New School Suppliers that have joined the School Suppliers Directory this week:
Administration > Gladstone Education
Catering/Kitchens > Venue Furniture
Drama > Pivotal Education Ltd
Drama > Leisurelec
ICT > Autology World
ICT > Brightfilter Limited
School Furniture > Sigma Desks
The shortlist of nominations for the prestigious Education Resource Awards was announced last week by BESA, the School Suppliers trade association.
Among those nominated were a number of School Suppliers Directory listed suppliers, and we wish them the very best of luck.
The Education Resources Awards highlight the quality and diversity of educational products and resources, excellent educational establishments and the most dedicated members of the teaching profession and supplies industry, all working together to encourage the very best in education.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony at The National Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham on Friday 27th March.
School software applications that can communicate and work together seamlessly are fast becoming a top priority for key decision makers, according to a recent survey.
The survey, carried out annually by Pearson Phoenix at the BETT Show revealed that 45% of respondents felt interoperability between applications was a top priority, with 37% choosing reporting and just 18% putting administration at the top of the list.
The results indicate that schools are favouring software and applications that can be ‘joined-up’ reducing the need to duplicate admin tasks and for additional data entry.
Headway has been made by Becta to standardise interoperability through the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF), which’ll become become the standard framework for all MIS systems by 2010 to allow integration with other applications to be quick and easy.
These changes may require some school software suppliers to make changes to their current products, which could be a complex and expensive task. However, in the long run it appears to be a positive move to improve the level of intergration between systems and therefore ultimately benefiting the end users!
School Suppliers that have joined us this week:
Early Years > Beanstalk Learning
School Security > Barriers Direct
School Playgrounds > EcoScape UK Ltd.
School Software > Altman Technologies Ltd
The first officially-approved safe venues for school trips that have been awarded with the recently launched Learning Outside the Classroom ‘Quality Badge’ were announced last week.
The badge, which organisations and venues are being encouraged to apply for recognises safe working practices and educational value. Under the scheme, organisations will display the badge as a signal to schools that their venue has met the required standard, so teachers do not need to carry out their own risk or quality assessments.
Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said:
Educational visits are among the most memorable experiences in a child’s school life. I want to see schools taking advantage of the opportunities that learning outside the classroom provides to bring subjects to life.
Quality Badges offer teachers a guarantee that not only is a venue providing the sort of educational value that they can build on in class long after the visit but they also have the appropriate risk management structures in place.
Organisations can apply for a badge via the Quality Badge website and follow one of two application routes. Low-risk venues such as museums, places of worship and art galleries are able to apply via Route 1 which involves completing an online self-evaluation form. Other venues that carry much higher risks, such as outdoor activity centres, beaches and farms will follow route 2 and are to be assessed by independent awarding bodies, which will look in detail at their safety management systems before awarding the organisation with the Quality Badge.
The cost of the badge for Route 1 applications is £100, payable online when submitting the self evaluation form. The cost for Route 2 applications is anywhere between £60 – £750, dependant on the relevant awarding body.
Overall, the scheme is designed to get more pupils out on school trips and learning outside the classroom, whilst cutting the red tape and paperwork involved for teachers. It’s been welcomed by teachers’ unions and school suppliers alike, and is set to dramatically increase the number of educational visits being offered by schools.
More information for suppliers can be found here: www.lotcqualitybadge.org.uk
Children’s Secretary Ed Balls yesterday announced additional funding of over £21m towards improved facilities for 75 specialist sports colleges in England.
The cash is to be spent on refurbishing sports surfaces and facilities, including adding flood lights and all-weather astro pitches to enable facilities to be used during the evenings and in the winter months. Ed Balls commented:
2008 will always be remembered as a fantastic year for sport. We all enjoyed the remarkable achievements by Team GB at the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing. But it was also a remarkable year for sports colleges, PE and school sport.
The announce will come as good news for PE suppliers who have seen a drastic downturn in the volume of orders in recent months. Ed Balls added:
I am delighted to announce that our massive investment in school sport continues today with a further £21 million to be shared between 75 sports colleges. I know that this investment will make a real difference across the country.
Ed Balls made the announcement at the opening day of the Sports Colleges Conference yesterday.
Check our list of Key Dates for School Suppliers for details of other conferences, exhibitions and events coming up.
RM Logo
School IT supplier RM has today announced trading results in line with expectations in the period from 1 October 2008 to 6 February 2009.
In its interim report, the company stated:
The group had seen no indications of a decrease in spending in its markets. This remains the case and trading is in line with management’s plan in the Group’s three areas of activity.
The company also reported:
RM’s business is seasonal reflecting buying patterns in the schools marketplace, with a large majority of the year’s profit arising in the second half. In addition, the first quarter of the Group’s financial year is the lowest for revenue and order intake. As a consequence of these factors, performance at this stage is not a reliable indicator of the outcome for the full financial year.
This good financial position is a reflection of the dominance of the company within the industry, coupled with the signing of a number of lucrative contracts both in the UK (as part of the BSF programme), and in the US.
The company’s results for the second half of the financial year will make interesting reading and will give a much clearer vision of the future of RM and the industry in general.
School Closures
The news this week has been palgued with reports of hundreds, if not thousands of school closures throughout the UK due to the severe weather conditions, but what sort of knock on effect is this having on the education industry and school suppliers?
Following the post Christmas sales slump, these few crucial weeks before half term and normally fairly busy, with schools spending the last of their annual budgets before March/April.
Whilst it’s great that everyone is outdoors enjoying the wintry weather, many school suppliers are sitting at their desks, twiddling their thumbs.
Hopefully this weather won’t continue into next week, and everyone can get back to some work!
New suppliers in the School Suppliers Directory in the last 7 days:
Catering/Kitchens > Littlechef Bigchef
Drama > MJ Lighting
Drama > RKDO Sound & Light
Music > Opera for Kids
Music > Tribal Vibes
PSHE > Funshine Productions
School Administration > School Survey Experts
School Furniture > SOS Blinds
School Playgrounds > Activechildsplay
School Playgrounds > Cover Me
School Signs > Mirage Signs
Science > Gardenature
School Websites > Green Schools Online
