How Cantonian High School found a sign-in partner willing to build a feature within an hour.

Cantonian High School, a community secondary school with over 1,000 pupils, switched from InVentry to GroupEd OnSite in 2026 ahead of a move to a multi-school campus. Since then, the Network Manager has saved 2 to 5 hours a week in technical support time, MIS integration is automatic, and one requested feature was built within an hour of the school asking for it.

When Cantonian High School started planning its move to a multi-school campus, the sign-in system had to keep up. The existing solution’s hardware was end of life (Windows 10), and adding a new kiosk meant buying hardware, waiting for an install, and being tied to a Windows box on the local network. What the school needed was a system that could flex as the site grew, and a supplier willing to build alongside it, not just supply it. Six months on from switching to GroupEd OnSite, that is what Kai Monroe, Cantonian’s Network Manager and Arbor MIS & Data Systems Development Lead, says the school has got.

The challenge

The InVentry contract was coming up for renewal, and the school was preparing to move to a new multi-school campus. That move meant more sign-in points, in more locations, without a clear idea yet of how many would be needed or where they would live.

The existing setup was not built for that kind of uncertainty. Each kiosk was a Windows machine that needed physical installation. The backend software only worked on the local network. Adding an extra kiosk meant buying more hardware and waiting for an install.

“Our InVentry hardware was end of life, and the flexibility of an iOS-based sign-in system that we could expand at will sounded more appealing than a fixed cost per kiosk system,” Monroe says. “Particularly as we were not sure quite where our sign-in kiosks would live in the new campus, or how many we would need.”

Modernising the sign-in system, in short, was not optional.

Choosing GroupEd

Cantonian did look at alternatives. Sign In App was on the shortlist. The team that made the call, made up of the Business Manager, Lead IT Technician, Network Manager, and Deputy Headteacher, met with GroupEd in December 2025.

What tipped the decision was not a feature list. It was the working relationship. GroupEd’s willingness to build features to fit the school’s needs, and a local team who could pick up the phone, gave the school confidence that the sign-in product would evolve alongside how Cantonian actually operated.

“The feeling was that the working relationship with GroupEd would mean OnSite could better meet the school’s needs, and having a local team just added that personal touch,” Monroe says.

The rollout

Onboarding was as light-touch as the school could have asked for. “Incredibly smoothly,” Monroe says. “GroupEd came and installed all the hardware, pre-setup and provided training on accessing the online portal.”

Because OnSite is a staff and pupil sign-in system rather than a whole-school platform rollout, there was no wider staff or parent onboarding to manage. The hardware went in, the portal training happened, and the school started signing people in.

How Cantonian uses GroupEd today

All staff at Cantonian sign in via GroupEd OnSite. The school’s sixth form uses the system to sign in and out. Other students use it to log arrivals when they are late and to sign out when they are leaving early. The team is working with GroupEd on a way to make the late-pupil workflow even quicker.

Six months in, the day-to-day experience has held up. “Where we have had questions or feature requests, GroupEd have been really responsive and supportive,” Monroe says. He recounts one moment that stuck with him:

“For one feature we suggested, an hour later GroupEd had implemented it in their testing app and it became live shortly after. I have worked with many companies over the years and have never had a suggestion implemented so fast.”

The impact

How much time has GroupEd saved?

For Kai Monroe personally, GroupEd OnSite has saved 2 to 5 hours a week in technical support time. Those were hours he used to spend keeping the old kiosks running and working around a Windows-only backend. Across the wider staff, the school estimates up to an hour a day saved between them. That time comes from the automatic MIS sync: late marks now write straight into Arbor rather than staff having to log in and approve each one by hand.

What else has changed?

Two things stand out.

MIS integration used to require staff to log in and approve late marks, and some inevitably got missed. GroupEd now writes those marks straight into the school’s Arbor MIS. Every arrival is logged automatically, with no manual approval step.

OnSite’s multi-language support means the school’s many pupils and parents who speak English as an Additional Language (EAL) get a sign-in experience in their own language. That is quicker for reception, and more inviting for families. “As a community school we love that,” Monroe adds.

How OnSite supports Martyn’s Law compliance

The new evacuation features are being folded into Cantonian’s lockdown policies at exactly the moment Martyn’s Law is reshaping what secondary schools have to have in place. The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 3 April 2025, and the Home Office’s statutory guidance is now published. The duties are not enforceable yet, with an implementation period of at least 24 months from Royal Assent, but when they arrive schools will need public protection procedures across four areas: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. Cantonian, as a secondary school with well over 200 people on site, sits squarely in scope. We have written up what that means in practice in our guide to Martyn’s Law.

Raising an alert has never been the hard part; communicating during one and marking people as safe has been. OnSite’s Evac work addresses exactly that gap. “I really can’t overstate how much of a game changer the Evac features will be for schools,” Monroe says.

For other schools considering GroupEd

“It’s easy for a company to say that they will work with schools to develop the product to the school’s needs, but often that relationship feels to go away once onboarded. This isn’t the case with GroupEd. While the product is great, they are continually making sure the products work for schools, and I think the passion and dedication shown is easily GroupEd’s biggest selling point.”

If your school is at the same point

Cantonian’s timing is the common version of this: a contract up for renewal, hardware at end of life, and a change coming that the current system would charge you to keep up with. Sign-in, roll call, lockdown and mass communication sit in one platform on OnSite, on one log, and the pupil marks write back into your MIS without anyone approving them by hand.

If that is roughly where you are, a 30-minute demo is the fastest way to find out whether the same answer fits.