Apollo 11's near-miss offers a surprisingly useful lesson for schools: the new DfE IT Support Standards are all about keeping the critical systems steady, prioritised and ready for lift-off.
There is a moment during the Apollo 11 Moon landing where everything could have gone very wrong indeed. Just minutes before touchdown, the onboard computer began flashing mysterious "1201" and "1202" alarms. Not ideal when you are trying to land on another world.
The issue was not a dramatic system failure. It was something much more familiar to anyone who has overseen school IT: the computer was trying to do too many things at once because a radar unit had been left in the wrong mode. A classic capacity problem. Fortunately, the system had been designed to prioritise essential tasks, quietly dropping non-critical ones so that Neil Armstrong still had what he needed to land safely.
And that, in essence, is the heart of the Department for Education's newly published IT Support Standards for Schools and Colleges.
When technology is stable, well maintained and sensibly supported, schools can get on with the important work. But when it is not, things do not just run slowly; they fail at precisely the moment you need them most. Registers, safeguarding records, finance systems, remote learning platforms... they all depend on a support structure that quietly absorbs the background noise so teaching and leadership can stay on course.
The new standard sets out what IT support in schools should look like, whether that support is in-house, outsourced, or a hybrid model. It is not about buying the shiniest kit; it is about ensuring someone is responsible for keeping everything reliable, secure and aligned with the school's digital strategy.
Some of the expectations include:
It is less "fixing the printer" and more "Mission Control".
For many schools, IT support has grown organically: a helpful technician, a long-standing contractor, or a small team doing their best with ageing kit and even older documentation. The new standard asks a simple but important question:
Does your support model still reflect the scale, complexity and risk of modern school systems?
If not, this is a good moment to pause, review and realign. Not because someone says so from Sanctuary Buildings, but because things fail at the moment they are most needed. Apollo 11 had the right fail-safes in place. Too many schools do not.
For those using the RAG tool within one of theEducationCollective online communities, including Local SBM Networks, the ANME, and the governing bodies we support through our governor portal, the new IT Support Standards are already built in. You will find them reflected in the latest criteria, helping teams benchmark where they are now and spot gaps early.
And for organisations with a Digital Confidence subscription, the update is complete there too. The assessment, guidance and supporting materials now align fully with the new DfE expectations, so schools can be confident that their planning, reviews and audits are working to the most recent standards.
This guidance is also an opportunity for senior leaders and school business professionals to bring IT support into the strategic conversation. That means:
It is about planning, not firefighting.
We will continue to weave these standards into our tools, workshops and resources as they evolve. They sit neatly alongside EdFITS, the wider DfE digital standards and our long-standing emphasis on making technology simple, reliable and sustainable for schools.
Because nobody ever thanks the background systems that quietly keep everything running, at least not until the alarms start flashing.
And in school IT, as in lunar landings, the goal is the same: keep the critical things working, keep people safe, and make sure you always have enough capacity left to land the mission.
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