DfE funding & digital standards
DfE Connect The Classroom
Programme update — the final funded wave of Connect the Classroom closed in March 2025. Read on for what that means for your school in 2026, and how we can still help.
Connect the Classroom put DfE-funded, enterprise-grade wireless into hundreds of schools across the UK — and AIT delivered some of the largest projects in the programme. The funded waves have now closed, but the DfE's connectivity standards they were built around have not gone anywhere. Whether your school benefited from the scheme, missed out, or is planning its next network upgrade, our team supports schools and trusts nationwide with the surveys, standards guidance and installations that Connect the Classroom made famous.
What is Connect The Classroom?
Connect the Classroom is a scheme funded by the DfE to provide eligible schools across the UK with a seamless and future-proof wireless networking solution. This initiative will transform your school's current IT and network infrastructure, improving connectivity and coverage across your premises with Access Points and Fibre Cabling to meet the demands of your school.
If you're reading this, it may be because your school is located within one of the eligible areas, in fact you might have already received an invitation from the DfE to apply. In order to get access to the funding. you'll need to submit a compliant bid to the DfE, which is something our team can help you with, and guide you through the process. We have a dedicated team to securing funding via the Connect the Classroom Scheme, and what's great is that the process costs you and your school nothing! It's time to connect your classroom with AIT!
That is how the scheme worked while the funded waves were open. Invitations are no longer being issued and the final application window has closed — but everything the programme was designed to achieve, from full-coverage WiFi 6 to structured fibre cabling, is still exactly what the DfE expects schools to have in place under its digital and technology standards. The section below explains where the programme stands today.
Where the funding stands in 2026
2021 — Programme launches.
The DfE begins funding wireless upgrades for schools in priority areas.
2022–2023 — The scheme expands.
Further waves open to eligible schools in Education Investment Areas across the UK.
2023–2025 — Final wave.
The last funded round runs, with AIT delivering upgrades for schools and trusts nationwide. As that wave opened, we told schools:
The DfE's Connect The Classroom Scheme has returned until 2025. We have worked with Schools and Trusts across the UK to secure over £3m of funding from the DfE thanks to our specialist team. We can help your school, and it costs nothing to apply!
March 2025 — Funded waves close.
No new Connect the Classroom applications are being accepted.
2026 — Standards remain, and so do we.
The DfE's wireless, cabling and broadband standards still apply to every school. We help schools meet them — whether that means a self-funded upgrade planned around your budget cycle, trust capital works, or being ready the moment any successor funding is announced. We monitor DfE announcements continuously and refresh this page whenever the position changes.
Missed the funding? You are not stuck. Our team designs wireless networks for schools to the same DfE specifications the scheme required, phased and priced around your budget — and our platforms help you plan for it years in advance (more on that below).
What a Connect the Classroom-standard upgrade delivers
Upgrade to WiFi 6
Transform your infrastructure
Nothing to repay!
Under the DfE-funded waves, funding was a grant — never a loan.
Futureproof your School
Four cards, one outcome: a network that keeps up with a full cohort of devices, in every classroom, on every corridor — built once, built properly, and ready for whatever the curriculum asks of it next.
Is our school eligible?
If you've already received an invitation from the DfE to apply for funding, we can help guide you through the process. If you have yet to receive an invitation, our team can contact the DfE and verify your eligibility on your behalf, this is completely free. Once you have your invite, we'll come out to your school to meet you in person and conduct a site survey of your requirements and needs. The is no charge for your network assessment or site visits. We will then provide you with a proposal, designed specifically to DfE specifications which you can review with your DfE advisor. Having worked with schools across the UK on Connect the Classroom, we understand the best ways to maximise your funding, and ensure your networks are comprehensively future proofed.
With the funded waves closed, "eligibility" today means something simpler: every school in the UK is eligible for a free, no-obligation network assessment from AIT. Our delivery record spans schools and trusts nationwide — from single-form-entry primaries to multi-site secondary academies — and the same free site survey, DfE-specification design and transparent proposal process now applies to any school planning a wireless or cabling upgrade, funded or self-funded. If a successor scheme opens, schools we have surveyed will be first in the queue with a compliant bid ready to go.
Why partner with AIT?
We've worked with Trusts and Schools across the UK during the Connect The Classroom waves to help the apply and benefit from funding. In fact, we've secured some of the largest funding amounts within the programme and delivered truly transformational works across sites. We are proud to have supports schools on this journey with our fully transparent advice and expert team. Our dedicated installation team means that we can complete works with minimal disruption to your school, so you can benefit from the the network improvements quicker!
We are an education-only IT partner: 249 schools, 20 trusts and a 75-strong team, established in 2000. Connectivity projects like Connect the Classroom are not a sideline for us — they sit alongside the day-to-day IT support, installations and connectivity services we run for schools across the whole of the UK. And because we build long-term partnerships rather than one-off installs, every project we deliver is backed by our client platforms — AIT Horizon, Helpdesk Reporting, AIT Atlas and AIT Ordering — included with our service, not sold on top.
How does the process work?
The DfE send out to eligible schools. We will work with you to complete a list of the current network, and conduct an onsite network assessment. This will be sent to you prior to submission and then onto the DfE for review. The DfE will send approved areas for funding, and we will the complete a quote for new network connections.Week one installation focuses on the passive infrastructure (all cabling aspects) with no scheduled downtime. Week two is the move to the new system with scheduled downtime to suit the school.Onsite testing in line with DfE specifications, and handover completed with your onsite IT support team. Funding is released and the project completed!
Free site survey.
We visit your school, walk every space and map your current network against DfE specifications.
Design and proposal.
A transparent, itemised design — access points, cabling runs, switching — with nothing hidden.
Approval.
For funded projects, we prepare the compliant bid; for self-funded projects, your governors or trust board get a proposal built for sign-off.
Week one — passive infrastructure.
All cabling installed with no scheduled downtime; lessons carry on as normal.
Week two — cutover.
The move to the new system, with any downtime scheduled around the school day.
Test, handover, done.
On-site testing to DfE specifications and a full handover to your IT team — or to ours, if we support you day to day.
AIT Horizon keeps your network on the DfE standard — for good
A Connect the Classroom-style upgrade is compliant on handover day. The harder question is whether it still is three years later. That is what AIT Horizon answers — our leadership platform, included with our service, not sold on top.
- RAG compliance tracker. Horizon's Schools view maps your estate against the DfE's connectivity standards — wireless, cabling, switching, broadband — as a simple red/amber/green board your SLT and governors can actually read. An illustrative example: a school might show six of seven connectivity standards green, with one cabling run amber and a dated action to clear it.
- IT Finance: plan the refresh before it bites. Funded access points do not last forever. Horizon's IT Finance module holds 5-year projections covering hardware refresh and software licensing, so the year your wireless estate falls due appears in the budget long before it becomes an emergency — for instance, an illustrative refresh line of £18,400 landing in year four, visible from year one.
- Strategy roadmap and policies. Your connectivity milestones sit on the same strategy roadmap as every other IT priority, alongside the policies that evidence them — one source of truth for headteachers in the Schools view and trust leaders in the Executive view.
Illustrative demo data
See how we plan digital strategyAIT Atlas: Navigate. Manage. Deliver.
Two-week installs across a live school only work with disciplined scheduling — and ours runs on AIT Atlas, the operations platform behind every AIT project.
Atlas manages our people, projects, schools and technology in one place. When your upgrade is booked, it becomes an Atlas project with every milestone laid out — survey, passive infrastructure week, cutover week, testing, handover — and our Rota module schedules the right engineers against each one, while Fleet keeps crews and kit moving between sites. That cadence is why the week-one/week-two delivery pattern in the process above holds, term after term, for schools right across the UK: as an illustrative picture, a typical summer window might see a dozen school projects sequenced through Atlas without a single clashing crew. You get a named plan and dates you can publish to staff — not a vague "we'll be in touch."
Illustrative demo data
Talk to us about your projectOne login for everything
Already an AIT school?
Everything above lives behind one door. The Customer Portal is your login hub for all four AIT platforms — AIT Horizon, Helpdesk Reporting, AIT Atlas and AIT Ordering — so your compliance position, project milestones, support insights and orders are one click apart.
Connect the Classroom FAQs
No. The final funded wave of the DfE's Connect the Classroom programme closed in March 2025 and no new applications are being accepted. However, the DfE's digital and technology standards for wireless, cabling and broadband still apply to every school, and AIT delivers upgrades to those same specifications UK-wide. We monitor DfE announcements and will update this page immediately if successor funding is launched.
You can still reach the same standard the scheme delivered. We provide a free site survey and a DfE-specification design, then phase the work around your budget — many schools spread wireless and cabling upgrades across two or three financial years. For schools on our service, AIT Horizon's IT Finance module builds the upgrade into a 5-year projection so it is planned rather than reactive, and our strategy roadmap keeps it visible to governors.
The scheme funded future-proof wireless networking for eligible schools — typically WiFi 6 access points and the fibre and copper cabling to support them — installed to DfE specifications with nothing to repay. AIT secured over £3m of funding for schools and trusts across the UK during the programme's waves, including some of the largest awards made.
No. Site surveys and network assessments are free and carry no obligation, exactly as they were throughout the funded waves. You receive a transparent, itemised proposal you can put in front of your SLT, governors or trust board.
Our standard pattern is two weeks: week one covers passive infrastructure (all cabling) with no scheduled downtime, and week two is the cutover to the new system with any downtime scheduled to suit the school. Delivery is coordinated through AIT Atlas, our operations platform, so you get confirmed dates and a milestone plan up front.
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We understand the unique needs and challenges that are faced by schools, and we are all about finding a solution that works for you. Get in touch with our friendly team to have a chat about how we can support you on your digital journey.