Most school internet contracts automatically renew unless notice is served within a defined window, often around 90 days before the end date. Setting up a new internet connection can take longer than that, and suppliers do not always remind customers when it’s time to give notice. This means schools may feel rushed to make renewal decisions, especially alongside other day-to-day tasks and competing priorities.
For many schools, renewing feels like a foregone conclusion if the service runs smoothly and the supplier is familiar. While familiarity with a supplier and service is beneficial, it’s important to verify that the connectivity type, resilience measures, and online safety features still meet current needs. Each renewal offers an opportunity to review how these vital services are configured across the school’s connectivity and safeguarding provision.
DfE standards and safeguarding expectations increasingly require schools and trusts to meet technical requirements and to evidence review and documented decision-making. Connectivity renewal sits within that expectation. Decisions should be supported by clear rationale, recorded review and alignment to current standards.
The framework below reflects common themes that arise in renewal discussions with school leaders and IT teams and is designed to support structured internal review.
-
Service Level Agreement Realism
Connectivity contracts often headline response times. At renewal, it is worth revisiting how the Service Level Agreement (SLA) operates in practice. A common area of confusion is the difference between response time and resolution time. A six-hour response commitment does not guarantee restoration within six hours, and during an outage that distinction becomes significant.
Schools should review how escalation routes work in practice, whether they are clearly defined, and whether access to appropriately qualified engineers is available when needed. It is also important to confirm whether broadband, firewall and filtering services are covered within a coherent SLA framework, or whether responsibility becomes fragmented across suppliers during incidents. Where service credits are included within contracts, renewal provides an opportunity to consider whether those credits represent genuine accountability in the event of failure.
A documented Service Level Agreement is one thing. Renewal is the moment to confirm how the SLA is delivered in practice, what evidence supports it, and whether the service has met agreed response and resolution commitments over the previous term.
-
Safeguarding and Filtering Continuity
Internet filtering and firewalls usually run in the background without drawing attention to themselves. Over time, changes in configuration, staffing and evolving safeguarding expectations can create gaps between policy and practice.
Renewal provides a clear opportunity to confirm who holds responsibility for filtering configuration and rule updates, whether safeguarding alerts are auditable and accessible to designated safeguarding leads, and whether reporting aligns with current KCSIE and DfE expectations. It is also important to consider whether filtering or firewall performance is dependent on hardware approaching end of support, particularly where traffic volumes and device numbers have increased since the original contract was agreed. Renewal is also an appropriate point to confirm whether any ISP-provided router remains within vendor support and is actively managed through a defined hardware lifecycle.
Reviewing configuration, reporting and accountability at renewal helps ensure those responsibilities remain clearly defined and evidenced.
-
Building in Resilience
Resilience is often described as “dual” or “backed up” connections, but the technical detail beneath those descriptions warrants periodic review. Schools should confirm that secondary circuits use genuinely separate carriers and, where possible, physical routes, and that failover is automatic, tested and actively monitored across both primary and backup services.
Firewall infrastructure should also be reviewed against current bandwidth, device numbers and risk profile. In higher-dependency environments, high-availability configurations, including dual appliances with automatic failover, may be appropriate. It is also appropriate to clarify whether resilience is delivered locally through on-site infrastructure or centrally through a hosted platform, and how that architecture affects failover and independence between connections.
In renewal discussions it is common to find that resilience was designed well at implementation but has not been formally revisited as demand has increased. Re-examining the technical architecture ensures that resilience remains deliberate and demonstrable, rather than assumed.
-
Total Service Cost
Day one headline figures are only one part of the overall cost of a connectivity agreement. Renewal should include a review of any obligation for annual uplifts or index-linked increases, clarity on what is included within standard support, and the circumstances under which additional charges may apply. For example, is there a charge for firewall changes?
Renewal also offers a chance to reassess whether current costs still reflect market conditions. In some cases, schools may be able to maintain overall spend while increasing bandwidth or capability as the connectivity market evolves.
Early termination clauses should be understood in the context of potential organisational change, federation or trust reorganisation. Hardware lifecycle and replacement responsibilities should also be clearly documented, particularly when service agreements cover configuration and support, but not hardware replacement.
Misunderstandings around price uplifts, change request charges or responsibility to maintain and update hardware can accumulate over a contract term. Reviewing these areas at renewal reduces the risk of unbudgeted additional costs appearing later.
-
Ownership and Support Model
Support arrangements can change over time as staffing, systems and reliance on cloud services evolve. Renewal provides an opportunity to check whether the current model still fits the school’s internal skills, capacity and appetite for risk. For example, the loss of a key member of staff can quickly expose gaps in how support is structured.
Schools should consider whether the arrangement is fully managed, co-managed or hybrid, how escalation routes work during live incidents, and whether out-of-hours support reflects reliance on MIS platforms, safeguarding alerts and remote access. Where connectivity, firewall and filtering services involve multiple providers or rely heavily on individual staff members, clarity over who is responsible for diagnosing and resolving issues becomes particularly important.
Renewal discussions often reveal differences between what is written in the contract and how support operates in practice. Clarifying those differences at renewal reduces ambiguity when incidents occur.
Using renewal to check what has changed
For existing customers, renewal is also a useful point to check whether the current service still reflects how the school or trust now operates.
In many cases, the right outcome is not a change of provider, but an adjustment to the service. This might include reviewing bandwidth, testing backup connectivity, improving filtering or safeguarding reporting, checking firewall capacity, or considering whether telephony and wider network requirements have changed.
Treating renewal as a service review helps schools confirm what is working well, identify where needs have changed, and make informed improvements before the next contract period begins.
In Summary: Renewal as Governance
Connectivity renewal does not necessarily require wholesale change and, in many cases, the existing provider and architecture remain appropriate. What matters is that renewal is an informed decision, supported by clear review and alignment with current standards.
A concise, documented summary covering SLA performance, safeguarding alignment, resilience architecture and cost structure provides leadership and governors or trustees with confidence that oversight has been exercised. Even in single-school settings, recording the basis for renewal decisions strengthens accountability.
To support this process, we have produced a separate School Connectivity Contract Review Checklist that summarises the framework above in a practical format for leadership teams.
Connectivity underpins teaching continuity and operational resilience. Reviewing contracts before renewal ensures that stability is supported by current evidence, documented decisions and clearly defined responsibility.
Need help reviewing your current setup?
Whether you are comparing providers or already work with Wave9, renewal is a useful time to check whether your current connectivity, safeguarding and resilience setup still fits.
Wave9 can help schools and trusts review bandwidth, backup connectivity, firewall capacity, filtering and reporting, support arrangements, and any wider service changes that may be useful before the next contract period begins.