Case Study: The King's School, Canterbury achieves secure, scalable campus-wide digital learning with HPE Aruba Networking

Fostering dynamic learning experiences at world’s oldest school

The King’s School in Canterbury, founded in 597 AD and regarded as the world’s oldest continually operating school, faced a modern challenge: deliver secure, scalable, easy-to-manage network access across medieval, listed buildings and expanding campuses (including a new nursery, drama department and an outpost in Shenzhen). Rising digital demand—students as “digital natives,” growing IoT use and a jump from 80 to 380 access points—meant the IT team needed a reliable wireless and policy framework that could support students, staff, visitors and new learning technologies.

Aruba deployed a campus-wide solution—802.11ac access points with Aruba 7210 controllers, core and edge switches, ClearPass policy management, AirWave monitoring, Meridian location services and BLE beacons, plus integrations with Palo Alto, LobbyConnect and iBoss. The rollout delivered high-performance coverage in a challenging built environment, role-based security and simple guest onboarding, enabled modern teaching (VLEs, smartboards, multi-device capacity), improved operational visibility and the scalability to expand to new sites, IoT services and future Wi‑Fi 6 upgrades.

The King's School, Canterbury

Peter Roberts

Headmaster