You’ve already touched on Windows 7 being faster and more energy efficient, which is going to give your students a better experience. If you’re moving to Server 2008 R2 at the same time you’re likely to see faster login times too.

The other thing to think about is consistency, especially for younger students – technology at home is always out-pacing that in schools so many students will already be running Windows 7. Offering them a seamless transition to IT systems at school helps them get on with their work and reduces pressure on teaching staff in lessons.

If you’ve got disabled users at your school there are improvements in the Accessibility Tools and you’ll be ready for new technologies with native Blu-ray support and OS awareness of touch technologies.

For staff there’s native encryption technologies (BitLocker) built in and if you’re moving to Server 2008 R2 then DirectAccess is a simple way for them to connect to the network and access resources.

For you there’s a number of tools that make administration easier, such as Deployment Tools, which can remove the need to maintain multiple machines images using drive imaging technology.

Hope that helps, let us know if we can be of any further assistance.