How the Cyber Readiness assessment works
Every Cyber Readiness engagement follows the same three-stage method: a guided pre-assessment, an automated network penetration test, and a synthesised report with a prioritised improvement plan. You know what happens at each stage and what you receive.
Pre-assessment
We capture your current position through a guided fact-find covering governance, policies, network configuration, access control, backups, safeguarding-related filtering and incident readiness. A self-assessment completed by the school is validated by our team. This stage confirms scope and the environment, and sets the baseline for the technical work.
Assessment
We run an automated internal and external network penetration test: a sweep of up to 500 IP addresses, scoped across a representative selection of your core technology sets (switches, servers, wireless, audio visual (AV), printers, desktops, CCTV). It identifies open ports, misconfigured services, unpatched software, weak credentials and exploitable network paths. The technical activity is combined with the governance and operational findings from the pre-assessment, so the result is a complete view rather than a purely technical scan.
Post-assessment
We produce two synthesised outputs: a technical findings report for the IT team, and an executive summary for a headteacher, CEO, business manager or governor. The executive summary states an overall maturity position, the key strengths, the priority areas, and a prioritised set of recommendations. We hold a closing review to walk through the findings and agree next steps.
Five standard deliverables
The outcome is not the scan. It is a set of outputs written for the people who have to act on them.
Pre-assessment record
Confirmed scope, environment and governance baseline.
Technical findings report
Detailed vulnerability findings with technical detail and remediation actions.
Executive summary report
Plain-English maturity position, strengths, priorities and recommendations.
Prioritised improvement plan
An ordered set of actions the school can plan and budget against.
Closing review
A guided walkthrough of the findings and agreed next steps.
From not knowing, to a plan you can act on
The value of Cyber Readiness is the clarity it gives different people in the school to make and justify decisions. You move from not knowing where you stand to holding a prioritised, evidenced plan you can act on, budget for, and show to governors, trustees and the Risk Protection Arrangement.
Start with the free self-assessment
Our free Cyber Readiness Self-Assessment is a structured questionnaire covering the same ground as Stage 1: governance, policies, access control, backups, filtering and incident readiness. You complete it, and we return a high-level executive summary showing where you stand against the Department for Education (DfE) Cyber Security Standards.
It costs nothing, it carries no obligation, and it is a sensible way to decide whether the full assessment is worth commissioning. Share your details and we will send you the questionnaire.
Book a Cyber Readiness assessment
Tell us about your school or trust and we will walk you through the three stages.