer uplinks to buy and configure, and the stacking ring is the one thing every member depends on.
Resilience is a design choice, not a product you switch on. We’ll tell you which parts are worth it for your site, and which are not.
The second year is where the difference shows.
Most network kit sold into schools carries a per-device licence that comes back every year, whether the school changed or not.
Every device is a subscription, and every year is a decision.
Miss a renewal and the kit stays on the wall, but the thing that manages it stops being supported.
You buy the hardware. The controller comes with it.
Afterwards the running cost is power, support and whatever you choose to add: one capital purchase, not a renewal every August.
Slide to see 5 years of running costs
The configuration lives on the controller rather than in the head of whoever set it up, which matters when that was an external provider you have since changed.
CyberSecure hardens the network. Filtering and monitoring is a different standard.
CyberSecure is a paid subscription on the gateway, with Proofpoint intrusion prevention and Cloudflare content filtering at the edge of the site. It is worth having. It does not close the standard your governing body is held to.
What CyberSecure adds7 features
A security layer on the network you already run.
- 110,000+ signatures Proofpoint IDS/IPS, on the enterprise gateways
- 30–50+ a week new signatures, from Proofpoint and Microsoft's MAPP
- 53+ threat categories curated to cut false positives
- 100+ content categories from Cloudflare, by user group or VLAN
- Capacity follows the model less on mid-range and small gateways, none on two
- One subscription per site covering the standby gateway in a high-availability pair
- Remote access enabled required to activate the subscription and keep it current
What the filtering and monitoring standard asks for14 requirements
A safeguarding system, answering to your designated safeguarding lead.
- IWF and CTIRU blocklists that no user may disable, override or alter
- An IWF member signed up to CTIRU, updating from both
- Student and staff profiles never one blanket filter
- All internet feeds including backup connections and portable wifi
- Off-site school devices BYOD on a separate virtual network, and guests
- VPNs and proxies blocked with the other circumvention methods
- Multilingual content and images misspellings and abbreviations identified
- Child abuse and terrorist material and adult content, testable with SWGfL
- Alerts when content of concern is blocked
- Device or ID, IP, the individual with the time and the term blocked
- Safe search locked in no unauthorised browsers or plugins
- Weekly reports immediate for high-risk incidents
- Users told they are monitored on the device, at log-in
- A DPIA for any technical monitoring system
Filtering and monitoring is one of the six core standards, and Keeping children safe in education puts it on the governing body. The DfE says you should already be meeting it.
Why buy Ubiquiti through Ceidwad?
We don’t just sell you the box. We help you fit the technology to the school, rather than recommending the highest specification and leaving you to make it work.
Education-focused
We understand the operational realities of school IT — the budget cycle, the term calendar, and who actually runs the network day to day.
Right-sized
We recommend what your environment needs, not what costs the most — and we’ll say which parts aren’t worth it for your site.
Practical
A network is one part of a school’s technology estate. We know how the pieces fit around it — identity, filtering, safeguarding.
One supplier
The network can sit alongside the wider cyber security and assurance work Ceidwad already does for schools — one conversation, not four.
Planning a network upgrade?
Tell us what you’re working with today and what you need the network to do. We’ll come back with a specified quote against your site — or just a ballpark for the business plan, if that’s the stage you’re at.