School IT support, UK-wide
Ticket Priorities
When something breaks in a school, “we’ll get to it” isn’t good enough. Every ticket logged with AIT — from a whole-site outage to one laptop that won’t sign in — is triaged against a published priority system, with response times you can hold us to and reporting that shows you exactly how we performed. This page sets out how that system works for every school and trust we support across the UK.
AIT review all internal policies regularly to ensure that quality of service is embedded throughout the whole company. AIT encourage all customers to inform us immediately of IT incidents, service requests and events as soon as they occur. Only then can they be resolved by being triages and allocated to the correct support technician. Our Helpdesk Manager oversees the day-to-day operation and incident resolution of all tickets across out helpdesk ticketing system.
The same priority system applies to every one of them — and every school can see its own numbers in Helpdesk Reporting, included with our service, not sold on top.
Introduction
AIT is committed to providing a continuous high standard of service, communication and quick resolution to any IT support incidents. These SLA Response Times are our standard response times, however depending on your contract specifications you may have more tailored response times depending on your contract with AIT. For further clarification, please contact your AIT Account Manager.
Whether we look after a single primary school or a trust of twenty academies, the framework below is the starting point. Contracted school IT support customers may have enhanced response times agreed for their setting — your agreement always takes precedence over the standard targets published here.
1. Ticket Priorities
An incident, support request or event becomes a 'ticket' when it is logged on our helpdesk. You can log a ticket via telephone, helpdesk portal and by email.
Once a ticket is logged, AIT will endeavour to resolve the incident as quickly as possible and communicate the situation regarding the incident.
AIT operate a ticket priority system which is inline with ITIL and industry best practice. AIT classify tickets into the following priority groups, with response times clarified in the below table.
| Priority | Response Time | On Site Attendance Time (Core Hours) | Periodic Updates to Client if incident remains unresolved |
|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | 15 mins | Within 4 Hours | Every 15 Mins |
| P2 | 1 working hour | Within 24 Hours | 4 Hours |
| P3 | 2 working hours | Within 1 Day | 24 hours |
| P4 | 4 working hours | Within 5 working days | 24 hours |
| P5/ SR1 | 4 working hours | Within 5 working days | 3 days |
What each priority means for your school
Targets only matter if you can see whether we hit them. Every priority level below is tracked in Helpdesk Reporting, the live service dashboard included with every AIT support contract. The figures shown here are illustrative examples of how attainment appears in your dashboard — they are static examples, not live performance data.
P1: Critical Incident
The whole school is affected — the internet is down, or core equipment has failed. A P1 jumps every queue: 15-minute response, engineers on site within four hours, and updates to your nominated contacts every 15 minutes until it’s resolved.
Illustrative Helpdesk Reporting view: P1 first response averaging 6 minutes against the 15-minute target, 99% within SLA this term.
P2: High Priority
A major part of the school is impacted — a year-group block offline, Wi-Fi degrading site-wide. Response within one working hour, on site within 24 hours, updates every four hours.
Illustrative Helpdesk Reporting view: P2 first response averaging 24 minutes, 98% within SLA.
P3: Medium Priority
One user, or a small group, has lost service. Response within two working hours and attendance within a day — fast enough that a teacher isn’t planning tomorrow’s lessons around a fault.
Illustrative Helpdesk Reporting view: P3 first response averaging 51 minutes, 98% within SLA.
P4: Low Priority
Something’s wrong, but a workaround exists. Response within four working hours, resolution scheduled within five working days, daily updates until closed.
Illustrative Helpdesk Reporting view: P4 resolution averaging 2.1 working days against the 5-day target.
P5/SR1: Urgent Service Request
Not a fault — a change you need done at pace, such as deploying an app across a device fleet before a lesson depends on it. Responded to within four working hours and scheduled within five working days.
Illustrative Helpdesk Reporting view: 97% of urgent service requests delivered within target.
All attainment figures on this page are illustrative, shown to demonstrate how SLA performance is presented in Helpdesk Reporting. Your own dashboard shows your school’s actual numbers.
2. SLA Examples
Whilst support requests can greatly vary, AIT have provided a table which demonstrates scenarios which demonstrate Service Level Priorities.
| Priority | Priority Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| P1 | Critical Incident (Server Disruption to Major services) |
|
| P2 | High Priority (Major Disruption to a group of users) |
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| P3 | Medium Priority (disruption to single or few users) |
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| P4 | Low Priority (Disruption to single or few users but a work around is available) |
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| P5 /SR1 | Urgent Service Request (Urgent Change Required) |
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If you’re ever unsure how something will be prioritised, just tell the helpdesk what’s actually happening in school — “no one in Year 6 can log in” tells us far more than a ticket titled “login issue”. Our team sets the priority; you never have to argue for urgency.
3. Monitoring
For the avoidance of doubt, AIT operate 24/7/365 proactive monitoring of all systems. Therefore tickets may and can be automatically logged by the system on issues that arise. Key stakeholders will updated on any monitoring alerts when required, and notified once the ticket has been closed.
In practice this means many issues are already tickets before anyone in school notices them — a failing switch, broadband degradation, or a server backup that didn’t complete overnight. Monitoring-generated tickets follow exactly the same priority framework above, so an automatically detected P1 gets the same 15-minute response as one phoned in.
Don’t wait for the monthly report — see it live
Automatic ticket reports will be sent monthly to client stakeholders detailing ticket response times and resolution. These can be tailored as required by the client.
Monthly reports are the minimum. Every AIT school also gets Helpdesk Reporting, our transparency platform, included with the service — not sold on top. Its Executive overview gives heads and business managers a one-screen picture of ticket volumes and SLA attainment against every priority level on this page. KPI Insights breaks performance down by priority, so you can see, for example, how P1 response compares term by term. Training insights highlights where recurring tickets point to a staff-training opportunity rather than a technical fault, and the AI Assistant lets you ask questions of your own support data in plain English. For multi-academy trusts, per-trust filters roll every school up into one view — central teams see the trust-wide picture, each school sees its own.
Sign in via the Customer Portal — your single login for Helpdesk Reporting, AIT Horizon, AIT Atlas and AIT Ordering.
Trust leaders: see how this fits the bigger picture on our multi-academy trusts page.
Illustrative demo data
Three ways to log a ticket
- Phone: 0115 9170 197 — fastest for anything urgent; a P1 should always be phoned in.
- Customer Portal: log and track tickets any time at the Customer Portal.
- Email: email the helpdesk and a ticket is created automatically.
However it arrives, every ticket is triaged against the same priority system — and every response clock starts the moment it’s logged.
Ticket priority FAQs
A P1 is a critical incident affecting the whole site — for example, a total loss of internet connectivity or the failure of core equipment such as a main server or switch. P1s get a 15-minute response, on-site attendance within four hours during core hours, and updates every 15 minutes until resolved. If the whole school is affected, phone 0115 9170 197 rather than emailing, so triage starts immediately.
These are our standard response times, and they apply UK-wide. Depending on your contract with AIT you may have tailored, enhanced response times — your agreement always takes precedence. Your AIT Account Manager can confirm exactly what applies to your school or trust.
Two ways. You receive automatic monthly reports detailing ticket response times and resolutions, tailored to what your stakeholders want to see. And at any time, you can open Helpdesk Reporting via the Customer Portal to see your school’s SLA attainment for yourself — the Executive overview and KPI Insights show performance against every priority level. The numbers on this page are illustrative examples; your dashboard shows your real ones.
Our helpdesk team triages every ticket against the ITIL-aligned definitions above, overseen by our Helpdesk Manager. You don't need to know the framework to get the right response — just describe the impact on your school and the priority follows. If circumstances change (for example, a workaround fails), the priority is reassessed.
Often we'll have logged it for you — our 24/7/365 proactive monitoring automatically raises tickets for issues it detects, and your key stakeholders are notified of alerts and closures. But please still report anything you experience: user-facing problems, like a teacher's device misbehaving, aren't always visible to monitoring, and the sooner it's a ticket, the sooner the clock starts.
Support that shows its working
249 schools and 20 trusts across the UK rely on this priority system every day, backed by a 75-strong team that’s supported education since 2000. If your current provider can’t show you their response times — or won’t publish them — talk to us.
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