Kingsway Christian College has transformed its educational approach through targeted technology integration, partnering with JB Hi-Fi Education to enhance the learning experience for students and the teaching experience for educators.
In a sunlit classroom at Kingsway Christian College in the Perth suburb of Darch, a group of kindergarten students are using iPads, their fingers tracing shapes and exploring interactive learning games.
Such a scene reflects a digital transformation journey the school started a couple of years ago, says the College Principal Mr Peter Burton. The school set up foundations to use technology as a tool to enhance learning and teaching. Over time, this vision came to life with thoughtful integration of digital resources into learning.
“We called it a digital transformation, and that was more to do with how the staff were bringing on board a whole change that impacted how we worked. But of course, that then also took the students on a journey as well, and how we would then teach the students,” Mr Burton says.
“One thing we were clear about from the outset was that we wanted to enhance the students’ learning, not necessarily enhance the technology. We saw technology as a tool that we were going to use to enhance their learning.”
To support its digital integration, Kingsway Christian College teamed up with JB Hi-Fi Education, who delivered solutions designed to align with their curriculum and long-term educational vision. The relationship began with JB Hi-Fi Education delivering devices that met the specific needs of students and supported the school’s pedagogical approach.
Throughout the years, the relationship evolved, with JB Hi-Fi Education providing tech support beyond devices – becoming a key partner with initiatives such as the rollout of AV solutions across all classrooms and more.
“In the beginning, our relationship was focused on device procurement. Over time, this transformed into a collaborative relationship. Now it’s more about how JB Hi-Fi Education can add value to our school,” says Mr Roger Smith, Director of IT at Kingsway.
Mr Burton appreciates this approach, noting this “solutions focus” where discussions with JB Hi-Fi Education centre on needs, leading to tailored technological solutions that genuinely support educational objectives.
“JB Hi-Fi Education has been a trusted partner of Australian schools for over 20 years and provides a wide range of products for education and services tailored to meet the unique needs of schools and education institutions” says Mr Chris Puff, a JB Hi-Fi Education Account Manager.
“We believe that technology should help educators enhance student learning and that’s a vision we share with Kingsway Christian College. Over the years, we’ve evolved and introduced new solutions that help the school stay focused on learning. From the very beginning it has been a pleasure to work together and bring this vision to life.”
A technology evolution in motion
Kingsway is a Kindergarten to Year 12 co-educational independent Christian College with approximately 1450 students and 280 staff. Due to its size and its structure, Kingsway Christian College requires a device solution tailored to meet the specific needs of each student group.
For Kindergarten students and new entrants up to Year 2, the digital integration starts with iPads through a play-based learning approach, explains Mr Matthew Lovell, Dean of Secondary.
“iPads were chosen for Kindergarten through to Year 2 to slowly start introducing digital interaction for students, as they are easy to use but powerfully capable devices to start introducing and progressively scaling up learning and digital literacy across those year groups,” Mr Smith says. “Not all students are given iPads. That is an intentional decision by the Dean of Primary – he wants students to focus on literacy and numeracy, more heavily than technology.”
As students grow, they switch systems and devices to start using Microsoft Surface Go tablets.
“A key decision to deploy Surface Go’s in Year 3 is to start moving from finger-based interactions to keyboard interactions and inquiry-based learning, teaching students typing skills,” Mr Lovell says.
For students in Years 4 to 6, the College provides Microsoft Surface Laptops through a 1:1 program. The objective is to offer a standardised device, to relieve the pressure of parents to source one themselves for their child, according to Mr Smith.
“As a College, like most schools, we’ve got very tight timelines, very tight budgets, key deliverables, and every year we have to be producing quality education for families and students.”
Mr Roger Smith, Director of IT
For students from Year 7 onwards, the College operates a BYOD program, recommending Surface devices for students in Secondary school, with an online BYOD portal managed by JB Hi-Fi Education.
Surface devices are also provided to teaching staff across the College.
“When teachers are familiar with a device, they can provide better assistance or support in the classroom to a student who’s got that same type of device,” Mr Smith says.
“Kingsway College approached us with a clear vision for how technology should support their pedagogy across each year level. We worked closely with them to recommend and source the right products for each learning cohort,” Mr Puff says.
“For Secondary students, we manage a custom BYOD portal, making it easy for parents to select and purchase approved devices. This ensures consistency in the classroom and gives families a supported experience.”
“In addition, we handle device management and deployment across Primary and Secondary students,” he declares.
To keep devices running smoothly Kingsway Christian College is using the JB Hi-Fi Education warranty and repair services.
“Broken devices can disrupt learning – that’s why JB Hi-Fi Education has a team of qualified technicians to facilitate repairs and manufacturer warranty claims, and help schools minimise device downtime,” Mr Puff says.
“The service provides an easy process to manage warranty and repair claims, with turnaround for repaired or replaced devices in a relatively short timeframe,” Mr Smith adds.
“It provides a level of comfort and backing to parents that the College has a close relationship with an organisation that can provide assistance when required,” he says. This approach is particularly valuable for parents who might otherwise feel overwhelmed by potential device repair complexities, transforming what could be a stressful experience into a seamless, supportive process.
Technological infrastructure: more than devices
As part of its digital journey, Kingsway Christian College has progressively developed a comprehensive technological ecosystem. More than four years ago, the school launched a project to bring all classrooms up to the same standardised display setup.
“From a classroom / teacher perspective, we wanted consistency across all the different rooms,” Mr Lovell says.
The school selected 75” TCL TVs paired with Vivi casting solutions in each classroom and collaborative space – creating consistency across the school and enabling wireless content sharing from any device.
Mr Smith says the chosen solution met the College’s initial goals of enabling teachers and students to wirelessly share content from any device to the classroom display while also enabling seamless teacher mobility across all classrooms and flexibility in teaching using Vivi features such as virtual whiteboards, screen annotation, student screen sharing, and content streaming which all promote active participation.
“Only a few years ago, some rooms had a touch screen, some had a projector, some had a TV. The ways that you connected was different in different classrooms, and so that was a cause of frustration for some of our teachers,” adds Mr Lovell.
“Now if a teacher walks into a teaching room of any sort, whether it be a classroom, or a seminar room in our new Library facility, they know there’s going to be a TCL TV and Vivi there. Even down to how you turn it on, it’s the same regardless of where you are, which I think teachers really appreciate. It doesn’t matter where you are in the College, you can walk in and within a few minutes you should be able to start teaching,” he says.
Following successful deployment in classrooms, the College expanded a display solution across all common areas. To manage display content, the school has adopted a collaborative approach: the marketing team oversees the content shown across all screens, while the IT team is responsible for the backend set up, technical operations and critical administrative functions.
“We are integrating that [the collaborative approach] into our overall emergency procedures to make it more automated,” Mr Smith notes, highlighting how the system can broadcast critical information like lockdowns or evacuations across the campus, demonstrating a holistic approach to technological infrastructure.
“Creating an effective digital learning environment starts with selecting the right display and casting solution,” Mr Puff says.
“We engaged with Kingsway to understand their teaching approach, their variety of spaces across their campus and how they wanted their devices to integrate seamlessly. Based on those insights, we recommended TCL TVs paired with Vivi casting – an intuitive and easy solution to use for both teachers and students.”
Additionally, the College set up a full audiovisual (AV) suite in two meeting rooms for external meetings and interviews, with plans to potentially expand into more areas of the school.
Mr Puff explains: “Our AV solutions are about making communications seamless. We’ve designed them to be flexible and reliable, so whether you’re in the room or joining remotely, every meeting runs smoothly. That’s exactly what Kingsway was after for their meeting rooms.”
“Our new Staff Community facility was nearing completion, and as part of that we made a decision as a leadership that we needed modern, wireless, AV capability,” Mr Smith says.
“After reviewing a range of systems, Yeahlink was chosen as the solution which met the criteria and has turned out to be an easy-to-administer and use system. With minimal training, staff are using the meeting rooms for Teams meetings, Vivi interactions and video conferencing, significantly improving the ability of staff to run those sorts of meetings,” he says.
Sustainability and responsible technology management
Sustainability is valued at Kingsway Christian College, influencing how the school manages its operations – including the management of old technology assets. Mr Smith says previously the IT team disposed of end-of-life devices via general equipment recycling or disposal organisations and needed a more sustainable approach, that’s where the Buyback program from JB Hi-Fi Education came in.
The Buyback program enables schools to trade-in redundant or end-of-life devices. It potentially reduces overall costs across the lifespan of a product, by recovering value for old or unused tech assets supporting schools to provide students with advanced learning tools.
Handled devices are assessed for repair or reuse wherever possible – reducing waste and supporting responsible device lifecycle management.
This year Kingsway has started using the Buyback Program, for iPads and iMacs.
“We wanted to go a step further with the disposal of devices taking sustainability, data security and administration processes into account,” Mr Smith says.
“As part of an entire College iPad refresh program, we engaged JB Hi-Fi Education’s Buyback Program, which re-homes the devices. What made it convenient using a program like Buyback was having one supplier take care of the entire process,” he adds.
“The Buyback Program takes the burden out of the schools to deal with device lifecycle management – we take care of every step, from pickup to secure data erasure and repurpose or recycling where possible – while helping them reinvest in better tools for teaching and learning,” Mr Puff says.
Leveraging JB Hi-Fi Education’s wide network of suppliers, Kingsway also implemented a standardised process to hand over devices for their relief teachers.
“We were after a device management solution, and what was proposed [by JB Hi-Fi Education] was a PC Locs Fuyl Smart Locker system,” Mr Smith says.
The smart locker system from PC Locs provides a grab-and-go solution for relief teachers, offering fully set-up devices that are ready to use.
It required an initial capital outlay from Kingsway’s IT team, however the value added over the past year has more than paid for the solution, Mr Smith says.
“It has freed up the IT team to be able to focus on support assistance with staff other than just handing over a device. Devices can now be charged and contain the latest Microsoft and College policy updates, ready for immediate use by staff,” he says.
A Microsoft’s Active Directory (AD) service was embedded into the tower’s system to enable teachers to use their staff cards to loan and return a device, with the details recorded in a SharePoint asset register.
“…and best of all, the relief teachers love the solution,” Mr Smith declares.
“Now the College is considering expanding the solution to Secondary students to assist with charging of devices and temporary loan devices for critical educational activities such as exams,” Mr Lovell says.
Looking forward, Kingsway Christian College continues to explore innovative technological solutions. Its journey to date illustrates thoughtful integration of technology through collaborative relationship with JB Hi-Fi Education, creating a model that values both student growth and staff experience.
Principal Mr Burton succinctly summarises: “It’s a matter of enhancing the learning through the use of these new tools.”
