Furness Academy
Furness Academy is a secondary school serving over 1,100 students in Barrow-in-Furness and a key institution within the Furness Education Trust.
With a strong focus on learning, underpinned by values of respect, responsibility, and relationships, the school set out to create a forward-thinking digital strategy to support student success.
Originally built around a five-year roadmap, Furness Academy’s vision for a 1:1 device programme was rapidly accelerated—transforming the school into a digitally enabled learning environment in a matter of months.
The Challenge
Furness Academy initially developed a structured five-year plan to become a regional leader in 1:1 learning. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 forced the school to dramatically accelerate its timeline.
The school needed to:
- Deploy devices to as many students as possible, as quickly as possible
- Enable effective remote learning at scale
- Ensure equitable access for all students, including Pupil Premium learners
- Overcome global supply chain constraints impacting device availability
- Maintain high standards of teaching quality and staff readiness
What was originally a phased rollout became an urgent, large-scale transformation.
The Solution
After evaluating multiple providers, Furness Academy selected Freedom Tech as its partner for delivering a scalable and fully supported 1:1 device programme.
Freedom Tech provided:
- A parent contribution model, making devices accessible to the majority of families
- Devices pre-configured and ready for immediate use in learning environments
- Comprehensive warranty and accidental damage protection (ADP)
- End-to-end support for logistics, communication, and programme delivery
- Strong vendor relationships to help navigate device availability challenges
This enabled the school to move quickly while maintaining a structured and reliable deployment approach.
Implementation
Due to the urgency created by the pandemic, Furness Academy took an unconventional approach, rolling out devices across the entire school rather than starting with a single year group.
Key implementation steps included:
- Rapid communication with parents via letters, information packs, and webinars
- Clear messaging around the educational value and long-term vision of the programme
- Inclusion of both Pupil Premium and non-Pupil Premium students to ensure equity
- Deployment of nearly 600 devices in a single phase
Despite significant global supply chain disruptions, Freedom Tech worked closely with the school to source alternative devices and keep the programme on track.
This flexibility ensured that students received devices as quickly as possible, even under challenging conditions.
Teaching and Learning Benefits
The rapid rollout of devices enabled Furness Academy to maintain continuity of education during an unprecedented period of disruption.
Key benefits included:
- Immediate support for remote and blended learning
- Increased access to digital tools and learning resources at home
- Greater consistency in teaching delivery across subjects
- Improved student engagement during remote learning
Devices were delivered pre-configured, ensuring students could begin learning straight away without additional setup or barriers.
An Evidence-Based Approach
Despite the speed of implementation, Furness Academy remained committed to high-quality teaching and professional development.
The school introduced:
- A structured programme of Microsoft Teams training for staff
- Ongoing CPD initiatives to support digital teaching practices
- A focus on building long-term staff confidence and capability in using technology
This ensured that the shift to digital learning was not only reactive, but also sustainable and effective over time.
Why Freedom Tech?
Freedom Tech played a critical role in enabling Furness Academy to deliver its 1:1 programme at pace and scale.
Key strengths included:
- Proven experience supporting large-scale school deployments
- Strong partnerships enabling flexibility during supply chain challenges
- A fully managed service, reducing administrative burden on the school
- Reliable warranty and replacement processes, ensuring minimal disruption
- Clear and consistent communication with both staff and parents
Their support allowed the school to focus on strategic decision-making while ensuring smooth programme execution.
Conclusion
Furness Academy successfully transformed its digital strategy under extreme time pressure, delivering a large-scale 1:1 device programme in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
By partnering with Freedom Tech and adopting a flexible, whole-school approach, the academy ensured continuity of learning, improved accessibility, and built a strong foundation for future digital innovation.
What began as a long-term vision has now become a fully embedded reality—positioning Furness Academy as a leader in digital learning and educational resilience.
