Cyber security for schools, nationwide
Compromise Alerts & Phishing Training
Your people are the strongest defence a school has — when they know what to look for. As part of our managed IT support for schools, AIT runs education-specific phishing simulations, watches the dark web for compromised school credentials, and turns the results into friendly, practical training for staff. It's included with our service, not sold on top — because keeping 249 schools safe is simply part of the job.
With all the uncertainty and vulnerability surrounding data protection online, there is a need for a service that can empower schools, with the knowledge that they're safe from cyber threats, and are capable of handling these threats when they present themselves.
REDUCE RISK
Empower your users
Unfortunately, cyber criminals are becoming more and more sophisticated, and even the most robust systems can sometimes become vulnerable thanks to new cyber attack ransomware and phishing attacks. We are here to help your school, staff and teachers navigate the ever evolving cyber landscape; helping educate users on risk and train to prevent such vulnerabilities becoming exploited. Compromise alerts and phishing training can help reduce the risk of cybercriminals taking advantage of your school. With AIT onboard, our supporting team will help your executives develop, manage and audit your school or MATs cyber securing response plans so that not only are you compliant, but users can feel empowered.
Phishing is the front door for almost every attack a school will ever face — ransomware, invoice fraud, account takeover. Technology like filtering and monitoring and managed backup closes most of that door; training your people closes the rest. That's why this service sits inside every AIT support agreement rather than on a separate price list.
Dedicated Training Resources
Bite-size video modules, posters for the staffroom and ready-made INSET sessions, all written for schools rather than corporates. New starters get the essentials in their first week; everyone else gets short refreshers through the year — never an hour-long lecture.
Password Monitoring
We check that staff and admin credentials meet your password policy, flag re-used or weak passwords before an attacker finds them, and help you roll out multi-factor authentication across office and teaching staff without disrupting the school day.
Dark Web Monitoring
Continuous scanning of breach dumps and criminal marketplaces for your school's domains. If a staff email address and password surface in a third-party breach, you hear it from us first — with the affected account already secured.
Tailored User Support
Nobody gets named and shamed. Staff who click a simulated phish get a short, supportive follow-up from our helpdesk-backed coaching, and your leadership team gets the pattern, not the blame. It's training, not a trap.
Phishing Simulation
AIT have developed a sophisticated phishing simulator which is designed specifically for education. Our software carefully mimics phishing attacks with emails being sent across sites, departments or school wide. We will work with you to tailor a phishing simulation that can be branded towards a trusted contact within your education sector. With a live platform monitor, your team will be able to view live results and thanks to follow up reporting and supportive coaching – staff can develop skills to identify suspicious risks before they become a threat.
A typical programme runs one campaign per term, agreed with your leadership team in advance and timed to avoid report-writing season and exam windows. Because we support schools and trusts right across the UK, every template reflects what education staff actually receive — spoofed parent emails, fake MIS notifications, "urgent" purchase-order requests — not generic corporate bait. For trusts, campaigns can run centrally across all sites with results broken down per school, so one trust-wide exercise replaces twenty separate ones.
Compromise Alerts
Personal information, such as date-of-birth, first names, last names, postcodes and home addresses can all be compromised and sometimes also be found online. Through our comprehensive monitoring package we can identify stolen credentials and other personally identifiable information, to find any instances where your email address, passwords and other data have been mentioned. We can then inform you of what has been compromised, help you to protect your accounts and advise you on how to prevent these occurrences in the future.
When an alert fires, it doesn't sit in a mailbox. Our support team resets the affected credentials, checks the account for suspicious sign-ins and mail-forwarding rules, and walks the member of staff through what happened — usually before the school day starts. Because the same team runs your day-to-day IT support and broadband, there's no hand-off between "the security company" and "the IT company". We're both.
User Training
Our supportive coaching and in-depth training not only educates users, but it's also really fun (or so we've been told!) We've partnered with East Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre and developed an engaging program of cyber training to build off the results from phishing simulations. Your team will be fully empowered to recognise potential threats that they can deal with in confidence. Our training is backed up with fantastic support from your AIT Account Manager who will support your executive team in ensuring your cyber polices are up to date, and compliant.
Training is delivered wherever your schools are — on site, on an INSET day, or remotely for staff spread across a trust — and the programme draws on the police-led Cyber Resilience Centre network that operates across the UK. Sessions build directly on your own simulation results, so staff practise spotting the exact lures their colleagues fell for, and each term's campaign measures whether the message stuck.
Your phishing results feed your cyber score in AIT Horizon
Most providers email you a PDF after a phishing test and call it done. At AIT, every simulation result flows straight into AIT Horizon, the leadership platform included with our service. Your cyber score updates the moment a campaign closes, so awareness training stops being a one-off exercise and becomes a trend your leaders can actually see.
- Schools view: a headteacher opens Horizon and sees their school's cyber score alongside the latest campaign — for example, 9 of 120 staff clicked this term, down from 21 last term (illustrative figures). The RAG compliance tracker shows staff cyber training sitting at green, with the two items still at amber listed underneath.
- Executive view: trust leaders see the same picture across every school at once, so the trust board can answer "are our staff getting harder to phish?" with a trend line rather than a shrug — and spot the one school that needs an extra training session before it becomes a problem.
- Policies and roadmap: your cyber incident response and acceptable-use policies live in Horizon's policies area next to the scores they support, and "termly phishing simulation" sits as a standing item on your strategy roadmap — evidence on tap when an auditor, insurer or DfE-standards review asks how staff awareness is monitored.
All figures shown in Horizon marketing imagery are illustrative. See how the same platform handles budgets and compliance on our IT vision and digital strategy page, or log in via the Customer Portal.
Illustrative demo data
See AIT Horizon in a 20-minute demoPhishing training works best when the same partner runs the systems behind it. AIT is a full managed service provider to schools and trusts across the UK — this page is one piece of a joined-up service:
IT support for schools
the helpdesk and engineers who act on every alert.
Safeguarding and filtering
web filtering and monitoring that blocks phishing sites before staff can reach them.
Managed backup and disaster recovery
the safety net if an attack ever lands.
Broadband for schools
secure, filtered connectivity underneath it all.
Cyber security for schools
the full security picture, from audits to response planning.
HERE FOR YOU
Together we are stronger
We know that the world of cybercrime can sometimes feel overwhelming, that's why our carefully tailored compromise alerts and phishing training solutions target staff development and training to ensure users can really feel empowered when navigating the online world. Our team are here to support you through your digital transformation and online journey.
Hear What Our Clients Had to Say…
Above and beyond
Our Trust have worked with AIT for almost ten years. In that time we have developed a trusting relationship, and they are continually looking for ways in which to improve the service to our schools. As their team have grown, so have their capabilities, but they have never lost that personal approach which is what separates them from counterparts. If you're looking for a provider who can really deliver…look no further than AIT!
J Haigh
We love our technician visits!
It's always such a joy when our AIT tech visits! He's really part of the team and my staff always know that whatever they need will get resolved. It's nice to have that relationship develop and push new initiatives which go beyond support.
K Yoxall — School Business Manager
They just get it
AIT really 'get it'. I know that sounds cliché but anything we try and articulate they put into action. I really respect their transparent approach, and they always do everything to ensure we get the very best in price, service and products.
A Mullahy — School Business Manager
Cost Effective Solutions
AIT came in with a great price and even better proposal which really did maximise our budgets as they said it would! The broadband services they provider and additional support has been seamless
Nottingham City Council
Made a real impact
We have worked with AIT since 2018 and they have helped us in the centralisation of our IT and Telecommunication services. AIT staff are knowledgeable, friendly and efficient at all levels and really have made an impact to our MAT.
M Premdjy — Director
5 Years & Counting
For the past 5 years Advanced IT Services have provided exceptional service. We've used them as a complete end-to-end provider from IT support to broadband & filtering –the team have always been on hand to help with anything we need. I cannot recommend them enough, the support team are always there night or day and it's a pleasure working with them!
M Wenham — School Business Manager
Understanding
AIT have really inspired our team with how they can make AIT work for us! They're really driven a positive change within school so that our teachers are comfortable in using new EdTech. They're always so understanding to our requirements.
L Tonks — Headteacher
'The go-to IT support provider'
AIT continue to demonstrate why they are becoming the go-to IT support provider. They're continued investment into infrastructure and their staff base means all clients benefit. AIT still have the personal approach though to services which really does count for a lot, it means that anything we need or advice – they're always there to lend a helping hand
J Richardson
'High Standards Always'
AIT were a name which cropped up when we were in the initial phases of looking for a managed service provider. Our requirements were quite niche and we needed to work with an agile supplier who would be able to react quickly but facilitate the high standards we needed to achieve. I'm thrilled with the progress so far and look forward to many more years to come!
S. Mitchell — CEO
Frequently asked questions
Yes — every campaign is agreed with your leadership team before a single email is sent, scheduled around the school calendar, and designed so no real credentials or data are ever at risk. Simulated emails go only to staff, never pupils or parents, and results are handled supportively: staff who click get a short coaching follow-up, and leaders see the overall pattern rather than a list of names. The aim is confidence, not embarrassment.
We recommend a rhythm of one simulation per term with short follow-up training in between, plus cyber essentials for every new starter during induction. Termly practice keeps awareness fresh without becoming background noise, gives you a genuine trend to report to governors, and lines up neatly with the evidence expectations of cyber insurance, Cyber Essentials and the DfE's digital and technology standards.
It's part of the service. Compromise alerts, dark web monitoring, phishing simulations and staff training are built into how we support schools — included with our service, not sold on top — and the results are reported through AIT Horizon at no additional charge. If you only want a one-off simulation or a standalone training day before joining us fully, talk to us and we'll put something sensible together.
You get an alert from us, not a surprise from an attacker. Our team resets the affected passwords, checks the account for suspicious sign-ins and rogue mail-forwarding rules, confirms multi-factor authentication is in place, and tells you exactly what data appeared and where it came from — usually a third-party website breach rather than your own systems. We then advise on preventing a repeat, and the incident is logged so your leadership team can evidence the response.
Directly. Both expect schools to train users, control accounts and be able to show it's happening. Our programme generates that evidence automatically: training completion, simulation trends and your incident response policy all live in AIT Horizon's RAG compliance tracker, so when an assessor or auditor asks how staff awareness is managed, the answer is a dashboard, not a folder hunt. For the wider technical controls, see our cyber security for schools page.
LETS TALK
Get in touch
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.
Call us on 0115 9170 197 or send a message below — we'll come back to you the same working day.
Already with us? Log in to your platforms via the Customer Portal.