DfE cyber security standards compliance for Derbyshire schools & academies
Professional IT support helping Derbyshire schools, academies and Multi-Academy Trusts achieve full compliance with the DfE cyber security standards – safeguarding your students, staff and reputation.
Meet the DfE cyber security standards without turning it into another impossible school project.
Schools and colleges are expected to work towards the DfE cyber security core standard by 2030. That means risk assessments, awareness training, safer accounts, protected devices, tested backups and clear incident reporting.
The problem is rarely that schools do not care. It is that cyber security sits across SLT, governors, IT support, safeguarding, finance, data protection and business continuity. Someone has to bring it together.
We help Derbyshire schools, Chesterfield schools and MATs turn the DfE requirements into a practical action plan that protects pupils, staff, learning and school operations.
The standards are clear. The hard bit is knowing where your school actually stands.
A school can have firewalls, antivirus, backups, filtering, Microsoft 365 and an IT support contract, yet still struggle to evidence the DfE standard properly.
The DfE expects more than tools. It expects ownership, review, documentation, reporting, termly checks and a plan that senior leaders and governors understand.
That is where we help: translating the standard into plain English and showing what needs fixing first.
The seven areas your school needs to be working through.
Cyber risk assessment
Carry out a cyber risk assessment every year and review it every term, including assets, data, permissions, network documentation and response planning.
Cyber awareness plan
Create and maintain an acceptable use policy, train staff and students, and make reporting suspicious activity feel safe and normal.
Anti-malware and firewall
Use properly configured firewalls, centrally managed anti-malware, monitoring, secure browser settings and safer application controls.
User accounts and access
Control who can access what, use unique accounts, apply MFA where needed, review accounts termly and remove leavers quickly.
Licensing and updates
Keep systems licensed, supported and patched, including high-risk vulnerability fixes within the expected timescales.
Backup and recovery
Create a backup plan, use appropriate copies and locations, make backups immutable where possible, and test restores termly.
Report cyber attacks
Make sure staff and students know how to report issues, and that the school has a clear process for internal and external reporting.
Schools usually have pieces of the puzzle. The gaps are in ownership, evidence and review.
- Cyber risk assessments done once, but not reviewed termly.
- Backups in place, but restore tests not logged or evidenced.
- MFA enabled for some staff, but not consistently applied to higher-risk accounts.
- Old accounts still active for former staff, supply staff or third parties.
- Policies exist, but do not reflect how technology is actually used.
- Firewall and anti-malware tools present, but monitoring responsibilities unclear.
- Unsupported devices, software or licences not visible to SLT.
- Incident response plans sitting separately from business continuity.
- Governors unsure what cyber questions they should ask.
- IT providers doing useful work, but not always mapping it to the DfE standard.
In simple terms: review → map → fix → evidence → revisit.
Review
We look at your current cyber controls, Microsoft 365 setup, devices, backups, policies, accounts and incident response arrangements.
Map
We map what you already have against the DfE cyber security core standard so you can see what is strong and what is missing.
Fix
We help prioritise practical actions, from identity protection and backup testing to staff awareness and endpoint security.
Evidence
We help you turn activity into evidence for SLT, governors, trustees, inspections, insurance and internal reviews.
Revisit
The standard expects ongoing review. We can support termly check-ins so cyber security does not become a once-a-year panic.
This is about safeguarding, continuity and learning.
A cyber incident in a school can affect far more than IT. It can disrupt teaching, expose safeguarding data, lock staff out of systems, create data protection issues and place heavy pressure on leaders.
- Can staff access safeguarding records if systems are unavailable?
- Can teaching continue if devices or cloud services are disrupted?
- Can leaders show governors what is being reviewed termly?
- Can backups be restored quickly and cleanly?
- Does everyone know how to report a cyber concern?
Practical protection that supports the standard.
Heimdal NGAV
Next-generation antivirus to help protect school devices from malware, scripts and suspicious behaviour.
UpdatesHeimdal Patch & Asset
Support patching, asset visibility and software update requirements across your school estate.
School packageNest Protect
A practical package for schools combining NGAV, patch management and ransomware encryption protection.
MonitoringHuntress EDR
Managed endpoint detection and response to help identify suspicious activity on school devices.
AccountsHuntress ITDR
Monitor Microsoft 365 for unusual logins, malicious inbox rules and account takeover signals.
BackupMicrosoft 365 Backup
Recover mailboxes, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive data if deletion, compromise or ransomware causes disruption.
EmailAvanan Email Security
Reduce phishing, malicious links, fake invoices and credential theft attempts targeting staff inboxes.
AwarenessSecurity Awareness Training
Short, practical training to help staff recognise phishing, social engineering and risky behaviour.
RecoveryAxcient Backup
Backup and recovery for servers, endpoints and key systems that need to be restored after an incident.
Where certification and insurance fit in.
Cyber Essentials for schools
Cyber Essentials is not the same as the DfE cyber security standard, but it can help schools prove that key technical controls are in place.
RPA and response planning
The DfE standard links cyber response planning and backup arrangements to business continuity. For schools using Risk Protection Arrangement cover, evidence around response and backups matters.
Questions schools often ask about the DfE cyber security standard.
Do schools have to meet the DfE cyber security standard now?
The DfE says schools and colleges should be working towards the core standards by 2030. Some parts, such as secure accounts, backups and incident reporting, should already be treated as urgent practical controls.
Is this the same as Cyber Essentials?
No. The DfE standard is education-specific and covers governance, risk, processes and resilience. Cyber Essentials is a separate government-backed certification focused on technical controls.
Can you work with our existing school IT provider?
Yes. We can work alongside your existing IT provider. They may already be doing useful technical work; we help map that work against the standard, identify gaps and support evidence.
Can this help governors and trustees?
Yes. We can help turn the standard into clear questions, risk areas and action points that SLT, governors and trustees can understand.
Do you support single schools and MATs?
Yes. We can support individual schools, local authority maintained schools, academies and multi-academy trusts.
Get a clearer view of where your school stands.
If your school needs to understand the DfE cyber security core standard, evidence what is already in place, or prioritise what to fix next, we can help.
Meet Kevin: Founder of Black Swan
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