Education Business Volume 15.5

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VOLUME 15.5

EDUCATION BUSINESS AWARDS

ENERGY

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

FINANCE

How will recent government announcements affect education?

DESIGN & BUILD - Life after Building Schools for the Future PLUS LOTS MORE INSIDE

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VOLUME 15.5

It has been an exciting summer for many of us, not only for the students waiting for their exam results, but also for those expecting further government announcements, dreading news of cuts, wishing for messages of increased funds.

Education Secretary Michael Gove did announce some good news recently: 33 local authority sample school projects in 14 council regions have been given the go-ahead. These are Building School for the Future projects at an advanced stage of planning that had not yet reached financial close. So even though the BSF programme has been cancelled, it does not mean the end of investment in school buildings. Life after BSF is a topic further discussed on page 45 in this issue.

EDUCATION BUSINESS AWARDS

ENERGY

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

FINANCE

ment How will recent govern tion? educa announcements affect

after DESIGN & BUILD - Life

If you work in a new, refurbished or simply a great building, you might want to enter the School Building category of the Education Business Awards. Now in its fifth year, the event recognises successful investment in education through awards in 18 different categories. The deadline for entries is looming so please go to page 13 for more information. Shortlisted entries will be invited to the ceremony held 11 November at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium. Good luck!

INSIDE Future PLUS LOTS MORE Building Schools for the

Enjoy the issue.

editorial@psigroupltd.co.uk

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CONTENTS EDUCATION BUSINESS VOLUME 15.5

07 NEWS 13 EB AWARDS 11 November is the day when we recognise successful investment in education

17 FINANCE Ray Barker of the British Education Suppliers Association takes a look at recent government announcements that will affect education There are so many issues to consider when it comes to investing excess funds and the banking crisis has just added to the confusion, writes Ian Gillard The Business Application Software Developers’ Association highlights some solutions that can help your organisation make cost savings Make sure an outstanding debt doesn’t turn into an uncollectible one, warns the Institute of Credit Management BESA discusses the advantages and disadvantages of academies

37 DESIGN & BUILD The Royal Institute of British Architects discusses the value and importance of a well-designed school building English Heritage gives advice on re-building and refurbishing listed buildings Is there life after Building Schools for the Future?

BSEC is launching Remodelling Education Spaces, dedicated to remodelling schools, colleges and universities

We preview Built Environment Solutions & Technologies – a new exhibition that shows you how to achieve smarter, more affordable and sustainable construction

55 ENERGY The Energy Services and Technology Association looks at ways schools can improve energy performance without resorting to big investments We preview The Carbon Show, taking place 4-5 October Sibford School explains its successful project to conserve energy

67 EDUCATIONAL TRIPS The School Travel Forum takes a look at the latest trends

71 ICT The South West Grid for Learning discusses schools’ responsibility when it comes to e-safety Thomas Alleyne’s High School is revolutionising its communication culture with the help of its learning platform We take a look at how it went when Loxford High School for two weeks taught pupils exclusively via an online learning platform

83 HEALTH & SAFETY The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health looks at how you can make sure you’ve got the basics covered

ensures safety signs communicate the correct message

89 CATERING Let’s Get Cooking clubs have taught more than 500,000 children and parents new cooking skills

91 BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES Open Doors is a new event aiming at getting pupils together with potential employers

93 FACILITIES MANAGEMENT Whatever your facilities management requirements are, a visit to Workplace Management 2010 will cover them all School facilities managers free up teachers’ time to get on with their core operations by taking control of a mix of essential, non-core services

99 SCHOOLGROUNDS The Institute of Groundsmanship discusses training available for school grounds professionals

100 PHYSICAL EDUCATION Pupils have the Chance to Shine through Britain’s biggest school sport development initiative

103 CONFERENCES & EVENTS We find out why Scotland makes a great destination for your next business event

The Health and Safety Sign Association discusses the ISO 7010 standard, which

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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SFT urges parents to consider school meals igures from the School Food Trust estimate parents who want to make packed lunches that meet the same nutritional standards as healthy school meals could put in between 50 and 190 hours of total preparation time across the school year.

Chef and Trust Chairman, Rob Rees, commented: “Our menus suggest that filling a lunchbox with foods that meet the same standards as school meals can take a lot of effort – and that’s before you add in the time it takes to shop for ingredients.

“School meals take away that hassle – you can rest assured that your children are choosing from a tasty, balanced menu and save yourself hours of precious family time.”

Since the introduction of standards in schools the average meal is designed to provide children with the energy and nutrients they need – about a third of their daily intake.

For those parents who prefer packed

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lunches, the Trust provides low cost, low effort and vegetarian sample menus that can be used to give children a healthy balanced meal. There is also advice to help parents find out if their child is eligible for free school meals and how to apply.

Pupils take action against litter hildren at Abbey Hill School have made a stand against litter by designing posters that have been made into metal street signs.

Ashfield District Council has been working with the school on various environmental initiatives. Following a recent litter pick, the schools Eco Team were asked to design some signs that could be produced into metal signage

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and placed around the school.

Trevor Middleton, Ashfield District Council, said: “It is very encouraging to see the children take a genuine interest in the local environment. We have been met with great enthusiasm from both the pupils and staff at Abbey Hill, and they are to be congratulated on having such a positive attitude and interest in the local environment.”

New guide for healthy lunches launched housands of children starting secondary school this September will receive a new guide to help them get the most out of healthy school catering and their new canteens.

More than 12,000 pupils across England starting Year 7 in September will receive the guide from the School Food Trust following national research, which found that children often report feeling overwhelmed in the canteen as they start secondary school.

The guide, ‘Secondary School Meals, Eat Better Do Better’, aims to make the transition easier by explaining what new pupils and their parents and carers can expect from lunchtime at the new school.

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Kirsten Bolton, senior marketing manager at the School Food Trust, said: “It’s easy for a child going up to secondary school to feel worried about noisy canteens, which tend to be bigger and busier than at primary school, but we hope this guide will bust some of the myths and encourage children to try the great food on offer.

“If we can encourage Year 7’s to give school lunches a try this September, we’re on the right track to keep them coming back for more.”

Local authorities in Bristol, Milton Keynes, North Somerset, Sunderland, Darlington, Stockton, Waltham Forest and Worcestershire are distributing the guides to pupils at the start of term.

NEWSINBRIEF Conference to focus on pupils’ emotional wellbeing Teachers and practitioners in Wales have been encouraged

by Deputy Minister for Children, Huw Lewis to sign up to an educational conference taking place on 17 September, which will focus on the emotional and social wellbeing of pupils, students and teachers in Wales.

ChildLine founder Esther Rantzen will host the conference with other key speakers including Claude Knights, director of children’s charity Kidscape, and Aled Haydn Jones, host of Radio 1’s surgery programme who also helped launch Meic, the National Advocacy and Advice helpline for children and young people in Wales.

The conference will highlight some of the ways in which teachers could deal with a major traumatic incident in their school and will cover key themes such as pupil participation, schoolsbased counselling and advocacy services.

Wild life poetry competition launched A new WildVerse poetry competition has been launched where children and young people aged up to 19 are invited to write about any kind of wildlife. Radio maker Pure, RSPB Wildlife Explorers, radio station Fun Kids and Reading for Life have teamed up for the competition.

It is open to RSPB Wildlife Explorers and any young people who are inspired to write about the outdoors.

The main winner will win a PURE Sensia internetconnected digital radio with colour touchscreen, and the four runners up will receive a PURE EVOKE Flow internet-connected digital radio.

Closing date for the competition is 24 September. Visit www.pure.com/wildverse for information on how to enter.

LAs struggle to identify children missing from education Ofsted’s latest ‘Children missing from education’ report found that none of the authorities surveyed felt confident that they knew about all the children living in their area, in order to fulfil their duties to keep children safe.

The report surveyed 15 local authorities of different sizes across England, in both urban and rural areas. It highlights the challenges local authorities face in identifying and tracking children who are missing from education.

Children missing from education, and whose whereabouts become unknown, not only risk failing academically but are also potentially vulnerable to physical, emotional and psychological harm.

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Monodraught Innovation that leads to a brighter future

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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Teaching children about the dangers of fire his year’s National Schools’ Fire Safety Week, aiming to educate children about fire safety, will take place 4-8 October.

Between 2007 and 2008, 16 children under the age of 11 were killed in fires in the UK, and a further 1,300 were injured in house fires. Fire statistics show that over 13,000 fires in 2008 were started by children under the age of 18, more than half of which were caused by matches, lighters or lighted candles.

The Fire Fighters Charity and the Fire Kills Campaign have therefore created this annual, high profile awareness week, to provide anyone who looks after children with the tools they need to educate those in their care about fire safety and help drive these numbers down. This year’s topic is Matches & Lighters: Tools not Toys.

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Keith MacGillivray, Chairman of The Fire Fighters Charity, said: “Children as young as two are capable of operating lighters. They are curious about fire but don’t necessarily understand the danger. The Fire Services work tirelessly to prevent fires from starting, but more can be done by those who regularly look after children, to reinforce the key messages relating to this years’ campaign. Ultimately, it could save lives.”

The campaign is primarily aimed at Key Stage 1 children and all teachers/ parents or carers wishing to participate in the event can request a free teachers’ resource pack that include daily classroom activity worksheets, an event poster, homework sheet and guidance notes. Please see www.nationalschoolsfiresafetyweek. com for more information.

NEWSINBRIEF NI marking mistake to be investigated Northern Ireland’s Education Minister Caitríona Ruane MLA has ordered an external investigation into how incorrect results for the Chemistry A level were issued.

The mistake meant 151 students from 41 schools and colleges received lower grades than they should have.

However, the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) said the correct marks have now been applied and candidates awarded the correct grade.

The Education Minister said: “While I have been advised that no young person should miss out on their university place, this scenario should have never arisen.

This failure in the CCEA marking process has caused stress and inconvenience to the young people involved and their families, and I very much regret that.

“While I acknowledge the immediate and unequivocal apology from CCEA, the body has clearly fallen short of the high standards of accuracy the public and I, as Minister, expect of a public examinations body.”

£4 million for Welsh language training A £4 million funding package to train early years Welsh medium practitioners has been announced by Education Minister Leighton Andrews.

The new money, which will support the roll out of the Welsh Assembly Government’s pioneering Foundation Phase, builds on the £6 million already invested in Welsh Language training for the early years since 2008.

Education Minister Leighton Andrews said: “The demand for Welsh medium practitioners is growing as the Foundation Phase rolls out across Wales. The £4 million over the next two years will make a big difference in delivering the training that we know is necessary.”

Drive to recruit the best into early years education programme to develop a new generation of outstanding graduate leaders for the early years sector has been given the go ahead by the government.

The New Leaders in Early Years programme is now recruiting graduates who have the capability to become outstanding leaders and demonstrate high levels of knowledge and skills and a strong commitment to achieve the best for all young children.

Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent, which already delivers the successful Early Years Professional Status (EYPS) for practitioners, is recruiting 30 high calibre graduates with at least a 2.1 honours degree, to begin the new post-graduate programme in November. A further 30 graduates will be recruited in autumn 2011.

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Children’s Minister Sarah Teather, said: “New Leaders in Early Years will help to raise the profile and status of those working with young children – which is crucial to giving every child the opportunity and confidence to grow and achieve in life. I hope that talented and committed men and women will sign up to be a part of this exciting new opportunity.”

The programme offers successful candidates intensive mentoring and support throughout the two years, including a strong emphasis on progression in the sector after they graduate. Following extensive placements in early years settings during the first year, students will be in a substantive working role in their second year, whilst completing their masters and other aspects of the programme.

Celebrating the partnership between education and employers During the week of the 18-22 October leading CEOs and other senior staff from the private and public sectors, at the invitation of head teachers, will visit state schools throughout the country. It will be a chance for them to hear from head teachers and young people about their schools, to witness the work they do first hand and to discuss how they could work together to help young people reach their potential.

Visit our Schools and Colleges week is being run by a coalition of leading national organisations from the worlds of education and employment brought together by independent charity the Education and Employers Taskforce. For more information see www.visitourschools.org.

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GCSE students discuss barriers for young people group of school-leavers met Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg at Number 10 recently to discuss the barriers faced by young people as they make the transition to adulthood.

Mr Clegg welcomed about 30 young people to Downing Street to hear about their experiences and concerns, and asked them to give their views on how the government can improve opportunities for young people.

He said: “What we want to do here in Downing Street and in government is to hear from you because you have achieved extraordinary things over the past year.

We want to hear from you what you think we can do to make more successes

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for you and for other young people – not just when you are at school but when you then want to go from school into work.”

The students, who had received their GCSE results earlier, were all mentored by the charity Arrival Education, which pairs people from the business community with students from difficult backgrounds in a bid to help them achieve higher grades.

The Deputy Prime Minister also held a private roundtable meeting with service providers, community groups and experts in the field of child development to discuss the challenges faced by teenagers.

He is leading on cross-government policy for teenagers as part of the Government’s Childhood and Families Task Force.

Engage, empower and explore at National Schools Film Week he world’s largest festival for cinema and young people, National Schools Film Week, is taking place next month.

National Schools Film Week (NSFW) provides teachers and their students the opportunity to see a wide range of films free-of-charge at local cinemas.

The festival’s goal is to support classroom teaching by providing schools with an experience for their students that links directly to elements of the

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curriculum, supported by an online library of resources related to individual films and more generic topics.

Over 400,000 students and their teachers attended the festival in 2009 and this year the event, comprising 2,800 screenings at 570 cinemas across the UK celebrates its 15th birthday.

The event will this year take place 14-22 October in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 28 October-5 November in Scotland.

New survey to reduce burden on schools he key skills of literacy and numeracy will be the focus of Scotland’s new annual sample survey designed to monitor pupils’ achievements in primary and early secondary. The survey will replace a number of other statistical sampling activities and reduce the pressure of paper work on head teachers and schools.

As part of a package to cut down on bureaucracy, the new survey will replace the Scottish Survey of Achievement. It will assess pupils’ progress in literacy and numeracy in alternate years to give a comprehensive overview of achievements in these two key areas of the Curriculum for Excellence.

Education Secretary Michael Russell said: “Clearly we will always need robust and comprehensive information

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on how the Scottish Education system is performing. However, we also know that collecting statistics places a burden on head teachers and teachers, meaning they have to fill in forms and collate information. This type of bureaucracy is not helping our schools, pupils or teachers.

“Literacy and numeracy are vital skills, that’s why we need to have a robust survey which for the first time will assess the effectiveness of Scotland’s approach which places improvements in literacy and numeracy at the heart of Curriculum for Excellence.schools.”

The Scottish Government will later this year consult on further proposals to focus on a more concentrated and coherent range of key publications and topics in school statistics.

NEWSINBRIEF Fear of technology is holding teachers back Despite Web 2.0 applications offering new benefits to education, teachers are too scared to embrace them, according to a round table panel held in association with UKFast.

The panel discussed how educators must harness the social practice of using mobiles, gaming consoles, traditional personal computers and the internet for the power of learning.

Michael Wilkinson, director of i-education, said: “The teacher’s role is changing and becoming more about facilitating effective learning as opposed to the transferral of knowledge.”

Unlike previously when class sizes prohibited the levels of learning that high achievers could be given, the panel identified the endless possibilities that learning online now offered. Students can now be empowered to go out and learn on their own, drawing from a variety of new sources.

NI college invest £15m in campus Belfast Metropolitan College has announced plans to build a £15m economic development campus to promote employability, entrepreneurship and enterprise.

The e3 project is jointly funded by the Department for Employment and Learning, the International Fund for Ireland, and Belfast Metropolitan College.

The 5,000 sq metre building will provide industry standard facilities including an animation and digital editing suite, TV and radio production studios, a hospitality training facility, and manufacturing and engineering facilities for product innovation. Construction of the building is expected to start in September 2010 and is scheduled to open in Spring 2012.

Curriculum for Excellence for Scottish pupils The first term in which Curriculum for Excellence will be in practice in secondary schools in Scotland has just begun. Curriculum for Excellence is a new initiative designed to allow teachers to use their skills and creativity and give them the freedom to teach.

Cabinet Secretary for Education Michael Russell said: “The modern world is changing rapidly and what Scottish employers are looking for from job seekers is evolving at the same rate. Our young people will need to be creative, resourceful, flexible, confident and responsible to succeed in the new global economy.

“Curriculum for Excellence is designed to do exactly this by bringing a new focus on the skills we want pupils to develop, and changing the way they’re taught to maximise the opportunities to build these skills.”

Support available for teachers, schools and local authorities include new films of CfE in action and the new National Assessment Resource.

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The role of school business manager is now widely recognised as being an integral part of helping schools make better use of their resources and facilities, enabling head teachers and other leaders to focus on leading teaching and learning.

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Mike Ayres Design – sensory development resources for schools AYRES M IKE DESIGN is one of the longest established companies specialising in providing multi sensory environments and equipment and soft play rooms and spaces.

Mike Ayres has been designing for people with special needs since the mid 1970’s and pioneered the introduction of sensory environments into the UK. Since that time the company has been at the forefront of development and supply of high quality products and environments in this field.

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Services and environments include: multi sensory rooms, Sensory studios, Relaxation rooms, safe spaces, soft play rooms, sensory pools and other special environments.

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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EB AWARDS

RECOGNISING SUCCESSFUL INVESTMENT IN EDUCATION Once again, the Education Business Awards, taking place 11 November at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium in London, will celebrate outstanding examples of best practice in schools and academies FOCUSED INVESTMENT can make a real difference. At a time when our knowledgebased economy demands increasingly higher skills to stay competitive, well-resourced and well-managed educational facilities are key to its future development.

Schools, Colleges and Universities across the UK provide not just greater knowledge, but also an improvement to the lives of the current and future workforce. £31 billion of investment over the last decade has delivered massive change, with hundreds of thousands of pupils now being taught in new or vastly improved facilities. The local authority maintained school workforce has increased substantially in recent years, helping schools deliver personalised learning and higher standards.

REWARDING EXCELLENCE IN EDUCATION The 2010 Education Business Awards, to be held 11 November at the Emirates

Stadium in London, will present awards in 18 different categories, focusing on facilities, specialisms and innovation. Entry is open to Primary and Secondary Schools from all sectors, however, certain awards are only open to secondary schools and academies (please see award list below).

Now in its fifth year, the Education Business Awards is supported by the British Educational Suppliers Association and will be attended by representatives from the educational organisations that have been shortlisted for each award. Registration for the day will begin at 11.30am with a drinks reception.

Those attending will be able to network with fellow professionals and discuss projects, products and services with the sponsoring organisations. Following a short speech, lunch will be served, prior to the awards ceremony.

This year’s celebrity host is BBC newsreader Nicholas Owen, one of the most respected

and experienced presenters in the business.

Before joining the BBC he anchored major news programmes such as ITV’s News at Ten and the Channel Four News. He has also appeared in a wide range of other TV and radio programmes, including BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing in 2006.

Entering the Education Business Awards is simple – all that is required is a 500-word entry statement, which can be submitted online at www.ebawards.co.uk. The closing date for entries is 1 October.

AWARD CATERGORIES Academy Development Award: This award recognises recently completed academy projects that have demonstrated sound project management and procurement skills in order to complete development on time and to budget. 2009 Winner: St. Aidan’s Church of England Academy, Darlington.

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EB AWARDS

Academy Partnership Award: Presented to the established specialist academy that can demonstrate benefits to the community through a partnership with an existing establishment (primary school, secondary school, university). 2009 Winner: Manchester Academy, Moss Side, Manchester.

Art & Craft Award: Presented to the educational establishment that can provide first class learning environment and modern, flexible facilities for students of art & craft. 2009 Winner: Isambard Community School, Swindon.

Educational Visits Award: Presented to the educational establishment that can demonstrate a commitment to providing students with a range of subject specific educational visits in order to further their learning experience. 2009 Winner: High Tunstall College of Science, Hartlepool.

Environmental Building Award: Awarded to the school building project that can demonstrate a benefit to both the learning and local environment through its design. 2009 Winner: Queen Elizabeth’s School Sustainability Education Centre, Wimborne, Dorset.

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ICT Facility Award, sponsored by FrogTrade: Awarded to the educational establishment in the UK that has made outstanding progress in the provision of a first class environment for the teaching of ICT and related subjects. 2009 Winner: South Rise Primary School, London.

ICT Innovation Award, sponsored

by Mimio: Awarded to the educational establishment that can demonstrate the most innovative use of ICT in order to further the learning experience of pupils and help improve results in curriculum based subjects. 2009 Winner: Monkseaton High School, North Tyneside.

Modern Language Award: This award will be presented to the educational establishment that has embraced modern language teaching methods and can demonstrate an upwards trend in take-up/exam success that has been brought about by the implementation of technology and innovative teaching.

Music Award: Presented to the educational establishment that can demonstrate a commitment to improving the quality of musical learning

Education Business | Volume 15.5

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EB AWARDS

through the provision of a first class teaching environment. 2009 Winner: Coventry Blue Coat Church of England School, West Midlands.

Outstanding Academy Award: Awarded to the specialist academy that can demonstrate outstanding progress both in its specialisms and in general education. 2009 Winner: Barnfield West Academy, Luton.

Outstanding Progress Award – Primary, sponsored by Over The Top Pouch: Presented to the UK Primary School that has made outstanding progress in the management of its facilities, finances and human resources and can demonstrate an increase in the educational performance of the school.

Outstanding Progress Award – Secondary: Presented to the UK Secondary School that has made outstanding progress in the management of its facilities, finances and human resources, and can demonstrate an increase in the educational performance of the school. 2009 Winner: Castleford High School, West Yorkshire.

School Building Award: Presented to the establishment that has provided what is judged to be the most technically advanced building constructed for the purpose of a teaching present and future pupils. 2009 Winner: St. Mary Magdalene Academy, London.

of increased awareness in staff and pupils, and the procurement and installation of additional security measures such as CCTV, fencing, manned guarding etc. 2009 Winner: Stockwell Park High School, South London.

School Catering Award: Presented to the educational establishment in the UK that can demonstrate a commitment to healthy eating and value for money through the provision of a first class catering service available to all students. 2009 Winner: Todmorden High School, West Yorkshire.

Science Award: Awarded to the educational establishment that has excelled in the provision of a first class environment for teaching science subjects including biology, chemistry and physics.

2009 Winner: Rose Bridge High School Specialist Science College, Wigan.

School Security Award: Recognising the UK school that has made outstanding efforts to increase security through a combination

SEN Provision Award, sponsored by Mike Ayres Designs: Presented to the UK SEN Establishment that can demonstrate an

increase in the quality of care and education services provided to students with Special Educational Needs. 2009 Winner: Hatton School and Special Needs Centre, Essex.

Sports Award: Awarded to the educational establishment in the UK that can demonstrate an outstanding commitment to developing the sporting skills of its students through the provision of first class facilities and coaching programmes.

2009 Winner: Canterbury High School, Kent.

FOR MORE INFORMATION To enter visit www.ebawards.co.uk or call 020 8532 0055 and submit your entry statement by 1st October.

Personal storage solutions for primary school children ANET MATTHEW from the company O.T.T. Pouch has developed the Classroom Chair Storage solution to address some of the issues that children and teachers have with classroom disorder and organisation.

With the storage pouch on the rear of the chair it holds the day’s workbooks, stationary and personal items. Everything is to hand including the daily drinks bottle so pupils can drink freely throughout the day without leaving their chair or disrupting the rest of the classroom.

integrated into mainstream classrooms and taking comfort from having some “My Space” to call their own.

Less movement around the classrooms and tidy work tables enables teachers to encourage a better organised and disciplined lesson. September 2010 sees further products being launched in the classroom storage range.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION It has subsequently been found to be a strong aid to schools with disabled and special needs children, and also where children have been

Tel: 01656 655615 Mob: 07767 707121 E-mail: info@ott-pouch.com Web: www.ott-pouch.com

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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FINANCE

EDUCATION AND FUNDING IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD Ray Barker, director of the British Educational Suppliers Association, gives us an update on recent government announcements and funding cuts that will affect education IN THE LAST EDITION of Education Business, we explored the changes that had been made to educational funding and the impact of the new government on policy, including the re-naming of the DCSF to the Department for Education (DfE), the new ministerial team, the quangos to be axed and the first round of budget cuts.

Since then, a number of new announcements have been made, including further funding cutbacks, an end of specific projects and many other changes to educational policy.

In summary, all the recent government announcements bring a radically different approach to what education means.

A ROUND UP OF ROUND ONE During the first round of funding cuts that were announced by the Chancellor in June, the DfE was told to reduce departmental budget spending by 25 per cent. Some of the

areas affected by this initial decision include quangos, such as Becta, the government’s department responsible for ICT in schools, and the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA), both set to close over the next few months.

In addition to this, but not directly or immediately affecting schools, is an IT, procurement and recruitment freeze within the department. We have also seen the end of several non-frontline areas such as Playing for Success, Gifted and Talented and Every Child a Writer. Capital savings from Extended Schools and Specialist Schools programmes are expected too.

By early July, schools received the devastating news that the Building Schools for the Future Programme (BSF), established to re-build or refurbish run down schools, was to be scrapped. Although approximately 500 BSF

building projects already under way are expected to be completed, the remainder of the programme will be stopped. This news was swiftly followed by several local authorities announcing legal action against this decision.

While this is disastrous news for hundreds of thousands of teachers, parents and pupils who had been expecting this much needed investment in 21st century facilities for children to learn, we await more information on what the newly proposed free schools and Academies initiatives will bring to our education system.

ACADEMIES Recent figures have shown that of the 1,560 schools that have applied to become academies under the coalition, more than half were rated ‘outstanding’ by inspectors, meaning their application is fast-tracked. On average, 75 per cent of pupils from these

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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FINANCE

ABOUT BESA BESA, the British Educational Suppliers Association, is the trade association representing over 300 educational suppliers in the UK, including manufacturers and distributors of equipment, materials, books, consumables, furniture, technology, ICT hardware and digital-content related services to the education market.

With 75 years of experience, BESA offers unparalleled support, research, events and advice on both UK and International markets, and the future of the education supplies industry.

BESA is focused on promoting and providing support and advice to their members, the industry and to schools.

BESA has a Code of Practice to which all members must adhere, along with a stringent membership process, both of which assure buyers of a high standard of quality in both product and customer service. schools have already achieved five or more grades A* to C at GCSE, compared with just 60 per cent of pupils at existing academies.

Experts at the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics said there was a “serious worry” that inequalities in the education system would be widened as outstanding schools draw on the resources of the academy system.

However, the government has stated its key objectives as “improving literacy, raising pupil attainment, extending parental choice, freeing teachers from bureaucracy, improving discipline and closing the widening gap between the richest and the poorest...”

Becoming an academy enables a school to take charge of budgets, pay packages, the curriculum, hiring staff, term times and the length of school day, while still receiving state funding – and more of it as they opt out of LA control and so get 100 per cent of the government’s funding. Giving schools the freedom to decide on how they invest their budgets comes with dangers but equally allows the wealth of highly experienced headteachers to make informed decisions on the specific requirements of their students and school.

Those schools not in the ‘outstanding’ category are set to be mentored by their higher performing neighbors. A spokesperson for the Department for Education said: “Outstanding schools, which take up the offer of having academy freedoms, will be expected to partner with at least one other more challenging school. This will help raise the performance of schools in poorer areas, with teachers helping other teachers to improve education for all.”

The future therefore appears to be a picture of more autonomy for head teachers, outstanding schools being given academy status and other schools being mentored by their neighboring academies to achieve this

status. Freedom is also being given to parents, charities and external providers to start new free schools managed by a consortium of parents and businesses with smaller class sizes.

In terms of current spending, BESA has watched the market closely over the past few years and noticed the increasing trend for schools to hold back on investing in new products and resources due to the anticipated BSF refurbishment or rebuild. Since the demise of BSF we expect to see schools resume their investments.

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS Speaking at an Every Disabled Child Matters event in early July Sarah Teather, Children’s Minister, outlined the government’s commitment to make sure that “the most vulnerable children get the best quality of support and care”, and have the same opportunities as their peers. A Green Paper scheduled for issue in the autumn is aimed at involving parents further in the decision making process and looking at the opportunities for

each child beyond compulsory school age.

Although little information is available at the current time, we have also been advised of the government’s belief in the new Pupil Premium – a top-up fund to help the poorest pupils in every school.

EARLY YEARS This sector of the market has grown considerably over the years as governments have realised that early intervention can save money and boost children’s chances as they move into primary. Outdoor learning, the creative curriculum and the need for basic language skills have all been popular areas for resources purchasing and product development.

Manifestos of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats stressed free nursery care for pre-school children and the Department has confirmed funding for Sure Start stays (but back to its original aim of early intervention).

Money allocated to local authorities for Sure Start will be protected for 2010-11. In fact, they

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FINANCE

will proceed with the increase in Early Years entitlement for three and four year olds to 15 hours and are considering funding 20,000 places for disadvantaged two year olds. Michael Gove stated: “We will be looking at how, as resources allow, this could be extended further.”

CURRICULUM ON ICE One of the biggest announcements to be made regarding the curriculum is that the new government will not proceed with the new primary curriculum, led by the Rose Review. Instead, schools have been told to continue with the current curriculum in the new school year, and in 2011/12, but to expect changes to be announced in the coming months. The government has stated its objectives for the curriculum are for it to be less cluttered, revolving around core subjects but giving more freedom for teachers and schools within the curriculum.

At secondary level, the government has lifted restrictions that prevented state schools from offering iGCSE qualifications, which have been taught by independent schools for several years. The new science, humanities and languages Diplomas that were due to be rolled out in September 2011 have now been stopped, producing instantaneous savings of £1.77 million. Instead, effort will be directed towards other qualifications within these subject areas. Given that the first set of Diploma qualifications were only launched two years ago, there remains significant uncertainty about its future role in secondary education.

Further announcements about the curriculum are expected to be made in the autumn.

PUTTING TEACHERS IN CONTROL Whether healthcare or education, a common theme at the current time appears to be putting power back into the hands of those on the front line.

By early July, schools received the devastating news that the Building Schools for the Future Programme (BSF) was to be scrapped. While this is disastrous news for hundreds of thousands of teachers, parents and pupils who had been expecting this much needed investment in 21st century facilities for children to learn, we await more information on what the newly proposed free schools and Academies initiatives will bring to our education system Bullying and bad classroom behaviour has been an increasing problem in schools for many years, and yet in 2008 just 90 children were expelled for bullying. We have been told that the new Education and Children’s Bill to be announced in the autumn will put heads and teachers back in control, giving them a range of tough new powers to deal with bullies and the most disruptive pupils.

Heads will be able to take a zero-tolerance approach and will have the final say.

These tough promises will also give teachers the right to search children for weapons and remove disruptive children from the classroom without fear of legal action. All commendable policies, however, these also come with the freedom for teachers to remove items such as iPods and mobile phones, ultimately confiscating them. When used disruptively, this is understandable but many of BESA’s members have worked highly successfully with schools embedding technology into the classroom.

They would argue that now is the time to take advantage of the way children entertain themselves, to employ those same media and thinking habits they foster for the betterment of

learning outcomes. Because so much of students’ experience is shaped and surrounded by digital imagery, highly visual interactive activities have truly become the new currency of learning.

In summary, until the October Comprehensive Spending review when we will find out how much is to be invested in education for the next three years, the changes leave us all with more questions than answers. What happens to schools if they all become “independent”? With the move to academies and free schools will the purchasing audience now be a lot wider? Will schools have more or less to spend in the future? What are the opportunities of the new curriculum? And if we are all going back to basics, what happens to the creative curriculum and outdoor learning?

I’ll be back after the October budget review to hopefully add a little more light to these questions.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 020 75374997 Fax: 020 75374846 E-mail: besa@besa.org.uk Web: www.besa.org.uk

Communicate with digital signage solutions from Sabercom ABERCOM digital signage will catch the eye of everyone that walks through the door. We work with schools, colleges and government organisations to provide effective communications.

Communicating with a large mobile community spread over several sites is a major challenge. Add to this a demanding audience who expect to be informed and entertained and you have the everyday communication challenges that face all educational establishments.

Sabercom digital signage gives schools and colleges the opportunity to communicate in a way that really grabs people’s attention.

Menus, time tables, events, instant messaging, videos and digital radio make this information

From one LCD screen in the entrance hall to a network of screens across the campus, Sabercom can be used to manage multimedia content from any PC. Every installation is configured to meet your exact requirements and the Sabercom team will help with content design, scheduling and system management through a secure remote connection.

We can arrange a software demonstration over the web or we can set you up with a free trial.

S

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channel interesting and memorable.

Creating and scheduling content can be managed by individuals at each site or by one administrator for the whole campus.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01732 440035 E-mail: info@sabercom.co.uk Web: www.sabercom.co.uk

Visit the website to view the categorised product finder

www.educationbusinessuk.com

Bespoke wealth management and investment planning for the educational sector

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UARDIAN ASSOCIATES LIMITED was formed in March 2010 from the merger of two long standing IFA practices with the aim of forming a multi disciplinary practice in the new world of financial advice with offices throughout the UK starting in the South East. Our advice process is holistic, underpinned by an ethical approach in all matters.

Our service begins with a meeting to conduct a detailed assessment of the clients’ current situation and we then discuss their objectives, incorporating a defined risk assessment. As each client has unique requirements our recommendations are tailored accordingly. After agreement the next step is to implement our advice and monitor the result periodically on an agreed basis. Plans are amended as circumstances alter and as appropriate. Our remuneration is by fee or commission, or a mixture of the two, and is agreed after discussion with the client.

Guardian Associates currently advise a mixture of corporate and private clients throughout the UK on Investment, Pension Planning, Key Man Cover, Partnership and Shareholder Protection, Income Protection, Retirement Planning,

Annuity Purchase and Commercial Finance.

The two directors are Bill Taylor and Neil Patel.

Bill is an experienced independent financial adviser solving problems for clients for over three decades, during which he has worked for three major Life Assurance Offices and in he 1986 became an independent financial adviser.

Bill sat for 3.5 years as a Council Member of the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) and is a member of AIFA’s working party dealing with the Financial Services Authority

Retail Distribution Review which will have far reaching consequences in the delivery of financial advice in the UK. He is also a member of the Panel on Accessibility and Transparency at the Financial Ombudsman Service whose remit is to ensure the Ombudsman is a user friendly service.

Neil Patel Cert PFS, Cert CII, is the practice compliance supervisor; he has 20 years experience in financial services. He started his career as a management consultant to the re-insurance industry and after six years he moved on to be a private client financial adviser, with the last six years as an independent adviser. Neil was a compliance officer with Zurich for four years before establishing his own business. He is responsible for ensuring that the advice our advisers give to clients is sound and in the client’s best interest. He is also responsible for training new advisers and staff.

FOR MORE INFORMATION For an appointment or to make an enquiry please contact Bill Taylor on billtaylor@ga-ifa.co.uk or 01702 716332 and 07770 397168.

Independent financial Innovative parking advice for all your needs management solutions E OFFER INDEPENDENT

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to individuals, companies, institutions and trusts.

IFA Direct is a trading name of Credenda Ltd, and we have been an IFA since 1986. We are only a small firm, but through various retainer and other relationships we connect with service previously available to only the biggest investment companies, which services we offer to our clients.

When looking at the proper management of your money, whether personal or trust funds, we divide it into short, medium and long terms requirements and look at your attitude to risk – which may not be the same for those three categories. Short term funds should invariably be in cash, but not necessarily all in a current account.

Please do not think that money in

bank accounts is risk free. Sometimes interest rates are lower than inflation, and vice versa. When, like at present, interest rates are lower than inflation, then your money is falling in real value and therefore that risk does need to be balanced against the risk of higher rates in return for sacrificing instant access, or even possible higher returns from investing in other assets.

IFA Direct is a trading name of Credenda Ltd. Credenda Ltd is an appointed representative of Credenda who is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

FOR MORE INFORMATION For advice about your financial needs, and how to try and get the best out of your money in these difficult time please contact us at 01483 715823.

ORTHERN PARKING SERVICES tailor make your parking management needs.

As a professional parking management provider, we offer our services to both the public and private sector throughout the UK. These are only a few of the services and benefits that we can provide your parking facilities: • Self-enforcement services, using the latest mobile device and communication technology • Full administration and processing of parking charges including free enforcement • Parking control officers who have been trained in accordance to the latest legislation • Signage that fulfil all legal requirements • We compliment your existing systems, all ready in place at your facilities • Our unique systems put you in control • Eliminate unauthorised parking on all roads and car parks • Protects the parking for those with special needs

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FOR MORE INFORMATION Get a free consultation, request our professional services or for more information call us on 0870 8921 170 E-mail: sales@ northernparkingservices.co.uk Web: northernparkingservices.co.uk

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â&#x20AC;˘ Trustee Investment â&#x20AC;˘ Wealth Management â&#x20AC;˘ Inheritance Tax â&#x20AC;˘ Retirement Strategies â&#x20AC;˘ Corporate Financial Planning â&#x20AC;˘ Financial Education â&#x20AC;˘ Employee Benefits

Contact William Doggart (Director) william.doggart@pfc.co.uk www.pfc.co.uk Tel: 028 9078 3030 Pension & Financial Consultants Ltd is Regulated and Authorised by The Financial Services Authority

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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FINANCE

MAKE YOUR INVESTMENT COUNT There are a number of factors to consider before committing excess funds with an institution or provider, writes Ian D Gillard THE CURRENT ECONOMIC CLIMATE has made life difficult when it comes to investing your excess funds. There are so many issues to consider and the banking crisis has just added to the confusion and uncertainty. There are a number of factors to take into account before committing funds with an institution or provider.

The first matter to consider is the amount of available funds to invest and the timeframe over which these funds can be invested. If the excess funds are purely as a result of a deferral or cancellation of a particular capital project, then the timeframe to invest may be quite short. On the other hand if funds have been accumulated as a result of successful periods of net income and it is decided to invest for a much longer timeframe by way of producing a recurring income or capital growth then the decision is quite different. Quite simply, the shorter the timeframe the fewer the alternative investments that can be considered.

BANK DEPOSITS For short term investing, bank deposits either on little or no notice, or for a particular period of time, are realistically the only choice available. In light of the recent banking crisis it should be remembered that in most cases only £50,000 is guaranteed to be recovered in a default situation. Having said that the government bailed out banks rather than see them fall and so whilst there is no absolute guarantee there is an argument for saying that UK bank deposits are effectively 100 per cent safe. It will be interesting to see what happens as the 100 per cent government guarantee given by the Irish Government reaches its conclusion, particularly as Ireland is one of the EU countries with major debt difficulties.

Investments that include any type of asset based structure such as stocks and shares, property or corporate bonds, should in most cases not be considered unless there is at least a three year investment timeframe available.

These can vary immensely depending upon requirements. There is direct stock market investment in one or more quoted companies.

For most investments, this is not generally recommended as it results on too great a dependence upon a few companies. The more usual way is by investing into a collective investment. In this type of investment units in a particular fund are purchased and then the fund manager uses his or her skills to invest the funds directly into a range of assets, be it stocks and shares, corporate bonds or property.

Each fund tends to specialise in one particular area of investment, for example the UK stock market only or American or European markets.

There are a few fund managers who take a

global approach and these funds are quite often referred to as “Balanced Managed” or “Cautious Balanced Managed” funds. This is where specialist advice from an experienced financial adviser is of paramount importance.

MATCH THE INVESTMENT TO THE BUSINESS The second major decision to take is the investment type relative to business type. An educational establishment that is run as a business for profit will have a totally different set of parameters to an educational trust or indeed a state run establishment or the new academies. With a business run for profit the first decision is whether to invest within the business or outside the business by the business owners personally. A lot will depend upon the makeup of the business ownership and how easy it may be to extract funds tax efficiently and how investing within the business will affect taxation treatment generally.

Taxation issues will be considered later.

With an educational trust, there may be particular rules within the Trust Deed limiting the Trustees investment powers. These need to be carefully considered to ensure the Trustees are not acting beyond their powers. Likewise state run establishments will have their own limitations as laid down by the LEA, if indeed there are any funds available to invest. With the current round of cut backs any excess funds within a particular establishment are very likely to be recovered by the LEA anyway.

SHORT OR LONG TERM INVESTMENT The third decision to be made is whether there is a need for immediate or future income from the investment or whether the investment can just be left to grow for a particular period of time. Again to some extent this will depend upon the investment timeframe available. If it’s short term then bank deposits will produce an income rather than capital growth, albeit of relatively nominal amounts at present. For longer term investments there is usually a choice depending upon the type of investment made and the eventual investment may be a mixture of both income bearing assets and capital growth assets depending upon circumstance.

The fourth consideration in the decision making process is the trade off between risk and reward. In general terms the greater the risk involved the greater the potential reward; in addition though, the greater the risk of partial or total capital loss. Investors will have to seriously consider the level of risk to be taken and should take into account that this level of risk may vary significantly to the risk they would be prepared to take with

their own money. The attitude to risk of any investment is a key element of any financial planning undertaken and a financial adviser will consider this carefully before making any recommendation. Attitude to risk is a very subjective matter and it is always a difficult topic to discuss with anyone who does not have a good degree of financial knowledge. It is all about obtaining answers to a series of key questions and then assessing those answers to reach an opinion as to accepted risk.

DON’T PUT YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET Differing types of funds have already been briefly described. As a general rule it is wise not to have all your eggs in one basket and so unless the “Balanced Managed” approach is adopted a range of asset classes should be purchased. Extensive research has taken place over a number of years into how best to allocate funds between particular assets classes. Indeed, in 1990, Dr. Harry M. Markowitz won the Nobel Prize in Economics for his groundbreaking work measuring the effectiveness of asset allocation. The approach is to provide the maximum amount of growth (or minimum amount of loss) for the minimum amount of risk based on the attitude to risk determined. The results of the further research in 2000 showed that 91 per cent of investment returns were derived from good asset allocation, whereas specific stock selection only delivered five per cent of returns, market timing two per cent and other factors two per cent.

STRATEGIC ASSET ALLOCATION The importance of asset allocation was reinforced by the Myners Report of March 2001 into institutional investment in the UK, commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Part of the review defined best practice codes for pension fund decisionmaking, one of which stated: “The attention devoted to asset allocation decisions should fully reflect the contribution they can make to achieving the fund’s investment objective.”

It is now generally accepted that strategic asset allocation is by far the most important determinant of portfolio performance. This is the process of allocating investment capital across a range of different asset classes, such as cash, fixed interest, property and equities.

This is not simply a question of diversification, although spreading risk amongst different asset classes is clearly important. The optimum split between these asset classes depends on individual objectives for the portfolio and on the risk of failure that the investor is prepared to take over the chosen timescale.

Many financial advisers now make use of

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

23

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

www.educationbusinessuk.com

FINANCE

sophisticated software to calculate the optimum asset allocation for each particular case.

This topic would not be complete without consideration of ethical investing. It is acknowledged that a significant percentage of the population consider investing ethically as very important. Maybe it is an aversion to tobacco, alcohol or pharmaceutical companies or companies that invest in cutting edge research that may be questionable, such as genetically modified crops. There are a small number of investment funds that specifically invest ethically. This is very laudable and may be suitable depending upon the reasoning behind the investment or the organisation making it. There is one slight flaw though when considered with the asset allocation approach; due to the limited number of funds and any restrictions upon their investment criteria to suit the particular ethical issue, the returns on these funds may be somewhat less than could be achieved elsewhere. So as investors on behalf of an educational establishment there may be a need to put aside personal views on ethical investing in order to achieve maximum returns on behalf of the stakeholders. Likewise the reverse could apply and someone with no particularly

strong views may be forced to consider ethical investing in order to placate stakeholders.

TAXATION The final consideration is that of taxation. The taxation of income needs to be considered relative to the organisation’s tax status, for example a charitable organisation investing in an income bearing fund that pays a dividend will be unable to recover the tax credit on the dividend but would be able to recover tax deducted at source on an interest bearing asset. A proprietary company on the other hand would pay no additional tax on a dividend receipt but may have to pay additional tax on an interest distribution. Income would be subject to taxation at the point of distribution and this may not fall at the most suitable point in time.

A proprietary company should also consider the level of income derived from investments compared to its income from educational fees.

Too high an investment income could result in serious capital gains and inheritance tax issues for the stakeholders upon disposal or death.

Gains on growth funds are also treated differently. At least with growth funds there is a degree of choice as to when to take the gain and any gains can be planned so as to minimise or even

avoid capital gains tax. Again there are differing rules for differing organisational structures. The organisations’ tax advisers have a key role to play here in helping to plan to maximise any returns.

CAREFUL INVESTING Investing, particularly for the longer term is not something that can be achieved in a matter of minutes. A lot of careful thought needs to go into the decision both in respect of the initial investment and in terms of the eventual disposal of assets.

Close contact with both financial advisers and tax advisers is needed to maximise returns for stakeholders and therefore ensure the managers or trustees have carried out their duties effectively.

Ideally an independent financial adviser is needed, one who can source the whole of the marketplace and can also offer a fee or commission based charging structure. If the financial adviser is also a qualified tax specialist then so much the better; financial advisers have a degree of tax knowledge but this is often significantly less than would be held by a Chartered Accountant, Chartered Certified Accountant or a Chartered Tax Adviser.

Professional advice is essential in order to both fulfil your duties as managers or trustees and to hopefully reap the rewards for the organisation and its stakeholders.

Pension & Financial Consultants Ltd – specialist independant financial advisers LACING SCHOOL OR CHARITY funds into the hands of professional advisers tends to be such a major decision that the trustees very often keep with who they have always used, as it is a lot simpler than taking a leap of faith to another provider. However, as a responsible person there is now an obligation under the Trustee Investment Act 2000 to ensure that you are actually doing the right thing with the money you are responsible for and you have all become accountable for your actions.

This has meant that just putting the money in the bank is no longer the answer for all of your funds as there are many considerations that need to be taken into account. These include risk assessment, asset allocation of funds as well as emphasis on income/growth or a mixture of both.

So how do you find a suitable firm of investment advisers that will put your needs first? In theory you will need to go through a due diligence process to establish the credentials of the potential advisers, which will require details about their authorisation, qualifications, experience, money under management, complaints history and financial strength.

PFC (Pension & Financial Consultants Ltd) is the largest investment advisers in Northern Ireland and in the top 5 in Scotland and

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Northern Ireland with nearly £500 million of clients’ money under advisement.

Biggest isn’t always the best so as a practice the company has grown by the addition of key individuals since inception in 1995.

They pride themselves in putting their clients first and this has been the key to their success over the years. In an ever changing financial world they are one of only two per cent of independent financial advisory firms in the UK that have Chartered Financial Planners status, which endorses their commitment to quality staff and a higher level of qualification within the practice.

They have 37 staff in the Belfast office and

cover the whole of the province and also have key clients throughout the United Kingdom.

They would be pleased to assist you in the creation of a due diligence process for the appointment of your investment advisers or can assist you directly if preferred.

William Doggart is a director of PFC who has many years experience in the education and public sector as well as working extensively with trustees on investment matters.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 028 90783030 E-mail: william.doggart@pfc.co.uk

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

25

North Warwickshire & Hinckley College introduce e-accounting to deliver greater flexibility and efficiencies Changes in how the college operates prompted review of accounting practices Director of Finance at North Warwickshire & Hinckley College, Shabir Ismail explains, “Over the years the nature of our training provision has evolved with more and more courses being delivered across multiple sites and locations. As a result, many personnel are constantly out of the office and are mobile much of the time. This means that financial processes were taking much longer than they needed to, as we had to wait for managers to return before they could sign off purchase orders and so on.”

Reducing processing time and speeding up goods and services delivery.

“By scanning and storing what were previously paper based documents electronically, we would hopefully overcome the delays and expense associated with time-consuming distribution and management. The key areas we wanted to address were reducing the time spent in processing invoices and ensuring that goods and services for learners were delivered faster.”

The college began by implementing Symmetry Financials’ ‘DocumentManager’;

a document management and scanning solution customised to fit the college’s particular workflow demands.

DocumentManager enables more streamlined accounting by converting physical financial paperwork into electronic files. Invoices, for example, are immediately attached to the purchase invoice record in Symmetry Financials at the point of input, saving time and speeding up the authorisation processes.

Introducing Portal – a personalised view of real-time finance information The second part of the solution was to deploy Symmetry Financials’ Portal solution, an online dashboard of financial information that can be personalised to each user.

Shabir says, “Portal allows us to speed up our workflow by enabling users to see at a glance what financial tasks require attention and in turn allows them to drill down to the relevant documents without having to have full access to the main accounting system.

This means that orders don’t have to wait until a budget holder is back in the office but can be processed whenever and wherever they can go on-line.”

Key Benefits 1.

2,500 hours saved per annum on invoice processing across the college

2. Authorisation time reduced by 10 minutes per invoice 3. Less storage space required – moving to scanned copies means originals can be shredded over time 4. Goods and services delivered to learners quicker 5. Better relationships with suppliers 6. Releases time in finance department so value can be added elsewhere e.g. planning, cost control 7. Ability for non-financial staff to concentrate on their key role rather than be distracted by administration 8. Postage and stationery savings 9. More sustainable/greener method of working

Symmetry FinancialsDirect support for more than 15,000 users in over 75 UK colleges

Saving UK colleges in excess of £800,000 every year through document management systems alone.

Symmetry Financials’ document management system is just one element in a suite of innovative modules. Our experience in the education market means the software is developed around your needs and processes, saving costs and enabling you to operate in an increasingly efficient manner.

Achieve complete transparency of your course costs and deliver the most economic and efficient curriculum using Activity Based Costing.

Instantly transfer data to the f i nance system from third-party applications such as your Student Management and till systems via Financial’s real-time integration tool, Easylink.

Extract the information you want, when you want with Information Manager, a simple to use yet sophisticated and f lexible reporting tool for education f i nance professionals.

To receive Symmetry’s Education Casestudy and Software Evaluation Guide Pack detailing how colleges are tackling common f inance challenges, email ‘education’ to syminfo@symmetry.co.uk Or to arrange a demonstration call

0117 900 6262

Symmetry Financials - the financial and management accounting solution developed solely for the education sector.

Education Business | Volume 15.5

www.educationbusinessuk.com

FINANCE

SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS HELP SAVE MONEY Members of the Business Application Software Developers’ Association offer many products aimed at the education sector. This article reviews some solutions that can help schools and colleges make cost savings EDUCATION HAS NOT BEEN IMMUNE from the budget-conscious coalition.

Central and local government alike face education cuts and quangos are being shut down. However, the secretary of state for education, the Rt Hon Michael Gove, reflected a continued commitment to the sector when he said there was nothing more important to the future prosperity of our country than “getting education right”.

Technology has always had a role to play in improving the quality of education and is ideally placed to do so within tighter budgets. After all, the issues facing the management of schools, colleges or universities are not so different from general businesses, covering finance and administration, HR and payroll, asset management, legal, accounting and budgeting.

A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH One cost-saving solution is for educational institutions to develop a more collaborative approach to technology, through shared services.

Shared services in general can represent a large cultural change, but it can be made in degrees; the collaboration of local schools or colleges to plan and implement software or hardware upgrades concurrently could save both money and time.

For example, UNIT4 Business Software currently provides the Association of Northern Ireland Colleges and its six colleges with a shared service for the Agresso Student Management System for over 170,000 students, and Agresso Finance and Human Resources for all employees.

UNIT4 has more than 100 education customers across the UK and are engaging with government and education leaders to develop a workable strategy and framework for the paradigm shift in collaborative working that is clearly needed.

SHARING PROJECT MANAGEMENT COA Solutions promote the concept of the collaborative approach. It has worked with four North West of England colleges to introduce financial management system (FMS) upgrades, helping them save on project management costs. The FMS software upgrades were required so that the colleges could take advantage of the improved functionality of COA Solutions’ latest eFinancials system, which includes enhanced reporting capabilities.

By sharing project management and training resources, each college cut its upgrade costs by half, resulting in a combined saving of over £40,000. This innovative project, involving

close collaboration between COA and the colleges of Blackburn, Burnley, Nelson and Colne and Accrington and Rossendale, was completed in just three months.

The University of Bath has saved £25,000 per year and is improving invoice processing efficiency by implementing an intelligent data capture solution from Version One. Its DbCapture system is tightly integrated into the University’s Agresso Business World enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from UNIT4, and is being used to process 60,000 supplier invoices each year.

The university now benefits from less labourintensive purchase-to-pay processes, central oversight of invoicing processing workflows and strengthened relationships with its suppliers.

BASDA member @UK PLC offers two products for the educational sector. Its IncomeMaster is provided to Bristol City Council. It covers the entire spectrum of automating the collection of funds from the public, and has been rolled out to Bristol schools where the solution is called ‘eazypay’, enabling the schools to use the council’s infrastructure at minimal cost. It saves time for parents and teachers, and takes away the stress of having to chase parents for money that keeps disappearing between home and school.

In addition, @UK PLC is able to guarantee that education bodies can save money using its SpendInsight spend analysis solution.

SpendInsight has now analysed over £100 billion in spend, and can provide savings with an immediate payback five times the cost of SpendInsight and the implementation of @UK’s marketplace, along with additional process and efficiency savings. In the current climate of cost cutting this is one way to reduce the impact of cuts on frontline services.

As an additional benefit SpendInsight feeds directly into GreenInsight, which provides for the first time an environmental analysis built up from the individual items that your school or college buys.

HR SOLUTIONS The Access Group has developed a college version of its SelectHR Software, which demonstrates a strong commitment to further education establishments. It was recently installed for Lambeth College, which is based on Clapham Common with additional sites at Vauxhall and Brixton. Before installing Select, the College did not have a computerised HR system, and found that the use of spreadsheets and other documents to process and track HR information was not an effective use of time.

The HR manager was tasked to research, invite to tender, evaluate and select an HR system to

implement, together with representatives from finance, IT, training and all the HR team.

SelectHR offered the best match to their set criteria, and after a one-day initial installation, the team were able to define the reporting structure and input, and cleanse some of the data. It was found that the system saved lots of time and effort, and as the software became more familiar, additional new ways of working, recording and reporting could be developed.

Access has also recently launched SelectHR Lite, which is aimed at smaller organisations and offers a solution as a rental model, which will be appealing to the education sector. The special version of the software not only comes with full HR functionality, but is also availabe on a monthly subscription model making it available for schools or colleges that wouldn’t be able to justify the capital investment.

PAYROLL SYSTEM Suffolk New College, an educational institution in Ipswich offering a wide range of vocational programmes and A levels, currently has 4,000 students, with new applications increasing year on year. To effectively meet the needs of the 650+ staff, the payroll and HR team has been using Bond TeamSpirit from Bond International Software for the last 13 years – a comprehensive and fully accreditied in-house HR and payroll system, which the college has customised to fully meet their needs.

Flexibility of reporting is essential to the college due to the nature of the education industry and the many regulations which must be followed. Bond TeamSpirit allows the users in the HR team to design and create their own reports according to their needs at any given time. Clearly, accuracy and timeliness are essential, so the immediacy and data accessibility that Bond TeamSpirit provides is invaluable.

As a well established supplier of the Resource Finance, Procurement, HR and Learner Management software to the education sector, Corero Systems’ solutions are widely used at sixth form, further education and higher education colleges, as well as many single and group academies. Corero works closely with the key stakeholders in all such institutions helping them to develop both financial and other key administrative systems to handle the ever changing government demands intended to streamline the efficiency of the education sector at all levels.

With over 30 per cent of existing academies as customers, Corero has the track record and expertise to implement its Resource accounting and procurement system into the new wave of

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

27

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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FINANCE

academies with minimal disruption, during what can be a hectic transition period. Developed over the past couple of years, its template implementation strategy is allowing increasing numbers of academy finance directors to fast track the change away from their current finance system.

UPGRADING OUTDATED EQUIPMENT Many schools are still running their accounts with outdated equipment and software, which means they have to spend many hours and days working out budgets and cash flow manually.

With an upgrade to Dataflow A-Plus, educational establishments of any size can benefit from increased productivity and cost savings.

The transfer of existing data can be completed easily and quickly, and the main benefit of the new system is practical, as A-Plus provides the facility to hold as many fees as required, with unlimited adjustments against each record, so it is extremely flexible and user friendly. A-Plus is Windows based, and an unlimited number of documents can be associated with system data. These can be in any format including Word, Excel or scanned documents, and can then be viewed using the comprehensive dataflow enquiry screens.

Dataflow A-Plus offers many standard reports, together with a number of other import and export routines, impressing bursars with the ease with which they can move data to and from the software for reporting.

PURCHASING SOFTWARE PS Financials is the author of award winning accounting, budgetary control and purchasing software used by over a third of academies in the UK. PS Financials understands that managing the finances of an academy requires specialist reporting and analysis; easy-to-use sytems for non-financial users; transparency of information; and specific

requirements such as monitoring of VAT. Their solution is tried and tested for the requirements of this sector of education.

The software allows a centralised purchase ledger and centralised invoicing, if there is a supplier that is used by a number of the academies within a federation, then one payment can be made to the supplier, spanning each of the individual purchase invoices for each academy. This saves significant administration time and allows spend analysis locally and centrlaly, as well as improving security control.

For example, the United Church Schools Trust (UCST) uses PS Financials across all of its schools and academies. As well as managing finances across multiple sites and providing consolidated views, PS Financials has helped UCST to make considerable savings and efficiencies.

ADOPTING A PAPERLESS STRATEGY With increased pressure over funding, North Warwickshire and Hinckley Colleges (one of the largest providers of education and training in the Midlands) turned to accounting software provider Symmetry to hep them achieve greater efficiencies by adopting a paperless financial management strategy. The college has saved 2,500 hours per annum on invoice processing. Symmetry’s Financials is a fully integrated, browserbased, financial and management accounting solution already in use at over 75 colleges.

Another aspect of the business of educational establishments is the control of fixed assets. St May Magdalene Academy, a mixed academy covering from early years up to sixth form, selected Asset4000 and Track4000 from Real Asset Management (RAM) to control and maintain its £41million worth of fixed assets. The integrated system manages all assets from the primary, secondary and sixth form departments, helping control financial, legal, accounting and compliance requirements across the entire school.

In addition, the asset register allows visibility of the assets within each department, ensuring the academy maximises their utilisation and limits unnecessary purchases. The software also ensures that the academy meets all legislative demands in line with the responsibilities attached to the Department for Education, which requires all items purchased with a value over the academy’s category capitalisation limits to be entered into an asset register. Asset4000 also facilitates the school’s compliance to IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards) and the WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) directive that details the correct disposal of all electronic equipment.

Finally, educational institutions may have in place infrastructure that they wish to continue with, and so to extend both its life and usefulness, may consider bridging solutions to add value. To meet this need, TechnologyOne can supply its Business Intelligence/Corporate Performance Management solutions to sit on top of incumbent sytems. This half-way approach can be ideal in an environment when finance professionals have to juggle the opportunity cost of buying a new finance system as opposed to hiring four new teachers or lecturers.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01494 868030 Fax: 01494 868031 E-mail: info@basda.org Web: www.basda.org

Ecclesiastical Insurance – an insurer you can trust HEN IT COMES TO protecting your education establishment, you need the support of a specialist insurer – one you can trust.

Established in 1887, we’ve been serving the education sector for over 40 years. We also give all our available profits to charity – making us the 7th top corporate donor in the UK1.

For the last three years running, insurance brokers have voted us the best insurance provider for education2.

From nurseries through to universities, we know that each education provider is unique in its own way. That’s why we can tailor your insurance cover to meet your specific needs – helping you rest assured that you are properly covered.

Backed by specialist advice and guidance

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and an excellent claims service, whatever the size or nature of your education establishment, you can be confident that with Ecclesiastical, you’re in good hands.

1. Source: Directory of social change 2. In research conducted by FWD, an independent market research company, of those brokers who

named an insurer in the survey, the majority voted Ecclesiastical as the best insurer for education.

FOR MORE INFORMATION To find out more about how we could help you, speak to your insurance broker or visit www.ecclesiastical.com/ingoodhands

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

29

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Join between 1 September and 31 December 2010 and fix your subscription rate until 31 December 2011.

All school and college leaders need information and advice that is clearly relevant to their role. Because ASCL only represent leaders in secondary schools and colleges, all of our work is focused on the sector â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from financial management to understanding the latest Ofsted framework.

With ASCL you and your colleagues have access to the very best professional advice, up-to-date information through our publications, website and excellent legal support, should you need it.

Are all of your leadership team colleagues in ASCL?

For further information visit www.ascl.org.uk/offers Terms and conditions apply. This fixed rate offer is only available to members of the senior leadership team of secondary schools and colleges who have not previously held ASCL (SHA) membership. Normal subscription rates will apply from 1 January 2012.

ASCL is unable tp provide legal support for issues that arose before membership commenced.

Education Business | Volume 15.5

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FINANCE

EARLY LEARNING FOR CREDIT MANAGEMENT Make sure an outstanding debt doesn’t turn into an uncolectable one, warns Philip King, chief executive of the Institute of Credit Management CASHFLOW, in every sector of the economy, is essential. As a company needs to keep cash flowing through the business, so too do the universities and colleges need to collect the cash so vital to being able to deliver the services to their students. The fact that the education sector is under financial pressure is in little doubt. Therefore, the need to save costs and streamline efficiencies are constantly evidenced.

Various credit management strategies will be deployed to ensure that an outstanding debt doesn’t rapidly turn into an uncollectable debt, because debt – unfortunately – is a growing issue. This has been given greater focus in recent months with the cuts announced by the coalition government, making the monies available to educational establishments even more precious.

what is a real debt and what isn’t, can be a thankless task. But once the legitimacy of a debt has been established, what options are open to the facility to collect it?

TYPES OF DEBT Debts come in all shapes and sizes, from student tuition fees, bursary debts and accommodation charges, through to sundry debts such as library fines and commercial invoices. Then there are the monies generated from the hiring out of conference facilities, playing fields or accommodation, all of which help to swell the university coffers.

Principals have understood the financial opportunities in terms of maximising their facilities out of hours. The serious levels of investment recently being committed within the education sector means that the most modern facilities are being built but not used all-year round. Colleges and universities realise this, and are increasingly opening their facilities – their swimming pools, gymnasia, technology centres, libraries etc. – to the wider communities, especially where they can attract additional income as a result.

The potential for debt, however, can be considerable: even if only a small percentage of tuition fees, for example, are not recovered, this can amount to hundreds of thousands of pounds lost to that establishment. Even outstanding library debts can run into thousands, not to mention the inconvenience – and additional cost – of having to replace books that have disappeared along with the student.

Tuition fees, as mentioned, can be a major headache. As the new term begins, each college or university is confronted with thousands of new “customers” and the potential, therefore, of thousands of new debts. Some students will have funding; some may say or believe they are being funded, but are not. Assessing

As a company needs to keep cash flowing through the business, so too do the universities and colleges need to collect the cash so vital to being able to deliver the services to their students

COLLECTING DEBTS Most colleges and universities will, of course, deploy their own in-house collections strategies, with varying degrees of success.

Others – notwithstanding their pastoral responsibilities – will involve, where appropriate, an outside agency. Indeed believing that your own teams know best and that employing an outside agency is somehow an admission of failure is simply not true.

Some might even think they are paying for a service twice. This argument is not one that

is specific to the education sector; the same argument is made in the commercial world.

Adding to your resource, at specific times, makes good economic sense. Many college debts are cyclical, and tend to concertina at different times of the year.

This means agencies have to be flexible in the service they deliver and have the ability to work closely with their clients during the periods when they need them most.

One of the biggest challenges at the moment is debt from overseas students. In-house teams don’t always have the time or the experience to collect debts from overseas, and again this is where agencies can step in.

The key to collecting most college and university debts is to refer them to the agency as early as possible. There are times when this cannot or does not happen – more often as a result of lack of resources, rather than lack of desire, but the result of having to put the debt issue ‘on the back burner’ is that debt totals can fast become alarmingly high.

SWIFT ACTION Taking swift action will bring in the cash much more quickly. Students are likely to settle their debts in full, or at least arrange an instalment plan to a realistic timescale.

Absconded debtors can be traced, and any

overseas cases that cannot be actioned successfully from the UK, can be passed to a network agency to pursue debts in the country of origin of the debtor to maximise success.

Of course in appointing an agency, it is important to find one that is sympathetic to, and has a clear understanding of, students and student debt, and have the specialist skills, techniques and staff required to get results. They should also be members of the Credit Services Association (CSA), which means it follows a strict Code of Practice.

To some, outsourcing will always be an anathema. Views tend to be polarised. Colleges and universities are either entirely behind it, or yet to be convinced. Ironically, the current drive by businesses and government

agencies to educate students about debt and provide best advice in managing their money is making the issue more widely debated.

UNDERSTANDING AGENCIES Failing to understand what a collection agency does, and believing media stereotypes, however, is part of the problem. Working with an agency does not mean losing control of your debt, or placing your students in harm’s way. Collection agencies are highly trained in the collections process, and will work ethically and professionally with your own people to ensure success.

Education debts are no longer the minor irritant they once were; debts outstanding often reach well into six figures. Chasing a student for a debt may seem unacceptable to some, but if failing to recover these debts leads to a substantial drop in revenues, which in turn means losing facilities or even staff, then it is much more difficult to justify such a situation.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Institute of Credit Management: www.icm.org.uk Credit Services Association: www.csa-uk.com

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HJP Independent Financial Advisers introduces new investment and administration solution for trustees JP INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVISERS LTD was established in 1990. We hold Chartered Financial Planners status, which is an exclusive title only awarded by the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) to firms that meet rigorous criteria relating to professionalism and capability.

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Trustees who do not have the necessary experience or expertise can delegate the investment management powers to a professional investment adviser. The trustees and investment adviser are required to

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establish the Standard Investment Criteria (SIC) for the trust. This should be formulated and kept under review in an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) ensuring that it is, and remains, in the best interests of the trust.

Trustees must also diversify the trust’s assets, keep proper accounts and be aware of the tax position of the trust.

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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FINANCE

TO BE OR NOT TO BE AN ACADEMY Ray Barker, director of the British Education Suppliers Association, looks at the advantages and disadvantages of adacemies, and shares his thoughts on the impact on head teachers and governors DESPITE THE LARGEST REBELLION by Lib Dem MPs since the formation of the coalition, on the 26 July the government’s flagship academies bill was rushed through parliament, paving the way for schools graded by Ofsted as ‘outstanding’ to gain academy status.

As we know, academies are state-funded schools, established and managed by sponsors from a wide range of backgrounds, including high performing schools and colleges, universities, individual philanthropists, businesses, the voluntary sector, and the faith communities. The main objective of the programme has been to fit each academy to its community and circumstances. In more detail, the benefits include freedom to design their own curriculum, additional funding, flexibility over pay and working hours, and freedom to invest in their own CPD training.

The school’s minister, Nick Gibb, said the bill would “grant greater autonomy to individual schools, give more freedom to teachers and inject a new level of dynamism

into a programme that has been proven to raise standards for all children.”

The beauty of being able to create a curriculum that is appropriate to a specific community is obvious. Academies, historically established in more deprived areas, have found significant benefits of being able to consider the skills of, and potential future career options for their students. Although academies are required to follow the National Curriculum programmes of study in English, maths, science and ICT, beyond this the curriculum can be designed to inspire and motivate the individual characteristics and needs of the students within the catchment area.

FUNDING In theory academies are funded at a level comparable to other local schools in their area. The financial advantage comes in the form of an additional 10 per cent of their total budget, which is withheld by the local authority for the management of schools

under their control. Once an academy is outside of the local authority’s control, it is up to each academy to decide how they spend this proportion of their budget.

In addition to this, the sponsor or sponsors of the academy scheme set up an endowment fund, the proceeds of which are spent by the academy trust on measures to counteract the impact of deprivation on education in their local community.

The new academies, however, are initially going to be for ‘outstanding’ schools and although there are many outstanding schools in less affluent areas, these funds for the new academies may need to be used to support deprivation within the academy’s broader communities.

A potential disadvantage of achieving academy status and the freedom that comes with managing their own budget is that it is another additional demand on the head teacher’s time.

The head teacher does have support from a small team of governors, one or more of whom will

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Navigator Financial Planning – providing financial strategies to the education sector HE NAVIGATOR FINANCIAL PLANNING APPROACH focuses solely on what is important to you, placing an emphasis on robust, evidencebased investment strategies, lifetime cashflow modelling, tax planning, and process. We believe passionately in true financial planning: once we are familiar with your current situation and your values and objectives, we can then creatively apply the technology at our disposal, to find ways of adding real value to your financial planning.

Navigator’s advisers work with a limited number of private clients and trusts, carefully selecting only those clients to whom we believe we can add the most value.

Embedded in Navigator’s philosophy are several core beliefs: • Clients’ interests always come first – we charge fees based on the time we spend and the value we add. We do not have to sell you a product to stay in business.

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dissemination, means that news is already priced into the market. Trying to predict the future is no better than guessing.

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return without necessarily increasing risk.

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Going two degrees off course makes little difference if you are only travelling a mile; but carry on with that course for 10,000 miles and you could end up nowhere near your original objective. The Navigator name was chosen for a reason – Navigator Financial Planning will put you on the right course and guide you on the journey, giving you the confidence that your financial objectives will be achieved.

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Professional and independent financial advice from chartered accountants Pethericks & Gillard HE CURRENT ECONOMIC climate has made life difficult when it comes to investing your excess funds. There are a number of factors to take into account before committing funds with an institution or provider.

The first matter to consider is the amount of available funds to invest and the timeframe over which these funds can be invested.

For short term investing bank deposits either on little or no notice, or for a particular period of time are realistically the only choice available. In light of the recent banking crisis it should be remembered that in most cases only £50,000 is guaranteed to be recovered in a default situation.

The second major decision to take is the investment type relative to business type. An educational establishment that is run as a business for profit will have a totally different set of parameters to an educational trust or indeed a state run establishment or the new academies.

The third decision to be made is whether there is a need for immediate or future income from the investment or whether the investment can just be left to grow for a particular period

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of time. Again, this will to some extent depend upon the investment timeframe available.

The fourth consideration in the decision making process is the trade off between risk and reward. The attitude to risk of any investment is a key element of any financial planning undertaken and a financial adviser will consider this carefully before making any recommendation.

This topic would not be complete without consideration of ethical investing. It is acknowledged that a significant percentage of the population consider investing ethically

as very important. Investing on behalf of an educational establishment there may be a need to put aside personal views on ethical investing in order to achieve maximum returns on behalf of the stakeholders.

The final consideration is that of taxation. The taxation of income needs to be considered relative to the organisation’s tax status. Gains on growth funds are also treated differently and there is a degree of choice. Any gains can be planned so as to minimise or even avoid capital gains tax. Tax advisers have a key role to play here in helping to plan to maximise any returns.

Investing, particularly for the longer term, is not something that can be achieved in a matter of minutes.

Professional advice is essential in order to both fulfil your duties as managers or trustees and to hopefully reap the rewards for the organisation and its stakeholders.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01761 410444 Fax: 01761 411670 E-mail: mail@pgtax.co.uk Web: www.pgtax.co.uk

Education Business | Volume 15.5

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FINANCE

be from the sponsoring organisation. Academies that are co-sponsored by their local authority will also have two seats on the Governing Body. The number of governors on an academy governing body is not prescribed, but the expectation is for the body to be relatively small.

This support aside, the head teacher is ultimately responsible for the successful financial management of the school and therefore needs to set aside a considerable amount of time for planning and accounting.

TRAINING All schools under local authority control must fund their continuing professional development (CPD) training, which has to be sourced from a list of providers either within or approved by the local authority. Once again, being an academy means that schools have the freedom to choose their training provider and do not have to procure their training from the local authority.

Many academies will still benefit from their local authority’s support. However, the suggestion is that many current academies and the future academies sourced from good and outstanding schools should possess the skills to have the autonomy to self manage their own training provision. While many authorities offer excellent training provision, others do not.

THE CONCERNS Because BESA is a key stakeholder in the process of education development, we are aware of the current community concerns.

These are based on the fact that a bill that is intended to fundamentally change our school system has become law with no green or white paper and no apparent formal consultation. In fact, the main reason for the Lib Dem rebellion was because they believed in the need for more consultation particularly with parents. One “rebel” John Pugh stated: “To change the status of a school without allowing the parents at the school a decisive voice is extraordinarily hard to justify.”

In her recent article in the Guardian, ‘Important questions still need to be answered about the academies bill’, on 27 June 2010, former education secretary Estelle Morris identifies areas that she feels demand more consultation. She questions the future of local authorities once the majority of schools are granted academy status and all the local authority funds for central services have been devolved to schools. As the central services are focused on extra support for vulnerable children and those with special educational needs the concern is for the future of these services once there is no longer the money or capacity within local authorities to supply them.

MANAGING ADMISSIONS All academies are bound by the same School Admissions Code, SEN Code of Practice and exclusions guidance as all other state-

funded schools. However, parents and guardians may want the head teachers and governors of the schools in their area to define their own admissions policy.

The concern being aired across the sector at the moment is that the success of this code of practice is based upon the size of the pupil premium, giving schools a financial incentive to include disadvantaged pupils and penalise middle-class ones. While many believe that everything depends on how much of an incentive this premium is, the amount hasn’t been stated in the bill.

It is fine for head teacher and governors

to reassure parents that they will abide by the admissions code, but what will happen if schools in their area all choose different oversubscription criteria?

Research also shows that schools that are their own admissions authorities such as academies are more socially selective.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 020 75374997 Fax: 020 75374846 E-mail: besa@besa.org.uk Web: www.besa.org.uk

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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DESIGN & BUILD

THE VALUE OF GOOD SCHOOL DESIGN The Royal Institute of British Architects discusses the impact a school building can have on students, staff and the community JONI MITCHELL’S ASSERTION that you “don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone” has never been more relevant. The devastating news that half of the of schools to be built under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme have been halted has brought into focus the benefits of new or refurbished school buildings.

The media has paraded the depressing sight of dated, temporary and poorly maintained accommodation in which too many of our children have struggled to enjoy a good education. It has told the tales of teaching teams waiting for new buildings to accommodate swelling classes and given airtime to a head teacher pleading for the state to value his pupils.

The children themselves have eloquently described what they had hoped to gain from their new school which has now been abandoned.

ADEQUATE ACCOMMODATION This outcry is not for a luxury, icing on the education cake, but for an essential: adequate accommodation. We all deserve to work in environments that bring out the best in us. Our working lives require well lit warm buildings, spacious enough to accommodate the task in hand. If that accommodation can be delivered with design flare and inspiration it enhances the experience.

Good schools should be a synergy of good teaching and learning delivered in an environment conducive for excellence in both.

There is a strong case to demonstrate that poor conditions caused by inappropriate or dilapidated buildings have a direct effect on the learning outcomes of students, and on their wellbeing. Poorly maintained schools, the disruptive learning environments caused by excess noise, heat or cold, narrow lightless corridors and a lack of modern resources and basic amenities all have a direct impact on pupils’ quality of education and future life chances. The quality of the school environment also has a significant effect on staff attraction and retention.

HEALTH & SAFETY RISKS It remains, however, the case that many poor school buildings exist and are a daily fact of life for many tens of thousands of staff and students. They create direct risks to the health and safety of pupils and staff, and reduce the learning potential for pupils

The devastating news that half of the of schools to be built under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme have been halted has brought into focus sharply the benefits of new or refurbished school buildings at all ends of the attainment spectrum.

They increase incidences of bullying, truancy and other anti-social behaviours and create inaccessible, non-inclusive environments.

Although not enough analysis has taken place of the data collected on the effect of improvements in educational environments on behaviour and attainment there is evidence that is providing a strong case for improved buildings. The research currently being undertaken creates a clear and unmistakeable link between school improvement and increased attainment at GCSE and A Level across all indices.

In addition a growing number of head teachers and school professionals have provided testimony of the results that they relate to the improvement in their own school facilities.

For example, 80 per cent of students at the new well-designed Folkestone Academy are predicted to achieve 5 A*-C grades at GCSE compared to 12 per cent in their old school building. As a consequence of renewed pride and demonstrable improvement,

what was once an undersubscribed school now has an over-demand for places.

Westminster Academy was shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2008. It is a building with a strong visual identity that has helped to turn around the school’s image. It has significantly improved its exam performance.

In 2009 72 per cent of the academy’s GCSE students achieved five or more subjects with higher grade passes. This represents a massive improvement in the number of students attaining five or more GCSE subjects at grade C and above: from 23 per cent in 2007, 42 per cent in 2008 to 72 per cent in 2009.

The case to undertake improvements to the school estate from an educational perspective is very powerful.

CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT The detailed data on the effects of the environment in teaching spaces is compelling.

For example much is known about indoor air quality in classrooms including how, in poorly ventilated classrooms, the build up of

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DESIGN & BUILD

carbon dioxide can lead to drowsiness among pupils affecting their learning experience.

Unsurprisingly overheating has been shown to have a similar affect and high noise levels also have a negative impact on learning.

What is less well known is that airborne bacteria exacerbate asthma leading to absenteeism amongst staff and pupils.

Poor light also has an effect; in 1999 a US study found that students with the most daylight in their classrooms progressed 20 per cent faster on maths tests and 26 per cent faster on reading tests than those with the least light. These studies about the physical environment in classrooms have fed into the development of detailed standards for new school buildings, which enable architects to design out the health risks and the factors that reduce performance.

Many broader aspects of school design have been studied including the relationship of the school to the local community and how the image of the school impacts on the recruitment and retention of staff. Hampshire County Council has a peerless reputation for designing school buildings that inspire. Ann Turnbull, head teacher at Abbotts Ann Primary says: “The effect of the school on the staff has been quite startling! Such enthusiasm as I’ve never seen before! The building seems to have brought everybody together as a team.”

EASY SUPERVISION When planning schools and grounds new designs aim to make it easy to supervise pupils at break and lunch times in particular avoiding narrow corridors that encourage disruptive behaviour. Designing out these blind spots can reduce truancy, bullying and vandalism.

At Westminster Academy the building was designed to prevent hiding places where bad behaviour might take place, the plan enables staff to easily see across all three floors. The students like this as it helps them to feel safe.

The head says that vandalism and truancy

have hugely reduced since they moved to the new building. Significantly the new building has also benefited the wider community; crime has fallen by 14 per cent in the immediate locality since it opened. The value of good school design can be measured far wider than simple examination success.

INCREASING INSPIRATION Two major investigations were carried out by PriceWaterhouse Coopers for the Department for Education and Skills in 2001 and 2003; the first of which found that capital investment in school buildings had a positive influence on staff morale, pupil motivation, and effective learning time, while the second reported that capital investment in premises and information technology had a measurable impact on learning outcomes. This is borne out by testimony from pupils, teachers and the authorities. At Westminster the building and furniture are robust and they take the day to day wear while continuing to look good and students consistently say they are proud of their school. In Hampshire at Everest Community College the of OFSTED Report noted: “The new college has done much to raise the students’ self-esteem and encourage them to live up to their colourful new building.”

The schools rebuilt and refurbished in the last few years have been of an ever improving standard of design and for the first time there are two on the shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize, British architecture’s Oscars. Over the previous 15 years of the award six schools have made it to the shortlist, the last four all built in England.

This year’s schemes are an exemplary demonstration of what can be achieved.

One is a completely new building, Christ’s College School by DSHA Architects for Surrey County Council and the Diocese of Guildford, and the other the extension of an existing Victorian building at Clapham Manor Primary School for Lambeth Council.

For both projects the close relationship between the architect and the school has been essential to their success. At Clapham Manor the architect met twice with the pupils’ school council whose members are proud that their views have been listened to.

Christ’s College School opened in March 2009 replacing the old 1960’s school which was categorised by the government as a “failing school” and had suffered from arson attacks and bad behaviour. The new school aimed to design out disruptive behaviour by creating communal, inclusive spaces which were more compact and easy to monitor. It also now has one entrance to help give a sense of unity.

Recently the headmaster received a letter from a minister saying that the school was in the top group of the most improved schools in the UK. FUTURE INVESTMENT? Not all of the data is from full scientific surveys but there is a body of knowledge and informed opinion that makes the case compelling and it should not be ignored by government. Better academic achievement, greater social cohesion, reduced policing, even increased property prices have all been attributed to improved local schools.

The short term justification for a reduction in capital spending on schools on the basis that the BSF procurement route was inefficient does not justify a return to underinvestment in our school buildings. The initial investment reaps far greater rewards in terms of added value to the educational standards achieved by our children and to the safety and well-being of the wider community.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 020 75805533 Fax: 020 72551541 E-mail: info@inst.riba.org Web: www.architecture.com

Creative architecture from Sutters Partnership UTTERS PARTNERSHIP are at heart placemakers. We take pleasure in producing architecture that contributes to peoples lives through its visual appeal and functionality. Our enviable track record of delivery embraces even the most challenging schemes and we have much experience of working with historic environment.

Schools are special, communities in their own right, and their physical facilities play an important part in the mix. In essence, the setting, the buildings and open space form a backdrop to the school’s daily life and must keep pace with expectations if they are to contribute towards its success. I believe that effective consultation is a key element that

their aspirations might look in physical form.

At the end of the day we can’t always deliver on 100 per cent of requests, given that we must balance conflicting desires, budgetary and time constraints, but, rest assured, we try!

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FOR MORE INFORMATION introduces new thinking into design process.

My thoughts on this have been strengthened by knowledge gained outside the practice as Deputy Chair of Governors at a local primary, mother of two and a sitting councillor involved with schools. It is important to work with the whole school community to focus in on how

Sutters Partnership Architects RIBA Chartered Practice Address: Alton House 105 Howards Lane, London SW15 6NZ Tel: +44 20 87885788 E-mail: mail@spaarch.co.uk Web: www.sutters partnership.com

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Creative architecture that works intelligently with the interior and exterior environment. Whether your project is new build, extension and refurbishment, or the rationalisation of an existing facility we provide innovative solutions that optimise opportunity Many years experience of working with listed buildings, the historic environment and in sensitive urban locations Sutters Partnership Architects RIBA Chartered Practice Alton House 105 Howards Lane, London SW15 6NZ +44 208 788 5788 E-mail mail@spaarch.co.uk www.sutterspartnership.com

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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DESIGN & BUILD

THE FUTURE FOR SCHOOL BUILDINGS Tim Brennan, senior regeneration adviser, English Heritage, offers advice on re-building and refurbishing listed school buildings SINCE ENGLISH HERITAGE contributed an article to the last edition of Education Business, the situation with regards to capital investment for school buildings has changed dramatically. The government’s announcement on the Building Schools for the Future programme in early July cancelling large numbers of individual projects and the downsizing of the overall programme leaves it looking very different to before.

Whatever conclusions the review of recent capital expenditure reaches and recommends to government, it is clear that future funding is not only going to be at much reduced levels, but the processes for allocating and prioritising are likely to be much changed as well.

STARTING WITH REFURBISHMENT As a result, it is a fair assumption that refurbishment of existing buildings is likely to be the starting point for a much greater proportion of projects within a local education authority’s school estate than has been the case over the past couple of years. Given this, it seems appropriate to ask whether there is anything that recent refurbishment projects involving historic school buildings

can tell us to help inform future plans.

English Heritage takes a broad view as to what could be regarded as an historic school building, encompassing those of “listable” architectural quality and many others that are of local heritage significance. Nevertheless, as an organisation English Heritage cannot get involved in every redevelopment of historic school buildings – nor would we want to.

As well as being impossible in terms of the resources required, it would not be appropriate for a national organisation such as English Heritage to become involved in every case to do with an historic school building – this is far better left to the local experts, such as local authority conservation staff.

What English Heritage tries to do is to provide advice and guidance that is helpful to those making the decisions. Our publication Refurbishing Historic School Buildings, guidance on undertaking assessments of school estates and a technical briefing note on refurbishment projects (developed in partnership with Mott MacDonald) can all be found at www.helm. org.uk/historicschools. English Heritage has also recently published England’s Schools: History, Architecture and Adaptation.

So what does our experience, and that of our local authority colleagues, mean for the refurbishment of historic school buildings?

Pertinent lessons fall into four categories.

CONSTRUCTIVE CONSERVATION Constructive conservation – character and significance driving design of new proposals: Constructive conservation is a term used to describe investment and development in historic buildings such as schools, and updates and modernises them while at the same time reinforcing their particular distinctiveness.

Understanding the existing buildings should be the starting point for all projects involving historic school buildings – both in terms of what makes them significant but also how they have been used and what has worked well in an educational sense.

Once this has been achieved, establishing what is possible in terms of modern methods of teaching within the envelope of the historic building is much more straightforward. Development can use what is special about the buildings as its cue.

Walthamstow School for Girls (listed at Grade II) has recently been refurbished and

Haggerston School, Hackney ©Avanti Architects

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DESIGN & BUILD

Walthamstow School for Girls, London Borough of Waltham Forest ©Simon Warren Photography

partially remodelled. The project has used the distinctive character of the school site as the guide to the redevelopment – the classrooms within the main school building have been refurbished to take advantage of their high levels of natural light, while a new drama space creates a striking junction with the original listed assembly hall.

NEW USES Perhaps more than any other type of public building, schools need to adapt to be able to serve their original purpose and to accommodate fast changing methods of teaching and curriculum needs. Recent levels of capital investment have probably accelerated this trend.

Often it is perfectly possible to house new IT equipment or create space for new uses such as design within existing historic buildings.

However, in some cases local authorities and architects have created purpose built space to accommodate this type of use – this can be a more effective use of space and can also allow traditional classrooms to be used as such.

Haggerston School in the London Borough of Hackney (designed in the 1950s by Erno Goldfinger and listed at Grade II for its modernist style) is the subject of innovative proposals for its refurbishment and remodelling. These will remove recent piecemeal and incongruous additions to the school and restore the integrity of the original design. Internal remodelling will allow for new use of existing space (including a Design Forum and dining area) while new buildings on the site will sit sympathetically with the main school building and accommodate art, design and technology uses.

RETHINK EXISTING ACCOMMODATION Where school buildings are listed, it does not mean that they cannot be altered or remodelled – but simply that proposals for redevelopment need to be justified.

Remodelled schools can retain much, if not all, of the existing space and enable its use in a

Understanding the existing buildings should be the starting point for all projects involving historic school buildings – both in terms of what makes them significant but also how they have been used and what has worked well in an educational sense different way. Classrooms in historic buildings that are now smaller than modern guidelines recommend can be used as break out, quiet or office space, while exemplar spaces have been created at High Storrs Secondary School (Grade II listed) in Sheffield as part of its refurbishment and reuse. These are restored classrooms and storage space that are now important learning resources in themselves.

DEVELOPMENT IN CONTEXT A recurring theme across the successful redevelopment of historic school buildings is the prevalence of inappropriate and poor quality additions to the original buildings on school sites in the form of extensions and new buildings. Capital investment can not only allow updating and modernisation of the schools, but can also enable the replacement of these types of buildings with accommodation more in keeping with its surroundings and context, and which will hopefully prove to be of better longevity.

We shall have to wait and see what form future capital investment in school buildings takes. If, however, refurbishment is indeed the future benchmark, then experience from recent projects involving historic buildings such as those mentioned here will be particularly relevant. Similarly, if prioritisation for future funding is to be led by the condition of the buildings, then it will be important to ensure that assessment of their heritage significance is a consideration in the process.

Proper understanding of the buildings in question is vital to both their continued

High Storrs Secondary School, Sheffield ©Vinci Construction

educational use and successful refurbishment projects. But perhaps the key lesson from recent projects is to bear in mind that historic school buildings are readily adaptable and flexible – imagination and planning can create new layouts and different ways of using existing accommodation that can minimise the impact on historic buildings.

Perhaps radical or different use of existing space, rather than radical intervention is the way we should approach such projects.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 0870 3331181 Fax: 01793 414926 E-mail: customers@english-heritage.org.uk Web: www.english-heritage.org.uk

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LIFE AFTER BSF – WHAT NOW FOR NEW SCHOOLS? Adrian Turner, partner at law firm Eversheds, takes a look at the opportunities still in place for re-building educational establishments IT SEEMS HARD TO BELIEVE, but it is

little more than a month since Michael Gove announced that the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme was to be halted.

With a review of every area of the Department for Education’s capital spending now under way, everyone with an interest in delivering new schools is speculating as to what might be around the corner. Much of this is crystal ball gazing, but in this article I will look at what we know and what might be in store.

THE AXE FALLS ON BSF

The problem with BSF, in the eyes of the coalition government at least, was two-fold: not only had the programme committed to investing vast sums over its life (as much as £55 billion), but it was seen as being wasteful, inefficient and over bureaucratic.

In essence, it stood for everything that David Cameron and his government are opposed to and its demise was inevitable.

At the same time, the government made it clear that it wanted to shake up the schools sector, offering greater choice to parents, teachers and pupils.

The introduction of the recent Academies Act and the desire to see free schools established are at the heart of these plans.

Whilst a number of local authorities have been vocal in their opposition to the ending of BSF, and with talk of judicial review challenges still fresh, it seems most unlikely that decisions will be reversed. After a number of attempts, the position is at last clear as to which BSF schemes are to proceed and which have been stopped. Whilst there is good news for some, and notwithstanding what might emerge in terms of new academies and free schools, many school buildings up and down the country remain in desperate need of upgrade or replacement.

CONTINUED INVESTMENT

A recent survey of 503 teachers carried out by The Teachers Support Network, the British Council for School Environments and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers found that over 25 per cent of those interviewed did not think that the buildings they taught in amounted to an “effective learning environment”. 51 per cent of those interviewed also thought their school could not be physically adjusted to support delivery of the curriculum. Perhaps the most interesting statistic was that 96 per cent of

Adrian Turner

With a review of every area of the Department for Education’s capital spending now under way, everyone with an interest in delivering new schools is speculating as to what might be around the corner

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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DESIGN & BUILD

teachers interviewed agreed that a school’s physical environment had an influence over student attitude and behaviour.

The results of this survey will be of no surprise to many, and the government is clearly aware of this. Whilst BSF has been scrapped, the government has made it clear that this in itself does not mark the end of capital investment in school buildings. It has been confirmed that they will continue to invest in school buildings by providing the funding directly to schools and local authorities.

The funding levels will inevitably be smaller and the delivery models simpler, but those whose business relies on such work can take some comfort. Exactly how this will

other models are likely to be needed.

If the free schools model takes off, it is likely that funding will be in short supply. Whilst it is envisaged that £50 million will be made available for new schools over the next 12 months, this is a drop in the ocean compared to the funding that BSF had promised. As has been seen in Sweden, where the free schools model is well developed, the most likely solution is the conversion of empty buildings. Whilst a far cry from the ethos that underpinned BSF in terms of design being key to educational transformation, this route offers a quick and cost efficient way to deliver new school buildings.

Until the Gove review publishes its findings and the Comprehensive Spending Review has taken place, the crystal ball gazing will continue. What is certain though is that the landscape has changed beyond all recognition, both in terms of the way that education is delivered and the approach to the provision of school buildings work is not likely to be known until early next year when Gove’s review is complete and the Comprehensive Spending Review has taken place. However, it is a fairly safe bet to suggest that a number of different models may be available, leaving choice for those responsible for delivering schools.

REFURBISH AND RE-USE

The obvious consequence of the cut in funding for future schools building will be fewer new build schools. A large proportion of the BSF programme saw new build schools being delivered under Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts.

This model was attractive contractually, avoiding the difficulties of risk transfer where a contractor takes over responsibility for an existing building that it has not built, and also ensured the return on investment that the major players in the PFI industry required from the BSF model.

The PFI model does not lend itself to refurbishment projects and in addition to that the government has been very critical of it (notwithstanding it was the construct of John Major’s Tory government).

What is much more likely is greater use of more traditional contracting, be it design and build or standard forms such as JCT, possibly making use of frameworks similar to the National Academies Framework, which reduces procurement times and cost.

Whilst the D&B type approach may continue to be used for schools where reasonably significant funding is made available,

Michael Gove is keen on this model, and is on record as saying that he expects to see a proliferation of smaller schools opening in smaller premises. He has cited the conversion of old buildings and shops as a way to deliver the new education agenda and to this end the construction industry has already reacted. Early estimates suggest a derelict shell building can be converted into a usable school within five months for around £13m to £17m – saving about 1/3 on building something from scratch.

It is widely expected that Gove’s review will recommend a new approach for capital investment in those schools that were due to receive BSF funding and that investment will remain the responsibility of local authorities. Even if the Department’s capital programme were to see cuts at the higher end of the 25-40 per cent scale being talked about more generally across the public sector, that could still see funding in the low billions being made available for school buildings. That level of funding would require a clearly defined delivery model, and indeed it is rumoured that Partnerships for Schools, the body that was responsible for delivering the BSF programme, is already looking at alternative models.

Furthermore, the construction and investment industries that were so heavily invested in BSF seem reasonably confident that there will be something to replace it.

The more optimistic even sense that schools PFI projects may not be dead, and that the approach which pre-dated BSF may

return. Notwithstanding the government’s view of PFI, the approach is one which can be delivered relatively quickly and has the huge benefit of not requiring upfront capital to be provided by the government.

Whilst PFI projects may now be very much “on balance sheet”, at a time when the government needs to slash its spending, private finance may still have its place.

PATCH AND MEND

Whilst the uncertainty continues and funding remains on hold, many authorities and schools will look to repair and maintenance works to tide them over. Traditionally such works are carried out during the summer break, and it is questionable as to whether the announcement will have come in time to allow contracts to be placed.

Even if that is the case it is highly likely that we will see a dramatic increase in such works, something that will no doubt be welcomed by the FM industry as well as smaller contractors and those with places on local authority approved contractor lists.

Since BSF was scrapped, perhaps the least column inches have been dedicated to the impact on ICT. The integration of ICT within the design of a school along with the provision of an estatewide managed service was seen as the key to unlocking transformation.

It seems for many schools this will never come to be and that in itself places a large question mark over the importance of ICT in delivering education. What seems clear though is that new models are much less likely to place ICT on the pedestal that it occupied under BSF. MORE CRYSTAL BALL GAZING

Until the Gove review publishes its findings and the Comprehensive Spending Review has taken place, the crystal ball gazing will continue. What is certain though is that the landscape has changed beyond all recognition, both in terms of the way that education is delivered and the approach to the provision of school buildings.

The largest schools building programme since Victorian times (as BSF was badged) will be remembered by some as a huge missed opportunity. Others will be delighted that it ended when it did and will herald Gove’s decision as key to regaining control of the public purse.

As the brave new world of education unfolds and as new approaches become clear, only then will we be able to determine who was right and who was wrong.

There will be winners and losers, and it is easy to express views based on how they affect you, your school, your job or your organisation. However, raising educational standards and improving the life chances for our children is what it is all about.

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The CPD certified conference programme highlights how key changes in the political environment can be addressed on a practical level by the key stakeholders involved in education building programmes. Examples of successful remodelling projects from both public and private sectors, forward-looking partnership opportunities and adaptation of new-build to refurbishments will be just some of the topics presented and discussed by expert speakers. speakers include:

Baroness Andrews OBE chair English Heritage

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REMODELLING EDUCATION SPACES BSEC is launching a new event dedicated to remodelling existing education schools, colleges and universities REMODELLING EDUCATION SPACES, brought to you by the organisers of the Building Schools Exhibition & Conference (BSEC), focuses on the refurbishment, remodelling and redesign of existing education buildings. The new government has introduced significant budget cuts which affect new build plans for Britain’s schools, colleges and universities, with an overall emphasis on value for money and doing more for less. However, with many of the UK’s education spaces in poor condition, building work is still required to improve, maintain and develop these structures to meet acceptable standards, offering the best possible working environment for students and teachers alike. Remodelling Education Spaces addresses the very latest shift in thinking, away from being BSF focused towards new concepts including free schools and Academies.

“I think people who will do well will be those good at making the most of what we’ve got, rather than everything having to be bright and spanking new, said ”George Ferguson, former president, RIBA (BD magazine, 14 May 2010).

GROWING MARKET The remodelling of education buildings is an important market with 867 refurbishment projects already completed in 2009/10, equating to a massive £9.7billion (source: Barbour ABI).

Taking place on 13-14 September at the University of Manchester, Remodelling Education Spaces explores the opportunities this growing market presents. The event format includes a comprehensive programme and focussed exhibition which share the same venue within the university. Key topics from the conference will also be discussed in

seminar areas on the exhibition floor, free to exhibition visitors. The two day conference programme will feature interactive roundtable discussions, case studies, viewpoint and panel discussions, networking breaks and time for delegates to visit the exhibition, presenting a unique experience to maximise the networking and learning opportunities on offer.

Best practice case studies from refurbishment projects in both the public and private sectors will be highlighted and examined, including Wandsworth S.E.N. School: achieving cost and carbon efficiency, Elm Court School: transforming neglected space into a successful school and Abingdon and Witney College: adapting a new build plan to remodelling.

Teresa Kelly, principal at Abingdon and Witney College will present her school case study along with Andrew Foster, partner at Robotham Architecture. The presentation will

detail how decisions were made over what was cut and what was kept and how this impacted the design plans. As well as internal repercussions, this case study will look at how a switch from new-build to remodelling affected their key project stakeholders and partners.

NEW CONCEPTS The programme delves into new concepts, including the notion of ‘free’ schools based on the Swedish independent school model, with expert speakers John Baumber, education director, Kunskapsskolan and Carl-Gustaf Stawström, secretary general, Swedish Association of Independent Schools.

Kunskapsskolan, a name that means ‘the knowledge school’, has developed a successful model of education in Sweden based on the fundamental principle that all students learn differently. They currently operate 32

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DESIGN & BUILD

about learning, highly motivated because their individual talents are recognised and valued and their potential realised without exception”.

The speaker line up spans the range of key stakeholders within the education building industry, including architects, contractors, consultants, designers, heads of education establishments, government departments and councils among others. Mentioned below are just a few of the speakers who will be sharing their knowledge at the event: Karsan Vaghani, director of capital projects, University of Bristol, Ian Cleland, chief executive, Ormiston Education Trust, Rachel Shaw, director, architecture plb, Ben Smith, associate director, AECOM and Philip Ives, director, JM Architects.

With many of the UK’s education spaces in poor condition, building work is still required to improve, maintain and develop these structures to meet acceptable standards, offering the best possible working environment for students and teachers alike independent schools in Sweden and are opening two Academies in the UK this year.

The education system and buildings for these schools will be based on the successful method of learning which operates in Sweden.

Baumber’s presentation will highlight the key principles of Kunskapsskolan and how both remodelled and new buildings support it.

A panel discussion including Mark Johnson, managing director at TPP Law, Simon Lucas, head of education and children’s services, EC Harris and Carl-Gustaf Stawström will address how free the ‘free’ school model would be.

The discussion will look at the ideas behind the free school model, how these schools are financed, the success of UK schools who have already implemented this model and how much new build vs, refurbishment there should be to create free schools.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES Event manager, Michael Seaman, commented: “This shift in focus from new-build to remodelling brings excellent opportunities; this is illustrated by the huge amount of interest we’ve received in this event already.

Remodelling Education Spaces is strengthened by our fantastic speaker line up whose knowledge and experience is unparalleled within the education refurbishment industry.

Without the support and participation of our key speakers, sponsors and exhibitors from the industry, this event would not be possible”.

AECOM is platinum sponsor of the event.

Their portfolio of experts work with schools and design teams across the country to plan,

design and deliver school projects including the BSF and Academies schemes as well as commissions from the independent sector.

Gary Chesher, Education Sector Head (South), explains the importance of the industry from their perspective: “AECOM is proud to sponsor the Remodelling Education Spaces event.

We realise that learning outcomes can be hugely influenced by the surrounding learning environment. Spaces creatively designed to suit many activities, along with the right sound levels, technological support, fresh air and natural daylight combine to increase performance levels for both teachers and learners. “Remodelling existing building stock in the education sector will become more prevalent as capital expenditure tightens and clients seek to maximise the potential of their assets.

Through working with education professionals across a wide range of school buildings, we understand the importance teachers place upon responsive and adaptive learning spaces.”

Chief executive of Academy 360, Paul Prest is speaking at the event. Academy 360, an allthrough Academy and Sunderland’s flagship school was launched in 2008. Open six days a week, 50 weeks a year, Academy 360 prides itself on there always being someone available to provide learning and activities for the children and community. The facilities provided at the Academy include 12 outdoor sports fields, 6 open space learning spaces, a cyber café and 200 square metres of gardens. Prest explains the benefits this new concept: “Academy 360 provides a culture in which students are emotionally and intellectually supported, excited

EXHIBITING EXCELLENCE Graham Construction, gold sponsor of the event will be showcasing their education projects in the exhibition area. Graham Construction work collaboratively with estates management teams in the further and higher education sector to deliver buildings and services which facilitate excellence in education. Examples of their remodelling projects include: Model primary school, Newtownards which involved the extension and renovation of a B+ listed Victorian school building; and South Bank Arts Centre, Bedford College, where a three storey Performing Arts Centre was added to the existing further education campus.

Other companies exhibiting at the event include AES, Altro, Anshen + Allen, Ellis Williams Architects, Innova Design Solutions, Langley Design, Monodraught, Pressalit Care, Sarnafil, Scott Wilson, Sebel Furniture, Simons-Voss Technologies, Steljes and Stepnell. Approximately 1,000 visitors are expected to attend the exhibition from both the public and private sectors, including local authorities, main contractors, LEPs, architects, head teachers, ICT professionals, engineers, project managers, quantity surveyors, consultants and institutional investors.

Visitors to the event can enjoy free seminar content on the exhibition floor, feature areas dedicated to local authorities and re-thinking current models as well as unrivalled networking opportunities with exhibitors, speakers and delegates.

Conference delegates will benefit from the content and knowledge of the in-depth conference programme, including dedicated networking breaks, as well as having the opportunity to visit the exhibition stands.

The evening networking dinner, taking place on 13 September at the Palace Hotel, is an opportunity for anyone from the industry to meet their colleagues in a more informal setting, enjoying dinner and drinks at this iconic hotel, right in the heart of Manchester.

FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information, please visit www.remodellingeducation.com

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

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IP UserGroup Diary Dates - an IP-in-Action LIVE Event near you!

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With the purpose of providing a platform to educate and promote IP based Security technology, IP-in-Action LIVE events provide a comprehensive seminar programme with a full agenda of informative and educational presentations along with an excellent opportunity to get "hands-on" with the very latest products and services provided by some of the best companies in the industry within the Exhibition Area.

Aimed at people on all "rungs of the knowledge ladder" the events are particularly worthwhile for Installers, Consultants and End-User Customers who wish to find out more about networked security, its possibilities and application opportunities, so come along and join us - it's all FREE ! *Special 2 day / 2 venue events.

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NEW - Discounted Banner Advertising on websites NEW - Discounted Banner Advertising and Promo articles in “IP ConnectionsTM” eNewsletters Self-administering section of the website www.ipusergroup.com to post company news, views, product or services information Company Press Releases, News Items, Case Studies and Technical Papers posted on the homepages of website Discounted eBlast and other promotional electronic activities Promotion of products and services through IPfocus® Use of IP UserGroup® Affiliate Membership logo’s FREE use of Affiliates Lounge at IIPSEC® exhibition Access to other marketing and promotional channels An opportunity to influence the direction of the industry

Affiliate Membership Contact: Andy Hennings - IP UserGroup Manager Phone: 01983 403693 or email: andy.hennings@ipusergroup.com

Education Business | Volume 15.5

www.educationbusinessuk.com

DESIGN & BUILD

A NEW ERA FOR SCHOOL BUILDINGS We introduce Built Environment Solutions & Technologies – a topical exhibition that shows you how to achieve smarter, more affordable and sustainable construction THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT Solutions and Technologies Show (BEST) is a great new opportunity for local authorities, contractors and specifiers in the private and public sectors to come together to find ideas and debate the ways in which they can effectively deliver smarter, affordable and sustainable construction projects in the new economy.

The show replaces Interbuild Specifier, and focuses on delivering innovative solutions to the real and immediate problems within the construction industry. With a focus on more for less, BEST will demonstrate how to achieve maximum efficiency whilst reducing costs.

The BEST show will be held at the NEC in Birmingham 18-20 October, with the arena divided into five different hubs, each focused on a key construction market. The hubs will showcase suppliers’ innovative new products and several inspiring exemplar structures, as well as each featuring a free three day seminar programme.

SPEAKER HIGHLIGHTS Visitors to the hubs will be able to hear from a number of speakers tackling core construction issues within the public sector including: • John Holman, chief executive, Birmingham Local Education Partnership – The Birmingham Schools Challenge: How do we retrofit schools sustainably and affordably to deliver transformational learning spaces and meet carbon reduction targets?

• Ian Potter, operations manager, ARLA (Association of Residential Letting Agents) – What are the solutions to the national housing undersupply? What do tenants want, and what will help to meet this need?

• Viv Duke, chief executive at Equality Accreditation Services – Understanding the new requirements to comply with equal opportunities • Stuart Horton, FinditinBirmingham and Steve Massey, FinditinSandwell – Sustainable procurement in action. Benefits for the region and for the construction supply chain.

A number of local authorities and members of their supply chain will also present project case studies, providing visitors with a practical guide on how to innovate whilst keeping costs low, all based on their own experiences. Presentations include Sheffield City Council, Cambridgeshire County Council and Hampshire County Council.

There will also be exchanges of effective practice methods within construction procurement and a showcase of techniques to create cheaper, more innovative and greener public buildings.

The five hubs are each focused on Education, Commercial Property, Residential, Low Carbon,

and Retrofit, each of which will have market leading organisations, such as Land Securities, Barratt Homes, Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and Birmingham Local Education Partnership, issuing challenges to the industry via these hubs. When such influential construction companies, and members of their supply chains, are brought together it creates countless business opportunities for visitors who can network with these clients and debate how best they can comply with tough building regulations, whilst improving efficiency and reducing cost.

FOCUS ON LEGISLATION The Retrofit and Low Carbon seminar programmes will have particular value. They focus on key legislation targets, and essential guidance and best practice examples on how visitors can achieve them affordably.

Given the uncertainty over funding for schools and other local government buildings, and strict government deadlines for next decade on increasing the number of decent homes and improving energy efficiency ratings, the BEST Retrofit seminar programme will be of particular importance for local authorities now having to stretch funds to bring building standards and qualities up to date. The DECC sponsored challenge in the hub focuses on delivering CO2

and Low Carbon. Within these hubs, major construction clients including Barratt Homes and Birmingham Local Education Partnership will set challenges for the industry to answer, plus a free seminar programme features project case studies demonstrating how visitors can practically achieve value for money on their projects.

“By attending the show, you will receive key insights from industry leaders and policy makers, as well as benefit from the experiences of major clients and contractors, and really get to grips with the innovations and new technologies affecting your civic or public property projects. “ CO-LOCATED EVENT Interbuild Onsite will also run alongside the BEST show from 18-20 October, in Hall 4 of the NEC, Birmingham. Interbuild Onsite is recognised as the number one national exhibition for the building trade. No other event caters better for the general builders, plumbers, electricians and tradesman.

Professional tradesmen visiting the Interbuild exhibition will find a range of suppliers, from power tools to commercial vehicles to work wear, and have the chance to see the products up close, and compare quotes and prices.

This year’s show has a major focus on skills for the trades, and visitors can learn

By attending the show, you will receive key insights from industry leaders and policy makers, as well as benefit from the experiences of major clients and contractors, and really get to grips with the innovations and new technologies affecting your civic or public property projects savings through retrofitting, and exhibitors, speakers and visitors will be encouraged to share ideas on how exactly to achieve these savings.

Talking about the new show, David Pierpoint, event director, said: “BEST is replacing Interbuild Specifier in a new era for the construction industry. A new coalition government, budget cuts throughout all sectors and a recovering economy called for a different type of show. BEST is putting the emphasis on achieving new levels of efficiency whilst reducing costs in the industry.

“The show is based around five sector hubs, which focus on different areas of the construction industry and will concentrate on a different topic including Education, Retrofitting

new techniques and get advice on training through dedicated retrofitting, flooring and tool demo areas. The Infrastructure Show will also take place alongside BEST, and will enable the civil engineering sector to come together to meet the challenges of delivering major projects in the UK. Readers can receive free entry (saving £20 each) to the BEST Show, and its co-located events, by entering priority code ECPBE when they register at www.best-show.co.uk.

FOR MORE INFORMATION E-mail: thebestshow@emap.com Web: www.best-show.co.uk

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

www.educationbusinessuk.com

ENERGY

MAKING A VIRTUE OUT OF A NECESSITY The pressure to save money could open up opportunities for improving existing buildings, suggests Alan Aldridge, executive director of the Energy Services and Technology Association

THE AXING OF THE BUILDING SCHOOLS for the Future programme has shown that no-one is immune from the government’s plans to reduce national debt. Existing buildings are likely to remain in use for longer and budgets constrained for the foreseeable future.

If anyone doubted the commitment of the coalition government to implement sweeping reductions in expenditure, the badly-handled announcement of the end of the Building Schools for the Future programme should have resolved that concern. Regardless of whether this school or that will actually still receive funding for new buildings, the announcement certainly highlighted the looming reality of a very difficult few years for capital expenditure in the education sector.

If new building programmes are to be curtailed, then existing structures will have to make do for longer.

IMPROVING PERFORMANCE So, are there any ways in which their performance can be improved without resorting to expensive refurbishment programmes that have an uncertain return on investment (ROI)? The good news is that there are and they can feed into both educational activities and regulatory obligations.

The case of energy is a perfect example.

With aging equipment and buildings, the possibility of breakdown or faulty operation increases with time. Time switches or sensors can stick, leading to always-on or alwaysoff operation. Temperature settings can drift away from their original values (or can be manually adjusted and then not turned back to defaults). Lighting can be left on overnight and at weekends in storage areas.

This characteristic, which we call performance drift, leads to energy wastage, increased carbon emissions and unnecessary expenditure – all of which are highly undesirable.

So the first priority is to ensure that you know when something unexpected is occurring. For that, some kind of metering – as well as a Monitoring & Targeting regime – is essential.

If a boiler is working over the weekend, or coming on in the middle of the night, it may not be picked up without such a system until the bills start ramping up – and by then it will be too late to recoup the wasted expenditure.

Metering costs have been coming down over the last decade or more, driven by lower costs for electronic components and reduced needs for hard wiring. Many meters can now communicate by wireless or through a standard Ethernet cable to any PC. Even the more sophisticated automatic Monitoring & Targeting (aM&T) systems that take most of

the drudgery out of energy monitoring can pay back the investment remarkably quickly.

IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL SAVINGS Effective metering does not just serve to identify breakdown, important though this is. It is a powerful tool in identifying – and quantifying – potential savings. Metering provides the raw data to see what energy is being used. This can be analysed by an automatic Monitoring & Targeting system and compared with historical consumption (is it broadly similar to last summer’s for example).

A classic example of where an aM&T system is clearly useful is the bi-annual clock reset in spring and autumn. You can manually check every time clock, you could wait till the bill comes in a month (or more) later to see if there is extra consumption – but an aM&T system should be able to identify any extra consumption within a day or so. aM&T will also be able to demonstrate the improvement due to specific energy efficiency measures/programmes. So the impact of zoning a building (i.e. introducing a more localised control strategy) should result in lower bills and a more comfortable environment. If, however, it results in increased energy consumption, the strategy needs reviewing and probably adjusting. Likewise, the introduction of boiler optimisation, low-energy lighting equipment or any other energy efficiency product or strategy should be discernible through its impact on energy consumption. For specific items of energy-consuming equipment, such as the boiler, it may be cost-effective to install a separate meter (either permanently or on a temporary basis) to determine how well it is running and how much energy/money is being saved through specific improvements to the equipment or the controls.

FUTURE INVESTMENT Although aM&T can validate decisions that have been made to install energy efficient equipment, it can also be used to evaluate future investment.

Many schools and colleges will have low-energy lighting by now, but they may not have adequate lighting control systems (a low-energy lamp that is on when not needed is still wasting energy, even if not as quickly as a tungsten-filament alternative).

Control systems suppliers can give indicative savings levels, which can then be compared with current usage to work out likely payback periods – very useful when convincing senior managers of the benefits of investment in a period when overall levels of funding are constrained.

THE EDUCATIONAL ASPECT Resource management and environmental awareness are increasingly important parts of the school curriculum nowadays, and feature in many college and university courses as well.

Metered data is an ideal way to introduce the principles of resource management and physics – as well as statistical analysis

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

55

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

www.educationbusinessuk.com

ENERGY

Regardless of whether this school or that will actually still receive funding for new buildings, the announcement certainly highlighted the looming reality of a very difficult few years for capital expenditure in the education sector. If new building programmes are to be curtailed, then existing structures will have to make do for longer – in an educational setting. Students can investigate how a real building – their own – functions and how it can be affected by changes to regimes and equipment. Energy and facilities managers could even use this educational aspect in their business case.

The coming years will be financially very challenging for the education sector, just like everyone else. And with all budgets under pressure, investment in energy efficiency is not at the top of every finance committee’s list of priorities – someone once commented that benefactors will endow a chair of study at a university or even put up a building, but they do not wish to endow a Building

Energy Management System (BEMS) or a new boiler. That is why any investment needs the financial numbers to justify it: for that, data on consumption (both historical and projected) are needed. The aM&T system and the humble meter are vital to provide that kind of fine detail.

APPROACHES TO FUNDING Yet not all energy projects have to be paid for in advance. The energy efficiency industry has been around for several decades now, through good economic times and bad.

Over the years, it has developed a number of different approaches to funding. Members of the Energy Services and Technology Association

(ESTA) know their products and services will produce financial savings and will often have a good idea of how long the payback is. That can allow some flexibility in payment options.

These companies have strong links with the education sector and will be happy to talk about ways to continue those relationships.

Education establishments, at least those in the public sector, also have commitments in terms of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme which is now getting under way. Cutting energy consumption is a key goal in this scheme and as it continues the targets will get stricter. Early action now means less needs to be done in the future (and early installation of aM&T also gives participants a specific financial advantage in the first few years).

So, from both an economic and a regulatory viewpoint, there are strong arguments for taking action now, rather than later.

The Energy Services and Technology Association (ESTA) represents over 100 major providers of energy management equipment and services across the UK.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.esta.org.uk

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Our units work on the principle that, not only do they optimise the incoming voltage supplied to your building (the UK average is 242 volts), but they stabilise it at an optimum output level normally 220 volts. This significantly reduces power consumption, resulting in lower energy costs and a reduced carbon footprint – each kWh of electrical energy saved is equivalent to 0.43kg of CO2.

Looking ahead with a deteriorating utilities infrastructure and forecast energy supply issues in 2014-2016, where mains supply fluctuates and power dips, the ability of our ECO 2G and ECO 3G to maintain a regulated power supply will be even more attractive when compared to

EALTH ISSUES arising from workplace contact with hazardous substances are phenomenally high. The risks associated with not managing the air quality in your working environment include: • Occupational asthma • Lung disease • Dermatitis • Eye infections • Plus ongoing, varied sensitisations to the products you are handling.

Illnesses such as these are largely preventable with the right equipment. It is WS’s job to help you assess your needs and make your working environment a cleaner, safer place. Taking the appropriate steps to manage these risks promotes better staff and student relations, and can minimise potential for costly long term sickness and even compensation claims.

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other legacy systems. Units are available in all sizes to suit your requirements from 10-3,000 KVA In essence Ecoadapt will optimise the voltage, your electrical equipment will run more efficiently, will consume less energy resulting in reduced CO2 emissions saving your organisation money and helping you achieve your CRC targets.

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specialising in the control and removal of contaminated air to provide a cleaner, healthier working environment.

All WS systems meet guidelines set by health and safety organisations and COSHH in respect of occupational exposure limits, ensuring operator protection from airborne particulates in the form of gases, fine dusts, and fumes given off from a wide variety of substances.

We can offer air filtration and extraction solutions for many applications in different kinds of working environments, from schools and universities, medical/dental laboratories, electronics, R&D facilities, pharmaceuticals and many more.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01423 522836 Fax: 01423 525656 E-mail: sales@widespread solutions.co.uk Web: www.widespread solutions.co.uk

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

www.educationbusinessuk.com

ENERGY

LEADING THE LOW CARBON REVOLUTION Find out how to make crucial energy savings and ensure you understand and comply with new government regulations at this year’s Carbon Show, taking place 4-5 October THE SECRETARY OF STATE Chris Huhne will deliver the keynote opening address at the Carbon Show on 4 October 2010 at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, signifying the important role that the private sector has in accelerating the transformation to a low-carbon economy.

The Carbon Show will provide a key platform for government to outline its latest plans and policies around green jobs, financing renewable technology, and in particular how the latest budget deficits will impact the ability for the UK to compete for a share of growth in green industries.

CUTTING EMISSIONS In the first ever Annual Energy Statement to Parliament, Energy and Climate Change, July 2010, Secretary Chris Huhne unveiled groundbreaking ‘2050’ analysis showing that meeting the target of an 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050 is ambitious but achievable, and compatible with maintaining security of energy supplies.

Chris Huhne said: “We’re already on track to cut the UK’s emissions by 34 per cent by 2020, and will do more if we can win the case for greater ambition across the whole EU. But our line of sight needs to extend much further, through to the middle of the century.

“The era of cheap, abundant energy is over. We must find smart ways of making energy go further, and value it for the costly resource it is, not take it for granted. And even as we reduce overall demand for energy, we may need to meet a near doubling in demand for electricity, as we shift industry, transport and heating onto the grid.”

To provide direction and insight into meeting these ambitious targets, Vision 2050 is a dedicated plenary debate at the Carbon Show where key speakers will outline how businesses can meet these challenges and profit by taking decisive action. Speakers include Fiona Harvey, energy correspondent, FT, David Metcalfe, CEO Verdantix, Gary Kendall, executive director, SustainAbility, and Russell Mills, global director of energy & climate change policy, Dow Chemicals.

Also at the event, new government initiatives and projects such as the Green Investment Bank will be discussed and debated. Pano Kroko, leader of the Environmental Parliament will discuss with Lord Anthony Giddens on the Carbon Stage how to achieve CO2 emissions reductions through financial

innovation. The Carbon Stage will feature a host of interactive interviews and live debates as well new products and services that will be exclusively unveiled at the show.

DRIVING THE LOW CARBON REVOLUTION Chris Huhne will be joined at the opening ceremony by other industry leaders Lord Michael Heseltine, Chairman, Haymarket Media Group and Lord Browne, managing director and managing partner (Europe) of Riverstone Holdings LLC, who will share perspectives on driving the low carbon revolution. “The Carbon Show 2010 is well timed,” says Lord Heseltine. “Now more than ever it is critical that business leaders commit to revolutionising their organisations to ensure they can compete in the future low carbon market place.”

Releasing green capital and encouraging investment in clean technology is also high on the agenda. Felicia Jackson, editor-at-large at Cleantech Magazine, will chair a panel discussion on ‘The role of carbon markets in promoting clean technology investment’ on the carbon stage. The carbon markets are a key part of the problem and the answer in addressing the climate challenge.

STRENGTHENING CARBON MARKETS The Carbon Show’s opening plenary, ‘Apathy & Indecision – Strengthening the carbon markets’ will see Dr Alex Bowen, principle research fellow, London School of Economics & Political Science, Henry Derwent, Chairman, IETA, Nigel Topping, chief development officer, CDP and Pierre Ducret, Chairman & CEO, CDC Climat, prepare to tackle this thorny issue and provide insight into the policy decisions that are essential for the carbon markets to function successfully.

The session will also address potential climate finance developments ahead of COP 16 – will there finally be a global climate agreement?

This year the Carbon Show will feature a new dedicated Carbon Markets & Finance stream, and provide seminars aimed at those individuals specialising in carbon trading and market mechanisms. There will be a special focus on forestry and emissions markets around the world as well as a new session showcasing Carbon Markets – Africa.

Andreas Arvanitakis, senior analyst at Point Carbon, who will be speaking at the show, comments: “This exciting programme offers new insights into investment trends and potential carbon market developments as well as networking opportunities ahead of COP16.”

Hot topics such as Feed-in Tariffs (FITs) will also be highlighted in seminar sessions at the event. FITs, introduced by government on 1 April 2010, aim to help increase the level of renewable energy in the UK and count towards the legally binding target of 15 per cent of total energy from renewables by 2020 (up from under two per cent in 2009).

Under this scheme energy suppliers make regular payments to householders and communities that generate their own electricity from renewable or low carbon sources such as solar electricity (PV) panels or wind turbines. The scheme guarantees a minimum payment for all electricity generated by the system, as well as a separate payment for the electricity exported to grid.

What are the commercial opportunities? How successful have projects been? The ‘Feed-intariffs – Incentives and cost benefits’ seminar at the Carbon Show will enable delegates to find out what resources are required and find out how beneficial this policy mechanism is in encouraging the adoption of renewable energy sources and accelerating the move towards grid parity. Hear from experts Paul Akehurst, technical director, SKM Enviros, and Dr Keith MacLean, policy and public affairs director, SSE who will share their opinions on the merits and challenges presented by the scheme.

London Development Agency will host two dedicated sessions on the carbon stage focusing on ‘The Low Carbon Capital – London as a global leader of the low carbon economy’ and ‘Low Carbon Finance’ aimed at advising and supporting organisations to decarbonise their business. Joined by leaders and partners of the London Development Agency and Greater London Authority, the Green 500, The Carbon Trust Standard and FTSE Index will participate in these sessions dedicated to providing the latest information on development opportunities and plans for a low carbon London economy.

Keynote speakers also include Isabel Dedring, environmental advisor to the Mayor of London, who will share perspectives on ‘Achieving CO2 emission targets: Fantasy or a Reality?’

FOR MORE INFORMATION Web: www.thecarbonshow.com

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

www.educationbusinessuk.com

ENERGY

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY Sub-metering can help acheive your carbon and energy management goals, says Elcomponent THE HIGHER EDUCATION SECTOR has not had an easy ride through the challenging waters of the government’s admirable but relentless drive to reduce the sector’s carbon footprint and improve its energy efficiency.

Faced with tough carbon targets on the one hand, and significant funding cuts on the other universities have been caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place.

It’s meant that the focus on exactly how carbon saving investment should be targeted has never been sharper, with the payback periods and business case for energy saving initiatives being more closely analysed than ever before. There’s no doubt that targets have to be met, but the question is how, and more specifically at what financial cost in infrastructure changes and upgrades?

COST-EFFECTIVE TECHNOLOGY One very cost-effective technology which has been embraced by a large number of HE establishments is sub-metering, and the concept is very simple. The measurement of consumption in reasonable detail, and at a reasonable frequency, provides the building blocks for proper Energy Management. With the proposed roll-out of smart metering into the domestic sector over the next 5-10 years, metering is a hot topic, but the concept of ‘measuring to manage’ on campus sites is hardly new. What has changed is the technology employed and the cost associated with automating the process. An effective sub-metering system must provide internal data (usually half hour readings) and must include a front end software package that makes the process of saving energy and carbon as simple as possible.

This combination of functionality – generally referred to as Automatic Monitoring and Targeting (aM&T) is recognised by the Carbon Trust as eligible for the ECA scheme, and such systems are relatively easy to implement, particularly in a campus environment.

Essentially an aM&T system has to collect data, and increasingly commonly, it has to disseminate that data in a digestible form to a large number of stake holders. The HE sector has been at the vanguard of the latter requirement, which has seen carbon footprint information migrate from the energy manager’s office to a campus-wide presentation to staff and students. The key to providing both the collection and the distribution of data is the site network and the internet, and it is the wholesale utilisation of this connectivity which has seen costs come down, and system performance improve dramatically.

On the data collection side multi-utility meter reads are obtained from advanced meters and dataloggers which connect to a data server through the existing site LAN. Most data acquisition systems will use additional networking technology – low power radio for example – as it is recognised that one cannot rely on a network socket being present wherever it may be required.

This is particularly true when tariff gas or water meters are included, as both of these can be awkwardly sited for hardwire connections. Systems are now sufficiently flexible to accommodate existing pulse output meters as well as newer serial output types which connect directly to the LAN.

through waste elimination and improved baseload control are the most common ‘low hanging fruit’ and savings of 8-10 per cent in the first year are achievable. aM&T also provides the tools to maintain best practice and to evaluate other carbonsaving measures accurately. Considering that payback periods are commonly less than two years – often much less – that has been a powerful business case on its own.

However, the dissemination of carbon and consumption data to a wider audience – essentially everyone – means even greater things can be achieved. There’s a bit more to it than simply putting meter readings on a website of usage, the information has to be

The “Holy Grail” of Energy Management is “behavioural change” and it’s not easy to achieve, but with the web-based aM&T systems such as Elcomponent’s MeterWeb, it may be significantly easier.

For the first time, measurement data from a submetering system is being made available to all, in a form that is relevant to them, and in a way that allows them to understand the carbon footprint of their campus, and their part in its improvement Elcomponent has provided single campus system which incorporate over 500 meter points, utilising a combination of data acquisition technologies including VHF radio, pulse logging, RS485 Modbus & GSM. However, the backbone is the existing network which hardly notices the very low levels of additional traffic generated by the meters. This approach has many significant advantages, not least that the data are being collected by a system designed for the job, rather than co-opted into a duty for which it was not designed (a potential problem which some alternative approaches) but the principal consideration is cost, or lack of it. Utilisation of the site LAN reduces installation costs and delivers far better performance and value on campus sites than any alternative approach.

The site LAN, when combined with the connectivity provided by the internet is also a powerful tool in obtaining the best possible value from an aM&T system. The HE sector has found that significant energy savings accrue from the information acquired by an aM&T systems. Reduced consumption

well presented, easy to interact with, and most crucially, relevant to the viewer, but with those issued addressed the potential is considerable.

BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE The “Holy Grail” of Energy Management is “behavioural change” and it’s not easy to achieve, but with the web-based aM&T systems such as Elcomponent’s MeterWeb, it may be significantly easier. For the first time, measurement data from a sub-metering system is being made available to all, in a form that is relevant to them, and in a way that allows them to understand the carbon footprint of their campus, and their part in its improvement. Behavioural change may be easier than we think. Maybe it’s just a matter of keeping everyone informed.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01279 503 173 Fax: 01279 654 441 E-mail: sales@elcomponent.co.uk Web: www.elcomponent.co.uk

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61

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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ENERGY

A CAMPAIGN TO CONSERVE ENERGY Jill Partington from Eco-Schools speaks to Sibford School about how it inspired pupils to get involved in conserving energy, which had great benefits for the school and the environment ESTABLISHED IN 1842 AS A co-educational boarding school for the children of Quaker families, Sibford School is set in more than 50 acres of grounds surrounded by Oxfordshire countryside.

Today the school accommodates both boarders and day pupils, of all faiths and none, and is currently home to more than 420 pupils, aged between four and 18.

The school decided to embark upon a campaign to reduce their energy usage and spend.

Why did you decide to undertake this project and what aims did you have starting out?

We decided to carry out the project to encourage pupils in the school to conserve energy throughout the winter months. We also wanted to raise awareness amongst the pupils and staff of energy wastage, through implementing the Switch Off Fortnight Campaign and through Goodbye Standby.

Our aim was to save energy, and to find out how much we could save when the whole school was working towards the same goal.

How was the project delivered and was it integrated into the curriculum?

Switch off Fortnight was launched to the whole school by our environmental representatives from years 7-13 in assembly.

Reps in each tutor group took responsibility for monitoring the lights, doors and windows in their tutor base to save energy.

Northmoor Trust visited the school with the Energy Bus to promote energy saving, which was well received by the pupils. They also attended workshops on energy conservation.

Did you have to overcome any challenges to make the project succeed?

Our school is very old and we have a number of electricity meters in obscure places. It is not possible to centralise the meters for ease of reading for the students. Sixth form students worked with the business manager to ensure that accurate readings were taken and interpreted.

How did you get the children involved?

How did they have ownership?

Environmental reps read the meters for both weeks of Switch Off Fortnight and fed the information to the business manager to interpret the savings from week one to week two of the campaign. The environmental reps researched where energy is wasted in the school by conducting an energy audit and took photos to show where energy is wasted.

They then presented these in full school assembly

reporting to the pupils and teachers where energy is wasted and how this could be improved.

Sixth form reps held a competition for all pupils to submit a design for a postcard sized poster to encourage people to switch off lights when not needed. Prizes of wind up torches were awarded in school assembly.

The postcards have now been laminated by the students and put up above every light switch in the school.

How have the children benefited from the project and what are the benefits for the school?

We were all amazed that we had saved a total of 23 per cent of electricity during week two of the campaign. The pupils are still very proactive in conserving energy.

Did you use any educational resources?

Yes the school used two activities on The Pod website, Switch off Fortnight and Goodbye Standby.

What advice would you give to schools that want to follow in your footsteps?

It is definitely worth inspiring the pupils to save energy both for the environment and the school cash flow. Pupils were so involved in the campaign that we found ourselves walking along dark corridors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; not great for health and safety though.

Has this project driven other EcoSchools ideas and what is the school working on next?

We are planning to work on a water conservation project. Pupils will carry out an audit on how we can improve our conservation of water usage in all areas of the school.

Eco-Schools is an international award programme that guides schools on their sustainable journey, providing a framework to help embed these principles into the heart of school life.

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

63

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Written by Ian Pearson, development officer, School Travel Forum

www.educationbusinessuk.com

EDUCATIONAL TRIPS

SCHOOLS TRIPS ARE TAKING OFF A straw poll of School Travel Forum’s members suggests that school trips are still in growing demand. Why is this, where are the schools travelling to and what is changing?

THERE IS NOW A MASS of evidence to support the simple fact that taking teaching out of the classroom is massively effective.

Ofsted reported in 2008 that: “When planned and implemented well, learning outside the classroom contributed significantly to raising standards and improving pupils’ personal, social and emotional development”. Study trips, whether just outside the classroom door or to the far side of the world are opportunities too valuable to lose.

It is a pity then that some members report a curtailment of a few visits because of the impact of ‘Rarely Cover’. Despite the official position that school trips should not be affected because they are planned and cover can be budgeted for, some schools simply find it easier to cancel their trips; notwithstanding that schools that fully embrace learning outside the classroom (LOtC) get a wonderful return on their investment.

TRAVEL COMPANY PHILOSOPHY In response to the increased awareness of the massive value of LOtC, travel companies have not stood still and the educational content is now at the core of many companies’ philosophies. Nick Klein, the Education Development manager for Rayburn Tours comments: “In recent years the school visits/ travel industry has invested heavily in managing

the safety of children and young adults when learning outside the classroom, with the introduction of the School Travel Forum and most recently the LOtC Quality Badge. Similarly it is now time to look at our responsibilities as providers of these experiences – how we assist school leaders in managing the education elements of their learners on visits/tour is vital.

“The future needs to see a level of support, expertise and specialist knowledge from the industry which allows group leaders to make informed decisions regarding the learning they provide on a school visit. This should be backed up by well managed learning resources allowing teachers the time and space to focus on what is truly important, the enjoyment, learning and creation of memorable experiences for their pupils.”

This greater focus on the educational aspects has practical benefits too. Trips with clear educational aims take place when they can maximise the educational benefits, not limiting themselves to a few weeks at the end of term. Schools are now travelling all

through the year and one beneficial side effect is that these groups also avoid peak season charges and congestion. That isn’t to say that if you turn up on Dover docks during the first two weeks in July, or February half term clutching your skis, you won’t have lots of school groups waiting for the crosschannel ferries with you; the demise of the traditional activity weeks is some way off yet.

Most people have a fund of memories from their own past visits and one common factor they often share is the relative un-sophistication of the visits then, compared to now.

POPULAR DESTINATIONS The move towards greater sophistication can even be seen in the still popular, traditional destinations for schools: Northern France, London, Paris, Rhineland and WW1 Battlefields. Standards are changing, which is demonstrated by the improvements in the range and quality of accommodation on offer. New hotels, specifically targeting the UK schools market, have opened and UK

Schools are now travelling all through the year and one beneficial side effect is that these groups also avoid peak season charges and congestion

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

67

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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EDUCATIONAL TRIPS

companies have invested in their own properties supplying the most popular locations.

These core study areas have long been joined by trips to destinations such as Spain, Italy and Greece, each satisfying different niches. Now there is a growing trend for even more distant countries such as Iceland, China, Morocco, Russia and the USA. There is no doubt that the growing availability of reasonable airfares and more routes also encourage travel further afield.

One example is New York. The growing enthusiasm amongst departments such as, Art & Drama, Politics, Modern History and Business Studies to travel there, reflects an understanding of the value to teaching and learning that adding a real dimension has. New York is a good destination to study all those subjects; it is easy to get to, easy to negotiate, attractive to students and good value.

GEOGRAPHY IN ICELAND Iceland is another good example of the new enthusiasm for travel amongst subject tutors.

Geography simply demands physical interaction with the environment, often met by field visits locally. But where can be better to understand the raw power of nature than by going and seeing it in action? Dan Stacey, Schools and Groups manager at Discover the World: “The value to our young people in a learning experience outside the classroom can be evidenced by the number of students who have taken a geography fieldtrip to Iceland. And that in turn has inspired them to be the next generation of geographers taking up the subject at University.

“However, with more and more sophisticated

students it is important to keep an eye on the whole world and we are receiving more enquiries for exotic destinations.”

INTERNET BOOKINGS Additionally the increasing sophistication of our own holidays is a factor in the greater variety of school trips, but what of the parallel trend towards booking direct over the Internet?

This doesn’t seem to be reflected in the school market. One of the answers why this is seems to be that teachers are aware that they are not simply looking after themselves when organising trips, they are responsible to others as well. What might be felt to be an acceptable risk and effort for just yourself is different when there is a group of pupils relying on you. Most teachers appear to be moving towards the convenience and reassurance of using proven, reputable suppliers.

Neil Rayer, general manager, Worldwide Sports Tours & Festivals at Gullivers Sports Tours suggests: “Schools that are seeking to arrange a sports tour normally look at a range of companies in the marketplace. They would then look first at each company’s credibility within the market, the products they offer, their history and then the all important price factor comes in. What we hope is that as part of this buying procedure, safety is now also a driver of whom they purchase from.

By having the STF and LoTC badge displayed on our website and literature, we are showing our commitment to the schools, and most importantly the parents, that every single child will get a great experience in the safest environment possible”.

So it appears a number of factors are at play in encouraging travel patterns: an increased

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ian Pearson is the development officer for the School Travel Forum with over 18 years’ experience in school travel. He has been closely involved in pioneering safety management systems for educational travel companies and the LOtC Quality Badge. He represents the study trip sector on the LOtC’s Quality Badge Committee and Advisory Groups. understanding and confidence in its value for learning; an increasing sophistication in and confidence to travel; new departments travelling and a willingness to delegate responsibilities to trusted travel companies.

A final comment comes from Michelle Evans, head of Product and Marketing for NST Travel Group: “The educational content of school trips is growing in importance; it needs to be rich in educational content and relevance.

There is a distinct new demand for more global trips, taking students further afield Teachers are now better informed consumers, they are savvier and more demanding when organising tours. They want competitive prices and good, quality, well organised tours.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION Comments on this article are welcome, please e-mail info@schooltravelforum.com

SkiBound – skiing trips exclusively for schools ART OF THE TUI TRAVEL Group, SkiBound has been providing skiing trips to the schools market for over 26 years, and has quite rightly become the most recognised and trusted name in school ski travel. With an unbeatable range of premier ski resorts throughout the world, SkiBound groups are guaranteed to find a resort suitable for your ski requirements.

SkiBound’s eight exclusive Clubhotels, all located in the French Alps, offer students the chance to ski in some of the worlds’ most prestigious resorts whilst maintaining exceptional value for money.

These Clubhotels have all been recently refurbished and achieved R type hotel status – guaranteeing the highest possible standards of safety and security. Everything about these Clubhotels is geared towards providing youth groups with the exact services, facilities and support that a school party requires. Special dietary requirements are handled with ease

P

and sensitivity, and the range of excellent on-site entertainment options guarantees an easy, stress free and enjoyable trip for all.

SkiBound is proud to have been awarded full accreditation for the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge scheme, is a full member of the School Travel Forum and fully bonded by ABTA and ATOL,

providing reassurance and peace of mind.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Address: Olivier House, 18 Marine Parade, Brighton BN2 1TL Tel: 01273 244500 E-mail: info@skibound.co.uk Web: www.skibound.co.uk

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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ICT

KEEPING CHILDREN SAFE ONLINE David Wright, e-safety consultant at the South West Grid for Learning, discusses how big a problem digital technology really poses to young people IMAGINE THIS: Two teenagers at school get together and start dating. It is hardly the biggest issue in the school and quite possibly goes unnoticed by everyone apart from the happy couple and their friends.

The affair develops, and after a while a certain amount of sexual activity becomes part of the relationship. Like most young people, the couple are fairly discreet and, with the possible exception of a few close friends, no one else knows how far matters have gone.

While parents and the school may well have fulfilled their roles by explaining issues such as contraception and sexual diseases individually to the couple, what parents and teachers almost certainly won’t know about is the possible subsequent development of the relationship into the field of “sexting”. And if you are not 100 per cent sure what that word means, don’t worry. The majority of people aged over 25 haven’t heard about it.

MOBILE PHONE IMAGES Sexting is a modern phenomenon. It involves our mythical young couple using mobile phones to take what we might call inappropriate pictures of each other. Then, having taken the pictures, they might well use their phones again to send copies of these pictures to each other.

At that point, it is more than likely that no one else knows about these pictures. But then, as is the nature of such things, the party breaks up, and the couple move on to other relationships.

This split can be amicable – but, as is also the nature of such things, the end of a relationship can bring bitterness, jealousy and rivalry.

With such a range of emotions going on in a teenager’s head, the aggrieved party can decide to get his/her own back by posting the mobile phone pictures on to the internet.

Within 90 seconds a very private moment can be available to the entire world – sexting.

WIDESPREAD OCCURRENCE This scenario may seem so bizarre that you feel it could hardly ever happen, and of course only a minority of teenagers have suffered in this way. However, research by the University of Plymouth in conjunction with South West Grid for Learning (the government funded trust that provides broadband connection and related services to over 2,400 schools in the south west of England) found that 56 per cent of teenagers were aware of instances where images and videos were distributed further than the intended recipient.

And yet (and this is a key point you might want to consider) only 23 per cent believed this distribution is intended to cause upset. In other words, a significant number of young people who are aware of sexting and the way it can get

out of hand also believe that such distribution of pornographic and near-pornographic pictures is not intended to cause upset!

Also, what these young people don’t seem to be aware of is the fact that the taking and sending of such images, and the downloading of these pictures, can be a criminal offence if the person sending or receiving the picture is under 18.

REACHING OUT FOR HELP Here’s another worrying factor. While the survey showed a population fully aware of the concept of sexting and a significant subset who are actively engaged in the practice, it also revealed that less than a quarter of those questioned would turn to a teacher for help if they were affected by issues related to sexting. In other words, the entire practice and its consequences are by-passing teachers.

Sexting, however, is just one of the many e-safety issues that have arisen as a result of the growth of the internet. Another example, this one cited by Ofsted in a recent report, that the schools they visited had: “dealt with a variety of e-safety incidents, such as pupils accessing inappropriate websites, as well as problems with social networking sites and instant chat sites. At one primary school two pupils started to receive unpleasant messages through instant chat and the school discovered that some pupils had told other pupils their passwords.”

Thus the problems associated with digital technology are obviously clearly widespread and extend far beyond the activities of paedophiles grooming youngsters, which is where the national press often focus their attention. And yet, since the internet became a public space in the early 1990s, it has become a central part

of our lives and in many ways our civilisation.

To consider keeping children and teenagers away from it is neither practical nor desirable – not least because, in addition to computers, there are many applications (such as the mobile phone, iPod, Xbox, Nintendo DS) which use it as part of their modus operandi. And, as we have seen from the sexting example, we would also have to separate young people from their mobile phones – not an easy option!

This raises a question: in such a difficult and complex area and with such attitudes entrenched in many young people, what should the response of schools be?

IS THERE A SOLUTION? In the broadest sense, two radically different solutions have been proposed. One is the “lock down” approach, which ensures that within the school pupils and students can only access websites and resources that are approved by the school. The other allows a much wider access to the internet and aims to work with students so that they understand the dangers that are inherent in the use of digital technology.

The “lock down” system ensures e-safety on school premises since by definition pupils and students can only apparently reach a limited range of websites. But it is an approach that brings with it some problems. First, and most obviously, it does not provide an environment that allows teachers to discuss and explore the issues of e-safety with pupils. A lock down approach also means that some of the most interesting functionality of the internet (such as the ability to post and blog, and allow others to reply) are generally completely removed. Sites such as Facebook are also often totally banned.

The problem here is that the internet world

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Market leading educational visualiser manufacturer AVerMedia wins global education award VERMEDIA is delighted to announce that its V355AF model has won the prestigious Worlddidac Award 2010. The Worlddidac Award was created in 1984 with the objective to encourage manufacturers of educational materials to continuous innovation.

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operate and can give proven benefits to both teaching staff and Students alike.

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ICT

of the school thus becomes removed from the internet world that the pupils and students experience at home, and young people are generally not slow to find ways around technical problems. In the simplest of terms, a child at a school where Facebook is banned will simply access the service unsupervised at home.

AN ENGAGING APPROACH Some schools have therefore opted for a more engaging approach in which the use of the internet is combined with discussions about e-safety. In other words, the subject is taken to the students and becomes part of their education.

This is the approach that is approved by the government inspection agency Ofsted and which is encouraged by e-safety experts South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL).

According to the inspectorate, pupils in schools that use managed online systems have a “better knowledge and understanding of how to stay safe when using new technologies”. In other words, the approach requires pupils to take more responsibility for their own safety.

However, the Ofsted report ‘The safe use of technologies’ also found that it is important for schools to work closely with families and to take more account of the views of pupils and their families in developing e-safety strategies, while at the same time having a greater focus on training for all staff so that they can continue to reinforce the importance of e-safety in schools and homes.

To quote the inspectors’ words: “The schools where provision for e-safety was outstanding were helping students to become safe and responsible users of technology by allowing them to manage their own risk. Pupils were more vulnerable overall when schools restricted access to almost every site because they were not given enough opportunities to learn how

to assess and manage risk for themselves.”

In an example of best practice, pupils were helped from an early age to assess the risk of accessing sites and therefore gradually acquired skills that would help them adopt safe practices even when they were not supervised.

In one local authority, the schools adopted a “think before you click” policy. Pupils were taught that, before clicking onto a site, they should ask questions such as: 1. Who wrote the material on this site?

2. Is the information on it likely to be accurate or could it be altered by anybody?

3. If others click onto the site, can I be sure that they are who they say they are?

4. What information about myself should I not give out on the site?

Those schools that were rated as outstanding for e-safety by Ofsted were those that ensured that all staff felt responsible for e-safety. As the report notes: “Assemblies, tutorial time, personal, social, health and education lessons, and an appropriate curriculum helped pupils to become safe and responsible users. The best schools tailored their approach to their own circumstances with one school giving collective responsibility for e-safety to all staff.

Consequently ownership was strong and e-safety pervaded a rich ICT curriculum.”

A similar message of engagement has been taken by SWGfL to parents and to school governors across its region. Indeed, for five years now SWGfL has been organising regular meetings with parents in school premises in the course of which both the positive and negative aspects of the internet are openly discussed.

GOVERNMENT INPUT The government has had its own input into the discussion, commissioning a complete review of e-safety from Professor Tanya Byron. Her report in 2008, ‘Safer Children

in a Digital World’, which was completely accepted by the government of the day, included the message: “Everyone has a role to play in empowering children to stay safe while they enjoy the new technologies, just as it is everyone’s responsibility to keep children safe in the non-digital world.”

More recently SWGfL has developed its own e-safety self assessment tool, 360 degrees safe (www.360safe.org.uk), which is now being used in schools across Britain.

This programme particularly takes note of the Ofsted comment that the aspect that needed the most improvement was the extent and quality of staff training in e-safety, which should involve all staff and be provided systematically.

The 360 degree safe online tool gives schools a chance to provide a user-friendly and interactive means for schools to review their e-safety provision and to develop an action plan to bring about improvements. The tool is currently free of charge to schools on completion of a simple registration process.

At the heart of 360 degree safe is a process for identifying strengths and weaknesses in a school’s e-safety programme through giving immediate feedback and suggesting the actions that the school needs to take to move it on from one level to the next. It also provides the opportunity for the whole school to become involved in the issue of e-safety in an innovative way and, most importantly, allows the school to compare and benchmark its responses with those of other schools.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01392 381371 Fax: 01392 381370 E-mail: enquiries@swgfl.org.uk Web: www.swgfl.org.uk

The perfect solution for parental communication WARD-WINNING Groupcall Messenger is used by more than 2,500 schools, enabling the sending of text, voice or e-mail messages, in multiple languages to parents’ mobiles, landlines or computers, providing unauthorised absence-chasing and general parental communication. Messenger reads pupil and attendance information live, in real-time from the school’s MIS system.

Messenger’s online reporting functionality engages parents in their child’s learning by allowing schools to push relevant information directly from the school’s MIS system. Typically, this is information concerning Attendance, Behaviour, Progress, Special Needs and Attainment – all of this information can be sent directly to a parents mobile phone or via e-mail.

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EMBRACING TECHNOLOGY TO REVOLUTIONISE COMMUNICATION Ian Cartwright, project manager at Thomas Alleyne’s High School in Staffordshire, investigates how online forums are changing the way students communicate THOMAS ALLEYNE’S HIGH SCHOOL in Staffordshire is revolutionising its communication culture with the help of its learning platform forums and debates of the week. I believe it is time to embrace such technology to engage the whole school community and transform the education system.

Thomas Alleyne’s High School is a mixed comprehensive secondary school in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, catering for 1,350 14-18 year-olds. When I joined in April 2007, my brief was to review the school curriculum and ICT provision. At the time, the school was equipped with interactive whiteboards and projectors; however, internal communication was still limited to paper-based memos and pigeon-holes.

My role has included changing the mindset of staff to get teachers and students using ICT more effectively for day-to-day communication. We recently welcomed a new head teacher who is keen to invest in new technology to benefit teaching and learning; this change of leadership has opened the school up to new ICT developments.

FOSTERING A NEW CULTURE OF LEADERSHIP A major development in the school’s ICT infrastructure has been the implementation of the Frog Learning Platform in September 2009. We have already found that the technology significantly enhances flexible learning as it allows students and teachers to access all school information, including homework, diaries, e-mail, resource-booking and timetables, from one online location. This is changing the way we work and is helping to foster a culture of leadership in the school.

We have set up forums that have really helped our students to network with each other; transforming them into keen learners both inside and outside the school classroom. Students are now accustomed to using the latest technology such as Skype, Facebook and Twitter, so such technology needs to be translated into their learning process to fully engage them.

INVOLVING STUDENTS We have introduced a debate of the week onto our learning platform to get students involved in forums. Within four weeks of it launching we received 400 posts from students, including

those who are normally reluctant to participate in class discussions. Debates such as ‘Should the Pope resign over child abuse scandals?’ and ‘Do BA staff have the right to strike?’ are engaging students who are normally quieter in the classroom – those who have got something to say but do not usually put their hands up.

Popular forum topics started by students include ‘School uniform preferences for winter’, ‘Let us have Facebook after 3pm’ and community issues such as ‘Can we have a car park because the local retail park has started clamping cars?’ One student had to return to Zimbabwe for a few years and now that he is back he is using a forum to gather support for a school charity project over there. Students were also using the forums to discuss their views on the general election.

USING FORUMS TO PLAN EVENTS Online forums can be utilised to get students planning projects and events. For example, one of our Year 9 groups was set the task of organising a local music festival and had to show that they effectively used an element of ICT to help plan the event. They were granted restricted access to chat rooms, forums and e-mail, and were required to provide evidence that they exploited these features safely and securely.

They were able to chat to each other through an online forum about where to host the event and used it as a means of discussing ideas. They also successfully incorporated hyperlinks and attachments through the learning platform to aid their discussions.

ONLINE SUGGESTIONS BOX Frog has allowed us to move our School Council’s suggestion box online. This has helped us bring the student voice up-to-date as this is how students communicate nowadays. We have also found that people are more likely to post a suggestion electronically where they are not seen to be posting it into a box at reception.

They can also choose to post comments online anonymously, which means they are more likely to be open and honest. Recent suggestions students have made include: more benches needed in the playground, more furniture needed in the common room, more sanitary bins in the toilets, and more vegetables on the canteen lunch menu. There have also been suggestions made about the timetables

and sixth-form signing in and out process.

At our school we feel it is important to give students the freedom to express their ideas and they deserve a platform to voice their opinions. However, this must be managed well to ensure it takes place in a safe environment.

The forums are password protected so only the school’s staff and students have access to them at present. We have implemented e-safety measures on our internal server which alert staff to any concerns such as bullying incidents that need to be addressed.

BUILDING AN ONLINE COMMUNITY The great advantage of online forums is that they can be developed over time and can cover any topic. We have started to sub-divide the forum area on the learning platform by student area, staff area, book club area and sales area (where staff can sell personal items to others). This is just the start and we plan to launch more forums under the management of each department to cover every subject. Our school begins in Year 9 so we plan to create a forum to help ease Year 8 students’ transition from other schools to ours by instigating discussions about what life is like at the school.

At present, when students submit an item to the forum, a member of staff will approve it before it is published. In the future, we plan to appoint sixth-form students to monitor the forums, which will be overseen by a member of staff. We will also be holding consultations with parents about how the learning platform can help them to assist their child with their learning and find out what they want the technology to provide apart from simply informing them about their child’s attendance and behaviour. We will also encourage them to use the forums to glean their opinions.

Our vision is to further develop our use of forums to help to create an online community that extends beyond the school day, giving students a voice, and teachers and parents a platform on which to interact and exchange ideas.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Thomas Alleyne’s High School: www.tahs450.org Frog Learning Platform: www.frogtrade.com

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MAKING A VIRTUAL SCHOOL A REALITY As a UK first, Loxford High School took learning online and went virtual for two weeks earlier this year. Mina Patel, curriculum consultant, London Grid for Learning, takes a look at how the experiment went IN JANUARY 2010, I ATTENDED one of the termly twilight SFUN (Secondary Fronter User Network) meetings held at Loxford School. The SFUN had been coordinated by the LA School improvement officer, Alex Rees, and aimed to help secondary schools in Redbridge using the London Managed Learning Environment (LMLE) to meet regularly and form a local network where they could all share good practice. The meetings were held at Loxford this year because it is the lead school in the borough for the use of the LMLE with well over 90 per cent of all staff and pupils regularly using the managed learning environment and logging in on an average of 7,000 times a month in total.

Tanya Hurst, the E-learning director and teacher of ICT at Loxford, sat at the head of the table and chaired the meeting. There were four other secondary schools present, each represented by a senior member of staff in charge of MLE roll out. The schools took it in turn to update the others on what progress had been made since their last meeting.

Tanya, who has a very enthusiastic, tenacious and dynamic character, announced: “In March we are planning on going virtual for two weeks while we move from our old school to our new school building, all staff in the school will be hoping to use the LMLE to teach their lessons.

“We have some work to do with some of the departments – but hopefully all will be ok.”

I knew immediately that this was going to be a very ambitious, pioneering, yet superb way to use the LMLE. INTEGRATED LEARNING The London London Managed Learning Environment (MLE) is an integrated learning management system powered by the Fronter Platform. Offering a range of tools for learning and collaboration online, the London MLE was selected in 2007 by London’s local authorities, working collectively as The London Grid for Learning, as the preferred platform for London schools. Over 60 per cent of schools in London are currently using Fronter.

Fronter amalgamates with the schools MIS systems (the school admin/data system), to automatically create usernames and passwords for each staff member and pupil and puts them into their own online classrooms.

Various tools for teaching, collaborating, monitoring and assessment are provided also.

This means pupils, parents and teachers can log into virtual classrooms via the internet from, anywhere, at anytime. The LMLE has personalised relevant content for the pupils

created by their teachers, so they can work at their own pace in their own time.

ENGAGING STUDENTS The content, activities and assignments are all related to the students’ personal goals and curriculum. The LMLE is both engaging and participative for the students – online forums, quizzes and learning paths all make the online learning environment relevant for the 21st century learner.

During the Easter holidays the volcanic ash clouds left many teachers stranded abroad as airports came to a standstill. Tanya Hurst was unable to fly out for many days from South America and unable to teach her students back at school preparing for important examinations in June. She however, managed to find an internet cafe and access the exam

board website to download the relevant exam papers for her A-level pupils. She logged into Fronter and uploaded them at 14.59 (see image) and two hours later (17.08) back in London one of her students had already accessed it to help him with his revision.

THE VIRTUAL JOURNEY Starting at the end of March students were given access to lessons via the LMLE whilst the school was moving to its new building. The transition from the old to new building meant two valuable weeks of teaching either side of Easter, would be lost while construction work continued. To avoid this happening, students at Loxford were able to continue their school work online whilst working at home using Fronter.

Pupils were able to work collaboratively, take part in online discussions with each other and

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ICT

their teachers, complete tasks as they would do in the classroom as normal and hand in work online. Teachers were able to give them feedback and monitor the students’ activity and progress.

Pupils without online access were encouraged to use computers at their friends’ homes and were given paper based work to do also. It was school as normal for the students but without a teacher in sight.

Going virtual however proved that there is no replacement for the face to face interaction with a teacher but that Fronter successfully provides the digital tool for teachers to direct their pupils to relevant resources to support their learning. It gives the pupils access to their classroom 24/7, not just from 9am-3pm Monday to Friday.

Andrew Bainbridge, deputy head teacher at Loxford said: “We are dedicated to helping our students achieve to their highest potential. The new building will offer an exceptional learning environment.

“Moving over the Easter holidays presented many challenges, especially as this meant an extended break for some students in the run up to their final examinations. The Virtual School reduced the effect of this break, enabling all students to continue with learning activities. Teachers developed tasks that students completed alone or collaboratively with forums to support progress.

“Our use of Fronter has evolved greatly over the last two years and we are grateful for their support in enabling us to realise our vision of a virtual school. This will continue and be built upon as we take advantage of our new ICT equipment in our new school.”

MAKING A VIRTUAL SCHOOL A SUCCESS Using the LMLE for the whole school, where every teacher, no matter what level of ICT skills they have, are motivated and supported to use the MLE in their everyday teaching

isn’t an easy accomplishment. However, Loxford has managed to make it a success mainly due to the one factor: leadership.

Loxford has a strong and visionary senior leadership team that work together, supported by their head teacher to achieve their whole school implementation plan for the LMLE. Having Tanya as director of E-learning has been a key factor for success at Loxford.

Describing her role, Tanya said: “I have been responsible for the training of staff, ensuring that rooms have been set up and content added. I have given small group INSET, whole staff INSET, met with department heads, met with individuals and given oneto-one and group training. Each year I write a development plan to outline what we want to achieve in the next year.”

TRANSFORMING TEACHING The subject teachers are the driving force behind the use of Fronter. Their time and effort to support and encourage their students to use the LMLE is evident.

Fronter has started to transform the way some of the teachers teach. They have already begun putting links to the LMLE into schemes of work.

“Staff are becoming more ICT literate as a result of using Fronter,” Tanya quotes. “They are communicating more with students online.

Most teachers are reducing their photocopy bills by providing resources that students can save electronically or can print a copy of for their use.

Pupils hand in homework online and this gets marked online, once again saving printing costs.

Teachers like the fact that they can put all the resources on one page or over several linked pages and can easily show students during lessons – one place to go to access all resources.”

Loxford School now has a shiny new building that looks exceptional with its huge glass entrance and freshly mowed lawns. Its visionary

ABOUT LOXFORD Loxford School of Science and Technology in Ilford, Redbridge has 1,624 pupils. Loxford achieved a 5+ A*-C pass rate at GCSE of 79 per cent in 2009 (with 54 per cent of students gaining 5+ A*-C grades including English and Maths).

The school was judged to be “outstanding” in an OFSTED good practice survey inspection of literacy and numeracy at the school in December 2008, maintaining a record of 100 per cent of the GCSE cohort gaining five or more A*-G grades. These are the school’s best ever GCSE results. This has been accomplished while facilitating an £44 million rebuilding programme at the Loxford site as part of Building Schools for the Future.

leadership team is certainly an inspiration for many other schools both regionally and nationally – all staff at Loxford have worked hard as a team to lead the way forward with integrating the LMLE into the everyday lives of their students. A great educational and technological achievement has, and continues, to be made at Loxford.

FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information about Loxford School of Science and Technology: www.loxford.net For more information about the London Managed Learning Environment – Fronter: www.londonmle.net For more information about the London Grid for Learning: www.lgfl.net

Spend less and achieve more by changing your MIS EARSON PHOENIX as part of Pearson Education has been developing education software solutions for over 20 years. With the first truly web-based Management Information System (MIS) – e¹, Pearson Phoenix is proud to support schools and authorities throughout the UK and internationally in countries such as France, Japan, Dubai, India and Mexico. e¹ supports all aspects of teaching and learning from managing school resources including staff, timetables, personalised learning plans, online real-time reporting to parents and much more. e¹ is accessed via a secure web browser from any PC, Mac or internet enabled device and as such is available at anytime from any location. e¹ provides school leaders with information

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As such, the correct investment in and utilisation of technology is vital, and in order to get these important decisions right you need the best independent advice available to you.

Misco ESP builds on Misco’s successful IT solutions portfolio and aims to help your organisation to understand the technology you need to meet your IT objectives. We recognise that your IT solution must provide a return on its investment – we will work with you to articulate how IT delivers its value back to your organisation.

Virtualisation is an abstraction layer that decouples the physical hardware from the operating system to deliver greater IT resource utilisation and flexibility. Virtualisation allows multiple virtual machines, with different operating systems to run in isolation, side-by-side on the same physical machine. Each virtual machine has its own set of virtual hardware (such as RAM, CPU, CPU, NIC etc) upon which an operating system and applications are loaded. The operating system sees a consistent normalised set of hardware regardless of the actual physical hardware components. Misco ESP provides the best advice and has strong relationships with virtualisation industry leaders to ensure your establishment gets the right virtualisation solution.

At the centre of Misco ESP is the ethos to provide high-quality IT infrastructure solutions and expert advice to ensure that your business has the support it needs when it needs it most.

Most organisations face the challenge of trying to ‘do more with less’ in an effort to reduce costs – while at the same time trying to balance costs against the need to satisfy the storage demand of its staff and pupils.

An effective way to manage costs and storage is to consider the consolidation of your storage resources rather than the traditional method of attaching it directly to the servers. Your users can then have access whenever it is required, at school, at home, or on the move.

Consolidation will allow your organisation to retain control of rapidly increasing storage costs – and Misco ESP is at the forefront of this technology. We focus on innovation in important areas such as high availability to help you improve service levels so that your organisation stays at the leading edge.

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For more information Find out more by calling Misco ESP on 0800 197 1805 or visiting misco.co.uk/esp

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HEALTH & SAFETY

BACK TO SCHOOL – SAFELY As a new school year arrives – with new pupils and possibly new staff also – the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health looks at how to make sure you’ve got the health and safety basics covered A NEW SCHOOL YEAR means new pupils – some excited, some frightened, and some feeling just a bit bewildered. Among the staff, too, you might see some fresh faces – new teachers or classroom assistants who feel just as excited, frightened or bewildered as the pupils.

Being healthy and staying safe are two of the five key areas in Every Child Matters.

Both these outcome are vital if children are to achieve the other outcomes of “enjoy and achieve”, “make a positive contribution” and “achieve economic well-being”.

LEARNING TO THINK CRITICALLY Helping pupils make informed decisions and think critically will enable them to succeed. It’s really important that young people learn to do this in their daily lives at school and it’s vital for them to experience learning outside the classroom when possible by facing real situations with real consequences. From a health point of view it could be as simple as choosing the healthy option at lunch time and taking part in physical activities. From a safety point of view, however, they need to consider how to weigh up risks.

The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) thinks being “risk savvy” is very important. We’re working to help build a more risk-intelligent society – starting at school.

Pupils, as well as teachers need awareness-level training about common hazards – awareness that they’ll carry with them to their out-ofschool activities and into the workplace.

INTERACTIVE COURSE IOSH has developed the Workplace Hazard Awareness Course (WHAC), an interactive and accessible course designed to help teachers prepare their students for the real world.

WHAC supports the delivery of an entry-level qualification from the British Safety Council Awards, and it’s free to download so today’s teachers can give tomorrow’s employees a good grounding in hazard awareness – just go to www.wiseup2work.co.uk/whac.

IOSH is part of the Child Safety Education Coalition (CSEC), which aims to encourage and support activities that contribute to a reduction in unintended injuries to children and young people. You will have heard about the three Rs – at CSEC we talk about the five Rs. These are the stages that young people need to consider when facing situations. They’re critical reasoning skills that we automatically practice as adults but are not second nature to children. The five Rs are: • Recognition of hazards • Removal of hazards • Reduction of the potential impact of hazards • Recovery from an incident or injury • Remember and use the learning and experience gained.

These stages can be applied to many different situations and hazards. See the CSEC website at www.csec.org.uk for more details and links to resources and publications that you might find useful in and outside the classroom.

TOURING NEW SURROUNDINGS Include a tour of the school in your induction for your new staff and pupils. Get them to see the school not only as a place to study but as a workplace and get them hazard spotting. Then get them to think about how these hazards can be controlled. Engaging pupils in exercises such as these gets them involved and helps to improve the safety culture of the school.

Sometimes the simplest things can cause the most accidents. Slips, trips and falls on level ground are the most common cause of major injuries in the workplace, and the second highest cause of injuries that lead to three-day absences.

Every employer is legally required to protect their staff from such hazards, and in a school that obligation extends to protecting pupils too.

With a school full of children walking the wet weather into buildings and running around in the playground, you can guarantee that

some of them will fall over. Encourage staff and students to report anything that could be a hazard – such as uneven, wet or slippery surfaces, worn carpet or trailing cables.

Schools should arrange to assess floor coverings regularly and make sure any problem areas are repaired or replaced. Any spills or wet surfaces need to be cleaned up as soon as possible, and warning signs will help to keep people away from the area until it’s safe to walk on. And keep an eye on the cabling – we use more and more technology in schools, and it can be easy to overlook a trailing cable as equipment gets moved around. Awareness training for both teachers and pupils and the provision of cable mats to cover any cables on the floor, will help to prevent accidents.

LONG-TERM ISSUES Long-term health issues are also important – symptoms may appear a long time after exposure has occurred. We’ll now look at just two areas, hazardous substances and noise.

Make sure you have an up-to-date inventory of your hazardous substances.

Legally, you’re obliged to assess the risks and

Being healthy and staying safe are two of the five key areas in Every Child Matters. Both these outcome are vital if children are to achieve the other outcomes of ‘enjoy and achieve’, ‘make a positive contribution’ and ‘achieve economic well-being

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For more information, case studies and photographs, please visit www.4m-flooring.co.uk

4m Flooring uk Ltd, Unit 9, Decade Close, High Carr Business Park, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, ST5 7UG Tel: 01782 576650 Fax: 01782 576651

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HEALTH & SAFETY

decide what precautions you need to take, take steps to reduce or adequately control exposure to hazardous substances (providing appropriate protection equipment, for example) and have emergency procedures in place to deal with any incidents.

Once again, there’s no substitute for education – make sure that pupils, as well as staff, are properly informed and trained in using hazardous substances, and that they’re only used under competent supervision. If you need help with hazardous substances, then see the CLEAPPS website at www. cleapss.org.uk/secinfr.htm – it includes both primary and secondary school resources.

Any new teacher has had enough training, including a work placement, to make sure they have a good idea what it’s like to work in a school. But while we all know children can be noisy, the reality of hundreds of pupils together at the same place day after day can literally be deafening. Music rooms, sports halls, woodwork and metalwork workshops are just a few of the places where schools need to pay particular attention to acoustics.

According to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, those who work in education are eight times more likely to suffer voice problems than any other worker. Reflections of sound

off walls can increase noise and reduce the quality of sound, making it both difficult to hear and potentially damaging to the ears.

“Acoustics can pose a significant problem if classrooms are not purpose-built,” says David James of the Industrial Noise and Vibration Centre, who runs IOSH professional development courses in noise and vibration at work. “Reflections of sound off walls can increase noise and reduce the quality of sound, making it both difficult to hear and potentially damaging to the ears. Echoing classrooms – where sound reverberates for a long time – can also reduce the clarity of speech, while poor wall insulation, such as folding room dividers or partitions that extend only to the false ceiling, allow in noise from adjacent classrooms. If that’s a loud noise – say from a music lesson – it can have quite a disruptive effect on the lesson, and on pupils’ concentration.”

The first step to resolving acoustic issues is to assess the area concerned – perhaps with the help of a professional noise consultant.

Improving your school’s acoustics can be as simple as providing carpets, drapes or acoustic screens, or redesigning the layout of speakers. Some improvements can even be made in the school’s craft department using standard, low-cost noise control materials.

New teachers might be unaware of the acoustic issues they’ll face in your school, so if their work will involve a lot of noise, make sure you monitor their exposure. This can be crucial in identifying any issues and resolving them before they start to cause problems.

GO ON A MISSION Learning outside the classroom is important if your pupils are going to understand the consequences of taking risks. IOSH is working with the Geography Collective, which has developed a website launched in July 2010.

The idea is to inspire young people to engage with their world in the most direct way possible by going out and having adventures.

See www.missionexplore.co.uk for ideas.

FOR MORE INFORMATION • • • •

IOSH: www.iosh.co.uk WHAC: www.wiseup2work.co.uk/whac HSE: www.hse.gov.uk Association of Teachers and Lecturers: www.atl.org.uk • CLEAPPS: www.cleapss.org.uk/secinfr.htm • CSEC: www.csec.org.uk • The Geography Collective: www.missionexplore.co.uk

Is Your Health & Safety Testing Up To Date?

After the summer break, the start of a new term is always hectic, making sure everything is in place for the year ahead. But what about the building itself and the equipment staff and students come into contact with on a daily basis?

Bee Safe Ltd is a specialist health and safety company who can provide a range of services from a single risk assessment to complete safety management systems as well as a comprehensive range of testing services including: ! Portable appliance testing (PAT) and fixed wire testing ! Fire extinguisher testing ! Local exhaust ventilation (LEV) testing Our fully qualified engineers who are all CRB checked, operate nationally to ensure your establishment meets the mandatory requirements laid down by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), reducing the risk of injuries and legal claims. We offer flexible working arrangements to minimise disruptions.

So whether you require electrical testing of computers in the IT department, checking the extraction system in the science lab or testing the fire extinguishers throughout, contact Bee Safe Ltd today, for an immediate free quotation.

Specialists in Health & Safety for the Education Sector Bee Safe Ltd, 4 Ameiva Point, Quartremaine Road, Portsmouth, Hants, PO3 5QP. T: 023 9234 8000 F: 023 9234 8001 E: info@beesafe.biz W: www.beesafe.biz

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Written by Jim Creak, chairman, Health and Safety Sign Association

HEALTH & SAFETY

COMMUNICATING THE SAFETY MESSAGE The standard ISO 7010 is being implemented as best practice throughout the world to ensure that only graphical symbols with the highest comprehension credentials are used to communicate safety messages IT REALLY IS NEVER TOO EARLY to get to grips with the vocabulary of safety. A universal language, colour, geometric shape and graphic symbol is needed to ensure the safety message comes across – from Birmingham to Beijing, from Harrow to Honolulu. The creation of key stage education material as a resource by the industry will coincide with the new International Standard and harmonisation plan.

ISO 7010 is now finally published and is being implemented as best practice throughout the world to communicate the safety message using graphical symbols that transcends the barriers to good safety management created by different languages and are universally understood.

The International Standard Technical Committee (TC145) is responsible for graphical symbols and has worked continuously for over 20 years to develop the very best safety signs to convey critical safety information.

The main categories of safety signs are in line with the needs of international requirement for occupational health and safety management and are incorporated in workplace safety legislation.

IDENTIFY, LOCATE, INFORM, INSTRUCT Worldwide, safety managers are required by their domestic legislation to ensure that all personnel are aware of hazards, the nature of the hazard and the measures to be taken for the collective protection of occupants within the working and public environment under their control.

Safety procedures, practice and policies will require building managers, property owners and estate managers to identify hazards and mark the location of emergency equipment and life safety appliances. Safety managers have an obligation to inform and educate all occupants about risk control, prohibit certain behaviour and give mandatory instruction to ensure collective protection.

STANDARDISING SAFETY SIGNS ISO 7010 is soon to be adopted as a European norm and will be automatically adopted as the domestic standard within all member states of the European Union. All workplaces, including merchant and passenger vessels will be required to implement and display the new graphical symbols for safety communication.

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The objective is to ensure that only graphical symbols with the highest comprehension credentials are used and to ensure we are not playing Pictionary with peoples lives.

A plethora of graphical symbols are currently being used without these credentials, have little meaning and are untested in accordance with ISO 9186 to ensure comprehension. It is essential that if graphical symbols are to be effective, only standardised symbols should be used.

Whilst minor variation in public information symbols may cause, at worst, slight delay in finding a service, or cause embarrassment if you misinterpret the more abstract toilet sign, a mistake in the interpretation of escape route signs causing delay may ultimately lead to death.

Considerable confusion has been caused by the use of so called ‘Eurosymbols’ for fire exit signs. Pure illustrations from way back in 1977 have been used, which have no comprehension credentials and fail the basic understanding that is a function of known and effective safety wayguidance convention.

Best practice International Standard ISO 7010 graphical symbols for escape route and ISO 16069 safety wayguidance convention ensure that an evacuee is progressed using a known convention through the escape route to place of relative safety.

GOOD HEALTH AND SAFETY PRACTICE The risk assessment regime required to manage occupational health and safety will determine requirements for safety communication across areas of reflective management.

The areas are outlined in International obligations for employers under occupation health and safety legislation. These obligations start with the identification of hazard, the identification of safety equipment, including escape and the identification of fire fighting equipment including alarms.

Employers are further required to locate hazard and safety equipment, including escape route and appropriate fire fighting equipment.

Identification and location are cornerstones of effective safety communication and are specific requirements of workplace legislation.

Following location and identification, a good communication strategy will include measures to reduce and control risk.

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HEALTH & SAFETY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Creak, editor of the Means of Escape Publication, is an active member of the BSI technical committee and Chairman of the Health and Safety Sign Association (HSSA).

Jim has over 25 years experience in researching, contributing and participating in task groups on the subject of Safety Wayguidance Systems (SWGS) for marine, industrial and high rise building application.

The control of risk will include the prohibition of behaviour or an activity that is likely to have an adverse effect on the risk matrix or may exacerbate the consequences of an incident.

The control of risk and the collective protection of building occupants will require employers, building managers and authority personnel to instigate and enforce mandatory measures to be taken.

Finally and probably most important is that safety signs, their meaning and the action to be taken or not taken following them are part of a formal training, instruction and education process for public buildings, schools, colleges, universities, and the workplace.

The Health and Safety Sign Association has announced that all members, listed on the HSSA website, www.hssa.co.uk, will implement the changes required by the adoption of ISO 7010 as a European standard. Members are required to withdraw all graphical symbol designed safety signs that do not conform within their standard product offering by January 2011.

The HSSA has a collection of free teaching resources available on its dedicated education website, www.education.hssa. co.uk, ranging from Foundation through to Key Stage 3 and vocational training.

References: • BS EN ISO 14001:2004 – Environmental management systems – Requirements with guidance for use.

• BS ISO 16069:2004 – Graphical symbols and signs – Safety signs – Safety wayguidance systems (SWGS) • BS ISO 17398:2004 – Safety colours and safety signs – Classification, performance and durability of safety signs.

• ISO 7010:2003 – Graphical symbols – Safety colours and safety signs – Safety signs used in workplace and public areas.

• ISO 9186:2001 – Graphical symbols.

Test methods for judged comprehensibility and for comprehension.

• ISO 3864-1:2002 – Safety colours and safety signs – Part 1 safety signs in workplaces and public areas.

• ISO 3864-4:2009 – Graphical symbols – Safety colours and safety signs – Part 4 colorimetric and photometric properties of safety sign materials.

EC Safety Signs Directive (92/58/EEC).

Eurotech Fire Systems Limited: New fire industry player – new detection protocol

B

EHIND THE NEW NAME, Eurotech Fire Systems Ltd, is one of the most experienced teams in the fire industry.

Their stated aim is to save lives and property by changing the way fire detection products are designed, manufactured and procured.

Traditionally, the choices available to the education sector were either through a ‘closed’ or ‘open’ protocol. Eurotech has developed the MESH, Making Every System Happen, protocol offering reassurance to independent or in-house installers of fully-approved technology under a single brand, but without being tied to the manufacturer for all system components or maintenance contracts.

Since launch, Eurotech has introduced industry-leading, patented technology. For example, its Photoelectric Sounder offers a unique, patented design combining optical detection with an in-built sounder. The company has also developed a range of detection systems that offer up to 254 addresses per loop for detectors and/or modules or sounders, the highest per-loop address volume in the industry.

Hampshire-based Eurotech Fire Systems Ltd was established by former Apollo sales and marketing director Michelle Agius, who has put together arguably the most experienced team in the fire detection industry, including export sales manager Tim Williams, UK sales manager Phil Walford, sales manager Vincent Agius,

operations manager Terry Huppler and design manager Alan Capaldi-Tallon with some 10 individual US and UK fire patents to his name.

True False Alarm Discrimination Case Study: Five Dual Optical Detectors containing the Eurotech steam/dust discrimination algorithm were installed in a test site, a multiple occupancy site (public housing) for a period of 12 months.

The site was prone to false alarms generated from the heating/air conditioning extractions system. Standard optical detectors were removed and Dual Optical Detectors installed in their place. The data memorised in these detectors were checked, which revealed that on eight occasions the detectors sensed an alarm signal level caused by steam.

However, they had given no false alarm.

Technology using the dual spectrum of light method has now shown our dual optical

smoke detector to be a far more reliable and effective fire detector by discriminating a fire condition from any particles other than smoke and also by compensating sensitivity differences by the type of smoke.

The Dual Optical can also be used as a direct replacement for ionisation detectors due to its response to TF1 (open wood fire test) and TF5 (n-heptane fire test) fires in addition to discriminating steam, dust and aerosols, the most common alarm activations.

EURV-DP Intelligent Dual Optical Smoke Detector Part Number 100-2105. EURV-CP Conventional Dual Optical Smoke Detector Part Number 100-2215.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 020 31410999 E-mail: enquiry@eurotechfire.com

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COMING TOGETHER TO LEARN NEW COOKING SKILLS More than half of people taking part in school-based cooking clubs for families say they eat a healthier diet after being taught how to cook balanced meals IN RESEARCH FOR LET’S GET COOKING, a national network of healthy cooking clubs, 59 per cent of club members said they were eating more healthily after their involvement with the programme, while 90 per cent reported that they had used their new cooking skills at home.

The figures, which have exceeded the programme’s targets, were published as Let’s Get Cooking approaches its third anniversary, having taught more than 500,000 children and parents new cooking skills since its launch – the equivalent of 19 people every hour.

TEACHING NEW COOKING SKILLS Led by the School Food Trust and supported by a £20 million grant from the Big Lottery Fund, there are now nearly 4,000 schoolbased Let’s Get Cooking clubs accross all local authorities in England and the programme is on track to smash the target of teaching new cooking skills to more than 1.1 million people by October 2012.

Chair of the School Food Trust, Rob Rees, says the network’s about getting back to basics: “The thing about Let’s Get Cooking is that it’s fun. The children love getting their hands dirty, and it’s a chance for parents to pick up really practical tips on healthier shopping and recipes they can throw together quickly in the evenings, spend time with their kids and get to know other parents.

“There’s nothing to beat going through a new recipe step by step, then eating the results together. What this research tells us is that by giving families practical skills they can use, they are beginning to make small shifts in their diets. Not only will that help boost take up of healthy school food, it will also help to improve the health of the whole family.”

NATIONAL COOKATHON This year Let’s Get Cooking’s national Cookathon competition saw more than 50,000 people across the country take part in nearly 200 large-scale community cooking events, all on the same day (16 March), crushing the previous year’s total of 24,000 participants.

The national winners, Oughtibridge Primary in Sheffield, clinched the top place and a prize of £1,000 to spend on their club after more than 1,500 people joined their Cookathon event at home and at school to cook Tasty Tomato Pasta. Eight regional winners each won £250 for their clubs, by holding a range of ambitious and creative cooking events involving hundreds of people from their school,

local businesses and their local communities.

“This is just the beginning,” Rob adds. “Now that we have a successful track record of setting up, delivering and evaluating this national network of school-based cooking clubs, we are expanding our work to reach new audiences.

We’re working in settings such as Children’s Centres, special schools and Pupil Referral Units, with foster carers and young parents, as well as training Higher Level Teaching Assistants to deliver cooking within the curriculum.”

Thanks to the £20 million grant from the Big Lottery Fund’s Well-being funding programme, Let’s Get Cooking clubs receive funding to buy cooking equipment, free training which is accredited by the Royal Society of Public

Health, ongoing advice and support from regional Let’s Get Cooking specialists and a range of high quality resources. The Big Lottery Fund’s Well-being programme provides funding to support the development of healthier lifestyles and to improve well-being.

GET INVOLVED If your school already has a cooking club, you could apply for one of a limited number of places to receive £500 funding, resources and training as associate members of the Let’s Get Cooking network. From this September, Let’s Get Cooking will be inviting all schools in England to apply to become an associate member, so look out for your information pack.

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CATERING

But you don’t have to wait for an invitation – if your school already has a cooking club you can apply today via the Let’s Get Cooking website www.letsgetcooking.org.uk/associates.

Let’s Get Cooking has also published resources to help any school start a cooking club.

“Most of our resources are only available to Let’s Get Cooking clubs, based in schools that have been successful in their application to join the programme,” says communications manager, Wendy Carter.

“But as places are limited, we often receive enquiries from people keen to set up their own club. We hope the new resources will help them to get started. Once they are up and running, clubs might be eligible to join Let’s Get Cooking as associate members and receive even more resources, support and £500 funding to help them open their club out to parents and the wider community.”

The resources include a ten page guide to setting up a club, a hygiene and safety checklist, recipes and ideas for community cooking activities and a set of five posters.

Here’s a flavour of what Let’s Get Cooking clubs are cooking around the country: Around 130 people had great fun at a Bollywood community event at Sandcross School in Reigate. Children and their parents cooked different curry dishes

before sitting down to enjoy the food and taking part in an Indian-themed quiz.

Club coordinators, Caroline Halder and Jo Murdoch said: “It was a lot of work but a huge success. We have had such a great response from parents thanking us and suggesting themes for future events.

There was a fun and relaxed atmosphere with everyone working together and the parents and children all took home recipes.

“Lots of people have told us about what they have made at home since, so it has all been worthwhile. I very much doubt we would have done this type of event before we joined Let’s Get Cooking so thank you for the inspiration!”

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Pupils from Stoneferry Primary School, in Stoneferry Road, east Hull visited their local police station to cook a healthy lunch for police officers, in a bid to show them that, despite working shifts, it is quick and easy to whip up a healthy lunch or dinner.

Pupils made chicken fajitas and Chinese stir fry, followed by fresh fruit salad with creme fraiche. Sergeant Graham Borrill said: “It is common for police staff to eat on the go, which usually means unhealthy food.” And after tucking into the food, PC Lee Newton, who was a chef in a string of top restaurants

PUPILS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS Stone Hill is a school for children with special needs. The pupils are bussed in from the surrounding area so they have been holding their club at lunchtimes.

Club coordinator Gill Hobson said: “During our Healthy Lifestyles Week every child attended a Let’s Get Cooking Session as did all the governors and the visitors who were there offering other activities. This was so successful that the head has told me that I can send letters to parents offering an after school session – this has never been known at our school! One of the brilliant things is that the recipes are so easy.”

Let’s Get Cooking sessions teach club members about eating a balanced diet and they make meals such as lasagne, shepherd’s pie and chicken curry which are frozen and then eaten for lunch the following week.

FOR MORE INFORMATION To register and access the guidance, visit www.letsgetcooking.org.uk/ Resources/Settingupacookingclub

New healthier products for secondary schools

JJ – the first choice in food service

A PIZZA’S new range of White Deep Pan Pizza Bases containing Omega-3, added fibre and vitamins and minerals are specially designed for secondary schools, providing children that do not like brown pizza with a healthy, nutritional alternative.

The fibre level is similar to a wholemeal pizza base, and with the vitamins and minerals in the product, schools are able to ensure that the correct level of nutritions such as zinc, iron and folates are in the diet and makes it easier to meet the new nutrient based standards.

La Pizza is a privately owned manufacturer of frozen part baked pizza bases, dough balls, tear and share garlic bread and speciality breads, supplying the

OR MORE THAN 20 years, JJ Food Service with its range of ambient, chilled, frozen foods, packaging and cleaning products has excelled within the food industry. As a result we were recently awarded The Grocer Gold Award 2009 for Wholesaler of the Year.

Our service not only provides for all your catering needs, but also offers courses such as the L2 Food Safety Award.

JJ Enfield is a registered Royal Institute Training Centre.

All of our goods are meticulously tested for quality, we also use the expertise of our development chef Gino D’Acampo to make

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before becoming a police officer, said: “The chicken fajitas were very good. You can mess that up very easily by not putting in enough chilli. I would give them a job in my kitchen.”

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foodservice industry. All products contain less than one per cent salt and are made using the finest natural ingredients, containing no preservatives or GM products. The company operates form a purpose built food factory and has achieved BRC A Grade accreditation in each of the last three years.

FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information regarding La Pizza’s wide range of products call 01730 811490 or visit www.lapizzacompany.com

sure that every product we sell not only tastes good, but is of the finest quality.

The Lloyds Register Quality Assurance Environmental Certification ISO14001:2004 recognises JJ Food Service and its commitment to minimise the company’s impact on the environment.

All our certifications are available on request or through our website in the ‘about us’ section.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01992 701 727 Fax: 08719 730 888 E-mail: admin@jjfoodservice.com Web: www.jjfoodservice.com

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BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? Opening Doors is an opportunity for students to meet with employers and understand the options available when choosing a career path and motivational speakers to engage the students. There will also be an awards ceremony for all businesses attending.

The event is being held at Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, whose foundation Silver Skills is working in partnership with.

“As part of our education provision we are keen to boost awareness of employment and skills amongst young people in the area.

We are delighted to be co-hosting the event and to be working in partnership with Silver Skills. The Opening Doors events will provide many students with invaluable advice around gaining employment and the skills necessary to develop their careers,” says Grant Cornwell, CEO of the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation.

Opening Doors is an innovative one day event designed to bring businesses and students together to give students help and options when it comes to choosing a career path. It will also give businesses an insight into their future workforce.

Tottenham Hotspur football club, White Hart Lane

WHAT DO I WANT TO BE WHEN I AM older? Which career will I really enjoy?

How do I get on the career ladder?

These are just a few of the questions that pupils ask themselves, but they rarely seem to get the answers needed. Even though more people than ever apply to go to university, we have to ask ourselves if this is the only option that pupils have?

meet with real employers and talk to them at length about what it means to work for them, how to get into business and the valuable experience they would gain. It is a chance to understand the world of work and to see what options they have. The largest proportion of unemployed people is in the 16-24 age range. We are trying to help these students before they become a statistic.

THE OPTIONS For many, the thought of university may not be an appealing option. This could be because mainstream schooling does not allow them to reach their potential, because formal education limits their creativity or perhaps because the average university student will walk away with between £15,000 and £20,000 worth of debt, and even then is not guaranteed to find a job or know what they want to do “when they grow up”. All of these scenarios are very real and it is time that we show these pupils the possibilities that are available in businesses and organisations that see the value in real experience and that do not only base recruitment on educational merits.

This is why, with the help of local schools, local employers and national organisations, Silver Skills is organising the ‘Opening Doors’ event on 10 November. The event will give pupils in years 10 and 12 the opportunity to

GETTING TO KNOW THE JOB MARKET Many leave school with very little knowledge about the jobs market and how to get their foot in the door. This event will allow them to find out for themselves.

It is not a job fair – more an exhibition of choices. There will be up to 1,000 students from five different schools coming to the event, and we have 50 businesses committed to helping them with their future including the Army, Air Force, and London Fire Brigade as well as local companies such as Less Tax 2 Pay Accountants and Somebody Else Merchandising.

Businesses range across all sectors and they will be on hand to tell students what they are looking for in an employee and what choices are available to them.

The seminar programme will feature speakers from organisations such as the National Apprenticeship Service, special guests, including politicians and celebrities,

FINDING THE RIGHT PATH Too often students feel forced to go to university because they have no other options presented to them, they come out crippled with debt and a degree they may never use. We are not saying that university is in any way a bad route to take, it is perfect for some. It is just not the only option. Many businesses prefer that you work your way up from the bottom and would look at experience being sometimes more important than a university education.

This isn’t work v university, both options are good paths. Opening Doors is about finding the right option, the right path for the individual.

The aim of the day is to get people talking to each other, to establish relationships and to impart knowledge that will help these students become part of a workforce that needs them.

It is about educating not only students on their options but also businesses on how valuable these young adults can be and what an asset they can be to their businesses.

Silver Skills, along with The Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, aim to make this event the first of many. Completely free for students to attend, it is an event not to be missed.

FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information or if you would like an invite to attend please contact Dayna Silverman, Silver Skills on 020 8275 5351 or dayna@silverskills.org.uk

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FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

THE CHANGING NATURE OF FACILITIES MANAGEMENT Whatever your facilities management requirements are, a visit to Total Workplace Management 2010 will cover everything you need through seminars, exhibitors, and networking WITH THE REMIT FOR FACILITIES managers constantly expanding, Total Workplace Management 2010 at London’s Olympia will once again offer these professionals a chance to address all their needs through the extensive exhibition and innovative features. Produced in association with the British Institute of Facilities Management (BIFM), the UK’s leading FM and estates event is taking place from 6-7 October at London Olympia.

Adrian Newton, portfolio director for safety and building management at UBM Live, organisers of Total Workplace Management, said: “We work closely with the leading associations and companies in this evolving industry and as such, we know the remit for facilities managers is growing on a daily basis. With the number of visitors increasing 18 per cent last year, we will be expanding the visitor programme to incorporate all the disciplines required to carry out effective management of a working building.”

Total Workplace Management is co-located with Energy Solutions, the UK’s fastest growing energy management event, and M&E – The Building Services Event, the UK’s only exhibition dedicated to all building services. This means that visitors will be able to maximise their time away from the office by having free access to all co-located events.

INNOVATION SHOWCASE Whatever your facilities management requirements are for the coming weeks, months or years, exhibitors at Total Worplace Management will be on hand to help you find everything you need, covering areas including: • CAFM • Washroom / Kitchen • Energy Management • Interiors • Health & Safety • Maintenance • Relocation • Security / Fire • Parking • Total Facilities Management • Vending • Waste Management In addition to the exhibition, which will be the platform for many of the industry’s leading names to showcase their developments – including Bywaters (Leyton) Limited, Coca-Cola, Comet, FSI, Watco UK Limited and Wincanton – Total Workplace Management will launch the Innovation Showcase for 2010. This exciting feature area will sit at the heart of the event and give visitors the chance to see the latest and best innovations available in the industry.

Total Workplace Management

Total Workplace Management

Further details will be announced shortly.

Education will once again take centre stage at the event with two dedicated seminar theatres on the exhibition floor. The FM Academy will host more than ten hours of free seminars to provide insight, practical information and direction to help put a business’s sustainability roadmap into practice.

The Health & Safety Seminar Theatre, supported by SHP, will give visitors the chance to keep up-to-date with the latest legislation and discover the newest advances in safety and FM. Total Workplace Management will also contain a variety of features to make everyone’s visit as beneficial as possible. These include a Managing Safety & Health Area, which will host a variety of exhibitors providing health and safety products, the Green FM Trail, which will highlight those companies offering sustainable solutions, and a Recycling Centre

which will ensure the event remains sustainable.

Finally, the Innovation & Sustainability Awards will reward those companies that demonstrate efficient and effective management of a working building. Entry may be completed through the Total Workplace Management 2010 website (www.twmexpo.com/awards). The categories are: • Best innovation in green products or services • Best innovation in energy management • Best innovation in FM services, sponsored by PFM • Best innovation in building services • Best product innovation • Best innovation in health & safety • London workplace of the year (open to non-exhibitors), sponsored by PFM M&E – THE BUILDING SERVICES EVENT Co-located with Total Workplace Management, M&E – The Building Services

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FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

There will also be plenty of opportunities to network with thousands of industry professionals and meet with over 300 of the UK’s leading sustainable energy providers such as powerPerfector, ENER-G, Nu-Heat UK, Monodraught and Kingspan.

So whether you’re involved in energy procurement, responsible for implementing energy efficient technologies or simply looking for advice and education on how to adhere to environmental and government legislative changes, Energy Solutions is the right event for you.

M&E – The Building Services Event

M&E – The Building Services Event

Event, is the UK’s only event dedicated to all building services and brings together suppliers, distributors and manufacturers with specifiers, installers and end-users.

The event continues to provide a platform for building services to further develop and allow industry professionals to source the latest products and services and learn about the key issues facing their profession.

Adrian Newton said: “With the number of visitors increasing 18 per cent last year, it is clear that the industry holds M&E in high regard and it is a key date in their calendar. As the only event of its kind in the UK, 2010 will contain our most expansive visitor programme to date which will allow our exhibitors to meet the right people and address all their professional needs over the two days.”

In addition to the exhibition which will once again see many of the industry’s leading names showcasing their latest developments, including Bosch Thermotechnology, Cistermiser Limited, EnOcean GmbH and Spirotech UK, M&E will launch the Innovation Showcase for 2010. This exciting feature area will sit at the heart of the event and give visitors the chance to see the latest and best innovations available in the industry.

Further details will be announced shortly.

Visitors will benefit from two free-of-charge educational programmes at the event. Taking place within two dedicated seminar theatres, more than 15 hours of content will be on offer. The Training Academy, sponsored by SummitSkills, will host seminars focusing on the theme ‘Retrofitting & Regulation’. The CPD Theatre will offer visitors the opportunity to gain over six hours of valuable CPD points. Numerous exhibitors will be presenting the sessions and will focus of a variety of topics.

ENERGY SOLUTIONS Co-located with Total Workplace Management and M&E – The Building Services Event, Energy Solutions is the UK’s fastest growing energy management event and the only major London based energy exhibition.

Visitors will be able to source the latest solutions that will improve the energy efficiency of your current systems, find out about innovative renewable technologies and learn about changes in local legislation and regulation.

Visitors will also be able to learn directly from industry experts such as Energy Saving Trust, MEUC, Micropower Council and National Energy Foundation during the 60 hours of free seminar content.

VISIT WITH PEACE OF MIND Practicing what it preaches, Energy Solutions 2010 has signed a partnership agreement with Carbon Clear, the leading carbon management company in the UK, to offset its entire carbon footprint. The carbon emissions generated by the event will be calculated and offset by carbon credits produced by a Biomass Cogeneration project in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The project not only reduces carbon emissions by displacing fossil fuel use but also supports the local community through employment and a secure, green energy supply.

Mark Chadwick, CEO of Carbon Clear, said: “Today, we are facing a real climate change threat. The floods in Pakistan and the drought in Russia demonstrate the potential impact of a warming world. It is clear that we need to increase our effort to stop global warming before it is too late. It is vital, therefore, that we all measure our carbon impact and take positive steps to reduce our emissions.

Carbon Clear is delighted to be associated with Energy Solutions. By choosing to measure the event’s footprint and offset the emissions from the show, Energy Solutions is taking a positive step toward a lower-carbon world. By offsetting the event it’s supporting clean energy projects that help the poorest communities around the globe.

Energy Solutions is making a real difference.”

Adrian Newton, Portfolio Director for Safety and Building Management at UBM Live, organisers of Energy Solutions, said: “Energy Solutions, in addition to providing a platform for the energy management industry to grow, aims to make the UK as a whole more sustainable. In addition to this exciting new initiative, we are recycling all the show material, using recycled paper only for all marketing collateral, ensuring all catering at the event is locally sourced or fair-trade goods and providing completely recyclable and biodegradable packaging.

These efforts demonstrateour commitment to achieving our low-carbon goal and we look forward to a long-term relationship with Carbon Clear.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION Total Workplace Management: www.twmexpo.com M&E – The Buildings Services Event: www.buildingservicesevent.com Energy Solutions: www. energysolutionsexpo.co.uk

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Education Business | Volume 15.5

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FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

KEEPING SCHOOLS RUNNING Facilities management is an all-encompassing role that requires a broad range of skills and knowledge and is vital to the smooth-running of schools and colleges SCHOOL FACILITIES MANAGERS perform a vital function. They free up teachers’ time to get on with their core operations by taking control of a mix of essential, non-core services.

Today’s facilities managers increasingly require more skills and knowledge in a broad range of areas. They may well be tasked with making sure the school complies with health and safety legislation, keeping people, equipment and estates secure, and proactively managing the school’s carbon output.

Facilities managers also need to meet the short term needs of the teachers and pupils, such as temperature control and lighting, so that pupils and teachers have the best possible environment to learn and teach in.

With the government committed to

to pupils can be easily done by working with teachers to include the subject within the curriculum and coming up with fun, practical ways of reducing consumption.

Facilities managers may also want to investigate implementing energy saving technologies, such as biomass boilers, solar panels or wind turbines.

SECURITY Most educational establishments contain high value goods such as computers and IT equipment on-site, which are extremely attractive to thieves. Facilities managers have a major role to play in keeping schools secure from threats such as theft but more crucially, from threats against staff and pupils.

Today’s facilities managers increasingly require more skills and knowledge in a broad range of areas.

They may well be tasked with making sure the school complies with health and safety legislation, keeping people, equipment and estates secure, and proactively managing the school’s carbon output reducing the deficit, budgets are likely to be constrained for the foreseeable future. As a consequence, facilities managers may well be asked to do all this with less money.

CONSERVING ENERGY Now that the Building Schools for the Future programme has come to an end, existing buildings are likely to remain in use for longer.

Those who were looking forward to having a state-of-the-art, energy efficient building will now have to work out different ways to reduce the energy output of their exisiting building stock. This is especially important now as some education establishments will have to take part in the legally binding CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, which is getting under way. Cutting energy consumption is a key goal of the scheme and as it progresses the targets will get stricter.

It is considered likely that schools should be able to reduce energy consumption by over 20 per cent by adopting no or low-cost measures to reduce energy consumption.

So as well as complying with legal obligations, schools will benefit financially.

Communicating the energy message

Together with security managers, facilities management professionals must ensure that security measures are adequately considered and correctly implemented to protect the school from attacks. This means they need a much greater awareness of security issues and legislation, and to be involved in the delivery of all types of security across an organisation.

In addition, roles need to be clearly defined when it comes to security. Facilities managers, security managers and even IT managers need to jointly agree the security provision, whichever department it falls under.

KEEPING CLEAN But it’s not just physical or virtual attacks that disrupt the day-to-day operations of a school. Other unforeseen incidents such as an infection spreading could result in schools closing. As we saw last year with the swine flu pandemic, schools are excellent breeding grounds for infections due to the sheer amount of people they occupy and the amount of close contact children have with each other.

A rigorous cleaning regimen should be implemented, including the disinfecting

of surfaces that are continuously touched throughout the day, such as door handles. Facilities managers or health and safety managers could also put up posters reminding adults and children alike of the importance of washing hands to prevent the spread of infection.

Regular and strategic disinfecting will be essential for protecting the health of staff and ensuring learning continuity.

GETTING THE RIGHT SKILLS With facilities management incorporating so many areas, it is no surprise that outsourcing certain functions has grown in popularity.

Outsourcing can help organisations keep costs down and also addresses other problems such as having a lack of in-house resources or a lack of in-house expertise. The facilities manager however, would have to manage such contracts, and may even be responsible for the procurement of such contracts.

If you do keep your facilities management in-house, it’s a good idea to invest in that person by sending them to get formal qualifications.

One way could be through Asset Skills, the Sector Skills Council (SSC) for facilities management, housing, property, planning, cleaning and parking. It is a government licensed, UK-wide organisation set up to improve the skills of people working in these industries to boost productivity and competitiveness.

Its work is steered by employers, both large and small, who inform what type of training and vocational qualifications are needed to meet current and future skills requirements.

In facilities management, Asset Skills works to raise the industry’s profile, promote careers and develop new occupational standards and qualifications, particularly at entry level. It also works with higher and further education providers to raise awareness of FM and ensure the range of new training is available on the market.

Other projects in FM include the Public Service Skills Framework (PSSF), a programme that trains public sector support staff in customer service and other key skills. The scheme is for employees such as local authority cleaners, school caretakers or hospital porters.

FOR MORE INFORMATION For more information visit www.assetskills.org

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The best in outdoor provision for schools T OUTDOOR CLASSROOMS you will find the very best quality items for your school grounds or nursery gardens.

Our incredble range has been developed over an 18 year period with the help and guidance of professional early years and primary practitioners, experts in sustainable development, and some of the most talented artists and craftsmen in the North of England.

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farms we can provide you with absolutely anything for your school grounds or nursery garden. If you can think of an item that we haven’t already thought of, and we include it into our range, we’ll make you one free of charge.

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Outstanding technology for the restoration of trees and sports turf HE PURSE STRINGS for sustaining good quality playing fields are tightening even further. It is essential that the cost of advance treatment of school and college sports areas are built-in to the budgets at source. This can alleviate the problems of poor surfaces in the future when it’s too late to effect an immediate remedy.

Lost matches or general “ground unplayable” is a situation to avoid and Terrain Aeration Services can provide this insurance.

The resulting effects of the harsh winter followed by a dry spring and summer have combined to create surface management problems ahead of next term. Compaction and/ or drainage issues also continue to be a major problem. Remedial

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Quality playground equipment from Sutcliffe Play Ltd HROUGH CREATIVITY, innovation and conviction we aim to be a leading force in the field of play – this is our company vision. We are experienced in providing specialist play equipment and we design to encourage creativity, leaving as much as possible to children’s imagination.

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SCHOOL GROUNDS

SAFE PLAYGROUNDS FOR ALL School ground professionals need to be educated correctly in order to make sure play areas won’t cause harm to pupils. The Institute of Groundsmanship discusses training available WHETHER IT’S A STATE-FUNDED or a private school, the demands for delivering high-class playing surfaces on either natural or artificial turf (or both) for an increasingly diverse range of sports mean that the grounds professionals responsible have to work smarter and, certainly in the case of state-funded locations, within ever-tightening budgets.

School grounds professionals are increasingly confronted by the need to not only satisfy user (player) demands but also those of, for instance, school governors, bursars, PE staff and suppliers – and to do this capably they need to be trained and educated correctly.

While there is a wide range of posts at varying skill levels available throughout the country, in both the private and public sector, according to Ian Lacy, head of Professional Services at the Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG): “Whether you are an assistant at your local school or head groundsman at a private school, the rules remain the same – and that means the better qualified you are, the better the chance of success.”

TRAINING AVAILABLE A whole swathe of organisations offer a wide range of training courses and qualifications relevant to groundscare, but with such a wide range of jobs and responsibilities on offer – from the operation of hand-held and ride-on machinery, pesticide and fertiliser application, to the marking out of sports surfaces and a range of specialist maintenance procedures – you need to make careful choices about your education route.

“Indeed, as you progress in your career you could become responsible for managing budgets and personnel, and for the purchase of machinery and products, as well as advising on and implementing annual maintenance programmes and renovations, so you’ll need to be ‘equipped’ to do that confidently and competently,” says Lacy.

The Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) is the industry leader in delivering high quality and accredited groundscare qualifications at varying levels depending on the stage of your career. It offers a wide range of skills development, from induction through to management level – extending from, for example, training in lawn maintenance, health and safety, pesticide application and use of mowers (pedestrian and ride-on). Courses are available on-site or online with the intention of being as accessible as possible.

The online courses are delivered via the IOG’s Moodle virtual learning environment, where each student uses the Internet to study at a time and pace that suits. Each student is also assigned a tutor who will be available to assist with any queries. As well as offering online and telephone support, the tutor will track the progress of the student, and agree a time and night each week for communication to take place when and if necessary.

ACCREDITED BODY The IOG is a City & Guilds/NPTC accredited delivery body; IOG qualifications/courses are accredited in line with National Occupational Standards and are endorsed and recognised by the National Governing Bodies of Sport.

The IOG offers the following courses online: • National Certificate in Sports and Amenity Turf Maintenance • Advanced National Certificate in Sports and Amenity Turf Maintenance.

In addition, a variety of work-based accreditations are also available: • Key Skills (City & Guilds) • IOG National Practical Certficate • Level 2 Award, Certificate & Diploma in Work-based Horticulture • Level 3 Award, Certificate & Diploma in Work-based Horticulture.

Also on offer are apprenticeships, Level 2 and three sport turf qualifications – again workbased or online – and an ongoing continuing professional development programme.

To give some idea of the depth of knowledge you could gain, the Level 2 National Certificate in Sports & Amenity Turf Maintenance – developed by the IOG in conjunction with NPTC and City & Guilds, and suitable for anyone who maintains turf – comprises six compulsory units and eight optional, of which at least one must be completed.

The six compulsory units are: • Plant growth • Principles of machinery • Weeds, pests, diseases and disorders • Health & safety • Operation and maintenance of sports and amenity turf equipment • Principles of sports and amenity turf.

The optional units are Maintenance of amenity turf and Maintenance of sports turf (choice of cricket, bowling greens, tennis courts, Association football pitches, rugby pitches, golf or horseracing facilities).

There are also three additional units for

candidates of employers who wish these to be added to the main qualification: • Maintenance and repair of non-turf sports surfaces • Amenity horticulture in the turf industry, and • Tractor operation and maintenance.

This Level 2 course extends over a 12-month period; if a candidate studies for approximately 12 hours per week over the academic year, the course will take 36 weeks to complete.

Short training courses are also available from the IOG which has a structured and progressive four-tiered scheme available.

Many of the courses are sport-specific, and the IOG also offers specialist training covering subjects like pest and disease management or machinery maintenance.

For example, the one-day courses embrace a Foundation course – a practical approach to the preparation and maintenance of a sports surface – an Intermediate course, into the theory behind the practice of preparing and maintaining a sports surface, and the Advanced course that covers the essential science of grounds maintenance. Two-day courses include the Management of Sports Turf – from maintenance to management, and designed to develop the core skills required by today’s professional grounds managers.

CERTIFICATE OF ACHIEVEMENT In addition, a Certificate of Achievement can be gained for cricket short courses by taking an online multiple choice questionnaire.

This will be based on the content of the course and course work booklet, and this will be completed online via Moodle.

So, as can be seen, a wide range of easily-accessible, affordable and meaningful options open are to everyone involved in the maintenance and management of school grounds – all designed to make the individual more effective and efficient.

The Institute of Groundsmanship (IOG) is the leading membership organisation representing grounds managers, groundsmen, grounds maintenance managers, greenkeepers and all others involved in the management of sports pitches, landscape and amenity facilities in the UK.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 01908 312511 Web: www.iog.org

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EDUCATING THROUGH CRICKET Chance to Shine is the biggest school sport development initiative ever undertaken in Britain CONCERNED THAT LESS THAN 10 per cent of state schools provided regular organised cricket coaching or competition, The Cricket Foundation charity launched a £50 million campaign in 2005. Five years on, Chance to Shine, supported by Brit Insurance, is one of the biggest grassroots sports development programme in the UK. The campaign seeks to reverse the decline by linking local cricket clubs with schools and implementing a structure whereby schools play a minimum of five competitive matches during the summer term. Broadcaster Mark Nicholas, bat manufacturer Duncan Fearnley and Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King were the inspiration behind Chance to Shine.

IMPACT ON LIVES Chance to Shine has already reached one million children and is expected to have a direct impact on the lives of two million boys and girls in a third of state schools by 2015. The programme currently runs in 3,700 state schools nationwide and this year alone will see 400,000 boys and girls enjoying the benefits of competitive cricket. Benefits include learning to lead, to work in a team and to cope with setbacks.

Chance to Shine is an ambitious campaign and the charity needs £5 million a year to run the programme. £25 million must be raised through private donors, which the government, through Sport England, has pledged to match-fund.

The charity relies on support from sponsors like Brit Insurance, who earlier this year signed a four year partnership in support of Chance to Shine, and Slazenger, which supplies kit and equipment to schools through the programme.

HOW IT WORKS Chance to Shine is a national campaign delivered through individual projects taking place throughout every part of England and Wales. Each project provides a structured coaching and competition programme for a group of up to eight primary and secondary state schools. The group of schools is supported by professional, qualified coaches, engaged by the local cricket club, through the local Cricket County Board, who take on weekly coaching sessions in schools throughout the summer term.

The charity also provides equipment, facility development (including playground markings and non-turf pitches) as well as training for teachers and coaches. Each project is funded for a minimum period of five years, before schools themselves take on the programme of coaching and competition.

It is, however, not just about numbers.

Taking part in competitive sport with professional coaches can make a big difference

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to young lives beyond the playing field.

Last year, The Cricket Foundation asked Loughborough University to evaluate the social and educational impact of its programme. The results were impressive.

Teachers describe the value of cricket for improving pupils’ self-esteem and confidence, both in PE sessions and more broadly within the classroom. For example, the research showed that cricket is helping children from different ethnic backgrounds, whose first language is not English, to integrate in schools. As one inner-city London teacher put it: “A lot of our Bengali children have academic difficulties and we have found that in sporting activities they may have a hidden talent. If you get them on a cricket pitch they are up there with their peers or even ahead. It gives them a sense of self-worth, that they are good at something, which raises their self-esteem.”

HELPING VULNERABLE CHILDREN The Loughborough report highlights moving examples of how Chance to Shine has helped vulnerable children, by creating support networks for them at local clubs.

A cricket coach described how a child had been severely bullied all his life to the extent that he was “quite psychologically damaged” and required a psychiatrist. It was only when he joined the local cricket club, through Chance to Shine, that he started to make friends and according to his consultant “cricket had been his saviour”.

Another pupil, 13 year old Caitlin Byrne from Durham, had never played cricket before Chance to Shine arrived at her school. She discovered she was a good left-arm seam bowler, developed further at South Shields Cricket Club and now plays at her age-group for Durham County.

These stories illustrate perfectly the twopronged aim of Chance to Shine: to bring competitive cricket to state schools and also to educate children through cricket.

SPIRIT OF CRICKET Teachers also report that the cricket sessions are effective for reducing disruptive behaviour during class and encourage pupils to act more responsibly. Chance to Shine, they say, is providing young people with positive experiences and helping them to develop gentlemanly conduct.

The charity teamed up with Marylebone Cricket Club, owners of Lord’s Cricket Ground, for a nationwide drive to encourage good sportsmanship in schools. Thousands of schoolchildren now receive ‘Spirit of Cricket’ lessons during the summer term.

They are taught to respect their team

mates, the captain and umpire, and learn how to win and to lose graciously.

Ling Bob Primary School in Halifax was one of the 3,700 schools to embrace the scheme; and the “play hard, play fair, have fun” message is starting to bear fruit, as deputy head of Ling Bob, Dorian Brooksby, explains: “There have been quite a number of pupils at school who have been good at sport but also have challenging behaviour. Cricket has helped them to turn things around at school.”

Benjamin Graham, a 10 year old pupil at the school describes how the lessons he learnt in cricket during the summer are now helping him in football. He says: “Cricket’s taught me to respect and cheer on my team mates.

And now if someone hacks me down on the football pitch I will offer to shake hands or walk away rather than arguing or retaliating.”

Asked if he would rather be a good loser or a bad winner, he thinks for while, then smiles and says: “A good winner.”

The author of the Loughborough University report Dr Ruth Jeanes believes that Chance to Shine’s “contribution to improving the social well-being of many of its participants illustrates that it is much more than just a cricket development initiative.”

IMPROVED ACADEMIC RESULTS In a YouGov survey published by The Cricket Foundation in May to mark Chance to Shine’s fifth anniversary, the majority of parents said they believed competitive team sports, like cricket, can improve children’s academic results. Increasing confidence and motivation, discipline and concentration were some of the reasons given by parents for how sport can improve their child’s success in the classroom.

Two thirds of respondents (66 per cent) also believed that competitive team sports, like cricket, can improve children’s academic results. The main reasons given for sport improving their child’s grades were: boosted confidence (35 per cent), provided discipline (25 per cent), increased motivation (20 per cent) and improved concentration (11 per cent).

Asked whether cricket has become less elitist than when they were at school, three times as many parents of children at state schools polled agreed or strongly agreed (42 per cent), compared to those that disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement (13 per cent).

Nearly half of parents (48 per cent) agreed or strongly agreed that people from a wider range of ethnic backgrounds are playing cricket more than was the case when they were at school. A quarter of mums polled (24 per cent) said that cricket is now offered as a team sport to girls at their child’s school; twice the number that say the “gentleman’s game” was an option for

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them when they were at school (11 per cent).

Wasim Khan, chief executive of The Cricket Foundation is enthusiastic about the impact that Chance to Shine is having in schools across the country, though he is not complacent.

“Chance to shine has made huge strides in the five years since it launched; and reaching one million school children is a real landmark for the charity. However, as the YouGov survey shows, there is still much work to be done and we will continue to strive to bring cricket and its educational benefits to thousands more youngsters in state schools over the next five years and beyond,” Khan said.

BRIT INSURANCE NATIONAL CRICKET DAY Alastair Cook, Charlotte Edwards, Graham Onions and Matt Prior were among the England cricketers who went back to school on 23 June this year to help celebrate Chance to Shine on Brit Insurance National Cricket Day. Thousands of school children in primary and secondary schools across the country took part in cricket-themed activity, both in the classroom and in the playground. Cricket assemblies, inter-class games, cricket festivals and staff v pupil matches were some of the activities that took place outside the classroom;

while inside the classroom teachers used The Cricket Foundation’s CricED educational resource that brings a cricket perspective across the curriculum (www.criced.org). Year 4 pupils at Johanna Primary School in London learnt about co-ordinates in maths through identifying players’ positions on a cricket pitch; while pupils at Ling Bob identified cricket-playing countries in Geography.

Khan says: “The whole cricket fraternity really got behind Brit Insurance National Cricket Day with the ECB and PCA providing the ambassadors, a joint flagship event in Cornwall with MCC, County Boards helping with Chance to Shine coaches and The Lord’s Taverners and Slazenger supplying facilities and equipment respectively. It was a great opportunity for all of us to celebrate cricket in schools.”

STEP UP TO THE CREASE! To celebrate Chance to Shine’s fifth anniversary, The Cricket Foundation launched a 2010 public fundraising appeal, ‘Step up to the Crease!’, fronted by England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff.

Schools, clubs and the cricket-loving general public across the country have been helping to raise small individual amounts for Chance to Shine. Non-uniform days, sponsored walks,

Basvampire.co.uk – for all your sporting needs ASVAMPIRE.CO.UK is an excellent source for all your school sporting needs.

We are mostly known for our quality cricket equipment but you may not have realised that we supply a full range of hockey, netball, rugby and football gear. For all sports we can supply match and practice equipment as well as all shirts, shorts, trousers and hats in school colours.

In cricket, we have a long history of making some of the best bats in the world for the greats of the game and we pride ourselves on our current top end ranges such as the Guru, Bow2020 and Shadow.

We also have a complete range of gear that starts at a highly affordable price while maintaining the quality we have built our name on. This includes bats (English and Kashmiri willow), protective equipment, match and practice balls, stumps, kitbags, Kwik cricket sets, shirts and trousers and a full range of coaching aids.

B

cricket festivals, match fee donations and cricket tea sales were among the activity.

The cricket-loving public are also showing their support by buying a seat on Chance to Shine’s virtual Supporters’ Stadium found on the website www.chancetoshine.org.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS Flintoff explains why he is backing Chance to Shine and the Step up appeal: “Cricket in state schools was in real danger of dying out before Chance to Shine launched in 2005.

I believe every child has the right to play competitive cricket at school and to learn skills that they can use throughout their lives.

“Step up to the Crease! is a great way for schools, clubs and cricket fans to do their bit for Chance to Shine and help sustain this fantastic campaign.”

State schools that would like to benefit from the scheme should contact their local County Cricket Board for more information on how to join.

FOR MORE INFORMATION For more details on Chance to Shine and to buy a seat on the Supporters’ Stadium, visit www.chancetoshine.org

Exclusive Leisure Ltd has specialised in the supply and installation of artificial cricket pitches for over 30 years.

Our installations cover the whole of the U.K. and are recognised by the E.C.B. They include county cricket clubs, private clubs, schools and local authorities.

In hockey we also have a full range of gear to suit all school budgets. We have a number of wooden sticks that you expect at a low price but you might be surprised to see how affordable our composites and fully synthetics are. We also supply balls, goal keeping equipment and training aids.

For rugby, football and netball we have a variety of balls at a range of prices to suit your needs.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 07985 900111 E-mail info@basvampire.co.uk Web www.basvampire.co.uk

Exclusive Leisure Ltd have attained E.C.B. approval for two pitch systems. Both our hard porous system and our unique ‘T-Base’ system (bituminous macadam) are carried out by our own teams of expert fitters.

Surfaced with our Cricketweave artificial grass, the Tom Graveney pitch is designed for all weather cricket facilities including full size 30m long match wickets and practice net areas with protective cages. All types of practice facilities catered for.

7KH RIÀFLDO LQVWDOOHU RI DUWLÀFLDO PDWFK SLWFKHV IRU &KDQFH WR VKLQH

Exclusive Leisure Ltd 28 Cannock Street Leicester, LE4 9HR Tel: 0116 233 2255 Fax : 0116 246 1561

www.exclusiveleisure.co.uk Email: info@exclusiveleisure.co.uk

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Only in Scotland will your conference be truly inspiring.

Scotland provides a stimulating environment to give new perspective to your own ideas and spur you on to greater heights.

Some of the world’s oldest universities and modern research institutes nurture fresh talent to follow in the famous footsteps of alumni, who have changed the world as we know it.

Given Scotland’s reputation as a leading light in the fields of science, medicine, finance, energy and technology, it’s no surprise we have conference facilities to match.

And it’s never been easier to get here. So to find out more about hosting an event in Scotland, log onto conventionscotland.com Or perhaps that should be unconventional Scotland.

Only in Scotland

Hi-tech conference centres in stimulating surroundings.

You can’t help but be inventive.

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CHOOSE SCOTLAND WITH CONFIDENCE Scotland not only has an enviable reputation for standards of education, it can also teach the rest of the world a thing or two about hosting successful events, conferences and exhibitions THE COUNTRY GETS TOP MARKS for the range and diversity of venues on offer, is highly commended for the warmth of its welcome and, as the home of golf, a gold star for the very best in mixing business with pleasure.

INSPIRING THE WORLD Among Scotlandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s famous sons and daughters are a plethora of inventors, great thinkers, philosophers, scientists and entrepreneurs who have inspired the world. Their spirit lives on in the country today and their indigenous expertise can be seen across a range of sectors â&#x20AC;&#x201C; optoelectronics, life sciences

Lower College Hall - St Andrews University

With a higher concentration of universities than anywhere else in Europe, including the 600-year old University of St Andrews, there is no shortage of academic venues that can welcome large events and knowledge-based industries which embrace software, engineering, electronics and nanotechnology. This means that anyone looking for a conference destination where they will be in inspiring company can choose Scotland with confidence.

ACADEMIC VENUES With a higher concentration of universities than anywhere else in Europe, including the 600-year old University of St Andrews, there is no shortage of academic venues that can welcome large events. Every city

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boasts university campuses with lecture theatres, reception halls, breakout areas and extensive on-site accommodation available outside term times. Significant investment is being ploughed into redevelopment and refurbishment, as well as into the creation of brand new, bespoke facilities.

In Edinburgh, The University of Edinburgh has completed a £9m extension of their main conference facilities by refurbishing and extending the John McIntyre Centre at Pollock Halls campus. The upgraded and enlarged facilities include the new Pentland conference suite, capable of seating up to 350 theatre style with four breakout rooms accommodating up to 250 delegates, two boardrooms, a flexible lounge area, reception area and an open-air terrace. Along with a stylish new restaurant seating up to 650 with an adjoining bar and lounge, naturally the Centre also features Wi-Fi and state-of-the-art audio visual equipment.

Another high profile development is the New School of Medicine at the University of St Andrews. Opened in summer 2010, the cutting edge design of the new building is a refreshing contrast to the University’s historic architecture.

Features include: a large auditorium with capacity for up to 300 people; a large flat floored exhibition area and two further meeting rooms to accommodate up to 50 people each, plus 12 smaller breakout rooms.

Add to the academic facilities state of the art conference centres in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, a wealth of contemporary and traditional hotels to suit every budget, castles, stately homes and other heritage properties and it is clear that Scotland is world-class in the diversity and choice of its offering.

HELP AT HAND VisitScotland’s dedicated Business Tourism Unit (BTU) leads in showcasing Scotland to the rest of world and its success is evidenced by results. In total, over 330 association conferences – virtually one a day – are held in Scotland every year. Edinburgh and Glasgow are second only to London in the UK in terms of numbers for such conferences and recent research carried out by VisitBritain saw both cities in the top three in Europe for value for money in hosting conferences The BTU, along with the city convention bureaux, runs fully-fledged Ambassador Programmes, encouraging everyone involved in specialised organisations, professional bodies and associations to help spread the message about Scotland. A brand new web-based facility has just been launched to take the pain out of preparing large-scale bids by using a comprehensive venue search, accessing a library of inspirational Scottish photography and customising a ready-made presentation.

One ambassador who used such support to good effect was Stirling University’s Professor of Sports Studies, Wray Vamplew, who succeeded in attracting 200-plus delegates to attend the

John McIntyre Conference Centre

University of Stirling

John McIntyre Conference Centre

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Whether you prefer a formal set-up or comfy sofas the London Art House is the perfect venue.

Looking for an unusual venue for your conferences, meetings, receptions and banquets?

In each suite fine artists have used special paint effects to create environments which both stimulate your delegates and provide a relaxing atmosphere where office pressures dissipate and focus can be placed solely on your day.

Beneath this stunning fascia we are a modern and professional conference venue.

We pride ourselves on customer service; before the event we offer step by step event management ensuring attention is paid to every detail; during the day our exceptional operations staff are always on hand to deal with any last minute arrangements allowing your event to run seamlessly.

T: 020 3227 3200 | F: 020 3227 3255 | info@londonarthouse.com London Art House | 2-18 Britannia Row Islington | London | N1 8PA www.londonarthouse.com

loads of options Set in 200 acres of parkland, Lincolnshire Events Centre has so many benefits, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s certain to be the right choice for your next event.

Why not contact our sales team to find out more? Give us a call on 01522 524240, email us at events@lincs-events.co.uk or visit the www.lincs-events.co.uk Lincolnshire Events Centre, Grange-de-Lings, Lincoln, LN2 2NA

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We are serious about the business of business tourism and our passion for our product is, we hope, infectious.

Certainly, the feedback we receive and the fact that so many events return here time and again, is testament to just how well, and how consistently, we deliver excellence World Congress of the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport in Scotland in 2009. As well as using the facilities at the university itself, the conference extended to the newly-redeveloped Doubletree

by Hilton Dunblane, with delegates offered the opportunity to explore the surrounding area.

EDUCATION-THEMED CONFERENCES This year, some of the recent and educationthemed conferences that took place in Scotland included The British Association of Early Childhood Education and the 400-strong British Association of Teachers of Dance, both held in Aberdeen. In the autumn, The Scottish Exhibition + Conference Centre in Glasgow will play host to 2,000 delegates attending the Association of Medical Education in Europe, plus the Scottish Learning Festival, which attracted 7,000 visitors last year.

PASSION FOR TOURISM Catriona Anderson, marketing manager, Associations for VisitScotland’s Business Tourism Unit, sums it all up by saying: “The only problem that event organisers have in looking at Scotland as a destination is one of choice – which is a great problem to have!

“Unquestionably we offer value for money, first class cuisine, venues to suit any occasion and, on top of that, access to the wealth of expertise from the team at VisitScotland. We are serious about the business of business tourism and our passion for our product is, we hope, infectious. Certainly, the feedback we receive and the fact that so many events return here time and again, is testament to just how well, and how consistently, we deliver excellence.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION Tel: 0131 472 2376 Web: www.conventionscotland.com

John McIntyre Conference Centre

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EDUCATIONAL EVENTS

INSPIRE LEARNERS AT ALL STAGES Make a date to come along to TES Education 2010, London’s ultimate childcare and educational exhibition TES EDUCATION 2010, taking place 1-2 October, will once again be wowing visitors to Olympia with a one-stop-shop of educational resources, CPD training sessions and expert advice. A must for anyone with an interest in early years, primary or secondary education, the show will offer free practical workshops and demonstrations presented by some of our dedicated exhibitors. Six streams of CPD training sessions will focus on current issues that matter, such as reaching creative ways to engage pupils in the classroom, how to engage parents in education and how to improve the effectiveness of CPD. BE INSPIRED TO INSPIRE Designed to give you renewed energy and practical ideas to take back to the classroom, the highly popular seminar programme provides up-to-date advice, support and solutions from renowned experts Fintan O’Regan, Penny Tassoni, Maggie Johnson and Alice Sharp.

With almost 60 CPD seminars, various free presentations and talks taking place on the show floor over the two days, there is bound to be something to interest everyone.

With nearly 300 resource and service suppliers exhibiting, visitors will get the chance to try products for themselves, see demonstrations of the latest gadgets and benefit from exclusive show discounts and free samples.

Dedicated route maps that can be found on the event website will allow delegates to quickly find the products and suppliers they need. The special features and product demonstrations taking place throughout the show will keep the show buzzing.

Discover dozens of new programmes and demonstrations, including Friends and Heroes’ launching their new KS1 and KS2 lesson plans, helping introduce a new generation of children to the stories of the Old and New Testaments in an appealing, fresh and memorable way.

SEMINAR PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS Smart Science: Dr Lynn Bianchi, senior research fellow, Sheffield Hallam University, will discuss how Developing Essential Skills for Learning and Life is a core aspect of new primary curriculum.

Ofqual: The Independent Regulator for Qualifications, Examinations and Assessments.

This session will provide a unique opportunity to hear first hand the development of the EYFS and KS1 regulatory framework that Ofqual has been working on.

Get solutions to help you raise the achievement of vulnerable learners in ECM

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Quality Mark – Raising the Achievement of Vulnerable Learners with June Todd, consultant, Teaching & Learning Consultancy.

Improving the Effectiveness of CPD: This session, presented by Graham Rollinson, investigates what effective CPD looks like, how to measure value for money and allow delegates to reflect upon their own policies and practices measured against a national framework.

Discover ways to be creative while teaching, with Teach to Inspire: ‘Be Creative’, presented by Simon Cooper-Hind.

Learn how to make a difference with good leadership skill in the early years by attending Leadership in the early years: Making a difference. June O’Sullivan will outline the features of good leadership and describe

is essential to develop key speaking and listening skills. Embedding these activities throughout the indoor and outdoor learning environment also allows creative use of audio resources and ICT. Ideas for implementing this using StoryPhones will be discussed.

Enriching and learning from children’s sensory play: Recent research highlights changes to children’s play, contrasting with adults’ memories of making mud pies and dens. Play with Treasure Baskets - baskets of sensory-rich natural objects not only develop children’s creativity, imagination and problem-solving but also enrich our understanding. The seminar will explore the benefits of using sensory-rich resources.

Art Exporess: Showcasing a new complete Art

Designed to give you renewed energy and practical ideas to take back to the classroom, the highly popular seminar programme provides up-to-date advice, support and solutions from renowned experts the barriers to achieving good leadership.

Creative Music Making for Babies and Children in Early Childhood: Linda Bance will investigate the use of musical activities to enhance musical awareness and at the same time help general development Raising achievement.

It’s Not Just Baby Talk: Developing Early Language. Penny Tassoni, author, trainer and education consulatant will present ideas that look at the process by which speech and language is learnt and the role of the adult’s relationship within this.

FREE WORKSHOPS The free workshop programme aims to give practical advice, highlighting the latest issues.

Developing independent learners is an expressed aspiration of school curriculum statements but often unsupported by any practical suggestions as to how this may work. This workshop will explore the origins and methodology employed by Kumon to develop independent learning through an individualised study programme, realising children’s potential of all abilities.

Embedding Audio Resources and Audio ICT across the Curriculum: Creating opportunities to listen independently, out-loud and together, along with creating recordings

and Design scheme for Primary Class Teachers.

Everything you need to teach drawing, painting, printing, sculpture, digital media, collage and textiles. Art Express enables teachers and children to explore ideas, develop art skills and processes, evaluate and plan work, and investigate art across different cultures.

Creative Teaching for Tomorrow: Future Creative will explore how key education leaders and decision-makers, such as Head Teachers, Local Authorities and School Governing Bodies, can identify the behaviours and environments that support the development of creative teaching and learning. Raising standards through creative approaches to teaching and learning positively impacts on the socio-economic opportunities of children and young people. If education practitioners and professionals are to support the learners of today to become the workforce of tomorrow, then the significance of creativity has to be acknowledged, explored and embedded within the education system.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Get your free fast-track entry badge online by visiting www.teachingexhibition. co.uk. Seminar places can be booked online, or telephone 0870 112 9055.

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EDUCATIONAL EVENTS

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR THE NEW ACADEMIC YEAR

Whether you are responsible for one or many pupils with special educational need you will find the resources you require at Special Needs London THE UK’S LARGEST ANNUAL EVENT dedicated to Special Educational Needs – and the only SEN exhibition in London this autumn – Special Needs London will return to the Business Design Centre on 15 and 16 October.

The free special needs teaching resources exhibition provides the opportunity to view, test and compare the latest product and service developments. A programme of 48 professional development seminar sessions, covering all areas of the curriculum, will keep delegates abreast of advances, practical tips, policy changes and the latest research being made within SEN. GET EXPERT ADVICE Designed to give you renewed energy and practical ideas to take back to your classroom or setting, the highly popular seminar programme provides up-to-date advice, support and solutions from renowned experts such as Maggie Johnson, Fintan O’Regan, Ronnie Young, Neil Mackay, Alan Heath, Tricia Murphy and Dave Vizard.

Discover tools and strategies to support a range of special needs, from ADHD to ASD, dyslexia to Asperger’s. Explore communication skills and active listening, ICT, behaviour analysis tools and sensory regulation. Come and hear about how to give your SEN department an overhaul, and discover the support you need to successfully manage individual student needs or classroom situations.

With 48 seminars over the two days, you’re bound to find some that inspire you. But don’t delay, as these highly-popular seminars are already starting to sell out. You can find details on all the sessions at www.teachingexhibitions.co.uk.

SEMINAR HIGHLIGHTS Whether you’re responsible for one or many pupils with special educational needs, you’ll find the support and up-to-date training you require at Special Needs London.

The seminar programme has now been announced and include som special treats.

Teaching assistant technology toolkit, presented by CarolAllen, advisory teacher, ICT&SEN. This session will look at the role of the teaching assistant in learning environments, including classrooms, specialist areas within school and the wider learning environment including the playground and out of school visits. Matching technology to regular activities and interactions, this session will offer clear, practical support with ideas to take away and use creatively.

Positive learning environments: meeting the variety of needs of your learners, with DawudMarsh, consultant/trainer, icmfoundation.

This session provides you with effective tools to meet the range of needs of your learners.

By creating a positive learning environment you will reduce incidents of disruption, build a productive relationship within your classroom and create opportunities for learners to increase their engagement in learning.

Teaching troubled children: evidence-based practice, presented by Dr Moya O’Brien and Dr Deirdre MacIntyre, founders, ICEP Europe.

The causes of social emotional and behavioural difficulties are complex and as unique as the experiences of each individual student. This session will investigate evidence-based practices of behaviour to give a framework for examining and understanding behaviour and designing appropriate practical interventions for schools and teachers to identify, assess and evaluate SEBD. Dr Rona Tutt OBE, SEN consultant, speaker and writer will discuss Complex needs: what does it mean in terms of children with SEN? This session unravels what this means, including covering the full range of learning difficulties and defining overlapping and co-existing disorders, such as ADHD and autism, specific language impairment and dyslexia, and many more.

EXPLORE THOUSANDS OF RESOURCES The dedicated, free SEN resources exhibition offers the widest range of ICT, software and classroom resources to support children in their learning – all under one roof. Find toys, books, furniture, sensory equipment and much more. With 200 resource and service suppliers exhibiting, visitors will get the chance to try products for themselves, get demonstrations of the latest tools and benefit from free samples and exclusive show discounts.

With so much on offer, you’re certain to find a wealth of fresh, exciting and creative special educational resources and suggestions for classroom activities and lesson plan ideas – in fact everything you need for the new academic year.

You can preview the exhibitor list and floorplan at www.teachingexhibitions. co.uk, and plan your visit to ensure you get the most out of the show.

The British Council can be found on stand 32a. The organisation connects people worldwide with learning opportunities and creative ideas, and builds lasting relationships

AT A GLANCE Special Needs London has the resources, ideas, advice and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) training to provide teachers, SENCOs, support staff and parents with the tools and skills to help all pupils achieve.

• Learn about the latest issues from professionals with SEN expertise, within the inspiring CPD seminar programme.

• Find thousands of resources to compare and buy for every kind of special and additional educational need.

• See what’s new, try things out for yourself – and take advantage of special show discounts and free samples! between the UK and other countries. The Council provide funding and support for schools to engage in international opportunities with opportunities for mobility, linking and exchange, partnerships, and professional development.

2Simple Software, named ICT Company of the Year at the 2009 BETT Awards, create simple yet powerful, creative software for young learners.

Popular in both mainstream and SEN settings 2Simple has a range of 30+ programmes including new award winner “2Do It Yourself”, all available on approval from stand 31.

The British Dyslexia Association is the umbrella body for many member organisations and individuals who are dyslexic or who support dyslexic children, young people and adults. BDA seminars and the BDA stand at Special Needs London will have information about activities and resources.

The Iris Independent Learning System is an innovative learning aid which allows the child to work independently using carefully structured Study Cards and Answer Tiles. The special self-checking device gives children immediate feedback on their work, enabling them to correct mistakes on their own. Iris Study Card sets are available for Numeracy and Early Reading and Literacy. See more on stand 29b.

FOR MORE INFORMATION Get your free fast-track entry badge online now by visiting www.teachingexhibitions.co.uk Seminar places can be booked online, or telephone 0870 112 9099.

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ADVERTISERS INDEX The publishers accept no responsibility for errors or omissions in this free service 4M Flooring UK

84

HC Slingsby

96

Over the Top Pouch

Alternative Energy Solutions

64

HJP Independent Financial Advisers

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Panasonic UK

Armitage Venesta

94

IFA Direct

24

Pearson Phoenix

79

ASCL

30

Inspiration

10

Pensions & Financial Consultants

22

AVerMedia

72

IP UserGroup

52

Petherick & Gillard

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Balens

28

JJ Food Service

90

Pro Cool Industrial

54

KI

96

Project Consultancy

21

Prominent Fluid Control UK

82

BAS Vampire

6

2

Baxter Fensham

24

Kodak

Britplas

39

La Pizza Company

90

Rap Industries

39

Brother

70

LAR

68

Remodelling Education Spaces

48

Charity Gift Vouchers

42

London Duck Tours

66

Sabercom

20

Collinson

39

Managed Support Services

84

SDH Airconditioning Services

62

Create Financial Management

22

Marley Eternit

40

SkiBound

69

Cubicle Centre

42

Bee Safe

85

Sutcliffe Play

98

Ecclesiastical Finance Serivces

28

Midwich

80

Sutters Architecture

39

Eco Adapt

57

Mike Ayers Design

Symmetry

26 62

Edexcel

110

101

15

12, 44

4

Mimio

12

Systematic Energy

Elcomponent

60

Misco

81

Terrain Aeration

England Rock-It-Ball Association

68

Monodraught

8

Equanet

74

MRG Systems

78

Trend Controls

56

Eurotech Fire Systems

84

Müller Dairy UK

88

Village Hotels

104

Visit Scotland

102

98 106

Exclusive Leisure

101

Findel Education

92

Schools and Children’s Services

12

VT Group

68

Frogtrade

12

Navigator Financial Planning

28

Weee London

46

GID-Quantor

80

NEC (UK)

West Country Steel Buildings

50

GML Construction

36

Ocip Energy

58

Westminster Wealth Management

16

Greenslades Ground Maintenance

98

OHS

10

Widespread Solutions

57

Group Call

73

Oliverdi

76

Guardian Associates

24

Outdoor Classrooms

98

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

National College for Leadership of

The London Art House

OBC

working with

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LOW ON SPACE, LOW ON Copyright 2010 NEC Display Solution Europe GmbH. All rights are reserved in favour of their respective owners. This document is provided “as is” without warranty of any kind whatsoever, either express or implied. Errors and omissions are excepted.

BUDGET, HIGH ON FEATURES TEACHING AND LEARNING SOLUTIONS NEC’s Short Throw Projectors provide the perfect answer to classroom space saving concerns and today’s limited budget.

Full-featured yet affordable, the NP510WS and NP610S portable projectors deliver a bright, networkable short throw distance solution ideal for education.

Striving for even better teaching and learning solutions, NEC in collaboration with SMART Technologies, offer a visual learning product combining the NP610S short throw projector with projector-mounting options along with a SMART interactive whiteboard and learning software.

Powerful and affordable interactive display solutions for the education market.

See More at www.nec-displays.co.uk or call now +44 (0) 870 120 1160