How school principals are gaining more control of their school Wi-Fi

When it comes to your school’s digital security, knowing exactly who and what is connected to your Wi-Fi network is essential. More than 1,000 schools have taken up Network for Learning’s Secure Access tool, a network access control that provides greater visibility over Wi-Fi networks.

Mt Roskill Intermediate is just one of many schools to have realised the benefits of Network for Learning’s (N4L) Secure Access tool. The school is gaining a more secure learning environment but also enjoying a seamless migration process with no disruption.

The central-south Auckland school has around 600 ākonga accessing learning technology daily. The school’s bring-yourown-device (BYOD) policies allow students to seamlessly integrate their devices, while each classroom is equipped with around 20 Chromebooks.

For kaiako, the set-up leans heavily on Apple – with laptops, iPads, iPhones and TVs spread across the 19 classrooms.

Like any school utilising a lot of tech, they faced several challenges, but one of the biggest was managing guest access to the school’s Wi-Fi network and also securing ākonga BYODs.

“Sometimes, we’d give out staff access [to visitors] just to make things easier, which wasn’t very secure,” says deputy principal Nicky Fleming.

With Secure Access, Mt Roskill can now manage who connects, what they can access and how protected the network is.

How does Secure Access help?

N4L encourages schools to think about how carefully they monitor who enters school grounds – and then apply that to who is accessing the digital environment.

Without the right controls in place, anyone connecting to a school’s network, even briefly, can potentially open the door to cyber threats, which can put ākonga data, school operations and personal information at risk.

And it isn’t just data that’s vulnerable. A cyber-attack can also impact equipment critical to the day-to-day running of a school – from printers and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) phones to heating and air conditioning systems.

In more severe cases, staff computers may be compromised, sensitive data stolen, or there could be ransomware demands.

N4L’s Secure Access helps stop this at the gate. Here’s how it works:

• Manage user groups: Secure Access allows control of how ākonga, kaiako and guests access school Wi-Fi. It enables schools to tailor what each group can do online, based on what’s right for their community.

• Identity-based access: Each person and device is securely authenticated and authorised before joining the network. This ensures only trusted users connect and that access reflects their role in the school.

• Improved security through segmentation: A school’s network is split into separate, more secure zones for staff, ākonga and guests. That way, even if a breach happens, it’s contained – which helps critical data and systems stay protected.

Together, these features help schools shift from open, onesize-fits-all networks to tailored, more secure environments that are easier to manage and better aligned with how schools operate.

A seamless rollout

When Mt Roskill Intermediate migrated to N4L’s Secure Access, it saw immediate improvements in its security and day-to-day operations.

An important advantage of Secure Access is control – its segmented network lets the school set different access levels for ākonga and staff. It means ākonga can’t access staff documents or interfere with administrative systems, keeping the network more secure.

“Secure Access lets us easily enforce the ākonga access rules we have. It also makes us less vulnerable if we were ever attacked,” says Nicky.

Nicky adds that it’s now much easier to handle guest access to the school’s Wi-Fi network. The school can just email a key or send a QR code for entry, making everything simpler and providing more control.

Mt Roskill says it was pleasantly surprised by how the transition to Secure Access had so little impact on the dayto-day running of the school, attributing this to the work everyone put in to preparing for the change-over.

As there was the complexity of kaiako using Apple devices and ākonga working from Chromebooks, it was also crucial that Secure Access would work with both technologies.

“The migration process was really good,” says Nicky. “On the day, I woke up and thought, ‘Oh no, the phones might not connect to the Chromebooks!’ but N4L was pre-empting issues. It was all sorted out before we needed it.

“It’s a lot more painless than you might think. We thought we’d lose our whole internet for the day, but we didn’t. They were so organised.”

How to get Secure Access

Schools that have completed Equipment Replacement can be scheduled for Secure Access migration and details will be communicated by N4L.

Eligible schools can request to be added to the schedule by contacting N4L.

N4L is migrating schools over to Secure Access in a staged rollout, meaning they’ll reach out when it’s each school’s turn to get the upgrade.

Schools can find out more by contacting N4L’s Customer Support team at support@n4l.co.nz or 0800 532 764. Or, visit n4l.co.nz/protect/safety-and-security-solutions/secureaccess