Education Business 20.7

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VOLUME 20.7

Business Information for Education Decision Makers HEALTH & SAFETY

BROADBAND

SCIENCE

THE STEM OF KNOWLEDGE How can we make science lessons more exciting for pupils?

SCHOOL TRIPS

RECRUITMENT

TEACHER SHORTAGES

Analysing the predictions for the 2016 teaching job market OUTDOOR LEARNING

ADAPTING THE OUTDOORS Ensuring outdoor learning is accessible for SEN students

PLUS: ACADEMIES | CATERING | DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT | REFURBISHMENT

www.educationbusinessuk.net

A member of

Sponsored by

VOLUME 20.7

Business Information for Education Decision Makers HEALTH & SAFETY

BROADBAND

SCIENCE

THE STEM OF KNOWLEDGE How can we make science lessons more exciting for pupils?

SCHOOL TRIPS

RECRUITMENT

TEACHER SHORTAGES

Analysing the predictions for the 2016 teaching job market OUTDOOR LEARNING

ADAPTING THE OUTDOORS Ensuring outdoor learning is accessible for SEN students

PLUS: ACADEMIES | CATERING | DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT | REFURBISHMENT

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION – www.educationbusinessuk.net

Comment

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Are schools prepared for the baby boom?

There have been no signs of a solution to tackle the teaching recruitment crisis. With fewer university students studying to enter the teaching profession and a projected shortfall in next year’s admissions, the future looks bleak for the classroom.

Figures released last month showed that the number of pupils attending secondary school is expected to rise by 20 per cent over the next ten years, putting added pressure on school places.

Additionally, UCAS has revealed that teacher training applications have dropped nine per cent from last year, adding fuel to the recruitment fire.

John Howson, a teacher workforce expert, said: “We are running out of time. We are unlikely to get back to where we were last year because there is not enough time left to recruit people.”

Read more from John Howson on recruitment on page 25.

This summer saw contrasting success for students receiving their exam results across the UK. There was a rise in the GCSE pass rate, but a drop in the top grades. Meanwhile 2015 saw more students gain university places despite a slight drop in top A-level marks.

The Education Business Awards took place on 8 July at London’s Grange St Pauls Hotel. It celebrated primary and secondary schools from all sectors for their outstanding achievement in 22 different categories, including Outstanding Progress, ICT Innovation and SEN Inclusion. Turn to page 73 to see this year’s winning schools.

P ONLINE P IN PRINT P MOBILE P FACE TO FACE If you would like to receive 6 issues of Education Business magazine for £250 a year, please contact Public Sector Information Limited, 226 High Road, Loughton, Essex IG10 1ET. Tel: 020 8532 0055, Fax: 020 8532 0066, or visit the Education Business website at:

www.educationbusinessuk.net PUBLISHED BY PUBLIC SECTOR INFORMATION LIMITED

226 High Rd, Loughton, Essex IG10 1ET. Tel: 020 8532 0055 Fax: 020 8532 0066 Web: www.psi-media.co.uk EDITOR Angela Pisanu ACTING EDITOR Michael Lyons PRODUCTION EDITOR Richard Gooding ASSISTANT EDITOR Tommy Newell PRODUCTION CONTROL Jacqueline Lawford, Jo Golding WEBSITE PRODUCTION Reiss Malone ADVERTISEMENT SALES Patrick Dunne, Jackie Preece, Raj Chohan, Justine James, Jake Deadman, Mary Grey PUBLISHER Karen Hopps ADMINISTRATION Victoria Leftwich, Vickie Hopkins REPRODUCTION & PRINT Argent Media

© 2015 Public Sector Information Limited. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any other means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. Whilst every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the editorial content the publisher cannot be held responsible for errors or omissions. The views expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher. ISSN 1474 0133

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Consultation We understand that choosing lockers is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach and so we are always pleased to discuss the different model types and options available with you, and identify your exact requirements to ensure you are completely informed ahead of commissioning the work. Our experienced staff will provide you with the best possible advice and solutions to your requirements, and our team will be very happy to provide detailed specifications, drawings or samples prior to making a decision.

Estimating Our estimating team is dedicated to providing you with accurate and detailed quotations for all work, which is especially valuable in the more complex projects. Your quotation will be provided to you in the most timely manner, and with all the information you require. This service will include CAD drawings, detailed cost and equipment breakdowns, and confirmation of any other specification details necessary.

Manufacture and Delivery We manufacture all of our products in our factory which means that we have complete control over the process. We pride ourselves that no locker leaves our premises unless it is 100% perfect. Our commitment to deliver to you as quickly and seamlessly as possible is what drives our processes and ensures we are manufacturing as efficiently as possible.

Garran Lock ers prides itself on prov iding the tota l locker soluti on, offering a full range of services tha t are designed to ensure tha t you are com pletely satisfi ed from your en quiry to proje ct handover.

Installation We have dedicated teams covering the UK who are fully trained experts in Garran products, and who deliver a quality finish to any project, no matter the size or material.

As a Certified SAFEcontractor, Garran’s Engineers ensure that all work conducted on customer premises is completed in the safest way possible. Method Statements and Risk Assessments are fully adhered to and all installers have CSCS cards.

After sales support and spares Once you have received your products, Garran have a dedicated team that will efficiently deal with any queries or post installation questions that you may have, and you will be given all of the necessary contact information should you require any spare parts or accessories in future. Should you for any reason not be completely satisfied, our Customer Service team will resolve the issue to your satisfaction in the quickest possible timescale.

Office Tel : 02920 859600 Office Fax: 02920 882841 Email: sales@garran-lockers.co.uk

Well Educated Banking www.lloydstsb.com/ schoolbanking

CONTENTS EDUCATION BUSINESS 20.7 07 EDUCATION BRIEFER

EBacc witnesses opposition; GCSE pass rates up; and academy conversion chance

13 CASHLESS SCHOOLS

Payments UK analyses the trend for schools to use cashless payments and the benefits this can bring to parents

07 25

17 ACADEMIES

Mark Filsell reviews the key changes to the Financial Handbook for Academies

19 PURCHASING

Simon Herne considers schools buying behaviours and offers ESPO’s advice

21 PROCUREMENT

Education Business analyses the Department for Education’s ‘Effective buying for your school’ guidance

45

25 RECRUITMENT

The REC outlines recent calls to government to tackle the skill shortages and the recruitment challenges ahead

29 BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

NASBM reflects upon the impact and changes post election on funding and the role of school business management

33 PUPIL PLACE PLANNING 55

Graham Olway of West Sussex County Council looks at how local authorities are pursuing a range of building options to meet the increase in pupil numbers

35 REFURBISHMENT

CIBSE analyses the considerations for school refurbishment projects, such as energy efficiency and heritage buildings

39 PRINTING SOLUTIONS 93

Doug Miles asks whether schools are ready for paper-free printing processes

45 BROADBAND

Education Business analyses the importance of broadband connectivity in schools and how best to manage it

51 IT & COMPUTING

Mobile devices have become part of the furniture in UK schools. iTeach explores why the tablet trend continues to grow

Education Business

Contents

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55 SCIENCE

Adrian Fenton of the British Science Association discusses the significance of engaging students in science studies and the development of STEM subjects

73 EB AWARDS

On 8 July, the annual EB Awards took place at the Grange Hotel, London. Here, Education Business reflects upon the day and looks at the notable 2015 winners

76 HEALTH & SAFETY

The Design & Technology Association explores the importance of health and safety preparation before lessons and how to avoid accidents and injuries

79 CATERING

The Food for Life Partnership explains its Food for Life Catering Mark and why it holds importance in schools across the UK

83 IFSEC REVIEW

Security event IFSEC International enjoyed a hugely successful year. Education Business reviews 2015’s best content

87 OUTDOOR LEARNING

Dave Harvey explores the way of creating an exciting outdoor learning experience for children with physical, learning, sensory or behavioural disabilities

90 SEN

Following a recent report on mental health and wellbeing, nasen’s Jane Friswell explores what it means for UK schools

93 SCHOOL TRIPS

Gill Harvey of the School Travel Forum writes about why assured quality scheme membership is important on school trips

97 SPORT: UK ACTIVE

On 16 June ukactive launched their much anticipated children’s activity report, Generation Inactive. Jon Wiffen examines its importance for schools

99 SPORT: FOOTBALL FOUNDATION

Harry Simmons outlines the Football Foundation’s investment into school facilities and who is backing its initiatives

www.educationbusinessuk.net Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

5

In 2013, 2014 & 2015, the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals has ranked ISS among the world’s best outsourcing service providers

One of the brightest stars of outsourcing for the third year in a row With more than 100 years of experience in the service industry and over 500,000 dedicated employees, ISS provides the ‘Human Touch’ to those important jobs that our clients outsource; which is why we are very proud to have been serving the Education Market with world class services since 2007.

We love to feed hungry minds! Learners of all ages need refueling during a day in the classroom and we’re here to make sure there’s plenty of delicious, home-cooked food ready for eating when the lunch bell rings! For us, it’s very important that we serve freshly prepared, healthy food which tastes great. Quality ingredients are a must and the more British and local produce, the better!

Every day ISS employees work as an integrated part of each client school and academy, ensuring that service value is created through ‘The ISS Way’ of customising and delivering our innovative service solutions.

Operating in over seventy countries ISS provides services within six different areas: Catering, Cleaning, including professional education cleaning, Technical Services, Security and Support Services and Facility Management.

Despite the change of review criteria ISS achieved the highest possible result of four full stars in the 2015 IAOP review, for the third consecutive year. We celebrate this award as an acknowledgment of great service performance, and the part that our UK business has played in the overall picture.

Being great is at the heart of our culture and each ISS individual.

To find out how you can benefit from the experience and skills provided by our 500,000+ service professionals, visit www.uk.issworld.com or feedinghungryminds.co.uk or contact us at isseducation.commercial@uk.issworld.com

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FACILITY MANAGEMENT | CLEANING | SUPPORT | TECHNICAL | CATERING | SECURITY | uk.issworld.com

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THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION – www.educationbusinessuk.net

EXAMINATIONS

ACADEMIES

87 per cent of heads oppose compulsory EBacc, survey suggests

Durand Academy head teacher to retire

87 per cent of school leaders do not support the introduction of the compulsory GCSEs needed to fulfil the English Baccalaureate (EBacc), according to a new survey from the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL).

From September, under new education reforms pupils will have to study English, maths, science, history or geography and a language at GCSE. These compulsory subjects make up the EBacc as part of a government push to ensure a greater focus on rigorous academic education.

The survey drew nearly 1,000 responses, with 63 per cent ‘strongly disagreeing’ with the changes and 24 per cent ‘disagreeing’ with the reform.

73 per cent of respondents said they would be more inclined to support the requirement if the subject choice was more flexible, and 74 per cent indicated that their school does not have enough teachers in the EBacc subjects, highlighting the current issue of teacher shortages across the country.

ASCL Deputy General Secretary Malcolm Trobe said: “We understand that ministers

intend to consult widely during the autumn over their plan for compulsory EBacc, and we are very pleased that they are doing so. We hope that this will lead to them building more flexibility into this system.

“It is clear from our survey that the vast majority of school leaders are concerned that the current proposals are too rigid and will restrict their ability to offer a curriculum which suits the needs of all their pupils.

We are concerned that creative, technology and vocational subjects are in danger of being squeezed out and we must ensure there is room in the curriculum for them.

“It needs to be recognised that the EBacc will not suit some pupils whose interests and talents may lay in other areas, and who will be demotivated by being forced to take GCSEs in which they have little interest. We hope that ministers will not therefore require that every pupil takes the EBacc and will allow that a proportion are better served by other options.”

READ MORE: tinyurl.com/p9knjvz

TRAINING

NAO to launch investigation into teacher training The National Audit Office (NAO) has announced it will open an investigation into England’s teacher training system.

It will consider if the system is providing ‘value for money’, if the Department for Education (DfE) has effective oversight, and whether it is providing a sufficient number of quality teachers.

The system for teacher training has shifted dramatically since 2010, with move away from university led courses to more school based training, such as School Direct. Each year roughly 35,000 people start teacher training courses, but there are growing fears of a teacher shortage, as the government has repeatedly failed to hit recruitment targets, with teacher training

applications dropping nine per cent from last year. The NAO said its research will examine: “If the system for training new teachers produces sufficient numbers of new teachers of the right quality for schools; and if the department has effective oversight of the market for training new teachers.”

READ MORE: tinyurl.com/okaxdlp

Education Briefer

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Sir Greg Martin, the executive head teacher of an academy whose trust is under investigation from the Charity Commission for potential financial mismanagement, is to retire.

The trust running the Durand Academy in Stockwell received £17 million from the government to set up a state boarding school is West Sussex, which opened last year, but has been under investigation since February.

The investigation began following a hearing of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee which said that there was an ‘unacceptable lack of clarity’ over who owned assets held by the trust.

It followed concerns that the school’s relationship with another company – run by Martin – that runs leisure centre facilities on the school’s site was not all it appeared to be.

Committee chair Margaret Hodge said she was ’dismayed’ at the fact that despite already earning more than £200,000 as the head of a primary school and being one of the highest-paid head teachers in the country, Martin had received more than £160,000 a year in management fees from a charitable trust.

The Durand Academy, however, said his retirement was planned and had been discussed with the governing body over a number of months.

READ MORE: tinyurl.com/q4fcro5

RECRUITMENT

Scottish councils to address teacher shortage Six councils in the north and north‑east of Scotland are to hold a summit to tackle the increasing difficulties in recruiting and retaining teaching staff.

The summit, which is being held

by Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highland, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands councils, will help identify the current challenges and draw up an action plan to address the problem.

This solution could include paying extra for teaching staff and the possible introduction of a north ‘weighting allowance’ similar to that in London. The summit is set to take place on 7 October.

Aberdeen City Council Leader Jenny Laing said: “Many councils in the north and northeast of Scotland are experiencing higher than normal levels of teacher shortages – particularly at senior management levels.

“Whilst not yet at crisis levels it is nevertheless a serious issue that we want to tackle now to protect the interests of pupils.”

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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EXAMINATIONS

Rise in GCSE pass rate, but a drop in top grades The proportion of students who achieved a C or above in their GCSEs has increased again this year, while the number of students achieving an A* saw a slight drop.

Across all subjects, 69 per cent of entries were awarded an A*-C, which is an increase of 0.2 per cent from last year. The increase is due in part to improved grades in English, which saw a pass rate rise of 3.6 per cent after a sharp decline in grades in 2014 when changes to assessment were introduced.

Maths also saw improvement, with those achieving a C or above increasing from 62.4 per cent to 63.3 per cent.

Students achieving the top grade of A* across all subjects saw a slight decrease of 0.1 per cent down to 6.6 per cent. The gender gap also narrowed slightly with 73.1 per cent of girls achieving at least a C grade, compared to 64.7 per cent of boys.

School leaders’ union NAHT responded to the results by congratulating students, but also drew focus to the worrying trend of pupils re-sitting GCSEs at age 17. This year saw the number of 17 year‑olds taking GCSE exams rise by 18 per cent.

Russell Hobby, general secretary of NAHT, said: “We welcome the increase in the number of students getting A* to C grades, which is testament to the hard work of both students and teachers. However, the 18 per cent increase in 17 year‑olds taking GCSEs does point to an increase in the number of students resitting exams. The government needs to make sure that school leaders are supported to address this trend, ensuring that resourcing is appropriate to offer the courses needed.”

READ MORE: tinyurl.com/ouyranu

EXAMINATIONS

Schools should cover costs of GCSE re-takes to support FE colleges, says think tank The Policy Exchange has suggested that schools should be fined with a ‘resit levy’ for pupils that fail to pass GCSE maths and English, to cover the costs of subsequent resits at further education (FE) colleges.

The report, entitled Crossing the line: improving success rates among students retaking English and maths GCSEs, found that FE colleges took on approximately five times more students retaking English and maths than schools.

In raw numbers, 100,239 students retook English at an FE college compared to 20,544 who stayed in school and 8,738 who went to a sixth form college. Additionally, 110,811 students retook maths at an FE college, compared to 27,579 at school and 11,193 at a sixth form college.

Based on these findings, the Policy Exchange recommends that a ‘resit levy’ should be put in place, so that schools can help support the additional burden taken on by FE colleges.

The recommendations suggest that the levy would only apply when the student has both failed to get a C grade and achieved a negative score on the new Progress 8 benchmark; where the pupil has been on the roll of the secondary schools for a sufficient length of time; and where the student has particular special educational needs and/or disabilities.

Furthermore, the think tank recommends that there should be a cap on the levy

NEWS IN BRIEF 90,000 primary students achieve maths and literacy skill target

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The latest Key Stage 2 results show substantial increases in the number of 11-year-olds securing maths and literary skills needed for secondary school compared to 2010.

The government had previously raised the bar on test scores by introducing higher floor standards, banning calculators for maths tests and introducing a spelling, punctuation and grammar test.

The statistics from the Key Stage 2 tests, taken in May by almost 580,000 pupils, showed that 80 per cent of students achieved the expected Level 4 in reading, writing and maths – up from just 62 per cent in 2009. The highest ever percentage of pupils reached the expected level in maths, at 87 per cent – up one percentage point on last year.

Since 2010, it has increased by eight percentage points – equivalent to 46,000 more pupils reaching the expected levels.

Additionally, the proportion of children reaching the reading standard by the end of primary school remains at an all-time high and has improved from 83 per cent to 89 per cent since 2010 – which equates to 33,300 more children in total. This year, 80 per cent of pupils achieved the expected level in grammar, punctuation and spelling tests which is up four percentage points.

READ MORE: tinyurl.com/oo796jo

Every school should have the opportunity to become an academy, says Cameron for any one particular school, to provide some surety in financial planning.

Commenting on the report, Russell Hobby, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT said: “this report misdiagnoses the funding crisis we are seeing in post-16 education; merely shifting funding from one setting to another will not get around that fact. A further economic sanction on schools, at a time when money is tight, will do little to help schools and pupils.

“The report assumes that not getting a grade C is a sign that the school has ‘not satisfactorily educated the 16 year old’. This over simplistic assumption misses the fundamental point of education; it is about helping children realise their potential, whatever that may be.

“At a time when all post-16 providers are facing a worsening funding position it is surely time to explore ways in which colleges and schools can work together rather than proposing divisive and ill-conceived measures.”

READ THE REPORT: tinyurl.com/nngwyuk

Prime Minister David Cameron has said he would like to see every school have the opportunity to become an academy, outlining plans to expand the manifesto promise to convert ‘coasting schools’.

Speaking to the BBC, Cameron said that he wanted to put the power in the hands of ‘the head teacher and the teachers rather than the bureaucrats’, saying that is the ‘vision for every great school’.

On subject of academy conversion, Cameron said: “I profoundly believe this is the right direction for our country because I want teachers not bureaucrats deciding how best to educate our children.”

He added: “I want every school in the country to have the opportunity to become an academy and to benefit from the freedoms this brings.”

READ MORE: tinyurl.com/q8d57ly

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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FREE TRIAL

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Parent Apps – a cost or a saving?

The latest parent communication technology focuses on improving parent engagement while cutting costs for schools. Simplicity of use is key for parents and staff. For parents this means all school communication is accessible via their phone or website, for school staff this means managing everything in one place. It’s now possible to combine absence chasing, text and email, reporting, breakfast and after-school club bookings, parents evening management and online payments all within one system. The best systems integrate seamlessly with your school MIS and cashless catering system. It’s a simple equation: If everything is easy and accessible through one login for parents… they use it.

Ian Brownhill, Development director, Schoolcomms

Written by Ian Brownhill, Development director, Schoolcomms

Parent texting systems and apps have come of age over the last 12 months providing schools and parents with a simple and consistent way to communicate with one another

Advertisement Feature

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION – www.educationbusinessuk.net

COST SAVING It used to be that the only option was to pay for each text or online payment transaction making it harder to fix budgets and putting some schools off using the technology.

However, the latest versions of parent communication systems now offer features such as unlimited text options, free app messaging and fixed cost transaction charges, which means that School Business Managers have complete control over spend and no surprises.

it Making ake m 30 per cent have easy to outside plans to introduce s t n online payments. payme ours results h , l s o t o n h e sc TECHNOLOGY pt paymtime m o r p TAKE-UP n i s s e gl n i n According to a e m asing h c research, adults spend t n e sp s more time on average balance using their phone

TIME SAVING Consider how much time is currently spent counting cash, printing letters to send home, writing praise postcards, calling parents to chase absences, gaining consent for school trips, letting parents know what their meal balances are, sharing assessment and results and checking parent contact data. All of these things and more can be administered in a few clicks and delivered instantly to a parent’s phone or to a website.

MOVING TOWARDS CASHLESS Making it easy for parents to monitor balances and make payments to schools outside school hours or while at work results in prompt payments, meaning less time spent chasing overdue balances. And of course collecting money online means less time counting cash and reduces the level of cash in school.

42 per cent of schools already offer parents the option to pay for items online. A further

than with their partners and among 25-30 year old’s, 89% have a smartphone. Parents are used to, and prefer, sending and receiving information and managing everyday tasks on their phone. Schools can cut administrative time and costs by implementing technology that’s parent-friendly, but choose a system that automatically generates a list of parents who can’t be reached so the usual telephone call or printed letter can be produced.

Making information readily accessible to parents and providing simple response mechanisms not only improves engagement, but also reduces the need to chase parents for feedback, information or money due.

HOW EASY IS IT TO SWITCH SUPPLIERS? Even if your school is contracted to a text or online payments supplier for an extended period, it’s well worth reviewing your options to make sure that you are getting best value for money. Ask a One System supplier for a quote and let them know that you’re tied into a contract. If they can help you migrate sooner by offering you a favourable transition deal they probably will. It never hurts to ask and weigh up your options. L

Ian Brownbill, Development director at Schoolcomms works with Senior Leaders across the education sector to identify ways that technology can be developed to deliver time and cost efficiencies. Schoolcomms is running a series of free 2-hour seminars on parent engagement technology, aimed at Senior Leaders, this coming term. The team will be visiting 25 locations between now and Christmas and all schools are welcome.

FURTHER INFORMATION For dates and locations visit: www.schoolcomms.co.uk/events

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

11

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AUTOMATED PAYMENTS

Should all schools be pursuing a cashless future?

With the popularity and frequency of alternative payment methods being introduced in schools, Payments UK looks at the developing trend for schools to use cashless payments and the benefits this brings for both the school and the parents Think about your school canteen. Not long ago, there were only two ways for school children to settle up the bill for their school dinners – cash or cheque. But there is a wider trend of other payment methods becoming much more popular and it’s not something that stops at the school gates.

Figures published by Payments UK earlier this year showed that the share of cash payments made by consumers, businesses and financial organisations

in the UK fell to 48 per cent last year (from 52 per cent in 2013).

This is the first time that ‘non-cash’ payments have exceeded those made with cash, reflecting the steady trend to use automated payment methods, debit cards and new technologies rather than pay by notes and coins.

We live in a country where our payments infrastructure is truly world-class and where we enjoy so much choice. The payments

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT SCHOOLS? For schools, removing cash can not only reduce administrative time spent handling cash, it can also reduce the security risk of cash being left on site, and eliminate the cost of having to pay for the physical collection of cash to deposit at a bank branch. Many systems now available to schools will automatically generate emails to remind parents of when payments are due, meaning less time is spent by school staff chasing parents for overdue payments.

Of course, cash is still a hugely popular way to pay. For many people, cash makes it easier to budget and allows them to keep track of their spending in a way that alternate payment methods wouldn’t, perhaps finding they are more careful when handing over ‘real money’. And did you know that 644 million cheques were written in the UK last year? Although cheque usage has fallen from the peak of four billion cheques written in 1990, it is forecast that around 256 million cheques will still be written in 2024.

Plans are even underway to enable banks to process cheques using electronic images, rather than having to physically transport them around the country. This will speed up the time it takes to clear a cheque, and could let you pay in a cheque by taking a picture on your phone. A change in the law coming into play in July 2016 will make it possible and the banking industry is currently working to agree the necessary changes to the infrastructure and technological capabilities required to set a firm timetable for it to be introduced.

With the many advances in technology it is important to recognise that while each payment method has its own pros and cons, choice is the most important factor for the consumer. However, parents who don’t always necessarily carry cash might benefit from not having to remember to visit a cash machine.

If you are in a rural area there may not be an ATM close by, and also for parents on a limited income where a cash machine won’t withdraw money for a value under £10.

Written by Helen Doyle, Director of Research and Customer Policy, Payments UK

sector has changed hugely within the last 10 years, with the introduction of Faster Payments, which processes internet and phone banking payments within seconds, contactless cards and even being able to pay friends, family and small businesses using just their mobile number through Paym – the mobile payment service offered by 17 banks and building societies. In short, payment methods have become more convenient than ever before.

Cashless Schools

Sponsored by

ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL One of the touted benefits of cashless payments is that they can remove the need to find the right change at the counter speeding up queuing times. Moving away from payments in cash could also promote confidentiality for students entitled to a free school meal by removing the need E Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

13

School Income Collection Research 2015 Key Results

10,000 parents and over 1,150 schools

9 out of 10 parents want to pay schools online

Parents want

Here’s why...

• To pay by credit/ debit card or through PayPoint

convenience to ensure money is spent correctly less risk to my child e.g. prevent bullying to get balance alerts

Nearly 7 in10 schools intend to go cashless

• Receive balance alerts by text or email • Get more communication from school

65% already use PayPoint

Going Cashless...

Intend to go cashless Will not go cashless Already are cashless In the process

only

7%

of parents wanted to pay by cash or cheque

• Over 50% of schools without PayPoint don’t intend to go cashless • Only 5% of schools with an online payment system still collect cash for school meals • 30%+ uptake in year 3 and above paid meals expected

in partnership with

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AUTOMATED PAYMENTS  for a paper ticket or ticking a list.

For schools that are looking to offer more payment choice or who are maybe considering stopping cash collection altogether, there are a number of options to consider, with many innovations tailored specifically for schools. This article looks at some of the possibilities – but it’s important to recognise there is no ‘one-size-fits all’ answer.

For example, card payments are now ubiquitous and advances in technology mean it is possible to accept them without paying for a standalone machine to accept them.

One example is iZettle, which provides its ‘Card Reader Lite’ to businesses for free, which can be connected to an iPhone or tablet to allow quick acceptance of card payments. It accepts all major cards, and also has a swipe function for occasions

Cashless research lunch can have an effect on a student’s ability to concentrate and affect their ability to learn towards the end of the day, so again, more control over how a child can spend the money you give them will put parent’s minds at ease.

ONLINE PAYMENT SERVICES There are some online payment services designed especially for schools and parents.

For example, ParentPay provides secure online payments to over 5,000 schools across 165 local authorities in the UK. ParentPay removes the need for cash and allows parents to view their account statements as well as payment history, and check when payments need to be made. It can also set alerts to tell parents when to pay the school online. For those wanting to keep an eye on whether or not their child is making healthy eating

For schools, removing cash can not only reduce administrative time spent handling cash, it can also reduce the security risk of cash being left on site, and eliminate the cost of having to pay for the physical collection of cash to deposit at a bank branch where the customer may not always have a PIN, such as a chip and signature card.

Looking at it from the parents’ point of view, one alternative is a prepaid card, which can be accepted virtually everywhere a debit or credit card can, but can be given to under-16s.

Transactions are protected by a PIN and the company that issues the card will be able to replace it if it gets stolen or lost, and block the original card. They can be topped up in various ways - in shops, online, or at Post Office.

More of us than ever now own a smartphone or a tablet. Research published by the mobile payment service Paym showed that 44 per cent of customers have had to dash to a cash machine to get money to pay. Paym is a simple and secure way to send and receive payments directly to a current account held with a participating bank or building society using just a mobile number, and eliminates the need to ask for an account number and sort code.

Originally designed for person to person payments, banks and building societies have started to accept Paym for business accounts too – you should speak to your bank if you think it’s an option that could help you.

Cashless schemes in school can also provide parents with a peace of mind. Removing cash from schools would mean that there is less possibility of a child being bullied for their lunch money, having it stolen, or simply losing it. Parents also have assurance that their money is being spent in the way they intended rather than spent at the shops or local takeaway, increasing the possibility of their child eating a healthy lunch. Skipping

choices, some schools will also be able to display their menu online or allow parents to see their child’s meal choice at lunch time.

According to ParentMail, over 90 per cent of parents say they would prefer to pay for school items online, as it’s more convenient than sending in cash or cheques. With their system +Pay, schools can inform parents by email or text about outstanding items they need to pay for. Parents are given a ParentMail account, which they can login to and pay bills online, with the money being transferred directly into the schools bank account securely. The system does allow for cash or cheque payment to be recorded, so if the school wanted to phase out cash payments they would be able to do so. They also allow PayPal payments to be taken. There is even a function which will allow parents to fill in school trip consent forms digitally, again making the admin process easier for the school.

PayPoint is a payment service provider that can help small to medium size businesses such as schools take advantage of online payments. It accepts all major debit and credit cards processing, as well as PayPal support as standard for improved customer experience. It also allows parents to send secure online payment links via email using their emailPay service.

The above are some of the options available to schools at the moment, but as mentioned the UK Payments landscape is growing and evolving. Cashless payments can have a positive effect on schools in reducing

ParentPay carried out research into cashless trends with 1,150 schools responding to an online survey.

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It found that 70 per cent of the schools surveyed had already taken the first steps towards introducing a form of online payment. Despite 16 per cent of schools saying that they have already gone completely cashless, some schools still felt the need to accept cash in school; although nearly one quarter of school staff seemed unaware that they could enable parents to pay by cash in thousands of local PayPoint stores across the UK. PayPoint enables those who prefer to use cash to pay for their utility bills and school payments without students and the school having to manage this cash.

The data from the 334 schools not aware of PayPoint, or who do not offer the functionality, shows that only one per cent of these schools are fully cashless and 50 per cent stated that they wouldn’t go completely cashless and would always accept cash. The benefits of direct cashless payments to both parents and schools are numerous. In many of the schools already using a cashless payment system, a £15,000 saving in costs and administration time has been calculated per annum.

Incorporating cash collection systems such as PayPoint means that schools can still meet the needs of all parents, including those who prefer to pay in cash, whilst realising the benefits of not having children bring the money directly into school.

Schools can become fully cashless, removing the need for parents to send cash or cheques to school to pay for school dinners, clubs, trips, fees and other services.

The only other consideration that remains is cost, however there are proven significant financial benefits to going fully cashless, due to the reduction in administration time and the value added for parents. admin and paper work and removing the security risks involved with keeping money on the school premises, while allowing parents and students more flexibility. For many people, cash and cheques remain their preferred method of payment, and with an increase in free to use ATMs, cash will still be around for years to come. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.paymentsuk.org.uk

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Academy Governance Written by Mark Filsell, Knill James

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FINANCIAL HANDBOOK

Opening the handbook on academy trusts The Educational Funding Agency’s Financial Handbook for Academies, which comes into play in September, focuses on the financial requirements for academies for the upcoming academic year. Mark Filsell reviews the key changes The Financial Handbook for Academies is issued by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) and applies to all academy trusts and free schools. It sets out the responsibilities and requirements relating to academy trusts’ financial governance and management. The latest release by the EFA of the new Financial Handbook for Academies has left many school governors – both current and prospective – with a conundrum.

Already trusts must

capture relevant business and pecuniary interests of members, trustees and local governors – including directorships, partnerships and employments with businesses that provide goods or services to the trust.

Now, contentiously the handbook includes a requirement for academies to publish details of relevant and pecuniary interests of members, trustees and local governors on the trust’s website irrespective of whether

Will local ho rs, w governoid for their pa are not l comfortable role, feelging such divu formation in detailed a public on ? platform

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or not there has been a transaction. It is part of a growing focus on transparency for the way academies spend their budget.

However, the question is whether local governors, who of course are not paid for their role, will feel comfortable divulging such detailed information on such a public platform.

Certainly governors and trustees are already under considerable scrutiny when businesses they are linked to have any relationship with an academy. Services provided by businesses linked to trustees and the academy have to be provided at cost and the EFA has made transparency a priority with this latest directive.

INCORPORATING TRANSPARENCY There are other key changes around the same theme in the handbook – effective from 1 September – which should also be taken into consideration. In the interests of transparency, an academy trust must publish on its website up-to-date details of its governance arrangements in a readily accessible form. This must include the structure and remit of the members, board of trustees, its committees and local governing bodies, and, where applicable, the full names of the chair of each.

Additionally, for each member who has served at any point over the past 12 months, the academy trust must also include their full names, date of appointment, date they stepped down, and relevant business and pecuniary interests including governance roles in other educational institutions.

For each trustee and local governor who has served at any point over the past 12 months, their full names, date of appointment, term of office, date they stepped down (where applicable), who appointed them (in accordance with the trust’s articles), and relevant business and pecuniary interests including governance roles in other educational institutions must be recorded.

Attendance records at board and committee meetings over the last academic year, as well as governor’s attendance records at local governing body meetings over the last academic year must also be published.

REGISTERING INTERESTS An academy trust’s register of interests must also identify close family relationships between members or trustees, and between members or trustee’s and the trust’s employees. The EFA defines a relative as a close member of the family, or member of the same household, who may be expected to influence, or be influenced by, the person. This includes, but is not limited to, a child, parent, spouse or civil partner.

Academy trusts must publish relevant business and pecuniary interests of member, trustees and local governors on their website. Trusts uphold and have discretion over the publication of interests of other individuals including child, parent, spouse and civil partner.

As part of the new regulations, academy trusts must notify EFA of the appointment of

Academies are publicly funded and there is an increasing focus – and an increasing public interest too – on how their money is spent members or trustees and the vacating or filling of the positions of chair of trustee, accounting officer and chief financial officer within 14 days of the change. Notification must be made through the EFA’s information exchange.

It is interesting to see so many uses of the word ‘must’ in this year’s handbook. It follows a trend which has seen language used in the publication change from ‘may’ or ‘should’ in recent years to a more didactic tone.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.

Academies are publicly funded and there is an increasing focus – and an increasing public interest too – on how their money is spent. Accountants are already, for instance, asked to file an assurance report for each trust, looking at whether money was spent wisely and appropriately – so these latest additions to the handbook mirror that agenda. Last year’s handbook focused on conflict of interest issues and the 2015 version simply continues the same theme.

BUDGET MONITORING Other entries in the 2015 edition include how academy trusts must not have de facto trustees or shadow directors, and how Academy Principals (Accounting

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Officers) must adhere to the ‘seven principles of public life’ – first set out by Lord Nolan and included in the Ministerial code. The seven principles are selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership.

As part of the new handbook, medium sized and larger trusts, and any undergoing a period of change, should consider more frequent board meetings than are required under their articles. The delegated limits for academy trusts, to write-off debts or enter into liabilities, are subject to a ceiling of £250,000.

There are also some inclusions in the Handbook which are likely to be warmly welcomed by trusts, not least the relaxation of the requirements relating to budget monitoring.

The Academies Financial Handbook of 2014 required a trust’s internal control framework to include preparation of timely monthly management accounts (including income and expenditure reports on an accruals basis, cash flow forecasts and balance sheets as appropriate).

The 2015 Handbook requires only ‘preparation of monthly budget monitoring reports’. This lack of prescription gives academy trusts much more autonomy in what information they maintain and, particularly for smaller Trusts, is potentially more appropriate to their needs.

HELPFUL GUIDANCE Other relaxations revealed in the handbook include how the requirement on accounting officers to complete a separate value-for-money statement has been removed. This is now incorporated as an additional element in governance statements within the accounts direction.

The delegated authorities to take up a leasehold or tenancy agreement on land and buildings have been extended. Trusts can now enter into a leasehold or tenancy agreement for a term of less than seven years without EFA approval. This was previously held at four. Additionally, only academy trusts with an annual income in excess of £50m must have a dedicated audit committee Overall, there is a lot to take in at the start of a new academic year. Increasingly the Financial Handbook for Academies is becoming not just a source of helpful guidance but a rule book for the industry – and of course for accountants working with academy trusts. Complying with, and understanding, the new requirements is absolutely vital. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.knilljames.co.uk

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hags-smp.co.uk/schools I sales@hags-smp.co.uk I 0845 260 1655

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PROCUREMENT ADVICE

Changes in buying behaviours and increased workloads means that many schools are changing the way they purchase goods and services. ESPO’s Simon Herne considers these changes and offers procurement advice for time-strapped school buyers The way we buy goods and services has changed immeasurably in recent years. Today, there are few things we actually need to leave the comfort of our sofas to shop for due to online shopping. And once we’ve chosen what we want to buy, we expect it to be delivered to our front door as soon as possible.

And it would seem this change in buying habits is increasingly being reflected in the workplace too, with schools and academies looking to receive the same experience. This is evident when it comes to buying everything from everyday essentials, but also apparent when it comes to ‘bigger ticket’ items like new classroom furniture or photo copiers.

SMART PROCUREMENT WORKSHOPS This need for fast and easier purchasing is also being driven, in part, by the increased workloads and responsibilities currently facing school business managers. We’ve recently hosted a series of Smart Procurement Education Workshops in association with NASBM. These sessions highlighted that a lack of time and complicated tender processes are preventing some schools from sourcing best value products and services and ensuring purchasing meets compliance regulations.

Academies in particular are under strain as many, some for the first time, are having to get to grips with the procurement of essential and complex services such as cleaning, grounds maintenance, HR and legal support that were previously provided by the local authority. As an organisation that exists to supply to schools and other public sector organisations, we are changing to meet these needs and to continue making the buying process as quick and painless as possible for schools and academies.

Whether you’re looking to buy 1,000 exercise books or refurbish a dining hall, using a professional buying organisation (PBO) offers a quick, cost-efficient and compliant route to market for schools, eliminating the need for complex tender processes. As a PBO we understand the challenges and changing expectations of our customers which is why we ensure schools receive a quick and efficient service, even during the peak season.

BEING PROCUREMENT SAVVY However, in addition to us responding to the changing needs of our customers, there are actually lots of steps that schools and academies can take to become ‘procurement savvy’ and make the purchasing of goods and services as convenient, quick and simple as possible.

Firstly, avoid the rush hour. Place orders for ‘made to order’ goods when demand is lower – generally anytime between November and May. If this can’t be done, plan for extended lead times. You can also set your order apart from others by accepting a delivery date during the summer holidays. The shrewd business manager that buys out of season could potentially wring a lot more from their budget.

Secondly, shop like you would from home. Many PBOs now offer the online shopping experience enabling schools to check stock availability and place their orders outside of normal working hours.

PURCHASING FIT FOR PURPOSE Additionally, make sure you use a reputable supplier. Cold callers target schools on a frequent basis with promises of low cost equipment or services, special officers and limited time discounts – all of which may well be too good to be true.

PBOs can shield buyers from such tactics and the risks associated with them by carefully assessing all their suppliers and requiring minimum performance standards and best value from them to ensure product and service quality. This massively reduces the risk of a purchase being unfit for purpose and saving customers the headache of having to negotiate terms and conditions with suppliers.

Question your time saving strategy. Do you have time to sit and compare the prices of one product from a variety of suppliers? Yes, it’s good practice but when you consider the time it takes to trawl the market comparing prices and reviewing suppliers, do you really have the time?

Some PBOs will compare the market for your behalf, so make use of this service.

Finally, consider old contracts. Old or inherited equipment supply or

Written by Simon Herne, ESPO

Purchasing the right products in the right way

place. We often receive multiple orders from the same school in one day. Processing individual orders (picking, packing, invoicing and delivering) separately often means duplication in our operations. Then, on the receiving end our customers also have to allocate additional time to the admin process (unpacking, distribution, invoice checking and making multiple payments). This type of inefficiency uses up more time and resources than is necessary. Take control of the ordering process in your school and consider how it can be done more efficiently.

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Academies in particular are under strain as many, some for the first time, are having to get to grips with the procurement of essential and complex services such as cleaning, grounds maintenance, HR and legal support that were previously provided by the local authority It is also advisable to use frameworks.

Running tenders was once seen as too broad-based and time-consuming. However, today’s frameworks cover everything from catering supplies to banking services and temporary staff, so buyers only have to deal with responses from a small number of expert suppliers. The biggest attraction with frameworks is that they have been pre-negotiated and meet relevant EU procurement regulations, so they cut red tape as well as ensuring competitive pricing.

Furthermore, ensure efficient ordering takes

maintenance contracts could leave your school paying over the odds. If possible, make the time to review your spending with your business manager or bursar. Time and money are two assets that are in constant short supply in the education sector but making effective use of professional buying organisations may just help you make considerable savings on both. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.espo.org

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Advertisement Feature

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PROCUREMENT

Langley delivers top class solution for roofing Whether within the education, healthcare or commercial sector, a roof refurbishment should be about choosing the right products for that specific project. Langley recommends that, as with any project, a thorough roof survey and report is essential A survey can assess the condition of the roof construction and look for the defects and risks that affect the quality of the current roofing system. The survey Langley conducts takes into consideration available system solutions most suitable to the project and whether there is a need for repair or full refurbishment.

A bespoke technical system solution will be specified as a result of the survey.

All applications, including felt membrane systems or cold applied liquid roofing systems, will be considered, while budgets and whole life costs are worked towards.

Project timings can also be an important factor to consider and the advantage of a roof survey is that it is designed to not only recommend the right roofing system for every individual project and roof but also to provide timescales and planning stages as well.

Langley advises recommendations on the findings of the survey and tailors suggestions based on what is best for the building and considerations for the client’s requirements. The main aim is to provide a quality roofing system that will provide a long-lasting solution.

CEDARS UPPER SCHOOL Langley Waterproofing Systems Ltd delivered a state-of-the-art roofing solution for Cedars Upper School in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, following a comprehensive and detailed survey of the school’s existing roofing system. Working with the school’s chosen consultant Wilby and Burnett, Langley was able to help the school attain a high quality, bespoke solution complete with a system lifespan guarantee of at least 30 years to help reduce whole life costs and work within allocated budgets.

A detailed report prepared by Langley identified 20 separate areas of the school’s existing roof as requiring attention, with individual roof areas ranging from 10m2 to over 1,000m2. The report enabled Langley to select the most appropriate solutions, along with budget costs for each area, in order to ensure that the school and sixth form’s roof was compliant with current Building Regulations.

Warren Harper of Wilby and Burnett commented: “We worked closely with Langley on this detailed report, which was extremely useful in identifying which

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EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 20.7

Langley Waterproofing Systems Ltd is a UK leader in high quality, long lasting roofing and waterproofing systems areas of the roof needed attention and what solutions were most suitable. It also helped both us and the school apply quickly and accurately for adequate funding.”

Langley approved contractor, Acclaim Contracts Ltd, worked to deliver the specified flat roofing solution – providing a high quality finish and level of service without unnecessary disruption to school life and the students’ learning. The wide range of solutions offered by Langley also helped the project run smoothly, with additional products needed in order to replace rooflights and upgrade the roof’s thermal quality in certain areas.

Tom Kerr, regional manager at Langley Waterproofing Systems Ltd, said: “This was a challenging project, made even more complex by working during one of the wettest winters on record. However, the thirty-year product lifespan guarantee, along with our commitment to providing high quality aftersales support to all of our clients, means that Cedars Upper School can have total confidence in their new roofing solution.

“In terms of solutions, I think the main driver is a simple one; the ability to have choice. Education boards want the very best quality and value for money, especially when projects are government funded, therefore a variety of systems must be considered.

Within the industry, one size definitely does not fit all and this means that the greater

the range of products, the more tailored a solution can be. Langley offer exactly this and we don’t target sales of specific systems - we simply go by the survey results, meaning each project starts with a fair assessment and a bespoke offering can be made accordingly.”

LEADER IN QUALITY Langley Waterproofing Systems Ltd is a UK leader in high quality, long lasting roofing and waterproofing systems.

It works with public and private sector clients nationally across a broad range of sectors including residential, education, health, commercial, retail and leisure.

Specifiers, contractors and building stakeholders benefit from Langley’s ‘endto-end approach’ to projects, handling everything from initial consultations and design, through to final installation and even post-installation care and management.

Langley’s regional and technical managers are among the most experienced in the industry, providing exceptional, design, technical support and advice to both new build and refurbishment projects.

The company is passionate about sustainability and works hard to conduct its business using the most environmentally friendly methods possible. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.langley.co.uk

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Procurement

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How to get the best procurement for schools Education Business outlines the key points from the Department for Education’s Effective buying for your school paper, which offers advice on best procurement practice

All schools are subject to public standards of accountability. Although schools spend most of their money on education staff, they collectively spend approximately £9.2billion on other areas including energy, catering and back office. The benefits of effective procurement practices includes: Financial savings that can then be reinvested in your priorities for driving up standards; goods or services purchased are fit for purpose; suppliers deliver (and continue to deliver) as agreed; legal and financial obligations are complied with.

If you’ve used a price comparison website to buy insurance, you’ll know that prices can vary dramatically. Shopping around can help you to save a lot of money. So, are you shopping around for your school as well? After all, with budgets being tight, what you buy, and how much you pay for it, matters more now than ever. Comparing or benchmarking prices will help you to make the most of every penny of your school’s budget.

Benchmarking can be used to identify significant differences in the way schools manage their resources. Through comparison with other schools’ spending and patterns of service, schools can determine whether there is scope for doing things better: improving efficiency, reducing costs or identifying the potential scope for savings.

UNDERSTANDING YOUR SPEND Schools have autonomy over the use of their budgets and so it is for heads and governors

to determine at school level how to secure better value for money. All schools should be working to make savings, spending their funds prudently and looking to make the most of their money in order to invest in teaching and learning. The ‘Review of efficiency in the schools system’ identifies a number of characteristics which are common to many of the more efficient schools and proposes a number of actions that schools, government and our partners can take to support greater efficiency in schools.

Your school is responsible for its own financial management and the details of your deals and contracts.

Understanding your finances and deals can help you identify where savings can be made and makes it easier to compare your current deals with those offered by public sector organisations such as the Crown Commercial Service.

The Schools Financial Benchmarking website enables all English maintained schools to prepare charts so that they can compare their income and expenditure profiles with those of similar schools.

The buying process is broken down in to three stages – planning, purchasing and managing. Different rules apply depending

on the value of the purchase you are making.

You could save money by using existing contracts or teaming up with other schools so that you have more purchasing power.

WHY IS PROCUREMENT IMPORTANT? You must follow basic procurement regulations because your school spends public money. This will ensure that the money is spent in a way that is fair, open and good value for money. Your procurement decisions must be fair and open. Poor procurement decisions and a failure to comply with procurement legislation could result in legal challenges from suppliers, contracts being cancelled and financial penalties which can be costly, timeconsuming and impact on your school’s reputation.

As a general guide, the higher the value of the purchase and the more public money you’re spending, the more stringently you should follow procurement rules. Planning Budgets are tight, so make sure you plan before you make your purchase. Make sure that you know precisely what you need to buy (ask those who will be using it) and that it’ll meet your school’s needs over a period of time.

Think also about whether you could loan equipment, or share resources with other E

With school ing s be budget t you buy, ha tight, whow much and for it, y a p u o y ow more n s r e t t a m er than ev

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PURCHASING PROCESSES  schools (which would mean not having to make a purchase at all). Maybe you could collaborate with other schools to increase your buying power? Check if there are any existing deals already in place for what you are buying through your local authority or a public sector framework. These will all be compliant and the hard work will be done for you. You will need to estimate the total contract value (the life of the contract including any disposal activity, excluding VAT) of what you are buying. Remember that you may need to do a business case for higher value purchases.

And don’t forget, value for money is not always about the lowest price. It’s about getting the right balance between quality and cost. Think about how you will measure these when you specify and evaluate your purchase.

WHAT IS A FRAMEWORK? Frameworks are essentially contracts that other organisations, such as local authorities, central government departments or public buying organisations negotiate with suppliers to get the best, compliant deals. These organisations then make these deals available to schools and other public sector bodies. To buy from a framework, the main thing you will need to do at a school level is to carry out a ‘mini-competition’ among the relevant suppliers on the framework. This is usually a much quicker and simpler process than setting up a new contract yourself.

Check with the following organisations to see if there is an existing contract/framework agreement for the goods or service you want to buy: Crown Commercial Service (CCS), The Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC), Pro5,

value purchase; £40K + (but below the EU threshold) is a high value purchase.

Don’t have a buying decision tree in school?

Use the purchases checklists providing School Business Managers with information relating to the basic questions and choices you need to consider when you need to purchase any goods, works or services for your school.

Note that aggregation rules do apply.

If the totality of the contract for the services is below the threshold as calculated following public contract regulation rules then just public sector procurement policy, EU Treaty principles and UK competition law would apply. Open competition should be considered to comply with transparency requirements and ensure value for money has been tested.

Purchases with a value above the EU threshold must follow EU procurement process.

EU PUBLIC SECTOR PROCUREMENT The European Union (EU) has introduced rules to open up public purchasing by making states remove restrictive practices. These rules are incorporated in a ‘Directive’ which, converted into legal obligations in the UK through Regulations, place particular duties and responsibilities on all public spending contracting authorities which the UK courts can enforce.

The Public Contracts Regulations sets cash limits (excluding VAT) for the goods and services they cover. These limits are referred to as thresholds. The thresholds are revised every two years. The last review was on 1 January 2014. For all schools this is: £172,514 (€207,000) for all goods and most services and £4,322,012 (€5,186,000) for the procurement of works.

Your school is responsible for its own financial management and the details of your deals and contracts. Understanding your finances and deals can help you identify where savings can be made your local authority (you may need to register with some of these organisations, but this is a simple process – don’t let it put you off).

Frameworks have already gone through a competitive tendering process, comply with public sector procurement regulations – on certain frameworks you won’t need to look for competing bids, favourable terms and conditions have already been negotiated, and if anything does go wrong during the life of the contract, you’ll have the support and assistance from the organisation that negotiated it.

BUY BUY BUY So, you’ve planned your purchase meticulously, and now’s the time to buy.

How you do this depends on how much the contract is worth and your local authority’s procurement thresholds. Typical values are as follows: Less than £10K is a low value purchase; £10k to £40K is a medium

Services used solely for the purpose of delivering education and some other specific services including but not limited to health, social and culture are subject to the higher Light Touch Regime threshold of £625,000 (€750,000). When the value of a contract, over its expected duration, exceeds or is likely to exceed the relevant threshold, you must tender these contracts in OJEU. The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 apply to procurements from 26 February 2015. The Regulations offer a number of ways in which to estimate the value of a contract. It is expressly prohibited to split requirements into smaller units or orders to avoid the rules and regulations.

KEY PRINCIPLES FOR EDUCATION The key principles for education include a requirement to advertise non-specific education commodity or services contracts in the Official Journal of the European Union

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(OJEU) which exceed £172,514; setting time limits for the tender procedure; the use of the universally acceptable standards in specifications to promote wider competition; making early decisions on the criteria for the award of the contract; not discriminating against foreign suppliers; offering debriefing to unsuccessful tenderers; and the need to keep statistics of procurements made under the terms of the directive. In certain circumstances, a contract let by a public body including schools will not be deemed to be a contract for the purposes of the public procurement regulations.

The relevant circumstances are that the participating public bodies co-operate to perform public services they must provide, meeting common objectives and that the public body exercises the same kind of control over the service provider as it does over its own schools. There is no private sector ownership of the service provider or any intention that there should be any.

LIGHT TOUCH REGIME Services listed in Schedule 3 of the Public Contracts Regulation 2015 are subject to the light touch regime. These include those services used specifically in education provision including the provision of school meals.

Services that could also be used elsewhere than in a school i.e. building maintenance and ICT, do not come under the light touch regime and attract the lower threshold.

The threshold for advertising under the light touch regime is £625,000 (€750,000). Treaty principles of transparency and fairness still apply to lower value contracts. Under the light tough regime all schools shall award contracts by publishing in the OJEU a call for competition. This can be either a contract notice or prior information notice (PIN) which can be published a year in advance and cover multiple contracts provided that it appears continuously, contains the information required on the form, refers specifically to the types of services that will be the subject of the contracts to be awarded, indicates that the contracts will be awarded without further publication and invites interested suppliers to express their interest in writing.

PRIOR INFORMATION NOTICE (PIN) Other than for publishing a requirement under the Light Touch Regime, you may publish a prior information notice (PIN) to make known your intentions of planned procurements. You can submit your PIN online at the European Commission website. Advantages of publishing a PIN are that you can alert the market early of your requirements and in some circumstances take advantage of reduced timescales. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.gov.uk/government/uploads/ system/uploads/attachment_data/file/ 426875/Effective_buying_for_ your_school_May_15.pdf

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Case Study

www.educationbusinessuk.net – THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

Milkround School Leavers – the career resource hub specifically for school and college leavers Results Day 2015 – You have been working for months and even years towards this day and it is finally here – it is time to find out what the next step of your life will be. If university turns out to not be the path of life you will walk, there are still many options for you.

You can change direction and accept that life does not always go to plan and you will find yourself with a more positive attitude and outlook on the future. Utilise the web and research different industries and job roles and the ways of entering them, and chances are you could find something surprisingly perfect.

There are alternatives to university. Things like apprenticeships are often overlooked as career paths, and for no good reason at all. They can mix both academia and actual labour, meaning that you get the best from both worlds and all the knowledge you could possibly need. And the best thing of all is that you get paid for your work while you are still learning!

Do your research on all the available

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EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 20.7

university alternatives such as diplomas, straight to work schemes, traineeships, internships and much more – chances are there is an alternative that is perfect for you.

Volunteering and gap years are an excellent way to get into a job role and prove that you have the responsibility, skills and tenacity to be part of the workforce. If you decide to spend a gap year working abroad you will also show bravery and that you can assimilate to different cultures, which is a valuable life skill that proves that you respect and understand other people.

All the work you put in as a volunteer, whether it is abroad or closer to home, will be valuable to your CV and show that when life gave you lemons you decided to make your own lemonade.

Working your way up can be very beneficial.

Many currently prominent and highly successful people started as assistants, receptionists, etc. It is then a matter of taking every chance to stand out and learn new skills on the job. Once there is a opportunity open, you will already be known as a hard worker who is keen to learn and help everyone.

If you still don’t know what to do – remember that is fine. It is much more important to ensure that you are doing something fulfilling and worthwhile than it is to do something right now. Take some time out to do your research and really think about what you want your future to look like now that your plans have suddenly changed.

Remember that you have all the time in the world to make the right decision for you.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 020 3003 4000 schoolleavers@milkround.com schoolleavers.milkround.com

Well Educated Banking www.lloydstsb.com/ schoolbanking

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STAFF SHORTAGES

With further negative predictions being forecast for 2016 teaching applications, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s Professor John Howson analyses the possible effect that recruitment shortages could have on schools this year Although September marks the start of the new school year it doesn’t mark the end of the 2015 recruitment round. This will come in December after any vacancies for January 2015 have been filled. Recruitment to these vacancies will need to be either from the limited pool of new entrants that completed their teacher training in the summer but still haven’t found a teaching post or from other sources – no new trainees will enter the job market now until the summer of 2016. Other sources of teachers to fill January vacancies include, ‘returners’ to teaching; existing teachers seeking to change schools – perhaps

because a partner has been relocated – and overseas teachers.

The challenge with regard to obtaining visas for teachers from some parts of the world (even though these teachers have automatic ‘Qualified Teacher Status’) means that parts of the EU with high unemployment may provide new recruiting grounds for those seeking to help schools fill their January vacancies.

REGIONAL DIFFERENCES With During the recruitment period for September half of der n 2015 vacancies there u s were some marked teacherf 40, there o regional differences e g the a otentially advertisement t inrates a h is p t for vacancies p u le gro ew b on our TeachVac web a e z i s a eaf may takout of years reers their ca

site. Although we were only tracking main scale secondary vacancies this year, there were some obvious regional variations.

London and the two regions closest to the capital, the South East (5.29) and East of England (5.91), all had vacancy rates per school above the national average for England as a whole, with schools across London averaging more than 6.5 advertisements per schools for main scale teachers during the period between January and the end of July 2015.

Six regions had average rates of advertisements per schools below the national average, with the North West seeing the lowest recorded rate of 3.71 advertisements per schools, although the rates for schools across the North East (3.74), South West (3.75) and West Midlands (3.72) were very E

Written by Professor John Howson, chair of the REC Education Steering Group

The challenges affecting the 2016 teaching job market

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STAFF SHORTAGES  similar. The lower rates of advertisements for schools in these regions doesn’t mean that there were no recruitment challenges facing schools in these regions – rather that they were probably fewer in number than those faced by schools in and around London.

This year, we cannot fully identify the difference between a re-advertisement and a second vacancy in the same subject, but it seems likely that in some of the shortage subjects the occurrence of more than one advertisement is likely to have meant a re‑advertisement. Overall re-advertisement rates are in the range of 15-25 per cent depending on the region and the subject.

PHYSICS ADVERTISEMENTS Let’s take Physics as an example. TeachVac recorded 330 advertisements for a teacher of Physics. Now, there were undoubtedly other advertisements for teachers of Physics, but they were subsumed within advertisements for ‘a teacher of science’ and cannot be separately identified. The 330 advertisements were placed by 240 different schools.

This suggest that a number of schools placed more than one advertisement.

As TeachVac disregards advertisements placed within 21 days of the first record, it is probably fair to say that most of these were re-advertisements. In fact 63 of the 330 schools placed more than one advertisement – a potential re-advertisement rate of 19 per cent. Indeed, some 17 of the 63 schools placed three or more advertisements, with one school in Kent placing five different advertisements between February and July.

Interestingly, the number of schools advertising for a teacher of Physics differed considerably across the country. In the North East there were only eight schools that specifically sought a teacher of Physics, two of which were church schools (one Church of England and the other a Roman Catholic school), who both placed more than one advert. In London, there were 52 schools advertising, with 12 placing more than one advert. In the case of Physics it is worth noting the relatively high percentage of selective and independent schools that feature in the range of schools advertising for a teacher of Physics rather than a teacher of science. TeachVac can supply detailed information on market trends to anyone interested in the details.

PREDICTIONS FOR 2016 JOB MARKET Data from the UCAS application scheme for teacher training courses produced at the end of July appears to show that, unless there is a flurry of late applications, several subjects will once again fail to recruit as many trainees as the government thinks are required for the vacancies likely to arise in both September 2016 and January 2017. As this will be there third year that some subjects have not met the government’s target number needed to enter training, as identified by the DfE’s Teacher Supply Model, the shortfall will extent to the

One knock-on effect could be that schools change their curriculum offering as a result of knowing recruitment will be challenging. This will put pressure on other subjects if the government’s modelling hasn’t taken such changes into account loss of a whole cohort of trainees in subjects such as design and technology, business studies and physics over the three year period.

Based on the current recruitment into training data, the predictions for the 2016 job market forecasts that shortages will increase in English, geography, design & technology and business studies, with regional shortages predicted in IT and computer science, music and religious education.

It is also predicted that mathematics recruitment may experience issues concerning quality of teaching, rather than quantity of applicants. History is projected to see a greater demand from the private sector than the maintained sector, while science is seen to have sufficient numbers, although specific subjects could see marginal decreases. It is also believed that the surplus of this years applicants for art should prevent shortages, while there remains plenty of applicants for physical education.

One knock-on effect could be that schools change their curriculum offering as a result of knowing recruitment will be challenging. This will put pressure on other subjects if the government’s modelling hasn’t taken such changes into account.

Another possibility is that schools will seek to increase the time available for sports and other parts of the curriculum that can be taught by PE teachers – the only subject with a real over-supply of teachers.

Once the final training numbers are known in November, the TeachVac website will be updated with predictions based upon the number of vacancies recorded this year. Users of TeachVac will be kept up to date with changes to the predications about how easy recruitment will be once, for instance, the shape of the school funding package is known in the autumn.

INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS The future direction of the Chinese economy and its stock market will be crucial in

estimating the future demand for teachers to work in international schools, since China, along with the other tiger economies of Asia and the traditional market in the Gulf, represents a large slice of the international schools market. With half the teaching profession in England under the age of forty, there is potentially a sizeable group of teachers that might wish to take a few years out of their careers and work abroad, especially if they gained an appetite for travel during a ‘gap year’ before or after university.

With public sector salaries still being held down in England, the opportunity to earn more working abroad, especially if the workload issues aren’t addressed in the near future, may make this a lucrative sector of the recruitment market. As the BBC programme Chinese School showed, bringing teachers the other way into England isn’t always an easy transfer of skills.

CONCLUSION The announcement in early August of the departure of the head of the National College to a new post in the Ministry of Justice offers the government an opportunity to take stock of the teacher supply position.

A minister has already acknowledged that it represents a ‘challenge but not a crisis’.

Either way, there are obvious shortages of supply that will continue into the 2016 job market. As ever, the shortages offer opportunities to those that can help supply schools with the teachers that they need. L

Professor John Howson is Chair of the REC’s Education Steering Group, which helps the REC and its members stay informed of developments on the frontline of the education system.

FURTHER INFORMATION www.rec.uk.com

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

27

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The impact of post-election funding on school business management is a cause for concern. NASBM’s Stephen Morales addresses the demand for accountability, forward planning and bursarial management in running an effective school While Minters and officials settle into their new post-election roles, the sector is trying to make sense of the policy trajectory of an unconstrained Tory majority government.

At the same time the sector is being encouraged to self-manage continuous improvement and we are seeing the emergence of a number of stakeholder initiatives to drive-up standards.

We have experienced five years of system change and a fragmentation of provision. In a push for decentralisation, autonomy and choice, the coalition government moved us from a position of relative uniformity and certainty to one where market forces are being encouraged to prevail.

The National Association of School Business Management (NASBM) is not an advocate, for or against, the current landscape. It has created new opportunities for some schools and presented real challenges for others. International research into high performing education systems suggests that systems benefit from a degree of latitude that encourage innovation and creative leadership but that first there needs to be structural maturity.

It is probably reasonable to expect yet more upheaval and change during this parliament.

The manifesto sets clear expectations of schools and places a responsibility on high performing institutions to support schools

that need to improve. Complacency under the banner of ‘coasting’ (yet to be clearly defined, only a draft definition has been released to date) will lead to more intense scrutiny from OFSTED and the evolving remit of the schools regional commissioner could in some circumstances require a school to consider its options within a multiacademy structure.

This Tory party are unapologetic with their ambition to reduce public sector spending in order to reduce government debt.

With this backdrop, the Department for Education will make identifying further efficiency a key priority for all schools.

in order to take ownership of teaching standards, head teacher development and succession. Likewise, a further acceleration of the academies programme is to be expected and ‘coasting’ schools will most likely be put under increased scrutiny and pressure to academise.

This all means inevitable increased direct accountability to match new levels of autonomy, an increase in the number of small/medium MATs adopting corporate governance and management structures, the centralisation of some functions and leadership responsibilities and a need to develop internal capacity to respond the new local complexity in the system.

Written by Stephen Morales, National Association of School Business Management

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LOOKING AHEAD It is therefore important to ask, what does this mean for school leaders? We can expect unfunded new cost pressures with a flat cash school budget settlement, and an evolving middle tier via School Commissioners – whose clear remit is yet to be clearly understood.

Furthermore, it would not be surprising to see the Royal College of Teaching and he Leadership Foundation positioning themselves

Management (SBM) role evolved over the last two decades and is the profession ready to rise to the challenges presented by this new landscape?

Lets take a quick canter through the history of the SBM profession. As recently as the late 1980s, School Business Management was a foreign concept in schools. The autonomy afforded to schools during the period of the education sectors evolution, that included LMS and GM status, led schools to think carefully about their internal capacity to respond to a range of activities previously discharged via the local authority. E

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GOVERNANCE

In a push for decentralisation, autonomy and choice, the coalition government moved us from a position of relative uniformity and certainty to one where market forces are being encouraged to prevail  During the early 1990s we began to see a proliferation of the Bursar role in state secondary schools. This role was already well-established in the independent sector but not well understood in state settings.

By the end of the 1990s ‘New Labour’ made a commitment to teacher workforce reforms designed to remove administrative burdens from teachers and principals. As we moved into the new millennium the Government took significant steps, through the National College, to develop a suitably trained workforce to respond to the administrative demands on schools.

The original target was to train 1,000 School Business Managers by 2006. The National College has since trained close to 10,000 practitioners across four broad programmes of study from the Certificate in School Business Management (level 4) to the School Business Director Programme (level 7). The latest workforce census (during 2011) suggests there are circa 16,000 practitioners in the system.

The Coalition Government introduced the Academy Bill in 2010.

This offered schools new levels of autonomy but under a rigorous accountability framework and new challenges for schools in terms of financial reporting. As the number of academies has increased and cuts in public sector spending have taken hold local authorities have struggled to maintain central services. Schools are increasingly required to manage complex operational areas via their own internal capacity.

These operational or functional areas inevitably include Finance, HR, Procurement, Infrastructure and Marketing and whilst the National College programmes have helped education leaders develop rounded contextual knowledge its programmes of study have perhaps fallen short in addressing technical competency and knowledge. The existing community of SBM practitioners (circa 16,000) include a very broad mix of ability, experience, competency and knowledge from aspiring Finance Administrators to highly skilled and qualified Directors or COOs. The majority of practitioners are committed individuals that have added enormous value in their own individual settings at every level of the profession. The pace of change in the education sector and policy reforms encouraging schools to be far more self-sufficient has required us to revisit the characteristics of our management teams in order thrive with these new levels of autonomy.

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE? The SBM profession needs a revised reference point that responds to this new landscape and associated CPD content needs to be relevant and fit for purpose in this new environment. Schools and academies are expected to identify further efficiencies and paying lip-service to the concept of value for money is not enough.

With increased local autonomy schools and academies are expected to review every aspect of their operations and legacy organisational structures. The Department for Education needs to provide confidence in a self-improving system that it is capable of developing organisational structures that ensure resources and expertise are deployed in the most effective way to ensure optimum learning outcomes for all children.

If we accept that this needs to be achieved within a backdrop of a more challenging fiscal environment and a dilution of local authority support, schools and academies will need to assess their capacity to cope with the new-landscape. This will mean; training, recruiting and retaining appropriately experienced and qualified professionals, sharing/ combining leadership capacity through collaboration, federations, trusts or mergers, adopting corporate structures sharing/ spreading strategic

expertise, looking closely at the duplication of effort and expense across schools, embracing technology to improve efficiency and looking beyond education for industry best practice and operational effectiveness.

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THE STANDARDS FRAMEWORK In response to these new challenges the National Association of School Business Management has developed a national professional standards framework for school business management. These standards have been developed in conjunction with a range of key stakeholders including, the Department for Education and other government agencies, relevant professional bodies, unions, national associations, universities and practitioners. The standard draw from a wealth of empirical evidence, international research and industry best practice.

As well as providing the blueprint for effective practice the standards will serve as a tool for recruitment, performance management and career progression. All future school business management related CPD should be underpinned by the standards.

We also hope that schools will choose to use the standards to self-evaluate their own overall operational effectiveness.

NASBM believes that the role deserves professional status. Through the professional standards framework practitioners will be able to apply for formal professional recognition by demonstrating their level of engagement across each section. There will be a formal award for each stage of their professional journey from Affiliate (those aspiring), Member (established practitioners), Fellow (sector leaders), to Chartered Fellows (exceptional contribution to practice). Professional status will require a continued commitment to ongoing CPD, a code of ethics and system leadership. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.nasbm.co.uk

Independent Education Trade Fair Thursday 22nd October 2015

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Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Shortfall in school places?

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SCHOOL PLACES

Graham Olway, Capital Planning and Projects at West Sussex County Council, provides an overview of how the Council is managing the unprecedented growth in school places Whilst the memories of the ‘1960s Baby Boom’ are a distant memory for some, they have been replaced by the ‘Baby Boom of the 2000s’ and the challenges on local authorities to provide school places are perhaps greater. In the 1960s, the ‘Baby Boom’ was managed by a huge proliferation of temporary school buildings. Terms such as SCOLA (Second Consortium of Local Authorities), ROSLA (Raising of the School Leaving Age), CLASP (Consortium of Local Authorities Special Programme) and HORSA (Hutting Operation for the Raising of the School Leaving Age) all have links with inadequate buildings and very few advocates.

Shortly before 2010, a regular conversation was beginning in local authorities that raised the spectre of another baby boom period.

Despite the local authority officers who were involved in school place planning telling themselves that the years of surplus place removal projects had ended and school closures or amalgamations to ensure effective use of the school estate were a thing of the past, the government was not convinced or didn’t want to face the problem. It was only after a significant lobby at the May 2009 National Education Building Development Officers Group (EBDOG) Conference in Liverpool that the Department for Education (DfE) civil servants who attended took away the widespread concern and began the strategy of dealing with what was the beginning of an unprecedented growth in pupil numbers.

At first, there was still a surplus of spare accommodation in the schools and careful remodelling of accommodation enabled extra classrooms to be created at relatively low cost. Most schools did not want to see temporary buildings, often lovingly called ‘Huts’, as the solution but the ‘Huts’ of today are thankfully nothing like those of the 1960s – 1990s.

The modern day ‘Huts’ have to meet current building regulations and have air conditioning, heating and toilets, something that most of their predecessors didn’t.

The careful use of DfE capital grant combined with Section 106 Developer Contributions, and as many other funding sources as can be found, mean the budgets are often greater but the costs never seem to decrease. Innovative ways of combining school facilities with community facilities (such as libraries, sports facilities, GP surgeries) and sharing the site has enabled buildings and land to be more effectively used than just during the school day. The opportunity to open new schools is always popular with parents as they see a brand new building but may not look beyond the building and give greater importance on how teaching and learning is to be delivered in the school.

Previous European visits to schools in the Netherlands has allowed the opportunity to bring designs and themes from Europe into West Sussex and the bright colours of Kandinsky and ‘floating’ classrooms from Nijmegen are now replicated in West Sussex. The planners of the Netherlands have created schools with key worker or social housing built on top of them and thereby plan ahead to the day when the young population of today may require the care facilities of tomorrow. The planners of West Sussex have yet to engage fully with that solution but perhaps the time is coming when it will be seen as part of the generic brief for a new school.

ive Innovatof ways chool ing s combinties with ies facili y facilitings t i n u m com ed builde l b a n e has d to b and lan more used ely effectiv

ADOPTING THE RIGHT APPROACH Within West Sussex County Council, the approach was to use the assets that the County Council already had in a different way. Schools were beginning to consider the apparent greater freedoms of being an academy and so negotiation was needed between the local authority and schools to ensure that the local growth in birth rate could be accommodated.

FREE SCHOOLS The development of Free Schools has introduced another aspect of school provision that was not thought possible 10 years ago – schools being set up in former public buildings such as churches, fire stations, shops etc. The challenge has raged for some years that the constraints of DfE Building Bulletins upon local authority schools have not needed to be followed by Free Schools.

A definitive answer on what is a school building has yet to be provided but the ways in which that building might be built have also changed.

Gone are the times of brick or rendered externals being essential, gone also are the apparent luxuries of having architects design school buildings that might win awards but perhaps only serve to divert limited public funds into the profits of architects rather than school resources.

Modular or pre-fabricated buildings may become the solution to the school accommodation needs of the future and linking them to existing buildings of various types, as well as creating stand alone buildings that can provide a quicker but not necessarily cheaper solution to basic need growth, is being investigated.

To ensure the most effective use of the limited capital grants that are available, West Sussex County Council has been initiating conversations, through an initiative called ‘PLACE’, with all of its District and Borough Councils to explore how more joined up solutions to future building needs can be secured.

Securing greater investment in West Sussex and promoting a beautiful area of the country with the South Downs National Park being prominent in it will all mean that the challenge will continue. Increased development of new and existing businesses in West Sussex should generate significant benefit to the County Council but will undoubtedly lead to more families moving into West Sussex through new employment and thereby increasing the pupil numbers still further. L

Written by Graham Olway, West Sussex County Council

Where next for the growth and need for school places?

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Graham represented all local authorities in England as National Chairman of the Education Building Development Officers Group from 2007-13 and was awarded a MBE for his services to Education in 2013.

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Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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BUILDING MAINTENANCE

School buildings built to serve a purpose A multitude of components must be considered when planning the restoration of a school building, from methods of construction through to the use of sympathetic materials, especially if the building is listed. Traditional buildings make up a quarter of the UK’s existing building stock and school buildings account for more than 5,000 of these in England alone.

While built to last, these buildings are often in need of varied levels of refurbishment to maintain an adequate level of occupancy. Restoration of building services in school buildings are common place and there is a complex relationship between building services, energy efficiency, air and moisture movement and the conservation of existing building stock.

The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) has a set of guidelines for organisations seeking to improve the longevity of an existing building which, when put into practice, will make a significant contribution to its practical use.

This will preserve the building’s historic fabric and avoid inappropriate and incompatible materials. It will extend the beneficial use of older buildings by avoiding building services that are expensive to run or maintain.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions, using cleaner fuels and increasing the thermal performance of the building are part of the guidelines, as is the need to specify environmentally conscious materials; assess the impact of new materials on the environment and the health of the buildings end users.

t Consen local ur from yoy may be t authori red so it i requ t that this rtan is impois accounted time or in f ning the planes taken to determine stag whether the

LEGISLATION Since buildings are rarely exactly alike, legislation for the refurbishment of traditional and heritage buildings, including schools, can be as intricate as the character of the building in question. Each building must be assessed individually and if the building is listed, a Historic Buildings Inspectorate may also be needed. There are three forms of statutory protection given to buildings in the UK. These are: scheduled ancient monuments, listed buildings and buildings situated in conservation areas.

Prior to any refurbishment work carried out on historic school buildings, steps must be

building is protected or not and which form of protection it falls into. Consent from your local authority may be required before work is carried out so it is important that this time is accounted for in the planning stages.

BUILDING REGULATIONS Where there is a need to retain special characteristics of a building, an appropriate balance must be obtained in regards to

Written by Neil Sturrock, Heritage Group, CIBSE

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modern regulations and a sympathetic treatment. Obviously the aim of any alteration is to improve the energy efficiency of a building; however, the risk of destroying the character of the building or long‑term use must be taken into account.

Although there may be limitations to which Building Regulations can be met while retaining the buildings character, it is still important that opportunities for improvement of services that are available are not overlooked. There is usually a range of possible enhancements 

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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www.educationbusinessuk.net – THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

MAINTENANCE & REFURBISHMENT

Fixing leaking roofs: The devil is in the details

Leaking flat roofs are a common problem in educational premises. Once inside the building, water takes the path of least resistance and will permeate and cause damage to anything it comes into contact with. The longer the leaks are left unrepaired, the worse the damage will be explains Paul Waller, Brand director of liquid roofing specialist Tor Coatings It is accepted that all existing buildings need maintenance to keep them functioning efficiently. However, in practice, the roof can often fall outside of maintenance budgets until it presents a problem, usually in the form of a leak. By then the roof will be failing and major repairs will be necessary.

Many traditional roofing membranes were applied in sheet form (e.g. roof felts or single ply membranes) and as such, there are a large number of joints in the waterproofing system. The roof details, such as roof lights and upstands, will have more joints around them and it is these areas that are the most susceptible to water ingress.

This happens because on warm sunny days, the increased roof temperature causes expansion in the roof system. As night falls or the weather turns cold, the roof membrane contracts. This thermal movement will be concentrated around roof details and as the existing waterproofing membrane joints open up, dirt, debris and water will enter these gaps and very cold temperatures in Winter will freeze this water and open up these joints even further. Eventually the roof will succumb to water ingress.

The TM al Elastasef system oo Warm R r Coatings from To seamless uses a omeric elast ofing ro waterp brane mem

THERMAL EFFICIENCY IN RE-ROOFING SYSTEMS We can all recognise that the cost of heating buildings has been escalating due to dramatically higher energy costs for all buildings over the past few years. Energy saving products and systems are now essential when choosing. Amendments to the Building Regulations Part L2 (Conservation of Fuel and Power) mean that when considering a full roof refurbishment you will need to address and improve the thermal efficiency of that element in your design. The recommendations will essentially require the installation of a new or additional insulation layer in the new roof system in order to improve the thermal efficiency of the roof.

The result will be a reduction in the heat loss from the building via the roof and this in turn will lead to reduced heating costs.

For education establishments, the use of energy efficient roof systems will assist in the sourcing of funds from the Education

36

EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 20.7

Funding Agency in the form of the Priority School Building Program (PSBP2) or the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF).

CHOOSING A NEW ROOF SYSTEM When preparing a roof repair design, you do have the option of choosing a joint-free roof waterproofing system.

You can also choose a system that will expand and contract in harmony with the thermal movements described above AND incorporate the thermal insulation to comply with the Part L Regulations.

The ElastasealTM Warm Roof system from Tor Coatings uses a seamless elastomeric waterproofing membrane. This membrane is applied as a cold liquid to form a joint free roof which will expand and contract in harmony with the roof. The warm roof design incorporates a highly efficient roof insulation panel to deliver the thermal performance required.

Tor Coatings has been specialising in building refurbishment systems for 40 years and has built a solid reputation for high quality liquid applied roofing.

The company offers a free site survey for your building projects. During this survey Tor Coatings will assess the condition and take core samples to understand the thermal profile of your existing roof.

After consultation, to understand your full requirements, Tor Coatings will write a bespoke, photographic roof specification which caters for a new roof design offering compliance with the latest thermal requirements. The company can offer Tor Partner Contractors who are experts in installing the system and can deliver comprehensive warranties up to 25 years with a free insurance policy paid for by Tor. L FURTHER INFORMATION For more information or to book a free site survey please contact Sue Greenwood on 0191 411 3134 or email susan.greenwood@tor-coatings.com.

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BUILDING MAINTENANCE  that can improve a building’s energy efficiency. Careful thought must go into the replacement or alteration of visible characteristics of the building like the windows and doors.

Refurbishment work carried out on Norton Park, an old primary school in Edinburgh, saw the restoration of the windows and doors.

Most of the original windows were retained and the process of repairing and upgrading included the removal of both internal and external paint, re-roping, new parting beads and batten rods, and the double glazing of all broken, cracked or obscured panes.

Where possible, the original doors were kept and repairs were made including paint, new locks and original re-polished handles.

THE DESIGN STAGE There are four major principles to consider during the design stage of a refurbishment to an historic school building in an effort to minimise potential risk and increase potential benefits. These are to define the reason for repairs, minimise intervention, avoid preventable damage and to seek reversibility and minimise irreversible damage.

A significant part of the restoration process is the planning stage as it is vital that mistakes are not made that have irreversible consequences. Historic buildings are finite and cannot be replaced if significant damage is inflicted. Building services that are introduced will need to be assessed for their need against the potential risk of damage or disruption. They should be sympathetic to their surroundings and new work should aim to be reversible so that a building can be reverted back to its original state if required.

There are several simple ways of increasing the energy efficiency of a school building in a nonintrusive manner. This can be by installing better controls and management to existing services, changing to better and long-term light sources, keeping proper records and performing regular preventative maintenance.

RE-USING EXISTING SERVICES Before any work is done on implementing new systems, existing building services should be examined to gauge their continued value for the school building. It is important to note that existing services are also subject to legislation, meaning all work carried out on removing services in a listed building can’t be done without permission.

Re-using services like traditional radiators, lighting equipment and exposed pipework is a great way to save the character of a building and it’s important that, where possible, these should be saved. Old radiators will have to be cleaned, pressure tested and examined carefully to make sure they are still in a safe working condition but unfortunately the value of old radiators is often only recognised once they have been permanently removed.

There is danger in re-using old services and the health of occupants must always be first priority when deciding to re‑use pipework or electrical wires. Fire can be one of the greatest threats when using old wiring which will not only threaten occupants but the fabric and contents of the building as well.

MODERN BUILDING SERVICES If the re-use of the pre-existing services are not sufficient there are a large number of modern building services that can be applied to historic school buildings. In some cases, accommodating a school will not have been the intended purpose for the original building. Often, the needs of historic buildings change with time and therefore occupants of the buildings will require differing levels of building services. School buildings are a great example of how a building’s requirements can change and why modern building services can play a key role in improving operation.

Some of the most common building services introduced into schools during refurbishment projects included; control systems, security systems, cooling and air conditioning, fire protection (sprinklers), fire detection (alarms) and transportation and disabled access – lifts, escalators and ramps. In some cases some or all of these may not be suitable for historic buildings but typically there will be ways to accommodate the services with careful planning.

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It is important to strike a good balance between the requirements of the building owner and the needs of the building itself.

Finding suitable places for new services without damaging the fabric or structural stability of the building can be tricky. Chasing or notching wiring or pipework into walls can be detrimental to the historic structure and should not be done in important places. Although almost always necessary in this kind of refurbishment work, chasing should be minimised where possible and services fitted into floors or ceilings if the opportunity is there. Using exposed pipework can limit the irreversible damage done to the historic fabric and can provided far easier access for maintenance and inspection. As already discussed, reversible services are desirable and exposed pipework, if done professionally, can maintain an atheistically pleasing appearance.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CHEMISTRY Renovation at the Royal Society of Chemistry in London saw new building services installed in the Victorian building. New lighting and air conditioning systems were put in place but were required to be discreet as to not undermine the character of the fine high Victorian interior. This was achieved by placing modified wall mounting air conditioning units in the 900mm void between the joists in the floor between the concrete floor and finished floor level.

Building services are a great way to assist the preventative conservation of historic school buildings. Building service engineers should always be consulted when refurbishments to school buildings are carried out, especially when the building is historic or listed. They can assist in prolonging their lives and purpose as well as improving the internal environment and after all, building conservation is a sustainable form of property development.  FURTHER INFORMATION www.cibse.co.uk

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PAPER SOLUTIONS

The paperless revolution has failed to significantly take off.

But, while a paper-free school seems unlikely to ever happen, paper‑free processes might not be as unrealistic, writes Doug Miles, director of market intelligence at AIIM Many organisations are clogged up with too much paper. The advent of the internet was supposed to herald the dawn of a paper-free world, which blatantly hasn’t happened.

Nowhere is this truer than in schools, where there remains an over-reliance on paper in many areas, from the actual teaching to the administration and running of a school.

Of course, there are elements of school life that traditionalists would be appalled at the thought of going digital. Many people cling to the idea of physical books and the idea of using a pen to write on paper. Yet it’s not hard to see a future without either.

In 2011 the Korean government announced plans for education to be paper-free by 2015, making $2.4 billion available to buy a tablet for every student and digitising the entire curriculum. This didn’t quite succeed but the ambition was laudable and shows we are not as far away from paper‑free teaching in the UK as one might think.

PAPER-FREE PROJECTS But the idea of paper-free processes in a school is an attractive one. Those that work in education are aware how paper can clog things up and know removing it in some areas could improve efficiency and productivity immeasurably. As there are 24,000 schools in the UK, educating more than eight million pupils, there could be considerable cost savings too.

This was demonstrated in a recent AIIM study, Paper Wars 2014 – an update from the battlefield. We surveyed hundreds of organisations, including a number of educational establishments. Of those organisations that have introduced paper‑free projects, 60 per cent of respondents had seen return on investment (ROI) within 12 months, and more than three-quarters had done so within 18 months.

Furthermore, 68 per cent of respondents said that business-at-the-speed-of-paper will be ‘unacceptable in just a few years time’ and around half of organisations surveyed claimed that the biggest single productivity improvement would be to remove paper.

But is it realistic to think that schools can ever go completely paper-free? Probably not, so perhaps we should all be looking at paper-free processes instead and how technology can make that possible.

PAPER-FREE WORKPLACES – AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM For a community of information professionals such as AIIM, admitting that we will almost certainly never be paper-free is hard to accept. But it is true – the recent AIIM research showed more than half of respondents still print personal

Written by Doug Miles, director of maket intelligence, AIIM

Is a paper-free school a proposal too far?

paper copies to take to a meeting, or to add a signature. Anecdotally, I’ve heard of school meetings where long agendas and background materials are printed for attendees, with a majority of them simply unread and binned after the meeting.

Our research also highlighted that people still use printed copies for reading offline or out-of-the-office (50 per cent), and particularly to review and mark-up (45 per cent). Other reasons given for there still being so much paper in their business processes, included the (perceived) need for physical signatures (44 per cent) and a general lack of understanding of the paper-free options.

The need for physical signatures is an interesting area, whether that’s getting parental approval for a class trip or signing off an invoice. There are many different electronic signing solutions available ranging from stylus input, automated verification, digitally encrypted signatures, and web signatures, all of which have a place in achieving paper-free working. Stopping an otherwise all-electronic process simply to collect a physical signature on a piece of paper, which is often immediately re-scanned, is obviously somewhat sub-optimal and frequently presents a greater confidentiality risk than the electronic original itself.

In November, World Paper Free Day 2014 took place. It is an initiative that sought to show how much paper is wasted in the workplace and how well we can manage without it. Hundreds of organisations all over the world – including many schools in the US and UK – participated in going paper‑free for the day. One of the key takeaways was that paper-free processes are a much more realistic goal than going completely paper-free and there are a number of technologies, both specific to education and more general, that can play a role in this.

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POINT-OF-ENTRY SCANNING

Firstly, the concept of scanning all ss inbound mail at point-of‑entry Paper‑leent and routing it around m s s e ass the school electronically e is very attractive, tools ar as the d especially if it can e s i recogn f testing in significantly reduce E o e r g u t n fu , bringi schools methods e accuratssessing of a s progres

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DIGITAL WORKING

Supporting administration and promoting learning Schools are quickly seeing the benefits brought about by using Fujitsu document scanners Primary and secondary school teachers are working almost 60 hours a week according to the DofE and a lot of this time is spent carrying out bureaucratic tasks such as form filling and general paperwork.

By implementing digital working practices including the scanning and digitisation of material a school will very quickly see the benefits bought about from the enhanced collaboration between staff members, pupils and parents as well as supporting SENCO in the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) which is laid out in their code of practice 2001.

The speedier capture of correspondence such as permission slips, catering requests, HR material, bursaries and paperwork related to special needs as well as the implementation of technology driven teaching methods for a more enriched learning experience and marking will additionally see time being freed up whether for teaching or personal recreation.

By the time children start school many are already familiar with technology, giving teachers a platform of knowledge on which to build. Infant and junior schools that have the technology to enhance learning are setting the benchmark, both in terms of actual achievement and parent or government recognition.

Further education encompasses a range of educational services which all pose different challenges when it comes to paperwork, the complexities and management thereof.

Colleges and adult education as well as available learning such as for offenders, the work place, virtual, voluntary and charitable all generate paperwork which if managed more effectively can lead to increased efficiencies, reduced costs, increased quality and customer satisfaction.

Freedom of Information responsibilities are also paramount within the education sector and the need to respond in a timely and efficient manner without impacting on daily activity.

HUGE IMPROVEMENTS Ryburn Valley School have a ScanSnap iX500 and have seen huge improvements in all administrative processes in their attendance and bursary offices.

“We are seeing the benefits in various ways, such as communicating with teachers and parents, and improving the student’s learning experience. The amount

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EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 20.7

of time that the scanner has saved us is astronomical – it’s amazing that one little machine can do such good” – Sue Thompson, Attendance and Bursaries Officer, Student Services, Ryburn Valley High School Higher Education will as well as the expected daily paperwork generated through their day to day activity have a requirement to scan paperwork generated through their HR or finance departments (invoices for example) or will have a need for back file conversion across horizontal applications. An additional time constraint can be felt around the compliance required from the UK border agency regulations around foreign students.

There is also an enhanced need for greater student and lecturer collaboration and continuous improvement in teaching and feedback methods. Additionally the allowances made available for disabled students are focussed on seeing an enhanced need for more readily available access to information and fostering collective learning environments.

In light of increasing tuition fees higher education institutions are also under growing pressure to offer the most advanced teaching and collaboration methods so as to provide an enhanced and appealing student experience, thereby positioning themselves above their competitors.

CASE STUDIES The Anglia Ruskin University - Since implementing a scanning solution, survey response rates have trebled - rising from 15-20 per cent to 65 per cent, - while the total volume of documents scanned has increased 20-30 per cent and is expected to double by next year as the solution is expanded beyond module evaluation surveys.

The scanners have already been drafted in to process surveys from other departments which are heavy paper users, processing surveys on accommodation, catering, the union environment and other student services which are increasingly becoming as important to the student experience as teaching and learning.

The solution is saving time and resources, making data more easily accessible from the automatically archived files, and streamlining reporting of corporate key performance indicators - of which an increasing number are satisfaction based and can be pulled directly from the survey figures.

The University of Bristol to comply with legislation needed to store passport and visa details for foreign students. They have

implemented an easy-to-operate data capture and management solution based on Fujitsu scanners. As a result, it is now able to fulfill its statutory obligations in an efficient manner, processing information quickly and accurately.

The University of California use ScanSnap scanners to make it easier to post new research online, a must in this day and age.

Until recently it was customary to publish thick research reports solely in paper format.

That trend is changing and researchers are now receiving PDF copies, but that still leaves years of research that exists only in hardcopy or various file formats. With ScanSnap all research can be easily digitised.

FUNCTIONALITY & DURABILITY One professor at the University said; “From the day that my Fujitsu ScanSnap arrived I have been impressed by the scanner’s functionality and durability. It can scan documents at high speeds so that I am not left itching with impatience. In my past experiences with flatbed scanners digitizing a stack of documents at one time was a daunting task. Now with ScanSnap I don’t feel like I’m taking on the world when scanning several documents. This scanner has reshaped how I manage documents, organize my office, distribute papers to students, post research and share information with colleagues. In less than a term the scanner paid for itself in the cost of photocopies alone while freeing up hours that I would have spent searching for files or standing idle in front of a photocopy machine.”  FURTHER INFORMATION For more information on Fujitsu scanners please email marketing@uk.fujitsu.com

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION – www.educationbusinessuk.net

PAPER SOLUTIONS  or even eliminate internal mail distribution.

Our research asked those who consider they have a digital mailroom scenario, what proportion of mail they scan (not including brochures, junk mail, etc.). 45 per cent are scanning half or more of incoming mail, and 34 per cent are scanning three-quarters.

Significantly, almost a quarter (23 per cent) are scanning 90 per cent or even 100 per cent.

GOING MOBILE Secondly, as the camera capabilities of mobile devices have improved, the concept of using them as a portable scanning device has taken off. In addition, tablets provide a new way to access electronic forms, creating what we might call a digital clipboard.

Indeed, some of the applications are quickly becoming ubiquitous in education – holding pupil notes on a tablet, scanning receipts for expense claims, uploading content to back-end systems via a mobile.

Early years pupil assessments can now be carried out by taking video on the tablet or phone of the pupil, performing tasks or reading, and adding spoken notes from the teacher. It’s then all downloaded automatically and linked to the pupil record, which could be made accessible to parents in the future. There are many such possibilities with using mobile for paper-free processes, but the overriding benefit is speed, it makes everything far faster.

Progress has undoubtedly been made and recalibrating the main goal – from the totally paper‑free workforce to the more realistic paper‑free business processes – will help even further PAPER-FREE ASSESSMENT Assessment and marking of exams and papers is a major time resource for many teachers.

Paper-less assessment tools are recognised as the future of testing in schools, bringing accurate, secure and reliable methods of assessing progress to education. Teachers can choose from existing tests, devise their own or use a combination of the two. It allows them to identify trends in pupils’ results and gives great insight into strengths and weaknesses.

SCHOOL ERP There many providers of school Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software on the market. These are usually web-based applications and offer a range of modules to help reduce paper in schools. These will often include administrative areas such as finance and HR management; school management such as attendance, reports, exam scheduling; and more general areas such as communication and content management systems.

Document Management

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Such technologies are all going to be critical as we continue the paper wars. Progress has undoubtedly been made and recalibrating the main goal – from the totally paper-free workforce to the more realistic paper-free business processes – will help even further.

Schools can benefit from this as much, or even more than business. On-going budget restraints mean efficiency improvements are never far from the education agenda and reducing paper has been shown to help. Our survey showed that business-at-the-speed-of-paper is fast becoming unacceptable. It will be a long journey adopting paper-free business processes, but the benefits are clear in terms of efficiency and overall productivity in schools. The sooner you start, the faster you will see the returns. L Turn to page 43 to find out what steps can be taken to reduce printing costs. E FURTHER INFORMATION www.aiim.org

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PRINTING SOLUTIONS

TEACHING OUR SCHOOLS TO USE THE CLOUD As a concept, the idea of the paperless school is an attractive one, but is perhaps an unrealistic expectation, at least in the short term. Paper-lite, however, may be a more feasible option with the cloud, writes Margolis Sales Director, Richard Shaw By their nature, schools are very paper heavy. The traditional view of the school process sees children and teachers using workbooks, registers, handouts and so on. Management and administration staff have very specific filing needs as they manage incredibly important and sensitive documents regarding their students and the general running of the school.

This defining structure is globally accepted as how schools are to run, so escaping this is certainly not without a large investment of time and resource. For this reason, the goal of ‘going paperless’ is perhaps a tall order for most.

‘Paper-lite’ represents a far more achievable goal for schools. When implementing a stage by stage approach to a small department or work group, we are able to show that using simple to use, cloud based document storage and workflow has many of the positive advantages of going paperless without focusing too heavily on the ‘paper problem’.

HOW CAN SCHOOLS BENEFIT FROM GOING PAPER-LITE? The benefits of schools making the effort to go paper-lite are numerous. Like other businesses and organisations, there is now a responsibility for schools to adhere to a green working culture.

A paper-lite approach represents a notable step towards this green goal.

Whilst a green approach is a commendable and worthwhile result of going paper-lite, there are more immediate and tangible benefits, specific to the education sector.

Consider storage as an example. Schools need to store a large number of important documents and that is inescapable, which in terms of space, cost and time (often forgotten) is a large drain on the resources.

The confidential and sensitive manner of education files also presents concerns regarding the security of physical storage systems. The archaic nature of the current filing system in place sees a huge number of highly important and confidential files physically stored in one place, which presents frightening possibilities of unauthorised access, mass file destruction or loss.

Paper-lite filing through the cloud effectively removes fears surrounding security and cost and provides solutions with tangible benefits to school institutions. Even without going ‘fully

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EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 20.7

The confidential and sensitive manner of education files also presents concerns regarding the security of physical storage systems paperless’, a shift of physical documentation to the cloud would see a substantial reduction of space required and would make day- to-day document management significantly easier.

PUTTING SCHOOLS UP IN THE CLOUD So how, specifically, can schools make use of the cloud or EDM (Electronic Document Management)? Making subtle changes to the processes in place is the best way for schools to start.

For example, timetabling and room booking for both students and teachers can be completed using tablet applications, syncing automatically, reducing the need for forms and actively improving efficiency.

Documentation that is likely to need duplication or access by a number of parties can be stored across cloud storage systems, granting immediate access to those that need it. Quite simply, if it doesn’t need to be printed or photocopied – then don’t.

Access to more specific files also provides the potential for greater teacher communication with students and their parents or guardians. Whilst providing Parent’s Evening feedback, historic data/records will provide more useful, and immediate insights.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE FOR SCHOOLS? At Margolis, we always believe that it is best to make changes to paper heavy processes step-by-step. Wholesale changes to established processes in any environment are not easy, but slowly re-evaluating allows organisations to recognise the most paper-heavy parts of the processes and change them with efficiency.

Cloud solutions are an effective way to improve green efficiency in schools, but longer term planning may take the form of a comprehensive document management system throughout the school. Staff and teachers need to understand the benefits of electronic storage and management, and buy into the new processes.

In an institution with so many layers, the sharing and management of files is of immediate benefit to the smooth running of the existing systems as well as freeing up time and space which being paper-heavy makes inevitable. Taking that first step towards ‘Paper-lite’ may be the hardest, but its benefits will be felt long after. L FURTHER INFORMATION 01689 473 396 www.margolis.co.uk

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PAPER SOLUTIONS Reducing printing costs Impero Solutions outline their top tips for schools looking to reduce their printing costs.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT PRINTER These days printers are often marketed based on print quality and print speed. While these two features are very attractive, they may not be necessary for the typical school classroom. Of more interest could be the energy consumption of the printer, the cost of replacing ink, and whether the printer has a ‘draft’ mode. Over time these efficiencies will all add up to tangible cost savings. Another thing to consider is whether a cheaper black and white printer can meet your needs. Not only are they less expensive to buy, but replacing ink cartridges will be cheaper too.

SELECTING THE RIGHT PAPER If the majority of your printing is acceptable as draft quality, there’s no need print on high quality paper. You don’t have to use specialist inkjet or laser paper for day-to-day classroom activities. There are plenty of alternative papers available, both online and from the high street. These are more than adequate for everyday classroom usage.

INDIVIDUAL USER PROFILES These days you can set up individual User profiles on your PC or Mac. This means each teacher or child has to login with their own identity before using the computer, allowing administrators to know who has used a computer and

when. This is particularly useful in identifying individuals who may be over zealous with their printing, and allow administrators and teachers to address the issue.

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SETTING UP RESOURCE LIMITS Some classroom management software allows you to allocate resources to both individual user and group user profiles. This means that individual and group users can be made aware that they only have a finite resource available, and as a consequence need to be selective in their print usage. This is a great way of instilling the value of printing, encouraging individuals to carefully consider the need to print prior to actually doing so.

It also helps to improve a child’s attention to detail, encouraging them to check for mistakes before printing.

RESTRICTING PRINTING BY DEVICE GROUP Teachers can keep an even tighter rein of print usage by directly controlling access to printing capabilities. They can effectively deny the classroom the option to print, thanks to print management software features. This makes a lot of sense, since lesson plans which feature the use of digital technology are often structured so that the class moves together as one, and the time to print can be managed in the same way. With class management software print features, teachers can apply restrictions or disable access both class‑wide and by individual user, allowing them to retain total control of print resources and how they are used.

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• Choice of uncontended broadband connectivity • Fully managed and supported firewall • School-focused web filtering • Hosted Microsoft Exchange email for staff & pupils • Antivirus for school and staff home machines • Web hosting and domain services • Email filtering using industry-leading technology • Award-winning teaching and learning resources • Secure document transfer service • Secure remote access • UK-based Helpdesk and 24/7 online Support Site • A package of services tailored for schools

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SERVICE PROVIDERS

Making the right connections at your school

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Reliable and secure broadband connectivity is now an essential component to teaching, learning and management within schools. Education Business analyses the latest information

rmine To dete ber of the numusers, active ll have to l wi a schoote how many estima will be on users work at the net times peak

Schools regularly use large amounts of data from media rich applications and web‑based services, requiring higher levels of security and network performance than most homes and many businesses.

As schools adapt to new connected training initiatives and expand their uptake of cloud based storage and learning, the demand on network services will only increase. Therefore, it is important that schools are able to assess their individual broadband and network requirements. If all factors are not properly considered, issues such as loss of internet connectivity could severely disrupt teaching and administration throughout the school.

INDIVIDUAL REQUIREMENTS Different schools will have different requirements from their broadband connection.

Each school’s requirements will vary greatly due to a number of reasons, such as the size of the school, the number of staff, the number of connected devices, he type of applications being used and different teaching methods. Before considering different broadband and network options, a school should ensure it E Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

45

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SERVICE PROVIDERS

 fully understands its needs, including the ICT based applications used for teaching, learning and administrative roles.

Factors to consider include: School office functions; video conferencing; staff email; pupil email, staff internet usage while teaching, which can include using online applications such as YouTube and iPlayer; the school’s online portal or website; if the school utilises a virtual learning environment (VLE); individual pupil internet use, such as research and downloads for projects and classwork; and the use of any laptops or handheld devices that may put further stress on the connection.

This list is not exhaustive, and many other applications may require connectivity.

Every school should consider any and every application that currently requires an internet or network connection, as well as any additional requirements expected in the near future.

BANDWIDTH The government’s target for nationwide broadband delivery is that everyone in the country will have access to basic broadband of 2Mbps by 2016.

A model suggested by The Education Network (NEN), in their guidance ’Selecting broadband connectivity for your school’, is that each active user within the school should be provided with this basic connection of 2Mbps at peak times of usage. This target refers to downstream bandwidth, which

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Schools should look for an uptime guarantee from service providers, which will specify what percentage of time the connection can be guaranteed to be working is the maximum rate at which data can be received over the connection.

While many people now have access to internet at a much higher speed than this, it can act as a useful benchmark and conservative target for calculating the capacity of a school connection. To determine the total number of active users, a school will have to estimate how many individual users will be on the network at peak times.

This will be dependent on the number of connected devices in use within the school, as well the connectivity requirements of different teachers and subject lessons.

One school may be able to make the estimate of one in ten active users at any one time. However, a school that relies more heavily on connected devices, such as a school that utilises tablets for class research, may have to estimate a much higher number of users. It is important for each school to examine its individual needs.

Take for an example a school of 1,600 pupils that has 500 devices. 2Mbps per user for 500 devices would equal 1Gbps (1000Mbps). If the school determines

that one in ten users are active at peak times, the basic requirement would be a bandwidth of 100Mbps for the school.

This should then be taken as a minimum requirement for that school. However, it is important to consider that many schools now exceed basic bandwidth requirements and have upwards of 1Gbps connections.

UPSTREAM VS DOWNSTREAM Downstream bandwidth is the maximum rate at which data can be received over an internet connection, while upstream is the maximum rate at which data can be sent. The requirements for each are dependent on the type of usage. Using large quantities of online video content, from applications such as YouTube and iPlayer, as well students accessing a large number of web pages for research will use a greater amount of downstream bandwidth.

Traditionally, individuals and organisations use more downstream than upstream bandwidth. As an estimate, upstream speed will need to be a quarter of downstream.

However, if a school uses a lot of E

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TECHNOLOGY

Is your school’s internet connection supporting more than it can handle?

A school’s internet connection is the foundation for its technological capabilities. EXA Education looks at how the right internet solution can enable you to embrace new devices and resources, not become burdened by them A school’s internet connection is the foundation for its technological capabilities. With a service that is fast, flexible and reliable, anything is possible.

Unfortunately, the opposite is also true – an insufficient connection can drastically limit a school’s digital potential, preventing it from implementing the new devices and resources that technological innovation has made possible.

FUTURE PROOF YOUR CONNECTIVITY Indeed, with the demands placed upon a school’s internet service constantly increasing, it is more important than ever before to ensure that this connectivity is as effective as it can be – according to Fortinet, the

current situation and future plans, before creating an individual solution built with these in mind. However, because plans can change, all Exa’s services are available to upgrade at any point and are provided on a 12 month contract as standard.

CHOOSE THE RIGHT INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDER (ISP) FOR YOUR SCHOOL It may seem that there isn’t a lot of difference between the connectivity options offered by various suppliers. However, this is not the case. It is important to note that the ISP you choose can actually have a pronounced effect upon the speed you receive in reality.

This is because some providers supply congested connections – this means that

With the demands placed upon a school’s internet service constantly increasing, it is more important than ever before to ensure that this connectivity is as effective as it can be – according to Fortinet, the amount of internet data being used by schools is estimated to be increasing by around 120 per cent per year. amount of internet data being used by schools is estimated to be increasing by around 120 per cent per year. This drastic growth therefore needs to be accommodated by a school’s internet service. In the same way that building a new swimming pool without increasing the annual water supply would reduce the water flow throughout the rest of the building, an increase in the amount of bandwidth used can result in a drastically slowed down internet speed.

Exa Education understands that many schools are unsure of the best way to prepare for – or resolve – this issue. That is why, in order to make sure that every school has an internet service that works for them, both now and in the future, the company assesses each school’s specific needs, their

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EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 20.7

it is shared with a lot of other customers, which impacts upon the bandwidth you have access to. This is referred to as a contention ratio: the lower the contention is, the more consistent the speed will be. Exa Education is an authentic ISP with a national infrastructure and the provider runs and manages its own network. This means that the company can ensure every connection they supply is uncongested. Exa constantly monitors its network traffic and, before it approaches anywhere close to capacity, increases its capabilities – so there is always bandwidth available for its customers STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE As technology and the internet itself evolve at an increasingly rapid rate, it

can sometimes feel a little like playing catch-up – a continuous race to ensure that you have the most capable devices, the most secure content filtering solution, the fastest connectivity service. The list is extensive – and demanding.

That is why you need an ISP you can count on. One that is constantly working to stay one step ahead, that will always have the solution you need – when you need it. One recent development, which may have had an impact upon the functioning of your school, is the introduction of SSL searching by many of the major search engines - most notably Google. This change meant that all searches which were previously sent through the standard HTTP are now sent through the secure, encrypted HTTPS. As a result, anyone who tries to ‘listen in’ to these searches for malicious ends is unable to see what information is transferred between the user and, for example, Google.

However, although this was a positive change for the personal security of individuals, it did make ensuring effective content filtering for schools slightly more complex. This was because some filtering services were now unable to read the search request and filter it, and the results, accordingly.

SURFPROTECT FUSION Exa Education’s content-filtering product, SurfProtect Fusion, was able to immediately offer HTTPS filtering for those schools which require complete control over the material available.

Learn more about how an Exa Education connection can benefit your school. L FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 0345 145 1234 education@exa.net.uk www.exa.education

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SERVICE PROVIDERS  cloud‑based services, such as Office 365 or a remote VLE, this will require significantly more upstream bandwidth. Again, a school must have a full understanding of their use of applications and choose a connection based on their own requirements. If a school determines that it requires a large amount of upstream bandwidth, it may consider a ’symmetrical’ broadband connection, which provides the same bandwidth for upstream and downstream.

Additionally, a school should ensure that their service does not have a data cap. As teaching and learning becomes increasingly connected, and online applications become increasing data intensive, it is likely a school will increase its total usage over the course of the contract. A service with no data cap will protect the school against large unforeseen costs or a suspended service if the cap is reached.

FINDING A SERVICE PROVIDER Once a school has assessed its broadband requirements, the next step is finding a broadband service provider. One option to consider is broadband services and connectivity offered by their local authority.

Local authorities aggregate the delivery of broadband services for schools, working together as part of the Regional Broadband Consortia (RBC). These services are tailored for the needs of schools and are delivered through Janet UK, an infrastructure service designed for use in the UK education community.

A key benefit of these services is the capability to support schools working in federations or clusters, allowing them to connect to a secure, privately managed wide area network. This allows individual local area networks to operate as a single network and securely facilitates inter-site working. This type of connection will also be specifically designed to protect children from harmful content and allow schools to access a range of education specific content and resources.

Another option is to use a commercial provider, a number of which have recently developed services suitable for use in schools. If a school does decide to go to market, the non-statutory government guidance ‘ICT buying advice for your school’ recommends it should take into account ISP standards, including content filtering, e-safety measures and protection against virus attack, which may not come as standard in all commercial service offerings.

Schools should request that they are presented with a clear and transparent menu of services and pricing, that allows them to buy what they need, whilst giving them the freedom to pay for additional services or support if they choose.

other organisations, such as local authorities, central government departments or public buying organisations negotiate with suppliers to get the best, compliant deals. These organisations then make these deals available to schools and other public sector bodies.

Not all of these contracts will be specifically designed for educational requirements, so schools must take into account any specific needs, such as security, email hosting or online backup, when considering a framework.

One place schools can check for an existing framework is the Crown Commercial Services (CCS), who provide an integrated commercial and procurement service for government and the UK public sector. Another option is the Crescent Purchasing Consortium (CPC), which is the largest purchasing consortium for the English academies and free schools sectors, and the only national purchasing group for UK Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges. Additionally, Pro5, which is made up of the Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation, Central Buying Consortium, Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation and the North East Purchasing Organisation, also provide framework contracts that have been procured professionally and are dedicated to the delivery of education.

Frameworks can prove useful as they’ve already gone through a competitive tendering process and comply with public sector procurement regulations. Favourable terms and conditions have already been negotiated and if anything does go wrong during the life of the contract, schools will have the support and assistance from the organisation that negotiated it.

NETWORK MANAGEMENT Once a school has determined its requirements and begun looking for a service provider, it is important to take into consideration the management of that connection throughout the duration of the contract. A fully managed service is an essential element to achieving high availability and ensuring a reliable connection. Schools should look for an uptime guarantee from service providers, which will specify what percentage of time the connection can be guaranteed to be working.

Schools should also consider how quickly a provider will be able to restore the connection if it does fail, as well as how much support they can offer if users encounter problems with the service. These can be set out in a Service Level Agreement, which should outline the providers commitments to ensure a fully managed service. A school should look for a provider to promise no longer than four hours to restore access in the event of a disruption.

The service should also be supported by a 24/7 operations centre that can monitor connectivity, flag problems and initiate repairs to ensure that downtime is kept to a minimum.

Another service schools should look out for is a support desk available for staff to call, preferably with extended opening hours and an online ticket reporting system to trace progress with reported faults. Additionally, an online portal that shows the performance and availability can also be useful, as it allows schools to easily monitor the connection and contact the provider if an issue occurs. L

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FURTHER INFORMATION www.nen.gov.uk

Once a school has determined its requirements and begun looking for a service provider, it is important to take into consideration the management of that connection throughout the duration of the contract

USING A FRAMEWORK Schools can save time and money by buying services through a pre-existing framework.

Frameworks are essentially contracts that

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MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

Ensuring better teaching and quicker learning

One of y’s og technolt gifts greatestion lies a to educ , instant in fast nt which e assessmfits both bene her and c the tea tudent the s

Mobile technology is all around us. Our homes, workplaces and social life all seem to be cluttered with digital devices.

Connectivity to the internet is, after all, an established human right. The world of education and mobile technology is not ‘alien’ and, with increasing fervour, the ‘rise of the machine’ has fast become a domineering daily occurrence.

Quick searching ‘mobile devices in education’ into Google will bring you to a world of countless articles about devices in schools. Reading them all would require perseverance to say the least, but most of the benefits highlighted across many sites focus on key terms such as ‘flexibility’ of the

device and learning, ‘cheaper’, ‘portable’, ‘collaborative’, ‘21st century skills’, ‘engaged learners’, ‘challenge based learning’, ‘1‑to-1’ – the list goes on and on.

As you read, it becomes very apparent that both students and teachers see the benefits of mobile devices not only in the classroom itself but at home, where the learning can be extended or supplemented while communication and understanding can be enhanced with media-rich, up-to-date resources providing the students with relative and engaging educational stimulus.

GOING MOBILE Tablets, such as iPad, and other mobile devices have allowed the traditional

Written by Andrew Blacoe, head of education, iTeach

With an ever increasing reliance on the digital world, Andrew Blacoe of iTeach explores the reasons why mobile technology has become the daily staple of school life

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computer room scenarios to fade away.

Booking timetables for rooms filled with desktop PCs, failed or forgotten logins, lost or broken keyboards or mice can all be placed to one side with instant access being king.

This ‘marginal gain’ of giving the teacher - and student - the precious commodity of time means that learning and teaching can happen at the precise moment it should.

Creativity and not simple consumption can then become a reality and mobile devices, with their built-in cameras, microphones, presentations tools and word-processing capabilities to name the basics, can allow this to happen where-ever and when-ever the student needs it too. The quality of work and its personalisation by the student become dominant but not exclusive benefits, not only for the purposes of assessment E

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EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 20.7

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MOBILE TECHNOLOGY

The ‘marginal gain’ of giving the teacher – and student – the precious commodity of time means that learning and teaching can happen at the precise moment it should  by the teacher, but the life-long learning journey our students will embark on.

ENHANCING LEARNING C.S. Lewis said: “Failures, repeated failures, are finger posts on the road to achievement.

One fails forward toward success.” Allowing students to ‘fail’ or make mistakes is not a new educational concept. Teaching them to pick themselves up, try again and to see that failure is temporary is honourable but with traditional assessment methods (pens and ticks) the onus is always on the teacher to dedicate increasing amounts of time to marking, feedback and reporting.

The seemingly ever expanding teacher workload outside teaching time does see each of the aforementioned tasks becoming difficult in terms of effective turn-around for pupil growth and serves to develop the culture of ‘task performance’ rather than a personal learning journey. One of technology’s greatest gifts to education lies in fast, instant assessment which benefits not only the teacher but the student themselves.

Apps and web-tools for rapid quizzes with instant feedback being given to the students and results being emailed to the teacher are simply invaluable, for both student and teacher. Learning using these apps can be viewed and measured as it happens, allowing teachers to intervene at a much earlier stage in the process. Added to this is the fact that pieces of work can be submitted, collated, marked and returned without having to print out a single piece of paper.

Working all within one app simplifies the day-to-day workflow of the classroom.

As mentioned beforehand, visualisation of learning has become almost second nature in some schools across the country. With access to these powerful mobile devices, students can now easily create ‘screencasts’ of their work and showcase the process of their learning, not only to the teacher but also their peers. This level or indeed type of communication was once only

possible in one-to-one mentoring settings but now, using devices such as an iPad combined with cloud services, this style of pedagogy can be realised for all pupils.

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS Other benefits and enhancements in learning styles using tablet devices can also be found in lesson outcomes, differentiation and personalisation of learning. The ability for a pupil to produce a piece of work as a video, song, podcast, mind map, storyboard, website, screencast, animation, 3D world etc. from a single device, share that with their peers, teacher or indeed the world instantly and all from the comfort of their normal classroom is simply mind-blowing.

This concept of different learning styles existing within the classroom is not unique, but its limitless, connected possibilities reach far beyond the classroom of even five years ago and redefines the concepts of personalised learning, placing this task at the hands of both the pupil and the teacher. This flexible learning is, of course, at the heart of special educational needs.

Children with Autism who struggle to communicate both verbally and non-verbally can find multitudes of apps to assist them from animation and pictures to sounds and video. Children with Aspergers who struggle to organise themselves can find apps to do the task for them or indeed fuel their particular subject passion. Children with Dyslexia can now have web-browsing apps with special fonts designed specially to help the condition. For a teacher, this technology allows them to teach and students to learn.

HOW TO START? Contrary to popular believe, getting started using mobile devices in the classroom is not straight forward and goes far beyond the purchase itself. Recent and very prominent failures in mobile device deployment in the US came about from a lack of vision and planning by the learning authority as to

the purpose of the programme and, more importantly, a complete lack of sustained, regular staff training focused on meaningful curricular outcomes. Without these two critical elements, this, or any deployment, will fail.

A robust, reliable WiFi network is also a key pillar to success. This infrastructure is the very backbone of any deployment and all ongoing achievement. If teachers or students cannot collaborate, share or indeed research without technological barriers, frustrations will develop into disillusionment and possible abandonment.

It goes without saying that policies concerning e-safety and acceptable use should also be in place. Even for staff only devices, e-safety should never be underestimated or undervalued. This need, of course, becomes heightened in a school with a 1:1 deployment with pupils where regular, recognised and flexible e-safety policies should be owned by all key stakeholders in the school community, from pupils right through to parents.

Perhaps an often unwritten aspect of getting started with mobile devices in the classroom comes from knowing what is good but seeking support when needed.

Boldness in decisions to engage with mobile devices from the leadership in the school is critical but it is very rare to find all of the answers to all of the questions internally.

To ‘know what you don’t know’ is one thing – knowing where and how-to to get there is another. Budget and device considerations are heady issues but many have undertaken the journey already. Do your research and then ask for professional help. Be aware – progress is rarely as fast as most would desire so management and teachers need to measure their expectations and set realistic goals.

You may already be on a journey towards a device deployment and progress has stalled or, worse still, halted? Take some comfort from CS Lewis who said: “We all want progress, but if you’re on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.” Help can always be found. L

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Andrew Blacoe is Head of Education at iTeach, a teacher-for-teacher company who deployed more iPads in education than any other organisation in the UK or Ireland. Working with over 750 schools and 1000s of teachers in Northern Ireland alone, across all education sectors from Nursery to Tertiary level, iTeach also work in schools in Scotland and England, training many thousands of teachers every year, supporting them with their own local tech teams. Andrew, a former teacher with 17 years of experience in the classroom, is also an Apple Education trainer and a 360 Degree Safe Assessor.

FURTHER INFORMATION www.iteach-uk.com

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Case Study

www.educationbusinessuk.net – THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

Vex Robotics – Bringing subjects together in order to bring the teaching of STEM to life STEM. Science. Technology. Engineering.

Mathematics. Four subjects that are intrinsically linked, but often in schools are taught in silos. STEM, and the engagement of students in STEM activities, is all about bringing these subjects together, meshing them and providing the student with an opportunity to use aspects from all of them in their learning.

The challenge has often been, how can this be achieved? Answering that challenge, and then some, is VEX Robotics. Through the VEX IQ (a plastic platform aimed at Key Stages 2 and 3) and VEX EDR (a metal product targeted at Key Stages 3, 4 and 5) the design systems offer students the ability to be creative and apply the theory of maths and science in robotic design. Whether that be a simple machine or mechanism, or complex lift system.

Over 100 free, National Curriculum mapped lessons are the starting point in daytime teaching that covers the basics of the kit but that can be used across Design & Technology and the new computing curriculum. With programming options including ‘Scratch-like’ drag and drop, flowchart based, Python and C++ there is something accessible for all ages. Plus being able to see the results of

for. Which is one of the reasons National Grid have been UK sponsor for the last two years - they recognise that the students involved have ‘something else’ to offer to an employer.

The VEX Competitions are linked to the British Science Associations CREST Awards, also featured in this issue of Education Business.

So in addition to involvement, students can also gain a UCAS recognised award at a Bronze, Silver or even perhaps Gold. One of many links the VEX platforms have. If you need to bring STEM to life in your school, VEX Robotics is a great place to start!

the coding in such a physical way – through the robots actions – really brings it to life.

But classroom use is only half of what VEX is about. Through the VEX IQ Challenge and the VEX Robotics Competition, over 13,000 teams worldwide compete each year. A different design challenge faces teams and they must design, build, test and compete with a robot they are completely in control of. Facing off at the local, regional, national and – ultimately – world level it gives students so many opportunities.

Firstly to apply academic skills, but also to develop the transferable skills – time management, teamwork perseverance, communication, etc – that the industry looks

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: +44 (0) 1925 251038 paul_mcknight@innovationfirst.com www.vexrobotics.com

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EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 20.7

Science

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STEM LEARNING

Written by Adrian Fenton, head of education, British Science Association

Bringing science outside of the classroom

Adrian Fenton, of The British Science Association, discusses the importance and the best methods of engaging and encouraging students in science studies and STEM subjects At the end of last year, we at the British Science Association (BSA) launched our new vision – we want a world where science is seen as a fundamental part of our culture and society.

Science touches all of our lives – think of the cars, buildings, mobile phones, aeroplanes, people, animals, and plants that surround us. Science is an integral part of our culture, it’s just that so many of us are oblivious to it. A key part of us being able to achieve our vision is getting young people to engage with, and really feel a part of, science in the UK. Science, and more broadly STEM subjects, have an unfortunate label too often than not, that they’re difficult to do, a bit nerdy, and boring in the classroom. This is not the case, and we at the BSA are on a mission to rebrand science as something that we are all a part of, all of the time, and if we want to, can have the chance to speak out on what science means to all of us.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT Practical work is at the heart of science, with experimental discoveries having proved vital in shaping Britain’s science community, industry and heritage. I think there’s truth in the proverb ‘Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand’, and it really captures the key value of participatory teaching and learning methodologies.

That is why we strongly questioned the proposed changes to the science curriculum relating to the assessment of practical science, since changes were being hastily implemented without the opportunity for reviewing the potential implications with experts or piloting approaches. The BSA believes that practical science is an essential component in enabling young people to engage with, and gain a greater understanding, of science.

Since then, the changes have been confirmed, so we now need to make the most of the new system. Acknowledging

l Practica the at work is science, f heart operimental with ex ries having discove d vital in prove Britain’s shapingtry and indus age herit

the previous ‘jumping through hoops’ approach wasn’t fit for purpose, there is the potential to look for ways to emphasise the principles and values of practical science at this time of review, whilst teachers look to apply the new assessment requirements.

But it’s not just about assessment. Science demonstrations, particularly ones that have a bit of a ‘wow’ factor or get people thinking about how on Earth something works, are an important part of showing the wonder of science and capturing students’ imaginations.

You can all probably remember some of the demonstrations from your school days (including the impressive ones and those that went wrong) which is why they are a fundamental part of learning science.

As part of British Science Week, we run an annual Demo Day, supporting science teachers and technicians to do something extra special with their students in the lab – rockets, dissections, explosions, the physics of music or chemical reactions to spark some excitement in the classroom and to get the students to work out what’s going on in that conical flask.

NOT JUST FOR SCIENTISTS Part of our mission at the BSA is to give everyone the opportunity to engage with science – if it’s at the heart of our culture and society, then science is not just something reserved for professional scientists.

Science subject teachers play a huge role in helping students acknowledge their own abilities in STEM. We offer as much support E

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Inspiring… Practical…

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CREST Star classroom materials which will get your students enthused about Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths (STEM)!

Richie’s CREST Star activity ‘Spinning Solutions’ is a set of specifically designed classroom materials which enable school children to solve STEM problems through practical investigation.

As well as helping to develop knowledge, it will teach children about the fundamentals of independent learning and scientific enquiry.

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STEM LEARNING

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 and advice to STEM teachers as we can, whether that be through activity packs, project ideas or connections with local business and industry. But we also believe that engaging young people in STEM needs to happen beyond just the science classroom.

We believe that investigation is the key to getting young people engaged in STEM – investigation being a skills area relevant to all subjects. If they have a problem to solve, and find their own solution, not only do they get a chance to take ownership of that investigative work, it also gives it some meaning.

Subjects don’t appear in silos in the real world which is why we advocate the value of project-based learning applying the scientific process.

We have been running the CREST Awards scheme for over two decades now – which encourages students to design, build and present a project, incorporating a range of different skills in order to succeed.

Over the years, we’ve seen some fantastic projects on a whole host of different subjects across the curriculum. Students have answered questions as diverse as ‘Does the music you play hens affect their egg laying rate?’. We’ve also seen projects with a literacy angle, such as, ‘A statistical comparison of the use of adjectives for the main characters in books by JK Rowling and JR Tolkein.

Students are encouraged to solve problems with a global significance in Practical Action’s CREST-linked activities.

The first is the Squashed Tomatoes Challenge where students are asked to design a way for farmers in Nepal to get their produce to market without it getting damaged. The second, the Floating Garden Challenge, is an activity where students design floating crop beds to be used in areas prone to flooding.

We’ve also seen some fantastic Design & Technology projects over the years, including a bespoke wedding dress design utilising new fabrics and a model heart to explain the potential risks of heart disease.

l Practica the at work is science, f heart operimental with ex ries having discove d vital in prove Britain’s shapingtry and indus age herit

Science, and more broadly STEM subjects, have an unfortunate label too often than not, that they’re difficult to do, a bit nerdy, and boring in the classroom. This is not the case

ENCOURAGING STUDENTS We are not forgetting the importance of STEM skills for the future regarding the UK’s economy. In fact we are creatively encouraging this to be addressed through STEM project work in schools. One example is our work with MP Futures where CREST resources bring to life scenarios associated with the quarrying, mineral products and mining sector. Topics challenge students to design a modern day pyramid, or to design a modular hospital building that will be able to withstand specific extreme weather and environmental conditions. E

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STEM LEARNING

British Science Week 2016

Science

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British Science Week is a ten‑day programme of science, technology, engineering and maths events and activities across the UK for people of all ages.

British Science Week 2016 will take place on the 11-20 March.

We want students to feel confident in their understanding of science and comfortable enough to question it, and have views on its direction.

Science should be accessible to all – and eventually, we will break it out of its cultural ghetto  What CREST gives teachers, educators and other learning providers, is a framework they can use with their students to encourage them to make their own project. It’s designed to be something extracurricular, but recognises some of the real world context of the students’ work.

Last year, we announced our partnership with The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award so that students who complete a CREST Award can use this in the ‘Skills’ section of their DofE Award – an area where students are asked to develop their practical skills and personal interests. Enquiry-based learning is something we really encourage, not just because it allows students to get hands-on with science, but also because it seems to inspire a wide range of students at all levels.

Last year, 33,000 young people completed a CREST Award – 51 per cent of the awardees were girls. And these figures aren’t an anomaly – year‑after‑year we see an even-gender split on the numbers of completed Awards.

Following some research and using anecdotal evidence, we believe that this is because CREST recognises achievements in communication, team work, research and presentation, which appeals to the learning styles of a large range of students. It gives them an opportunity to complete a science project that takes into account the real world context and the implications beyond their own work.

LINKS ACROSS THE CURRICULUM In the past year or so, we at the BSA have made huge strides in bridging the gap between science and the arts, in particular in our Education programmes. Students already do some fantastic curriculum work that addresses a wide range of social and environmental issues – clear examples of how science is embedded in our society.

Their subjects ask them to engage with wider cultural issues, for example, the Science National Curriculum includes the requirement that learners should ‘understand the uses and implications of science, today and for the future’. However, despite this real life purpose of science and the fact that much of everyone’s learning takes place outside of the classroom, there is the potential for this message to get pushed aside or missed as exam pressures and results appear as the central driver.

We recently teamed up with Oxfam and the Climate Coalition on their latest schools and youth project, Close-up on Climate, to encourage students to create their own films about climate change. These films were not only an opportunity for students to speak their views about climate change, but also to have those views shared with their local MPs, MSPs and Welsh AMs. Projects like this one offer students different ways to engage with STEM and to use their skills and knowledge in other areas as well.

We try to engage with partners beyond the STEM sector as much as we can,

Anyone can organise an event or activity, and the British Science Association helps organisers plan by providing free activity and support resources. We welcome and support any type of organiser, from schools to community groups, from parents to large organisations. The resulting programme of events is a hugely varied and eclectic mix.

As part of the week, schools and teachers are being encouraged to implement Demo Day. Demo Day is an annual campaign to inspire secondary school teachers and technicians to explore new concepts, provoke discussions and generate excitement through running science demonstrations. This year Demo Day falls on 19 March, the Thursday of British Science Week.

Visit www.britishscienceweek.org for more information. as we believe there is so much to be gained in using educational schemes from across the curriculum.

Partners such as Ignite!, ‘where science meets art’, which promotes creativity in learning by working with young people to reveal, develop and exercise their capacity for creativity and creative thinking, or the Unlimited Theatre who have also been collaborating with the UK Space Agency ahead of Tim Peake’s mission to the International Space Station later this year.

We can learn from sharing across subjects too. Looking at the Artsmark Award, Arts Council England’s flagship programme to enable schools and other organisations to evaluate, strengthen and celebrate their arts and cultural provision, it makes perfect sense to team up and see how schools can work towards this alongside our CREST Awards.

Ultimately, our aim is to give students from any background, at any age, the opportunity to engage with science and STEM subjects. We want students to feel confident in their understanding of science and comfortable enough to question it, and have views on its direction.

Science should be accessible to all – and eventually, we will break it out of its cultural ghetto. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.britishscienceassociation.org

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SCIENCE CURRICULUM

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The big ideas that carry endless possibilities Earlier this year, the Science Education Programme published a report entitled Working with Big Ideas of Science Education which looked at growing concerns with the science curriculum.

Education Business analyses the report

Authored by science educator Wynne Harlen, Working with Big Ideas of Science Education provides a response to the concerns that the science curriculum in many countries is overloaded, over-detailed, over assessed and too distant from the inquiry-based approach that the subject requires.

Returning to the basics of why science is so enjoyable to teach and learn, Harlen and her fellow contributors express their aims for science education. This years report follows an earlier publication in 2010 by the same group of scientists, entitled Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education.

Helping students to build small ideas into bigger ideas promotes the recognition of links among ideas in different domains of science and between science and other subjects, particularly mathematics, technology and engineering – the STEM subjects.

Harlen said of the report: “It is vitally important that the education of all young

h Althougence on its effectiveness. sci Learning science through not all g can n inquiry involves i n lear be o learners developing an t s d e e n s r a o understanding through h e t i b uiry, ng their own mental and q n i h g throu ole in helpi physical activity.

It embodies a social a key r ts to develop constructivist view of studen rstanding learning and involves e und students working in ways

people enables them to sustain their curiosity about the world we live in, enjoy scientific activity and develop a deep understanding of how events and phenomena around them can be explained, even though they may lack knowledge of every detail.

“This understanding is needed by all students – not just those who go on to study science or take up science-based occupations beyond school – and regardless of gender, cultural background or disabilities.”

INQUIRY-BASED SCIENCE EDUCATION Inquiry-based pedagogy is being embraced in principle across the globe, supported in the last decade by an increasing body of research

that are similar to those of scientists, thus developing some appreciation of the nature of scientific activity. Although not all science learning can be or needs to be through inquiry, it has a key role in helping students to develop understanding. However, implementing inquiry effectively is time consuming and so there has to be a choice of those topics and activities that make best use of limited and precious learning time. E

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MAKERBOT IN THE CLASSROOM An Introduction to 3D Printing and Design

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SCIENCE CURRICULUM  CONNECTIONS IN DAILY LIFE Situations where science is used in daily life, and which are likely to capture the interest of many students, often involve combining science with other subjects, particularly engineering, technology and mathematics. Changes in the workplace, and in research activity, increasingly require multidisciplinary teams to tackle a broad range of scientific problems that may have implications for society.

Real world contexts and problems – such as designing sustainable energy systems, bio-medical engineering, maintaining biodiversity in areas where conflicts arise between local and global needs – demand knowledge, concepts and skills from several disciplines. A general understanding of the issues and of their ethical implications is needed by all citizens if the political will is to be mobilised to solve the problems they present. These considerations raise questions of how to ensure relevant learning by all students, whether or not they will later be employed in such enterprises.

Being able to see the connections between different ideas in science, as in the understanding of big ideas and how they were developed, is an important part of preparation for work and life. Education that helps students to connect ideas across and within subject domains encourages creativity and innovation. It prepares students to participate in, rather than being at the mercy of, the rapid changes in occupations and communication using technologies developed through engineering and the applications of science.

CHALLENGES At the same time as acknowledging the strong case for focusing teaching on big ideas, it is important to recognise that some developments over recent years have created challenges to the changes that are needed for students to have the chance to develop understanding. Two key challenges concern student assessment and teacher education.

In many countries there has been a constant increase in testing and the use of test results to set targets for teachers and schools, in the false belief that this will improve learning.

Conventional tests and examinations present a series of disconnected questions or problems, which all too often encourages teaching of disconnected pieces of knowledge. If progress towards big ideas is to be effectively supported and assessed there has to be a fundamental change in the ways in which data about what students are able to do are generated, collected and used. Without this, the impact of assessment on what is taught and how it is taught will restrain, even strangle, attempts to help students develop key abilities and understanding.

TEACHER EDUCATION When planning lessons it is important for teachers to consider how the goals of

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It is vitally important that the education of all young people enables them to sustain their curiosity about the world we live in, enjoy scientific activity and develop a deep understanding of how events and phenomena around them can be explained individual lessons fit into a wider picture of more powerful ideas that can help students make sense of a broad range of related phenomena and events. Having this general direction of development in mind frames what teachers observe and look for in students’ actions, questions and talk, and will inform their decisions about feedback to students and how to adapt their teaching through formative assessment to support students’ further learning.

This is particularly challenging for primary school teachers who must teach all subjects, but equally for some secondary school teachers who teach all science domains but may have studied only one or two in depth.

Many teachers’ own education in science at school lacked involvement in scientific activity and the opportunity of developing the big ideas. Teacher education should supply this experience if teachers are to be equipped to help students progress towards the goal of understanding these ideas.

THE AIMS OF SCIENCE EDUCATION Science education should enhance learners’ curiosity, wonder and questioning, building on their natural inclination to seek meaning and understanding of the world around. Scientific inquiry should be introduced and encountered by school students as an activity that can be carried out by everyone including themselves.

They should have personal experiences of finding out about and of making connections between new and previous experiences that not only bring excitement and satisfaction but also the realisation that they can add to their knowledge through active inquiry.

Both the process and product of scientific activity can evoke a positive emotional response which motivates further learning.

Through science education, students should develop understanding of big ideas about objects, phenomena, materials and relationships in the natural world. Science education should also develop big ideas about scientific inquiry, reasoning and methods of working and ideas about the relationship between science, technology, society and the environment. Although the big ideas of science and about science form the main focus of this publication, the goals of science education should also include the development of scientific capabilities and scientific attitudes.

Science should be experienced by students as aiming for understanding, not as a collection of facts and theories that have been proved to be correct. Scientific knowledge should be conveyed as a set of explanations for natural phenomena that are generally agreed to provide the best account of the available evidence. It should be recognised as the result of human endeavour involving creativity and imagination as well as careful collection and interpretation of data. E

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SCIENCE CURRICULUM  REVISITING BIG IDEAS Science is complex. How can we expect students to begin understanding the vast array of ideas, theories and principles that seem to be necessary to grapple with this complexity?

A clue as to how this might be possible comes from listening to experts in science explaining to non-experts how the world works. They identify the key ideas which explain a phenomenon, cutting through the distracting detail. For example, a physicist can show how just two key ideas (Newton’s second law and the universal law of gravitation) explain how satellites and space craft are kept moving round the Earth and enable us to calculate the velocities needed to keep these objects in orbit or bring them down to Earth.

We are not suggesting the key ideas can be directly taught, or denying that building the relevant ideas involves bringing together many smaller ideas from a range of learning experiences. But we are convinced that ensuring that these learning experiences are linked to key ideas can provide the understanding that all students need to make sense of what they observe in the world.

Whilst acknowledging that science education should lead to these various outcomes, our decision to focus on big ideas of science and about science follows from our view that ideas play a central role in all aspects of science education.

The development of understanding is a common factor in all science education activities.

Science inquiry capabilities, or practices, and scientific attitudes and dispositions are developed by engaging in activities whose content involves science understanding; otherwise the activities can hardly be called scientific.

Although we may emphasise and reinforce behaviours relating to, for example, cautious attitudes to interpreting data, or what is needed to plan a scientific investigation, the activity will also relate to one or more scientific ideas, for these attributes are not developed in isolation from scientific content.

counter to common sense. In a world increasingly dependent on the applications of science, people may feel powerless without some understanding of how to evaluate the quality of the information on which explanations are based.

In science this evaluation concerns the methods used in collecting, analysing and interpreting data to test theories. Questioning the basis of ideas enables all of us to reject claims that are based on false evidence and to recognise when evidence is being used selectively to support particular actions. This is a key part of using scientific knowledge to evaluate evidence in order to make decisions, such as about the use of natural resources.

ENGAGING IN SCIENTIFIC INQUIRY Participation in scientific inquiry enables students to develop ideas about science and how ideas are developed through scientific activity. The key characteristic of such activity is an attempt to answer a question to which students don’t know the answer or to explain something they don’t understand. These may be questions raised by students but, since it is not realistic for all students always to be working on their own questions, it is part of the skill of teacher to introduce questions in a way that students identify them as their own.

The answer to some questions can be found by first hand investigation, but for others information is needed from secondary sources. In either case the important feature is that evidence is used to test ideas and so the understanding that results will depend on what evidence is collected and how it is interpreted.

Therefore, capabilities involved in conducting scientific inquiry have a key role in the development of ideas and the pedagogy that supports the development of big ideas must also promote the development of competence and confidence in inquiry.

on Educati im a should op an l to devending of a understbig ideas in a set ofwhich include science ce itself and scien lications its app

THE NATURE OF SCIENCE We also want learners to understand the processes of scientific activity as well as the ideas to which it leads, that is, to know how the ideas that explain things in the world around have been arrived at not just what these ideas are. Indeed, it is hard to envisage separating knowledge about scientific activity from knowledge of scientific ideas.

Without knowing how ideas were developed, learning science would require blind acceptance of many ideas about the natural world that appear to run

THE STEM CONTEXT The question about the relationship between science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM subjects) arises because understanding situations in daily life often involves combinations of these subjects; indeed much of what is referred to as ‘science’ in everyday life is better described as technology or engineering.

Greater integration of STEM in educational programmes would afford opportunities for a better match of teaching and learning to practices in the work place and research settings and would be more likely to capture students’ interest and engagement.

A further argument for some degree of integration follows from the cognitive research

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that suggests connected knowledge is more readily applied in new situations than separate pieces of knowledge. However, what little research there is on the effects of integrating science with other subjects suggests that, at school level, it can be counter-productive to attempt to make connections if the ideas in each domain have not been securely learned.

Rather than trying to teach the STEM subjects in an integrated manner, the advantages of bringing them together would be better secured by curriculum planning that coordinates related themes and topics.

IDENTIFYING BIG IDEAS The approach to science education of working towards development of big ideas has been widely accepted, and indeed welcomed, in principle. In order to decide what changes, if any, were necessary in the ideas published in Principles and Big Ideas of Science Education we first reviewed the selection criteria that had been used.

Big ideas should have explanatory power in relation to a large number of objects, events and phenomena that are encountered by students in their lives during and after their school years and provide a basis for understanding issues, such as the use of energy, involved in making decisions that affect learners’ own and others’ health and wellbeing and the environment.

Ideas should also lead to enjoyment and satisfaction in being able to answer or find answers to the kinds of questions that people ask about themselves and the natural world, and have cultural significance reflecting achievements in the history of science, inspiration from the study of nature and the impacts of human activity on the environment.

Feedback on the resulting selection of big ideas has not pointed to a need for major changes but rather that it has stood the test of informal peer review. At the same time, it became clear that there is some way to go before the approach is manifested in classroom practice and teacher education.

More attention needs to be given to how to work with big ideas in practice and the implications for curriculum content, pedagogy and student assessment.

Consequently, even though we recognise that a different selection of ideas could be proposed, it was apparent that changes to the ideas at this stage, when they are beginning to be used, would not be helpful.

Moreover, although not identical with the way in which ideas are presented in recently published curriculum frameworks, there are close similarities in the goals implicit in the curricula across many countries. For these reasons, having revisited the criteria used in selecting ideas and reviewed alternatives, we decided against making more than small changes of wording in the ideas identified and confirmed the selection of ten ideas of science and four ideas about science as before. E

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SCIENCE CURRICULUM  CONCEPTIONS OF PROGRESSION How are we to describe the progression of ideas from those that students form from their earliest years and bring to school to the grasp of big ideas we want them to have when they emerge from school? We found three main models of progression in ideas in the different ways in which learning goals are set out in curriculum frameworks.

The first, commonly applied, implicitly identifies progression with climbing a ladder, where each step has to be completed before the next step can be taken. What is needed to complete each step is set out as learning targets. The size of the step varies in different models; it can be a year or several years or stages. This approach gives the impression of a fixed linear development with progression seen as a series of separate stages each with its own end-point but not necessarily linked to the understanding of the overall big ideas. If this happens then the purpose and relevance of their science experiences may not be conveyed to students.

The second model is to describe only the overall end point, which can be reached in a variety of ways, rather as the pieces of a jigsaw can be put together in any order. This has disadvantages in providing too little guidance to teachers and other curriculum developers in deciding appropriate learning experiences.

The third model breaks overall goals into several strands. Ideas within each strand are gradually developed over time, often through a spiral curriculum. However, there is a risk of losing sight of connections between ideas in different strands that link them together in bigger ideas. Each model has advantages and disadvantages and something of each is probably needed since the nature

and breadth of experiences required to develop them varies for different ideas.

EXPRESSING BIG IDEAS OF SCIENCE There are now examples of national curriculum documents that include overarching statements of aims expressed in the form of big ideas which are sufficiently similar to serve the same purpose. For instance, the guidelines being developed for the K-9 curriculum in France include knowledge that: ‘The Universe is structured from its biggest scale (galaxies, stars, planets) down to the smallest (particles, atoms and molecules)’.

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these two types of outcomes are listed separately but some recently developed curriculum frameworks express goals at the end of stages, or years, as a combination of skills and concepts.

The framework for K-12 Science Education in the USA states outcomes in terms of ‘what students who demonstrate understanding can do’ as a series of statements which combine practices and overall concepts. Understanding ideas is to be developed through inquiry and investigation and, at the same time, that inquiry capabilities are developed and used in relation to scientific content.

Greater integration of STEM in educational programmes would afford opportunities for a better match of teaching and learning to practices in the work place But it is how such overall aims are broken down into goals for certain stages or years that is important in communicating the need for continuity and gradual progression in developing big ideas. Big ideas should run longitudinally through the description of learning goals across all stages. To convey the notion of progression in understanding it is not enough to state what is to be learned in terms of topics or concept words such as ‘force’, ‘electricity’ or ‘materials’. To be useful the statements should indicate the level of understanding or relationships and connections intended at particular stages.

Most curriculum documents, as well as setting out the concepts to be learnt, list science inquiry skills, or practices, to be developed at different stages. Usually

However, although they are clearly not intended to restrict the combination of capabilities and content, there is some arbitrariness in the specified statements in relation to which capabilities and content are linked. Further, the complexity of the statements can obscure the relationship of the ideas at each stage to the overall big ideas. L

Contributors to the report include: Derek Bell, Rosa Devés, Hubert Dyasi, Guillermo Fernández de la Garza, Louise Hayward, Pierre Léna, Robin Millar, Michael Reiss, Patricia Rowell, Wei Yu; and Juliet Miller (rapporteur).

FURTHER INFORMATION www.interacademies.net

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TAKE STUDENTS FURTHER At OCR we believe that a holistic approach to teaching STEM subjects provides an opportunity for students to make informed decisions about their subject choices and the link to potential careers.

We provide a wide range of qualifications across the STEM family of subjects that meet the needs of all students, enabling young people to develop the necessary skills and knowledge in school to succeed at university and in employment.

Find out more about how our STEM Key Stage 4 qualifications are supported by an online resource, the OCR STEM Project.

Find out more at: stem.ocr.org.uk or email us at stem@ocr.org.uk

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CAREERS ADVICE

Letting science lead the way Students interested in a career in medicine will no doubt fall into one of the following categories. Either they want to be a doctor or surgeon and have a good chance of getting the required grades. Alternatively they want to be a doctor (or their parents demand it) but you know deep down they won’t get the grades needed to get into Med School.

Or lastly they like the idea of working in the NHS but have no idea what to do.

With the first group, all you need to

do is support, encourage and help them find opportunities to strengthen any UCAS application. They will already be focused on what they want to achieve as an end goal – therefore concentrate more on the other two categories.

You know the second group are good students, but they won’t get the A and A* grades across the board for Med School.

How do you tell them to modify their

ambitions? What other choices do they have?

Well, the good news is they have plenty.

HEALTHCARE SCIENCE There is a group of careers in the NHS that come under the banner of healthcare science. There are over 40 to choose from, across five different sub sectors, which just adds to the appeal as they are all very different. Plus, the NHS would grind to a halt without them as they perform 85 per cent of the diagnostic tests in a hospital.

In physiology you have lots of direct contact with patients via the running of such diagnostic tests. You can specialise further in testing specific organs like the heart, lungs, ears, brain and nerves, or gastrointestinal tract. You can even become a sleep physiologist and monitor what happens to the body as it slumbers.

The life science careers are typically more lab-based, but patient contact is still part of the remit. You could be an immunologist and histocompatability scientist and check that organ donors and organ recipients are a match for transplant. Or you could test blood and various other bodily fluids as a hematologist microbiologist or virologist.

Then there is medical physics where you could be working with radioactive medicines or taking images of the body with CT, MRI and PET scanners. Medical engineers repair and maintain hospital equipment, or you could be involved in the design and customisation of equipment and even body parts for patients.

The newest arena, which is set to be a huge growth area for the NHS, is bioinformatics.

This is how we store data from tests and patient records digitally. Many hospitals are now going paper-lite, so all records are accessible on computers or tablets.

Plus, there are all the images, results and your genetic make-up that has to be stored.

That is a huge amount of information – so having people in place to properly organise and run this kind of facility is vital.

Moreover, if students who fall within the third group can simply attain grades A – C (not A*) in just Maths, English and Science they are on the first step to becoming a healthcare scientist. This scenario opens up these careers to so many different types of student, whether your interest is science, IT, engineering to name but a few.

The next great thing about them is that you can go down the apprenticeship route, or become a healthcare science associate, which is like training on the job. You can take a classic sixth form or college then university route and go and study something different – then top up with a postgraduate course to qualify. E

There up is a gro 40 of over er five ov careers sub sectors t differen HS that come in the Nr the banner unde althcare of he nce scie

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Written by Tom Warrender, Founder of Clasroom Medics

There is a current initiative to encourage young people, especially female pupils, to pursue a career in science, technology, engineering or maths. Physiology lecturer Tom Warrender discusses why pupils should consider taking their STEM studies further

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STEM SUBJECTS

CREATING A GENERATION FIT FOR INDUSTRY

Vernier pioneers award-winning interfaces, sensors and software to transform how educators teach science and how students collect, analyse, and interpret scientific data Graduates in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are vital in order to combat the current skills shortage in the UK and ensure the future prosperity of our country.

We need to ensure we keep our students interested in these subjects by making it more engaging and appealing, especially to develop students’ practical scientific skills.

Students remember information better when it is represented both visually and verbally.

Physics teacher, David Howarth explains that when teaching the STEM subjects, text books simply aren’t enough – hands on science is still one of the best ways to learn.

BACKGROUND “I have been a teacher for 15 years,” explains Davind, “and currently teach GCSE and A-Level physics at Durham Johnston Comprehensive School, a coeducational secondary school in Crossgate Moor, Durham. The school often ranks in the top 100 schools in the United Kingdom and achieved ‘outstanding’ status in its most recent Ofsted inspection. One of the school’s key goals is to create a generation of knowledgeable students who possess realworld skills and are in a position to compete globally. In 2013, 64 per cent of GCSE students and 63 per cent of A-Level students achieved A*-A in physics.”

WHEN TEXTBOOKS AREN’T ENOUGH David isn’t your average physics teacher.

He didn’t follow a conventional career path into teaching or know all the way through university that inspiring the students of Durham Johnstone School was his calling.

Somewhere in between his transition from graduate to teacher, he worked as an engineer, managing process control in chemical plants.

Given his background, David really appreciates the importance of teaching students practical science skills, by giving them the chance to use software and technology that is used in industry on a day-to-day basis.

David explains: “I think using tools such as data logging and graphical analysis software should be compulsory when teaching STEM [science, technology, engineering and maths] subjects as they are used every day in industry. Yes, sometimes you take notes with a pen and paper, but it’s rare. Data logging and this type

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of equipment speeds up the process and allows us to crack incredibly hard problems.

Students need to be aware of how science is applied in the real-world, outside of the classroom. It’s all very well teaching theory out of a textbook, but it’s just as important to teach students how to test these ideas and even more important to let them try it out for themselves so that they have the right skills and knowledge to apply this in a real working environment.”

THE PERFECT SOLUTION Conscious that he needed to make students aware of the everyday relevance of physics, David began looking for new

ways to bring his lessons to life.

After hearing about Vernier from a senior technician at the school, David quickly made tools such as Logger Pro, a key feature of his lessons. Six years on and he’s never looked back, appreciating the way that Vernier equipment allows him to convey complex scientific theory in a simple, easy to understand way: “While I want to give my students a taste of some of the processes used in industry, I don’t want them to feel out of their depth by using incredibly intricate tools. Vernier’s equipment is perfect as it’s very advanced, but at the same time user-friendly. It’s a bit like using Windows really; once you start using it, you can work your way through with relative ease.”

HOW VERNIER WORKS FOR THE SCHOOL Since using Vernier’s equipment, David has found that getting students out from behind their desks and allowing them to make their own discoveries has helped to turn some of the most unexpected

pupils into budding scientists. It is about making science relevant, so that even those students whose mouths don’t water at the thought of scientific theory, can find a way to relate and enjoy science.

A favourite experiment among David’s students is measuring the speed of sound using data-logging software, as David describes: “Using a Vernier Microphone, connected to a computer, it’s very easy to actually show pupils how sound travels. The microphone is positioned next to a large plastic drainpipe and when you click your fingers, the sound sends a signal down to a plate on the floor at the bottom, which then bounces back up to the microphone. The sound is then picked up by the microphone and the computer records the data using Logger Pro. What makes it even more exciting for students is that the information collected by Logger Pro is then automatically displayed in a graph, so that students can clearly see the average time intervals and really begin to understand how sound travels.

And what’s more, they’re able to analyse it using similar tools to those actually used in the workplace.”

“I’d never actually heard of this experiment before we started using Vernier, it was just one of the many experiment ideas that they showed to us when we began using their products. This is one of the great things about Vernier – rather than just delivering the equipment and then leaving you to muddle your way through an instruction manual, they offer teacher training, lesson ideas and class demonstrations too.”

GOING FORWARD David is very happy with the products and service he has received from Vernier and will no doubt continue to use them for years to come.

David adds: “We’ll certainly be sticking with Vernier if they keep going the way they are going. In fact, I would like to use them more and more. They have been really, very good. They provide a top notch service and couldn’t do more for you.”  FURTHER INFORMATION support@vernier.com www.vernier.com

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION – www.educationbusinessuk.net

CAREERS ADVICE  THE UNIVERSITY ROUTE For the university route, check out the healthcare science section on the UCAS website. Different universities have different specialisms within their healthcare science course, e.g. some will focus more on physiology and some life sciences. During your schooling, try and experience them all and then decide which one you want to focus on?

Via UCAS you can also check what qualifications each university wants from your students to get accepted onto any course. Apprenticeships meanwhile are advertised on specialist websites as well as NHS Careers and Job sites.

About the author The trick is to draw them in, make them aware and give them a tantalising taste of what is possible. There are lots of ways to do this, but here are my top three: Firstly, contact your local STEM Hub – they run events, training, find outside speakers for you, help you put on STEM events and most importantly connect you to healthcare science STEM ambassadors.

They will do all the leg and paper work for you and make it as easy as possible for your school to access these ambassadors.

Secondly, STEM Ambassadors will visit the school for free and provide a talk or activity for your class. Being very passionate about what they do they’re the ideal people for your pupils to speak to. They are usually under used as well, so will probably jump at the chance.

Lastly, NHS Careers has some great and easily accessible material on its website, but unfortunately these are not promoted widely enough, so pupils and teachers miss out. Visit www.nhscareers.nhs.uk. L

One of the fits ene major blthcare of hea that it is is science more than open toigh ability your h pupil A*

DRAWING THEM IN So, one of the major benefits of healthcare science is that it is open to more than your high ability A* pupil.

This accessibility through different routes also means it is a more attractive career path for pupils that would not normally consider university. It offers career paths that are attractive to both boys, girls and the disadvantaged – basically any pupil that has a fleeting interest in STEM.

Science

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FURTHER INFORMATION www.classroommedics.co.uk

Tom Warrender used to lecture on Physiology at Birmingham City University, is a half-decent 800m runner for Wolverhampton & Bilston Harriers, and is known on the speaking circuit as ‘The Human Guinea Pig’ because he puts himself through all sorts of tests in the name of science.

He’s also worked extensively within the NHS Healthcare Science sector.

Tom founded Classroom Medics, who specialise in exciting, hands on workshops that bring real sports science and medical equipment into the classroom. They seek to engage the next generation of athletes and healthcare scientists, as well as to help pupils make more informed decisions about their career aspirations and lifestyle choices.

Visit www.classroommedics.co.uk for further information.

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Laser for Schools is a comprehensive online system for collecting, managing, tracking and organising information about the day-today running of your school.

It can make running your school more efficient and have huge health and safety benefits. It’s all about having information readily available, on the spot, when you need it.

We can build a system for your school that can do all or any of the following: •

Track pupil location - pupils swipe a wristband on entering a class / area / minibus and the office knows where they are.

•

Hold vital medical information and make that information easy to access without going back to the office computer.

•

Hold menu choices and special dietary requirements – canteen serving staff can see a photo of the child to confirm they are giving the right food to the right child.

•

Homework can be accessed by children on their computer at home. This can be completed online and sent back to the teacher via the system. No more paper getting lost on the way home.

•

Messages can be sent to all parents via their Laser account.

•

Play supervisors can record minor accidents, and these can be analysed by type, location, time of day, class etc.

•

Late pupil sign in / pupil sign-out.

•

Booking system for after school clubs, producing registers

•

Staff inductions - after interview and job offer, but before turning up on day one, your new appointments will have access to a number of videos and documents ensuring that all have the same induction experience.

•

CPD tracking and delivery - a Laser System can track and monitor CPD for all of your staff; reporting on who has completed which on line courses and alerting you when training needs to be updated.

•

Policies and Procedures - all your important documents can be accessible to all staff easily and immediately on your Laser System. If you update a policy then an alert can be sent to staff asking them to read the amended document and confirm that they have done so.

Contact us for a demonstration: 01753 584112

www.lasersys.co.uk

Well Educated Banking www.lloydstsb.com/ schoolbanking

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AWARD WINNERS

Awarding excellence in the education sector

EB Awards 2015

Sponsored by

On 8 July the winners of the 2015 Education Business Awards were announced at the annual Awards Ceremony which took place at The Grange Hotel, London.

Education Business reflects upon an enjoyable day and looks at the winners The 2015 Education Business Awards, supported by the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA), once again recognised outstanding achievements in the UK education sector, and the hard work and dedication of teachers, department heads, business managers and support staff that are instrumental in contributing to the success of the school.

This year, 87 schools from across the UK were represented at the Education Business Awards ceremony, which was presented by Bucks Fizz star and former Eurovision Song Contest winner Cheryl Baker. Following a champagne drinks reception and awards luncheon, the winning schools were named in 22 categories.

AWARD WINNERS Presented to the academy that demonstrates benefits to the community through a partnership with an existing establishment, the Academy partnership Award was won by Thornhill Community Academy, Dewsbury.

The school has introduced a cohesive teaching and learning programme of financial education, enabling students to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to make informed financial decisions. The introduction to financial education comes as part of the Academy’s movement to join the Centres of Excellence Programme and become part of a network of best practice schools.

Springfield Primary School was awarded the School Procurement Award, sponsored

by ESPO. Recognising schools working with an outside agency or local authority to refine its buying practices and increase value to the taxpayer, Springfield Primary Academy was recognised for its work with Trafford Council. During the Springfield Primary School project, over £80,000 has been saved and the process has been documented in order to ensure that best practice is shared.

OUTSTANDING PROGRESS Presented to the UK Independent school that has made outstanding progress in the management of its facilities, finances and human resources, the Outstanding Progress Independent School Award was presented to the Royal Grammar School, Newcastle.

Respected throughout the country, pupils at the Royal Grammar School sit the International GCSE before the opportunity to join one of the

largest sixth forms in the independent sector.

The Outstanding Progress Primary School Award was presented to Harris Primary Academy Coleraine Park. Since the Harris Federation took over Coleraine Park Primary in 2012, the Tottenham school’s journey has taken a path from special measures to ‘Outstanding’ in just two years. The DfE rated it as the top sponsored primary Academy in the country for progress made by pupils between the ages of 7 and 11.

In addition, Charter Academy celebrated winning the Outstanding Progress Secondary School Award. This year, Charter Academy was ranked as the best school in Portsmouth and the most-improved school in the whole country for GCSE results. Its work in providing a high quality education for students from low income backgrounds was recognised at the DfE’s Pupil Premium Awards.

COMPLIMENTING COMPUTING SUCCESS Awarded to the educational establishment that has made outstanding progress in the provision of a first class environment for the teaching of ICT and related subjects, the ICT Facility Award was presented to King’s Ely School in Cambridge.

Despite its medieval buildings, the

school is making advancements in ICT provision - including four computing rooms, Bring-Your-Own-Device initiatives and taking part in a Europe-wide Erasmus project to build digital resources.

The second ICT category, ICT Innovation, was awarded to Teasdale School, County Durham. The Award is given to the educational establishment that bests demonstrates innovation in its approach to teaching and deploying ICT that furthers the learning experience of its students.

RECOGNISING HEALTH AND SAFETY The Excellence in Health and Safety Award, sponsored by IOSH, recognises the valuable work the responsible managers do to create and maintain a safe and healthy environment for teachers, pupils and the general public every day.

This year the Award went to Maltings Academy who achieved the British Safety Council 5 Star health and safety award for the second year running in 2014, and has also been awarded the British Safety Council Sword of Honour twice in recent years.

The Innovation in Health and Safety Award, also sponsored by IOSH, was awarded to Leas Park Junior School. Having been one 

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education technology specialists

s King’s Ely gaining a repu is quickly trailblazer whe tation as a n the use of ICT it comes to , de medieval build spite its ings.

Education Busin ess Awards, 20 15

In just 18 months, RivaNET delivered award winning technology to enable staff and students to work

anywhere anytime anyplace

Students are now actively encouraged to bring in their own personal devices to use on the school network, enabling access to resources quickly and easily over a safe and secure connection.

By commissioning a Strategic RivaNET Site Audit Roadmap early on, the historic bottlenecks were identified and upgrades implemented in a fully budgeted and phased approach.

It’s great to receive an award that confirms our place as an organisation that may be 1000 years old but uses C21st tech to enable fast, reliable IT. The added bonus of trouble-free connectivity is that it frees up our technical team to be more available to support academic development.

Of course, the big danger, with all this celebration, is that people will think we’ve reached the end of the road. Neither in tech nor in education, does such a place exist!

Sue Freestone, Principal, King’s Ely

To arrange for RivaNET to carry out a Strategic Site Audit please contact us on 0330 555 5550 or email enquiries@rivanet.co.uk.

First 100 enquiries receive a FREE copy of

Classroom in the Cloud – Alex McGrath, Head

worth £12.99

Contact us on 0330 555 5550

Well Educated Banking www.lloydstsb.com/ schoolbanking

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AWARD WINNERS  of the first schools in Nottinghamshire to achieve the ‘Safety Smart’ award, Leas Park Junior School believes that health and safety is everyone’s responsibility.

All school staff are first aid trained, and instead of shying away from risk, the school manages it effectively to maintain a safe environment for its students.

SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS The SEN Provision Award, sponsored by nasen, was awarded to Uplands School, Swindon. Uplands School has been recognised as a vibrant and caring community that supports children to develop independent life skills, offering innovative and inspirational provision to ensure that all pupils reach their full potential.

The SEN Inclusion Award is presented to a mainstream school that demonstrates increased quality of care to special educational needs students. The 2015 winner was Marine Academy Primary, which was the first free school in the UK to be awarded Makaton Friendly status by The Makaton Charity, recognising their efforts to make services accessible to children with speech and language difficulties. Staff have all received professional training in Makaton sign language, so that all classes

can be taught how to use it and benefit from greater communication skills.

BUILDING ON SUCCESS The School Security award was won this year by Beddington Park Primary School in Surrey. The school has electronic entry fobs for access and takes part in the School Safety Alert Scheme. The School Building Award was presented to Maidenhill School, Gloucestershire. The school showed methodical planning and economical prowess when undertaking refurbishment work at a cost of £3.7 million, despite original estimations of £14 million.

The Environmental Practice Award was taken home to Halesowen by Lutley Primary School, where teacher Liz Cole was celebrated for her devotion to teaching about the environment and our impact upon it. Elsewhere, Seaford College from West Sussex won the Community Award for its involvement in Community Action Day in Chichester this year.

Bristols’ Henbury School was the recipient of the Educational Visits Award, followings its once in a lifetime Geography trip to Iceland in April. Meanwhile, the Sports Award was presented to Shrewbury High School for its outstanding progress and improvement in school sport.

Tasty milk full of the natural dairy goodness that children need YAZOO Milk Drinks is a brand of FrieslandCampina. Royal FrieslandCampina, one of the world’s largest dairy companies provides millions of consumers all over the world with dairy products containing valuable nutrients every day.

A cooperative with more than 19,000 member dairy farmers, FrieslandCampina has offices in 28 countries and FrieslandCampina’s products find their way to more than 100 countries, supplying consumers with products such as dairy-based beverages, infant nutrition, cheese and desserts.

YAZOO Milk Drinks and FrieslandCampina, aim for sustainable growth – growth that keeps in balance the needs of people, communities and nature, as well as its business. Providing children with the goodness of milk, FrieslandCampina supplies educational, leisure and catering operations around

the country with the leading flavoured milk brand.

Milk is an important part of a child’s diet and that’s why YAZOO Milk Drinks are always full of the goodness of milk, including calcium, protein and Vitamin B2. YAZOO has been around for nearly 30 years and now the UK consumes over 80 million bottles every year. Over the years FrieslandCampina has developed and refined its YAZOO recipe to ensure each sip is packed with natural dairy goodness.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 01403 273273 yazoo@frieslandcampina.com www.yazoo.co.uk www.frieslandcampina.com

SUCCESS IN ABUNDANCE The School Music Award was celebrated

by London’s Morpeth School. The school benefits from a strong staff base, with 22 specialist music teachers and a state of the art music department, comprising of two classrooms, two technology suites, 13 practice spaces and a recording suite.

The School Recruitment Award travelled to the West Midlands as Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School celebrated recruitment success. With a growing demand for teachers, the school established a trainee teacher scheme to find potential candidates. Trafalgar Infant School, Richmond, won the School Catering Award for its work raising money for their own Tanzanian school vegetable garden.

Shirley Infant School benefited from its developmental stance on the arts by claiming the Art and Craft Award this year. And finally, the STEM Award, a first time category in 2015, was awarded to Daziel High School in Motherwell. Alongside its internal curriculum, the school is exploring the importance of STEM outside of its classrooms by hosting the annual Primary Maths Challenge, promoting Maths to local primary schools in the area. 

EB Awards 2015

Sponsored by

FURTHER INFORMATION www.ebawards.co.uk

Avoiding those common procurement pitfalls ESPO wants to be your partner in procurement and give you the tools and knowledge to make the very best buying decisions. For ESPO, that means letting you in on some industry secrets.

Learn how to wise up to worthless warranties, beat the furniture rush and save your school money without sharing a penny of your savings; the answers can be found in ESPO’s Procurement Masterclass.

This report is available to download from the ESPO website and provides an interesting insight into the world of education procurement. It’s full of helpful hints and tips to improve your own procurement knowledge and get the very best from your budget.

Rowena Thomas, Education Procurement Manager at ESPO,

said: “Good procurement is the first step to managing your school’s expenditure. That’s why I’ve produced my very own Procurement Masterclass!”

The ESPO Procurement Masterclass is available to download free from the ESPO website below.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 0116 265 7927 info@espo.org espo.org

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Health & Safety Written by Jon Parker, the Design and Technology Association

Sponsored by

Well Educated Banking www.lloydstsb.com/ schoolbanking

DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

Implementing safety from the design stage The teaching of Design and Technology in schools is both a challenging and exciting prospect. Jon Parker, Lead Health and Safety Consultant at the Design and Technology Association, discusses the best ways to minimise risk and enhance learning Best practice emanates from teachers who are knowledgeable about relevant aspects of health and safety (H&S) and who subsequently feel confident in managing and maintaining a healthy and safe working environment.

Vital to this are well qualified teachers who are empowered to identify hazards and assess risks and who can determine how best to minimise, remove or control such risks within an educational environment.

The Design and Technology Association (D&T Association) supports schools, academies, colleges, initial teacher training and other educational establishments to enable employers to meet their statutory obligations for H&S training for all colleagues working in the subject of Design and Technology (D&T). This includes teachers and lecturers, technicians and learning support staff who work across the different disciplines of the subject. These disciplines now provide the opportunity for students to work in a wide range of both traditional and modern materials and to use a wide range of specialist tools, equipment and machinery, including computer aided manufacture.

DEMONSTRATING COMPETENCE In practice today, staff and students use a wider range of equipment than they ever have, and whilst machines like circular saws and centre lathes are still at the heart of the subject, lasers and 3D printers are now commonplace. It is essential therefore that both staff and students are able to demonstrate competence in the use of this equipment and machinery, and to achieve this, H&S training standards were developed in association with the Teacher Training Agency. Since these Training Standards were first established in 2000, well over 23,000 teaching and support staff have been accredited on the Standards.

These Standards effectively provide the benchmark for H&S training in D&T, providing colleagues with the training, competency and accreditation to meet the requirements of the British Standard for the

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subject, BS4163:2014 Health and safety for design and technology in educational and similar establishments – Code of Practice.

This Code of Practice sets clear expectations about the H&S training required by all colleagues working in D&T and highlights how important it is for schools and colleges to work to these Training Standards. It states: ‘Employees should be competent to undertake the tasks expected of them. All employees and supporting adults should be trained in safe use of equipment, machinery and processes during initial training, or by in-service training.

D&T Association has published training standards which provide a framework that employers can use to cover all elements of health and safety training for D&T’.

Significantly, in relation to the use of high-risk equipment and machinery, it notes that ‘Learners should only work in a high-risk area when it is fully under the control of a person competent to work in the area (i.e. a person with demonstrated competency through the D&T Association training scheme).’

Since the ere sw Standard lished, b first esta 23,000 r well ove d support procedures and an teaching ave been importantly, how they teach H&S to staff h on the students and how that d e t i d e r acc training is recorded. s Standard The training on these

WHAT ARE THE STANDARDS? For Secondary schools, the H&S training standards are set out at three levels. Firstly, the Secondary Core Level H&S Training Standards.

D&T Association recommends that all Secondary teachers/technicians and support staff working in D&T should work towards achieving accreditation at the Secondary Core H&S Level. During this training, colleagues assemble a D&T H&S portfolio to demonstrate how they manage H&S within their workshop or studio. The portfolio provides evidence of their knowledge of legislation and essential publications, their H&S training records, their risk and COSHH assessments, records of statutory testing required, e.g. PAT and LEV testing, departmental maintenance

Standards is particularly effective when departments complete this as a whole team as it ensures and demonstrates a consistent approach to the management of H&S across the D&T department.

Additionally, there is the Secondary Specialist Level H&S Training Standards. In terms of practical hands-on training on the equipment and machinery of the subject, colleagues are recommended to work toward achieving accreditation within the Secondary Specialist Levels appropriate to their work, i.e. in Food Technology, Resistant Materials, Systems and Control and Textile Technology. This training largely covers the safe use of what is considered to be all of the medium risk equipment and machinery of the subject, essentially that used by students on a day to day basis.

Thirdly, the Specialist Extension Level H&S Training Standards. Colleagues working in

resistant materials are also recommended to work towards achieving accreditation at the Specialist Extension Levels related to the specific equipment and processes appropriate to their work. These cover working with: wood sawing machines, planer/thicknesser machines and wood-turning lathes, centre lathes and milling machines, the casting of non-ferrous metals, metal arc and oxy-acetylene welding, using portable power tools and using and changing of wheels on grinding machines and the use of sharpening equipment. This training largely covers the safe use of all of the high risk equipment and machinery used in the subject, much of which is only used by staff.

More recently the Specialist Extension Level Training Standards have been extended to include training specifically aimed at site staff and technicians in schools and colleges.

The training for site staff enables them to demonstrate competency in the safe and correct use of a wide range of power tools that are typically now being used within schools and colleges as part of their role.

In addition, a new technicians training course has been developed to provide both new and existing workshop technicians with the essential knowledge and understanding

of H&S that will help them to provide quality support to teachers and students in schools and colleges. Technicians attending this workshop-based course undertake a variety of activities to develop their knowledge and understanding of topics such as: understanding H&S legislation and documentation, providing support for the D&T curriculum, ensuring a safe working environment for D&T, managing D&T resources and establishing maintenance procedures.

WHAT TYPE OF TRAINING DO COLLEAGUES REQUIRE? When planning and organising training, schools and colleges do need to reflect on whether colleagues need either initial or refresher training. Initial training is definitely a requirement for colleagues with little or no previous experience or certification on specific Training Standards, e.g. on the Core Training Standards or on Standards relating to specific equipment and machinery.

Refresher training is of course a statutory requirement, and important for those with previous training and experience on specific equipment and machines to be able to demonstrate that their skills are up to date.

Health & Safety

The D&T Association strongly recommends that refresher training should be undertaken on a regular basis, and no later than five years from initial training, and this is reinforced in the British Standard Code of Practice. In practice, refresher training may be dependent upon the frequency of usage of equipment, for example if equipment and machinery is not used on a regular basis, refresher training may well be required every two or three years, or even more frequently.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO TRAIN? Training on the D&T Association H&S Training Standards is led by the Association’s Registered D&T H&S Consultants (RDTHSCs), who work to a Code of Practice as part of the Association’s Quality Assurance procedures. As part of this, minimum contact times are set for delivery of each of the Training Standards.

For example, training to meet the Core Level Training Standards requires a minimum of between four and six hours, and at the Specialist Levels, colleagues seeking accreditation on the Specialist Level in Food Technology as an example are required to attend a six hour training day to cover the Secondary Food H&S Training Standards and Level 2 Food Safety certification.

At the Specialist Extension Levels covering the high risk activities in resistant materials, again, minimum training times are set to ensure that trainees have sufficient time to cover the Standards, the related knowledge and understanding and to complete a range of set practical exercises. Initial training to meet the Specialist Extension Levels generally requires around 6 hours for each set of Training Standards.

ACCESSING TRAINING? Currently there is a network of some 150 RDTHSCs spread across the UK trained to deliver the D&T Association H&S Training Standards in schools and colleges. RDTHSCs can be found by area on the D&T Association website and can be contacted directly by schools and colleges to plan and organise training, either for their own establishment, or for example in conjunction with a group of local schools. Following training, RDTHSCs are required to log details of their trainees onto the D&T Association website for accreditation by the Association.

Training in schools and colleges now extends much further afield. RDTHSCs have provided H&S training for teachers at two recent International D&T Conferences, held in Singapore and Dubai, and attended by teachers from across the Far and the Middle East. Recently too, D&T Association has trained a group of RDTHSCs in Hong Kong who have already started to train colleagues in schools across the Hong Kong region.  FURTHER INFORMATION www.data.org.uk

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“The quality, consistency, taste and nutritional content knocks the socks off our previous suppliers... Not only is the food excellent, but so is the service. I highly recommend Healthy Roots.� Simon Boyd, Young Sussex Nurseries

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HEALTHY EATING

Catering

Sponsored by

The key to unlock healthy minds is improving food

Healthy food promotes a healthy mind and body, and there is nowhere this is more vital than in nurseries, schools and universities.

Nourishment for young people is essential to learning – it’s proven that children who eat a balanced diet containing the right vitamins and minerals have better concentration, memory recall and capacity for knowledge.

The Soil Association’s Food for Life Catering Mark works extensively in schools, nurseries and universities (as well as in other public settings, such as hospitals and care homes). It brings healthy, sustainable and locally sourced food to those who need it most, and those who don’t always get to choose for themselves what they eat.

The Food for Life Catering Mark initiative was created around six years ago to tackle unhealthy food in public places. Catering

Written by Rich Watts, senior Catering Mark manager, The Soil Association

Catering in schools is improving the quality of its food by meeting standard of nutrition, freshness and sustainability. The Food For Life Catering Mark is an initiative to tackle food in education and raise the standards even higher

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0 and in 2sities, as well universities, as well as in over 300 nurseries.

SCHOOL CATERING univer over 300 The Catering Mark is an Schools, once the breeding in s a s independent endorsement ground of turkey twizzlers, nurserie that proves caterers are taking are transforming food service. steps to improve their food, by meeting standards on nutrition, freshness, sustainability and animal welfare.

Caterers are assessed according to a set of standards which take into account everything from the sourcing of food and assurance schemes such as Red Tractor approved meat and MSC fish, to the preparation of meals and menu planning. Through a bronze, silver and gold framework, caterers are

Nurseries are leading the trend for independent accreditation, with many private establishments upping their game with the Catering Mark assurance, and universities are quickly bringing a new playing field for food offers on campus.

The Catering Mark bronze standard requires 75 per cent of dishes to be freshly cooked, with no undesirable additives or trans fats and seasonal food is encouraged. Through E

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

79

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HEALTHY EATING  a comprehensive framework businesses are guided through small steps in sourcing, cooking and planning, to achieve a Catering Mark and make a big difference to food, the environment and animal welfare. The bronze, silver and gold structure of the Catering Mark allows progression as caterers become more confident, find better ingredients, and use more local and more organic food.

At a time where the number of parents visiting food banks across the country and the incidence of childhood obesity is rising, those who decide on and prepare the food eaten outside of the home have a responsibility towards the nourishment of children in their care.

In Reception, one in five children is overweight or obese (boys at 23.2 per cent, and girls at 21.2 per cent) and in Year 6, every third child is overweight or obese (boys at 34.8 per cent, and girls at 31.8 per cent). Overweight five‑year-olds are four times as likely to become obese later in life, compared with children who are a healthy weight at this age.

ANALYSING THE COST Good food doesn’t have to cost more.

Historically, catering managers made their buying decisions based on keeping ingredient price low. It is assumed that better quality

placed to score good or excellent against the Plan’s ‘Balanced Scorecard’ criteria.

Many celebrities have endorsed the scheme too; Jamie Oliver recently said: “Massive credit to all the caterers and suppliers who are already working hard every day to serve up great quality, delicious, nutritious food...Whether it’s in a hospital, school, factory canteen or office café, here’s to the next million!”

A DEMAND FOR SUSTAINABILITY The scheme has an effect on the wider community too. For every £1 spent on Catering Mark menus, £3 is put back, for example through local employment. The Catering Mark also provides a significant boost to the British farming industry, with over £40 million spent on British ingredients each year.

Figures show the growing demand for healthier, sustainable food in the UK food sector – the annual wholesale value of MSC certified fish sold into the Catering Mark supply each year is nearly £4 million.

Collectively, Catering Mark holders annually spend over £7 million on organic ingredients, nearly £4 million on free range and Freedom Food-certified meat and over £1.2 million on LEAF marque certified products. To link

It is assumed that better quality food is more expensive, but with the right training staff can make the most of cooking skills and an understanding of seasonal food or different cuts of meat to help make a nutritious meal that’s still within budget food is more expensive, but with the right training staff can make the most of cooking skills and an understanding of seasonal food or different cuts of meat to help make a nutritious meal that’s still within budget.

It’s not just schools who are seeing the benefit of the Food for Life Catering Mark, school food standards set by the Department of Education now encourage the use of ‘fresh, local, sustainably sourced food’ – and the Catering Mark has been recognised as a way to help caterers demonstrate that these standards are being met.

The Catering Mark has also been cited in the government’s Plan for Public Procurement, which addresses wider aspects of quality within food and catering – such as ethical, environmental and social considerations.

Based on the Government Buying Standards for food and nutrition, the Plan seeks to achieve consistent standards for all food procured by Central Government departments, as well as providing best practice recommendations for food providers and procurers. Catering Mark holders are recognised within the Plan as being well-

caterers with suitable suppliers for their Catering Mark meals the Soil Association has also now developed the Supplier Scheme, helping caterers find suitable ingredients but also finding new routes to market for suppliers and food producers.

The Food for Life Catering Mark has just reached 1.5 million meals served daily across the UK, a huge accolade in not much time.

850,000 of these meals are served in schools where good food can really make a difference.

AWARDING CATERING EXCELLENCE Recently the Soil Association celebrated the new Food for Life Catering Mark Champions at a national awards ceremony in June. It is the individuals who are at the heart of instigating change and unlocking the key to a successful future for school children, caterers and the wider community. The Catering Mark Awards focused on the hard work and innovation of the individuals who are championing the Catering Mark every day, showing the personal achievement of people working to improve food in their school, hospital or workplace.

Six Champions were picked from a shortlist

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across each sector. Nominations came from all food providers who hold a Catering Mark and showed the journey these people had taken to achieve their Catering Mark and improve their food service.

The winner for the schools category was Sarah Henderson, PA to directors & Food for Life Coordinator, ISS Facility Services in Education. Sarah has a pioneering role across the UK, working closely with the ISS Food Development Team, Senior Management Team, their central Procurement Team, suppliers, cooks and schools catered for by the company. She ensures that every school menu catered for by the ISS team is Catering Mark standard and that every pupil gets the quality of food they need.

Mark Davies, Director of Education at ISS, said: “The Catering Mark offers us a real point of difference that independently shows that we have planned and prepared meals that are healthy, fresh, well sourced and local. Having the Catering Mark is a great accolade for us across ISS and we intend to continue to add more schools and hospitals as it is good for our customers, good for our suppliers and good for business.”

The winner for Early Years was Raquel Kneeves, Nursery chef, Snapdragons (in Keynsham). Raquel has a talent for creating new and interesting menus with a much wider range of foods than would normally be seen on a nursery menu, understanding that children will try new tastes and textures if they encounter them early. She has organised trips for the children at Snapdragons and is helping forge links with a local college to encourage students to consider a career in catering for early years.

HIGHER EDUCATION, HIGHER STANDARDS The winner for Universities was Mark Davidson, Food Production Manager, Sodexo, Southampton Solent University.

Mark has marched through each level of the Catering Mark with the university, from bronze to gold, which now serves 200 Catering Mark meals daily.

Understanding the difference good food can make, he now spends his time travelling the country sharing expertise and supporting other organisations.

Rich Watts, Senior Catering Mark Manager for the Soil Association said: “It takes dedication and real commitment to start making real and impactful changes to the way you do things, from thinking about sourcing to menu planning, to staffing, preparation and training. The Catering Mark has already had a huge impact on school food across the country but it is essential that we build momentum with school food and reach for the next two million meals.

Do your bit and find out more today!” L FURTHER INFORMATION www.sacert.org/catering

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SwallowEMP LTD

u o Y p l e H n a C e –W

The leading company in offering access and egress solutions.

SWALLOW EVACUATION & MOBILITY PRODUCTS LTD 197, Vicarage Road, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 7QQ Telephone: +44 (0)121 444 3690 Mobile: +44 (0)7789 766632 Email: info@swallowemp.com Web: www.swallowemp.com

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EVENT REVIEW

Celebrating innovation and inspiration at IFSEC 2015

IFSEC International

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Following an increase in visitors and the popular co-located events, IFSEC International 2015 enjoyed another hugely successful year for Europe’s largest security event

Running from 16-18 June at London’s ExCeL, IFSEC International welcomed 23,079 visitors through its doors, witnessing an increase in attendance by two per cent from 2014, driven by UK attendees. IFSEC International benefited from the co-located events within the Protection & Management Series, attracting an additional 4,536 visitors from across the venue. This highlights the power of these show’s being located alongside each other, demonstrating that it is the go-to place for sourcing the latest products and innovations, as well as discovering expertise across security, fire, facilities, and safety.

The show continued to attract the senior decision makers from across the industry with a 14 per cent increase in end-users and a 42 per cent increase in directors and company holders, demonstrating the quality of visitors remains at an all time high. Video Surveillance, Access Control and Integrated Security remain significant areas of interest, while the ever increasing topic of Safe Cities, which was reflected by the education available on the show floor, and IT & Cyber Security received more attention than ever before.

EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS As the industry becomes increasingly globalised, IFSEC International remains a truly global event as represented by 33 per cent of

Running from at une 16-18 J ExCeL, ’s London ernational t IFSEC In ed 23,079 welcoman increase was obvious that the , market has become visitors o per cent truly globalised, with a of tw 2014 sizeable increase in visitors travelling from other regions over

the total attendees from 112 countries, along with exhibitors coming from 45 countries. For the second year, the UKTI Events Alliance worked with the British Security Industry Association (BSIA) to bring inward missions of commercial officers and relevant buyers from target countries to meet with UK based organisations at IFSEC International.

Gerry Dunphy, event director for IFSEC & FIREX International, said: “IFSEC International once again exceeded all expectations for 2015. The atmosphere on the show floor was fantastic with plenty of innovation and industry expertise on display across the three days. We have had a great response from both our visitors and exhibitors and we look forward to returning to London in 2016 to continue to be the industry leading event showcasing the latest security technologies from across the globe.”

Exhibitors to the show were equally enthusiastic about IFSEC International.

TDSi, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of integrated access control systems, reported a 25 per cent year-on-year rise in export market visitors to its stand this year.

John Davies, managing director of TDSi, said: “IFSEC International is a great barometer of the state of the security industry and it

to see the latest and best the security industry has to offer.”

Mark Tibbenham, managing director at GJD, added: “IFSEC 2015 has been a great success. We launched an unprecedented number of product innovations and in turn we received a high number of quality leads.”

SAFE CITIES Safe Cities focuses on the protection of larger urban areas, critical national infrastructure and business continuity. Safe Cities provided visitors with high level thought leadership sessions to provide more insight into this fast growing concept.

Safe Cities utilises a multi-agency approach, led by the government to protect the population, the infrastructure and a city’s economy against the threat of terrorism, criminal activity and natural disasters.

With a focus on four key areas – the city’s infrastructure, cyber security, counter terrorism, and public order – the Safe Cities conference and exhibition provided delegates with the chance to learn from education, solution and technology providers for global governments, E

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DESIGN AND BUILD

CREATING A UNIQUE USER EXPERIENCE IN EDUCATION INTERIORS & FFE

Twitter: @space_zer0 Website: www.spacezero.co.uk Enquiries: gregg.barton@spacezero.co.uk

Spacezero are the leading independent Interior Architecture and FFE design consultancy in the UK. With a track record of delivery on Free Schools, Academies, PSBP, LA, HE/FE and International education projects, they are vastly experienced within the sector. Spacezero are 100% independent from any manufacturer or re-seller.

The primary aim is to deliver best value for the client via intelligent design and the development of pioneering procurement models. This produces large savings to the client, whilst continuing to provide a leading design service.

“Spacezero have provided an excellent service.” Kier Construction

Photography © Robert Watson Studio

Photography © Robert Watson Studio

Preston STEM College Spacezero have been working for two years alongside contractor giants Kier Construction and architects IBI Taylor Young, to deliver the new state-of-the-art science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) facility.

The £31M building has made a welcome addition to the Preston College campus when it opened its doors to its students and staff this Summer June 2015.

Spacezero Provides FFE Back in 2013, Spacezero were appointed as the furniture, fittings and equipment (FFE) consultants to advise the design team throughout the design and build process. Specialising in BIM, Spacezero were responsible for specifying, populating, coordinating, procuring, delivering and installing the furniture in the building on time and within budget.

Ethos of the College The College offers an innovative education programme, helping students to develop business ideas and initiatives whilst working on live briefs with industry professionals. This unique approach, which has employability at its heart, is what helped the College secure funding for the centre.

Michael Darling, Senior Design Manager, Kier Construction says “Spacezero have provided an excellent service to date, adapted to changes and produced clear information throughout.

They were very professional and patient during the engagement process which can be a notoriously trying time and collaborated well with the other sub-contractors and the many college faculties who attended the sessions.”

Photography © Robert Watson Studio

FFE Consultancy Experience on the Project “The finished building looks great and we are really pleased with how the spaces have come together. We have found working with the staff at Preston College both a pleasant and enjoyable experience, ” says Gregg Barton, Director at Spacezero.

Spacezero have managed to build a positive working relationship with both Kier Construction and architects IBI Taylor Young. A relationship which has led to more collaboration’s and more wins for the Manchester based FFE consultancy practice.

Contact Us If you have an enquiry, please feel free to contact us. See details at the top.

Written By Lauren Bailes, Designer, Spacezero.

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EVENT REVIEW  public sector officials and companies, on how to secure their cities from threats and attack.

Discovering how to protect vital international cities and hubs from attack, with a key focus on business continuity and resilience, this area showcased the companies and industry pioneers who have the expertise, experience and knowledge to guide governments and industry to plan for the protection of their cities.

INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKER SERIES An additional highlight at IFSEC International this year included the launch of the Inspirational Speaker Series which attracted large crowds from across the security, safety, fire, facilities management and service management industries to the 400 capacity theatre each day.

Kicking off with Baroness Karren Brady on the first day, followed by Sir Ranulph Fiennes on the second day and finishing with Sir Chris Hoy on the final day, each speaker took to the stage to share anecdotes from their own illustrious careers and offer some invaluable advice on leadership and achieving success in any field.

Another new launch for IFSEC International in 2015 was the Benchmark Innovation Arena which welcomed over 40 finalists for the annual industry awards, a series of 10 minute pitches and short Q&A sessions were hosted by leading companies including Bosch Security, Vidicore, UTC Fire & Security and

“IFSEC International once again exceeded all expectations for 2015. The atmosphere on the show floor was fantastic with plenty of innovation and industry expertise on display across the three days” Secure Logiq, to name a few. This exciting new format provided visitors to IFSEC International with a detailed look at these new products that are delivering a real benefit to end users, integrators and installers.

THE VISITOR EXPERIENCE Visitors were equally enthusiastic about IFSEC International this year. Peter Woollord, a senior IT engineer from Norland Managed Services, said: “I have enjoyed the event very much. I found that the completely right exhibitors were there and it opened my eyes to everything out there. The event is a great place to network and there was a very good crowd there. It was the first time I attended and I would definitely return.”

Peter Allsopp, security consultant for astile Kilo Management, also stated: “I enjoyed the event and attended for buying and networking reasons. I did a lot of networking with companies from China as its easier to speak with them face to face

IFSEC International

Sponsored by

and a lot cheaper. I definitely think the event is a must attend and will recommend to colleagues – I am extremely happy with the event and happy to have attended.”

ABOUT IFSEC INTERNATIONAL IFSEC International is the leading event that caters for the entire security buying chain. Attracting manufacturers, distributors, consultants, specifiers, installers, integrators and end users, IFSEC International is the only event to bring the whole community together under one roof.

Providing education, networking, and the latest products, next years IFSEC International takes place from 21-23 June 2016 at ExCeL London.

IFSEC International is part of the Protection & Management Series which is made up of FIREX International, Facilities Show, Safety & Health Expo and Service Management Expo. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.ifsec.co.uk

Stannah – the experts in lift management that have been moving people and goods since 1867 As a national lift and escalator service provider, Stannah deals with literally thousands of facilities professionals who have the responsibility for the lifts within their buildings. Where better to meet many more of them than The Facilities Show at London’s ExCeL Centre in June.

The show introduced the company to many relevant contacts and gave it a chance to offer some crucial training in just why having a responsibility for lifts can be challenging.

Stannah’s training session briefly covered the company’s most frequently asked question - ‘Are the Standards and Regulations law?’ - and looked at what happens if you ignore the advice of statutory guidelines. The company’s handy downloadable booklet ‘Lifts - your questioned answered’ is a very useful reference.

As lift manufacturers, installers, refurbishers and maintainers who look after more than 88,000 lift products right across the UK, Stannah knows it can help. The company looks after all types of lifts from

all manufacturers, not just Stannah lifts.

Its education sector portfolio certainly reflects the whole range of equipment; from traditional passenger lifts in universities, to space-saving platform lifts in individual schools and even goods and service lifts in catering areas, Stannah is relied on to keep everything working 24/7.

Of course education buildings come in a vast variety of designs, conditions, positions - all with their own unique accessibility challenges and all needed every day.

Stannah’s local service engineers are never far away as they work from a network of local service branches so wherever you are in the UK the company has got you covered.

Lift refurbishment is sometimes necessary in order to keep equipment working efficiently, maintain safety and meet the requirements of current regulations. When this work is required in a school, Stannah works closely with the premises team to ensure installation and servicing is planned out of term-time.

The company also met university property managers at the Facilities Show. Knowing that it can be quite daunting to suddenly have the responsibility for up to one hundred lifts across a vast campus, Stannah provides local services and not only provides ongoing support via a service contract but is also happy to provide a resident engineer to provide lift expertise on-site for ultimate peace of mind.

For more information about how Stannah can help you manage your lift stock simply contact the company via the details below.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 01322 299800 liftservices@stannah.co.uk www.stannahlifts.co.uk

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Case Study

www.educationbusinessuk.net – THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

Playforce – Sixteen years of experience in measuring the impact of investment in playgrounds Making the decision to update or improve your playground is relatively easy but raising the finance for this kind of project can be challenging. Whether you’re making a capital expenditure purchase from your school budget, raising funds via your hard-working PTA or applying for a grant, enhancing your outdoor space can involve a significant investment. It goes without saying that you want to ensure you get real value for money from your new equipment and Playforce takes that very seriously.

Did you know that Playforce is the only play company that actively measures the impact of schools’ investment in playgrounds and outdoor spaces? It does this to ensure the projects that it works on and the equipment and solutions it designs are making a genuine and tangible difference to children, schools and settings. Playforce collects data from its customers regularly, analyses the findings, then shares the findings with them so they can demonstrate the value of their investment to staff, parents, governors and the wider school community.

The impact evidence that Playforce has collected so far is extremely positive. The results of its most recent survey shows

some fantastic evidence of improvements in all areas of school life, from behaviour and physical literacy levels through to levels of parental engagement.

Nearly half of Playforce customers (48 per cent) reported a significant increase in physical activity levels following improvements to their outside space and nearly four in ten (38.1 per cent) reported major improvements in physical literacy and competence. Behaviour (43.4 per cent) and positive attitudes to learning (36.3 per cent) were significantly better as a result

too, schools said, as were happiness (54.1 per cent) and well-being (42.8 per cent). The benefits of playground investment go beyond the bell too, it seems. In total, 46.1per cent of respondents said children use their school’s outdoor space before and after school.

Playforce is proud to be helping schools support children to be more healthy and active. It’s clear to the company that investing in well-designed, high-quality equipment and facilities for outdoor learning and play delivers far-reaching value for every child.

If you’re inspired by Playforce’s impact evidence findings and want to discuss how to go about improving your school’s outdoor space, the expert consultants at Playforce can help. To book a free consultation contact Playforce via the details below.

Additionally, if you are a Playforce customer and you’d like to take part in the company’s impact evidence research project you can do so by visiting www. surveymonkey.com/s/impactevidence2.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 01225 792660 sales@playforce.co.uk www.playforce.co.uk

comes from investing in your playground To find out more about our national research study findings regarding the impact outdoor spaces have in schools visit www.playforce.co.uk/impact

www.playforce.co.uk/impact

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INCLUSION

Dave Harvey writes about the key considerations and adaptations that need to be made when creating an outdoor learning experience for school children with physical, learning, behavioural and sensory disabilities that is exciting, challenging, enjoyable and rewarding

Outdoor learning is an active, experiential approach to learning, open to all, that involves being outdoors as a central part of the experience. It seeks to use the outdoor environment as a vehicle for transforming the experience into knowledge, skills, attitudes and actions.

Where are we talking about? Within a traditional school setting, it can be helpful to differentiate where outdoor learning happens by how complicated it is to facilitate. The easiest would be the grounds, then moving outside the school gate but still within walking distance. Next would come day-visits that required additional transport and finally multi-day residentials or expeditions. The key to a successful outdoor learning strategy is to have all the experiences well planned and part of a progression, both throughout the year and throughout the school.

Taking learning outdoors increases the opportunities for students to engage with the environment through all their senses.

These experiences in turn provide a rich source of connection to emotions and memories, all of which can be drawn on later.

High quality outdoor learning, no matter where it takes place or who the participants are, provides opportunities to develop confidence and character as well as social and emotional awareness. Skills for life can be developed and the stimulating environment provided by being outside can increase motivation and an appetite for learning.

es If hurdle can b here me, t overco ole world is a wh waiting to re out the overed, and be disc e that SEN it is on nts can stude ss acce

Barriers to taking learning outdoors come in many forms.

The perceived threat of litigation (what if it all goes wrong?), a belief that you need expensive equipment, lack of knowledge and personal experience and parental or teacher opposition can all have a negative effect. However, if these hurdles can be overcome, through training and collective drive, then there really is a whole world out there waiting to be discovered, and it is a world that those students with special educational needs can access as well as those in the mainstream.

OUTDOOR LEARNING IN SCHOOL Outdoor learning approaches in school can genuinely be made open to all. Hard barriers – steps, ramps and clothing, for example – can be overcome with commitment and a shared understanding of the overall vision for outdoor learning in the school. Adequate resources, training for staff and an achievable action plan will also help to facilitate progress, but it is the softer barriers to participation that are often the harder ones to deal with. Low expectations from teachers, sometimes based around their own fears and preconceptions, can be the biggest barrier. The easiest strategy thus becomes one of avoidance as it is perceived to be just too difficult to make the adjustments necessary for inclusion.

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Written by Dave Harvey, chair of the Association for Heads of Outdoor Education Centres

Ensuring outdoor learning is key for everyone

For many people working in the field of outdoor learning there is a strong underpinning belief in social justice. Inclusion and access for all means that young people have a chance to develop personal and social skills that they may not be able to access elsewhere. The self-awareness that develops through outdoor learning can lead to a young person’s increased belief in their ability to be in control of their own lives, and ultimately to the capacity to effect change – realising their full potential and increasing their life chances.

Inclusion is about giving everyone the same opportunities. The Disability Discrimination Act (1995) means that it is unlawful to treat disabled pupils or students less favourably.

Providers (including schools) have to make reasonable adjustments to enable those with additional needs and disabilities to participate. What does this mean in reality?

In schools, wheelchair accessibility, teaching support and extra resources are some of the ways that needs can be catered for. Outside the classroom, the challenges can seem more difficult, but accessible pathways in the grounds provide a way to enable wheelchairs to move around and areas can be set up that are accessible to all. Resources – such as the Outdoor Education Advisor’s Panel (OEAP) ‘Outdoor Learning’ and’ Environmental Learning’ Cards – provide clear lesson plans for a wide range of inclusive activities covering all aspects of the curriculum.

The requirement to promote disability equality means that school staff should plan to make reasonable adjustments as a matter of course. The same planning that goes into a classroom lesson can also be applied outside, and involving the young people themselves in any planning for outdoor learning experiences is an excellent way to generate ownership and new ideas.

Some of the more straightforward adjustments for SEN do not actually involve complicated or expensive resources, but rather are focussed on a modified approach, eg allowing extra time for the activities to be completed, modifying communication systems (eg if working with deaf children in an open space), and thinking about whether extra staff might be needed to help move children to enable them to access otherwise inaccessible activities.

Keeping children warm, as many children with mobility issues can get cold very quickly, means having facilities to rewarm and hot drinks – small modifications that can have a big impact on all learners, whatever their needs. Risk assessing on the day (‘dynamic’) as well as the activity, site/activity specific risk assessment procedure allows for adjustments to be made that may be influenced by the environment, weather or unforeseen E

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INCLUSION  circumstances. Making the effort leads to the exciting realisation that developing the ‘outdoor classroom’ can genuinely provide an exciting and stimulating open-access approach to learning. One of our students said: “We have learned to do things for ourselves more and are more confident.”

VISITS TO RESIDENTIAL CENTRES Residentials can be powerful and positive learning experiences. As well as being a great leveller, they provide the time and space for an intense experience that allows a focus on a wide range of key skills. Providing opportunities to experience success through challenging activities leads to memorable experiences that in turn lead to better relationships between staff and students alike. The knock on effect from a residential can be felt afterwards in increased engagement and, potentially, raised attainment.

Residential outdoor centres provide a secure and safe environment for those with special needs.

As with any school visit, the key to a successful trip is good planning, with effective communication between the course leader and the Centre staff plenty of time in advance of the course. A pre-visit is usually essential, especially if the venue is new to the group. It might also be beneficial for the young people to visit the centre beforehand, whether as part of a day trip to sample some activities or just to familiarise themselves with the venue. Understanding

routines, preparing for a different menu and seeing the sleeping and bathroom arrangements can have a big impact on a young person’s willingness to leave the security of their home surroundings for a period away from home.

Enabling a wheel chair user to participate in a ghyll scramble or abseil, for example, involves a huge amount of teamwork, and the learning and growth that this leads to for the rest of the group should not be underestimated.

We all know how powerful outdoor learning experiences can be. For many people the most memorable experiences of their school career are ones that happened outside the classroom.

For those who have little or no expectation of being able to participate in these activities, the experiences are potentially even more powerful as their perception of what they are able to do changes. The impossible becomes possible.

ALLOWING FOR INCLUSION Careful liaison between school and centre staff is essential to ensure that the needs of the group can be fully met. Staff at AHOEC Centres are able to cope with a wide range of special needs and many centres now have purpose built accommodation units to cater for those with severe disabilities. Activities for many people can be adapted with a minimum of specialised equipment, but for those groups with a high proportion of physical disabilities, specialised centres exist that are equipped with a wide range of accessible equipment and facilities; the Adventure for All network includes members from across the UK and is a good place to start your search.

Programme design that allows for inclusion ideally should involve the rest of the participants, as managing the expectations of more able students in a mixed ability group is often equally important. Pre-course sessions with the group can help to establish shared goals, and with a bit of forethought it is possible to plan and deliver sessions based around a highly challenging shared goal that has developmental outcomes for all involved.

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Sponsored by

GOLD STANDARD The AHOEC promotes its own Gold Standard quality mark. At any Centre displaying the Gold Standard logo you can be assured of a safe and quality outdoor experience. All Gold Standard centres are also accredited to both the LOtC Quality Badge and Adventuremark.

This gives further reassurance of the quality and safety of your chosen provider. L

David Harvey is the Head of Residentials at the Brathay Trust. He is also the current National Chair of the Association of Heads of Outdoor Education Centres (AHOEC).

FURTHER INFORMATION www.ahoec.org

Burst out of the classroom New brilliant residentials for primary schools • over 100 years experience in the outdoors, delivering education through adventure • links with the National Curriculum • co-created programmes • indoor accommodation and catering also available Booking reference EB2015

0845 300 2549 sac@scouts.org.uk scouts.org.uk/sacschools

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@ScoutCentres

Safe, high quality learning experiences for all Tailored activity programmes designed to suit your needs Wide range of accommodation options available Bursary places available

For more information about our adventure centres or to make a booking contact us on 0844 8000 222 or email sales.info@rockuk.org or visit www.rockuk.org

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Rock UK Adventure Centres Ltd is a registered charity No: 1107724 (England & Wales) SC040118 (Scotland)

000 AC Education Business Mag advert 2015.indd 1

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Special Educational Needs Written by Jane Friswell, chief executive, nasen

Sponsored by

Well Educated Banking www.lloydstsb.com/ schoolbanking

EMOTIONAL WELLBEING

A healthy attitude to mental and emotional wellbeing With recent reports identifying a national commitment for schools to develop holistic approaches to mental health and wellbeing, nasen’s Jane Friswell examines the guidance Statistics in a recent report from Public three most common causes of death for young Health England and the Children and Young people and half of lifetime mental illnesses People’s Mental Health Coalition, drives start by the age of 14. The halcyon days of home the importance of mental health childhood? Not for many, so what are the and emotional wellbeing, indicating that priority areas and best approaches for schools emotional health can have far reaching to help pupils navigate the challenges and influence on pupils’ attainment. difficulties that they may encounter?

According to Public Health n A England’s report, in an A WHOLE cent average class of 30 pupils COMMUNITY ETHOS 11 per results aged 15, three could If we want to tackle n i t boos ardised have a mental disorder, these issues then d seven are likely to have wellbeing and mental in stan ent tests m e been bullied and six health should be v e i h d e ac k n i l may be self-harming. everyone’s business. n e has be mes that Schools need to have Suicide is one of the

ram to progove pupils’ impr learning social

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a clear awareness of the extent and nature of mental health problems in children and young people and of their responsibility to be part of the response, not least because these problems do not go away.

All too often there is a culture of silence when it comes to mental health and emotional wellbeing. Ensuring that not only is the whole school aware of the importance of mental health and wellbeing, but also the community as a whole, is the bedrock of an effective approach, because it needs to be acceptable to ask for help.

Those more serious problems can then be identified and help can be provided in a non-stigmatising way, with

the whole school population supporting those with greater needs.

Many problems are multiple and many remain undetected and untreated unless agencies such as schools take an active role.

There are some key principles identified in the report, one of which is leadership. In this context, leadership that develops innovative practice will be critical to the success of any approach.

The influence that leadership has on the ethos and environment cannot be underestimated either. Schools need to examine how pupils’ environments impact their performance and how they affect their mental and emotional wellbeing and attainment.

We often measure this impact through the quality of relationships between staff and pupils, the ones that enhance learning and support. For those pupils who do not enjoy school we should strive to build effective and supportive relationships with them and reinforce the messages of support that say ‘we want you here, you belong, you are important to us’.

TEACHING AND LEARNING Teaching about emotional health is another core facet of any school’s approach, and there is advice for teachers on teaching about mental health and emotional wellbeing; unsurprisingly, pupils are more likely to engage in lessons that focus on emotional wellbeing if they are practical and relevant to them. In addition, using validated assessment tools such as the Stirling Children’s Wellbeing Scale and the Warwick‑Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale can help offer insight to a complex and tricky area that needs demystifying in a sensitive manner.

Teaching about ownership of challenges is also important, and how we do this is especially significant in changing and influencing the hearts and mind-sets of pupils who lack the self-belief to overcome their struggles. Involving pupils in decisions that impact on them can benefit their emotional health and wellbeing by helping them to feel part of the school and wider community and to have some control

The importance of mental health One in ten children and young people has a clinically diagnosed mental health disorder and/or emotional and behaviour problems (often the same children) and around one in seven has less severe problems that interfere with their development and learning.

Anti-social behaviour and conduct disorder affect over five per cent of children, particularly boys, while anxiety and depression affect four per cent.

Suicide is one of the three most common causes of death in youth and is now rising: in 2014 there was a 43 per cent rise in the number of young people who admitted attempting suicide, while self‑harm and eating disorders are a growing problem.

Social media and cyber bullying are increasingly suggested as part of the cause for the rise in these emotional disorders.

Attachment disorder, which gives rise to problems with connection, trust and relationships, may be on the rise as families increasingly fracture and fail and more children join the care system.

over their lives. The SEND Gateway offers free resources for exploring strategies to support learners’ emotional wellbeing and help build resilience, all from a range of different voluntary sector organisations.

These resources can contribute towards staff development, another fundamental part of an effective approach. Emotional wellbeing in staff is key to engender the open, honest approach to young people’s wellbeing. Providing opportunities for assessing the emotional health and wellbeing needs of staff, enabling staff to take actions to enhance their own wellbeing, and promoting a good work-life balance for staff are all ways of driving necessary change. To ensure everyone has the balance right, take a look at the Workplace Wellbeing Charter National Standards.

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A BOOST IN ACHIEVEMENT While we pay so much attention to assessment and exam results, some schools may feel that efforts to provide support for emotional wellbeing needs to take a backseat. But a report from Public Health England in 2014 found that Ofsted had identified a strong link between schools that paid close attention to wellbeing and those that were graded outstanding for overall effectiveness.

An 11 per cent boost in results in standardised achievement tests has been linked to programmes that improve pupils’ social and emotional learning. The report also found that whole‑school approaches to this, universally implemented for all pupils, strongly correlates with attainment. That’s a clear message for any school. Support the emotional health and wellbeing of pupils and you ultimately support their attainment. That staff should benefit from this increased awareness too makes it startlingly clear that this is a critical issue for any school and all pupils. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.nasen.org.uk

BDA 10th International Conference March 10-12, 2016 The King’s Centre, Oxford Keynote speakers • Professor Elena Grigorenko • Professor Maggie Snowling • Professor Usha Goswami • Professor Susan Gathercole • Professor Don Compton • Professor Deirdre Martin • Professor Karin Landerl • Professor Tom Nicholson • Professor Peter de Jong • Professor Victor van Daal • Dr Julia Carroll Early bird rates starting from £310 for a three-day ticket and £140 for a day ticket, valid until October 31 2015 www.bdainternationalconference.org

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ACCREDITED TOURS

Written by Gill Harvey, The School Travel Forum

Ensuring school trips remain successful The School Travel Forum’s new general manager Gill Harvey explores the reasons why loyalty shouldn’t over-rule assured quality scheme membership when booking school trips The recent blockades in Calais caused major disruption at a peak time in the school trip calendar, leading to disappointment, cost and frustration for pupils, teachers and parents across the UK. Aside from the millions of pounds the illegal strikes cost the school trip industry, one positive point that came from the issue was the spotlight it placed on the benefits of choosing to travel with an accredited tour operator of The School Travel Forum (STF).

These companies, which manage over 16,000 school trips from the UK each year, were able to guide groups and teachers through any problems that they may have experienced as a result of not being able to cross the Channel on the expected date.

The example of the difficulties of a Year 6 trip to France booked by Harrogate Grammar School was widely covered in the media, with Good Morning Britain describing their experience as ‘the unluckiest school trip ever’.

Despite the disruption to the trip caused by the wild cat strikes in Calais, the school praised their school trip provider, an STF member, for their support during the experience which ranged from sourcing alternative accommodation in the UK, to additional on

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Whilst s trip school tically tis are stathe safest one of nments enviro n to be in, dre The answer is often for chil dents can no, as previous use has i c c a proven to be no guarantee pen still hap of future performance.

coach catering and assistance in arranging theme park tickets to end the trip on a positive note.

This STF member worked round the clock with the teachers and the school to minimise the disruption of the unpredictable events and illustrated how having assured support procedures in place, a wealth of experience and industry contacts can provide vital reassurance and the best possible outcome for school trips facing adverse events.

THE LOYALTY FACTOR On a broader point, the psychology of the purchasing process is an interesting one. Whatever we choose to buy, trust of the vendor is a major factor, but also where we have shopped before, word of mouth recommendation and how appealing the marketing spiel is all influence our choices.

Booking school trips is no different.

Many schools opt to travel with the same provider they have used over the years, but does this loyalty-driven choice provide genuine reassurance that quality and safety standards have been adequately tested?

Furthermore, with the average school trip representing an investment of over £20,000, what happens if the company goes bankrupt? Parents who may have budgeted for months to give their child the opportunity of a lifetime, are left severely out of pocket and children have to deal with the disappointment and miss out on the learning value of the school trip.

All STF Assured Members are required to work so clients benefit from the protection of the Package Travel Regulations and, additionally, they must be members of approved schemes ensuring fair trading and full financial security. The peace of mind this provides to teachers and parents is indeed priceless.

RISK MANAGEMENT By making it easy for teachers to seek out good quality school trip companies, the red tape and health and safety concerns cited by many teachers and governors as reasons why they decide not to arrange school educational E

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ACCREDITED TOURS  visits, become less of an issue. Whilst the STF has been established since 2003, according to our surveys many teachers are still taking a DIY approach and failing to capitalise on the benefits of travelling with an assured member.

Fortunately, there is a shift towards greater reliance and awareness of the organisation and also the LOtC Quality Badge, with 72 per cent of teachers surveyed in 2015 stating that STF membership would be either likely to influence or be an essential pre‑requisite in their choice of school trip provider.

As the national awarding body of the LOtC Quality Badge, The School Travel Forum ensures that each holder has passed a robust assessment designed to ensure that they are meeting schools’ learning and risk management needs. This takes an immense amount of pressure off teachers, reduces planning time and paperwork and helps teachers to identify opportunities for learning to help make the visit a positive and rewarding experience for teachers and pupils alike.

MANAGING THE WHAT IFS… Whilst school trips are statistically one of the safest environments for children to be in, as with any journey or event in life, accidents and ill-fortune can unfortunately strike. Whilst the chance of such events happening are small, it is certainly a worry for any school trip organiser.

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By making it easy for teachers to seek out good quality school trip companies, the red tape and health and safety concerns cited by many teachers and governors as reasons why they decide not to arrange school educational visits, become less of an issue The scenario of being overseas with up to 50 pupils and having to deal with an incident independently is an unsettling prospect for any school. With this in mind, it makes no sense for schools to shoulder this burden alone, especially when there is 24/7 support available from a specialist school travel provider who has the experience, contacts and emergency procedures in place to help to manage any circumstances.

With the School Travel Forum 2015 Survey of over 2,000 secondary school teachers showing that 22 per cent of school trip organisers are still opting to make their own travel arrangements and bypass the quality, safety and financial security benefits of travelling with an assured provider, going forward it is our role to win over those teachers who are still unaware of the technical and professional

support that is at their disposal. With the school travel industry rapidly expanding, and new providers constantly entering the market, it has never been more important to make it easy for teachers to identify the companies offering reliable and regularly audited safety and quality standards.

The School Travel Forum was founded in 2003 and is a not-for‑profit organisation. Its Assured Member scheme has widespread recognition and support for the way it simplified and provided essential reassurance for leaders looking to organise school trips.

Founded by the government in 2008 and now an independent charity, the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom is the national voice for all types of LOtC. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.schooltravelforum.com

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INACTIVITY REPORT

Written by Jon Wiffen, ukactive

Challenging childhood obesity one step at a time

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In June, ukactive launched its much anticipated children’s activity report, Generation Inactive, which addresses the lack of tracking of pupil’s physical activity and fitness within primary schools, as well as ways to promote a more active day The Generation Inactive report addresses the lack of tracking and measurement of children’s physical activity and fitness within primary schools and examines the ways in which the least active generation in history can be encouraged to become more healthy and active. The report was produced using extensive primary and secondary data alongside interviews with senior teachers, experienced children’s activity providers and leading academics.

To gain unique primary data ukactive sent freedom of information orders to over 200 primary schools and primary academies in England to explore the steps they took to record and measure children’s fitness and activity levels, from sophisticated measurements of cardiorespiratory fitness and motor skills to basic tracking of time spent in PE. Some of the results gathered were found to fall far short of expectations, and emphasise the need for government and children’s activity stakeholders to continue to support schools when it comes to promoting and assessing children’s activity and fitness.

The report revealed that less than half of schools surveyed were aware of how much physical activity was actually done within PE lessons.

Generation Inactive makes a range of calls to government, head teachers and the activity sector itself. Key recommendations include: extending the national child measurement programme to also measure fitness as a slim child does not necessarily mean a fit and healthy child, rebranding the ‘PE & Sport Premium’ as the ‘Physical Activity & PE Premium’ to address the core notion of inactivity, and recommending that head teachers take a ‘whole day’ approach to physical activity by engraining it throughout the entire school day.

REACTION TO THE REPORT Both before and after the report’s official launch, the reaction and interest in the report has been largely positive and wide ranging. Our findings were featured in The Guardian, BBC, Sky News, Good Morning Britain and a host of other national and regional publications and media outlets.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and other leading stakeholders supported the publication. The reaction from Parliament has also been very positive with Luciana Berger MP tabling a question to the Department of Health that explicitly quoted the Generation Inactive report. ukactive chair Baroness Grey-Thompson’s speech at the launch event acknowledged that there might be some caution among some stakeholders and individuals around the measurement of children’s fitness. The organisation’s view on this is really quite simple; ukactive want to work with all who share our vision of an active childhood. But we’re clear that the evidence shows that measurement is not a dirty word. Far from it – measurement and the understanding of the effectiveness of practice which measurement brings – is the first step on the road to getting this right. ukactive are certainly not calling for invasive testing methods, dividing children into groups for fitness, or explicitly telling children that they are unfit. What we are calling for is the safe, non-invasive measurement of children’s fitness in a way that is fun, inspiring and engaging for children and young people, informed by the academic community but shaped by young people themselves. Goals should be provided and improvement, rather than overall performance, rewarded.

This concept is supported by the academic and health-improvement community, by parents, Parliamentarians, providers and has the overwhelming support of stakeholders. The question now is, how do we make it work?

Measuring fitness in the right way can add vital knowledge on what works for delivery, provide much needed understanding of the health of our children’s hearts and allows us to understand where our children figure internationally. We should not expect it to solve the problem of children’s inactivity or poor fitness levels but rather enable us to understand the extent of the problem so we can take effective action and assess when progress is being made.

WHAT NEXT FOR UKACTIVE? ‘Generation Inactive’ has put the issue of children’s activity and fitness back on the national agenda and it has been encouraging to see Nike’s recent ‘Designed to move: Active Schools’ report which shares ukactive’s call for a whole school day approach to physical activity, bringing it to life by providing practical guidance for school leaders on how they can make their school and active one. ukactive will continue to engage Parliamentarians and interested stakeholders on the report’s recommendations. We will work closely with Ofsted, the Department for Education and a broad range of stakeholders with an interest in this agenda because it will take our collective efforts to raise awareness of children’s inactivity and plant the seeds of change required to give this generation a healthier future. L FURTHER INFORMATION www.ukactive.com

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Laying the foundations for sport participation Harry Simmons outlines the Football Foundation’s investment into school facilities and looks at the famous faces from the world of sport that are backing its initiatives This summer the Football Foundation celebrated its 15-year Anniversary. Our primary objective since 2000 has been to use money from our Funding Partners, the Premier League, The FA and the government, through Sport England, to build new or refurbish local sports facilities up and down the country.

In the decade-and-a-half since the charity was conceived, schools have benefited directly from the Foundation’s investment, with floodlit third generation (3G) artificial grass pitches (AGPs) and modern changing rooms becoming the catalyst for significant increases in participation and enthusiasm for sport within the academic sector.

Football Foundation facilities at schools contribute richly to a pupil’s career in academia by supporting the practicalities of gaining sports science, coaching, refereeing and other qualifications. The skills learned while playing football on a 3G pitch – team work and the value of practice and preparation, for example – can help pupils academically when transferred to the classroom.

However, although thousands of pupils, teachers, parents and local communities now have access to high-quality 3G AGPs

and changing pavilions at their school, the availability of facilities – which are the proven driver of getting more people to play sport – is still too limited.

GRASSROOTS LEVEL There is broad acknowledgment throughout our nation’s game that a greater inventory of state-of-the-art football facilities are required at the grassroots level, and the Football Foundation is continuing to work hard to address this dearth by awarding grants through the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund.

Since 2000, the Foundation has awarded around 13,000 grants worth more than £530m towards improving grassroots sport, which it has used to attract additional partnership funding of over £740m – this means that over £1.3bn has been invested into the grassroots game. That money is targeted into the areas of greatest need and where it will have the most impact, a model that is having truly stunning results.

Last year the Foundation recorded a 25.8 per cent increase in multi-sport participation at sites it has helped fund, including facilities at schools, and an 11 per cent average increase in football participation. Given that the UK

It is rise no surp en shy ldr that chiom taking away fr otball when fo part in n’t even play they ca me because the ga terlogged of wa ches pit

Written by Harry Simmons, The Football Foundation

Former Southampton and England striker James Beattie discussed the importance of a grassroots game with students on a visit to The Blandford School in Dorset

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has amongst the worst levels of obesity in Western Europe – the latest Health Survey for England data found that more than one in 10 children under-10 in England are obese – those numbers are particularly encouraging.

Of course these impressive figures are not here-today-gone-tomorrow, they are sustainable over the long-term because the Foundation works with the network of County FAs to make sure facilities have robust Football Development Plans (FDP).

FDPs map out, over a five-year period, how a facility can be used to its maximum. It makes sure that a school’s 3G pitch is a community hub with weekly usage for pupils, teachers and also for the wider community. Typically, one of the Foundation’s 3G pitches will be used for approximately 90 hours-a-week even during the winter months. Our 3Gs are all floodlit as standard and do not waterlog after periods of heavy rain, so play does not have to stop at the end of the school day in the middle of November, for example.

GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT In addition to improving the country’s sports facilities, and in doing so regenerating the surrounding areas and making a difference to the health of the people that use them, the Foundation is also playing its part in contributing to the country’s Gross Domestic Product.

Research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research found that for every pound invested by the Foundation, £7.73 was generated for the UK’s economy. That return underlines what incredible value the Foundation delivers for the tax payer, all the more remarkable when compared to other countries where all the E

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Case Study

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Save on school energy bills by turning to solar panels with Edge Electrical and Renewables With so many solar panel installers around, choosing the right solar panels or information on solar panel grants can seem like a mine field. Edge Electrical and Renewables’ directors Mike and Bill have many years experience in the electrical and construction industry.

They have both been involved with numerous technical installations and have developed a keen eye for detail. They said: “We both believe that quality is a priority. We get a tremendous amount of satisfaction when we achieve our goal of another satisfied customer.”

Edge Electrical and Renewables takes a holistic approach with its customers to provide them with a service that is second to none.The company is extremely passionate about renewable technologies and the ways in which it can implement them with great efficiency to save its customers energy and money. The company has a dedicated team of experienced, time served, and highly skilled individuals. When it comes to Edge Electrical and Renewables tried and tested workforce the three main pre-requisites are competence, trustworthiness and friendliness.

The company operates throughout Cheshire

and the Northwest of England, though it maintains clients across the whole of the UK. Approved by the Carbon Trust, and as part of the Solar Schools programme, Edge Electrical and Renewables is able to offer a Solar PV or heating system for your school.

This will significantly reduce your school’s energy costs, involves little or zero outlay (government funding and savings made pay for the technology) and contains options tailored to suit your school’s needs. It also has an Operating Lease Package designed for Schools, reduces your school’s carbon footprint and can educate students with real time monitoring of savings made.

With ever increasing bills and tighter budgets, can your school afford not to?

The Carbon Trust Accredited Supplier scheme is the market‑leading scheme for high quality energy efficient equipment and renewable technology suppliers. It provides independent validation and recognition of a supplier’s skills and services – a much needed and trusted quality standard in a crowded and fast growing market place.

The Carbon Trust said: “Edge Electrical & Renewables have met or exceeded criteria set by the Carbon Trust designed to examine their capability to deliver thoughtful, well-designed energy efficient and renewable energy systems.”

All installations with a capacity of up to and including 250kW now have an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) to verify that the building to which the installation is connected has achieved a EPC of level D or above in order to qualify for the higher tariff. Where EPC falls below level D then the lower tariff is paid.

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FOOTBALL FOUNDATION  costs of improving school sports facilities have to come from the public purse.

Facilities that the Foundation delivers can also give youngsters the opportunity to gain a place in a professional club’s youth set-up.

Take the Twickenham Academy, which received a £617,941 grant from the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund back in 2008 to build a floodlit 3G AGP and changing rooms.

The facility is used by 1,150 (172 female and 918 male) grassroots footballers every week, including players from eight local FA-affiliated grassroots clubs, community groups, small-sided leagues and rugby clubs.

Among those players are Alice Fraser (AFC Wimbledon Ladies & Girls), Lauren James (Arsenal Ladies), Aston Nunn (Fulham FC) and Luke Plange (Arsenal FC) who have all been identified as potential stars of tomorrow.

The school also works with Brentford FC Community Sports Trust (CST) who use the pitch to host weekly training sessions and matches as part of their training programmes, in which a weekly soccer school is also run.

MALTBY ACADEMY The west London-based Academy was recently visited by talkSPORT presenter Georgie Bingham and former Wimbledon and Liverpool defender John Scales as part of the Football Foundation’s 15-year Anniversary celebrations.

Pupils took part in a Q&A session, where John said: “It is vital for the future of our national game that grassroots players, just like these pupils at Twickenham Academy, have access to high-quality 3G playing surfaces.”

That sentiment was echoed by former Minister for Sport and current Football Foundation trustee Richard Caborn who said: “It is essential that we continue to invest into grassroots facilities to ensure that participation is increased, players’ technical skills are improved and links with the professional game are strengthened.’’

Caborn was speaking at the opening of Maltby Academy in South Yorkshire where earlier this summer he opened the school’s new floodlit 3G AGP, which will be used not just by teachers and pupils but the wider community. The project was made possible

Amenity

thanks to a £338,295 grant from the Premier League & The FA Facilities Fund.

Local FA Charter Standard grassroots clubs, Maltby JFC and Maltby Miners Welfare JFC will all call the new facility home. Thanks to a FDP, which was drawn up with consultation from the Sheffield and Hallamshire FA, an additional 15 teams at two local clubs will be created because of the new facility and the site will become a hub for coach education courses. Rotherham United Community Sport Trust will also play a vital role in ensuring the wider community benefits, running coaching sessions, holiday soccer schools and sport inclusion projects.

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only all 700 of the school’s pupils but local grassroots clubs, Blandford Youth Football Club, Blandford United, AFC Blandford, Stourpaine FC, and Wimborne Town Football Club. AFC Bournemouth’s Community Trust, Arsenal’s Soccer Schools and Dorset County FA also base sessions at the facility.

Beattie discussed the importance of a grassroots game with students and welcomed questions on his football career.

He said: “You know that when the Football Foundation, with the help of the Dorset FA in this case, builds a facility it is doing so in an area that needs it most.”

SCHOOL ENGAGEMENT MOVING FORWARD Manchester City star Bacary Sagna was on More is still to be done, though. World Cup hand to help bring a school closer to its winners Germany can boast more than local club, as Connell Sixth Form 3,735 3G pitches whereas England College opened a new multi‑use has just over 600, 530 of e g a g n e

game areas close to the which were delivered by the e ‘‘W nts e Etihad Stadium. The college Foundation. That gap needs d u t s with ch to help received funding from the to be bridged not only to pit Premier League & The help the professional end e h t n i n o ta n i a FA Facilities Fund to build but so that m them festyle and ofthethenextgame a multi‑use football pitch generation grow i l y and changing facility and up healthy and active. a healthconfidence in the former Arsenal rightThe formula is simple: d l i ’’ bu back said: ‘‘We can engage build more quality fe skills other liry Sagna, with students on the facilities and more people Baca pitch not only to help them will get involved in sport. It ster City is no surprise that children shy maintain a healthy lifestyle but Manche build confidence in other life skills.’’ away from taking part in football The college’s relationship with City when they often have no option but means scholars from the club’s academy will to get changed in cold, damp changing rooms, conduct their studies there while City in the or can’t even play the game because their Community, the club’s outreach programme, school pitches have become waterlogged. will deliver all practical sessions at the facility.

Schools and students can however look The Blandford School in Dorset was lucky to the future with optimism, safe in the enough to have a big-name visitor in the knowledge that the Football Foundation is form of former Southampton and England building on the work of the last 15 years. striker James Beattie. The Football Foundation The investment we are continuing to Ambassador was met by all 700 of the make into the lowest levels of the game school’s pupils on the pitch which was strengthens our nation’s favourite sport unveiled earlier in 2015, with the facility because a strong base at the bottom of the receiving a £350,000 grant from the Premier football pyramid strengthens the elite level League & The FA Facilities Fund to be built. at the top and everything in-between. L The school is another example of a 3G pitch based at the heart of a school’s community.

FURTHER INFORMATION The Dorset facility accommodates not www.footballfoundation.org.uk

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FAMILY SUPPORT

LANDSCAPING

Schools and teachers play an important role in identifying and supporting children and families that may be vulnerable. To enhance this work Family Action and Family Matters Institute have established a formal partnership to deliver training and consultancy services nationally.

Drawing on its long history and extensive practical experience of supporting vulnerable children and families, Family Action aims to help organisations to support and develop staff through tailored learning, development and wellbeing programmes, focusing on early identification of issues and developing support mechanisms to address these. It also aims to design and deliver strategies and services to make a real and lasting difference to families and to the educational setting.

The organisation offers professional yet practical training and consultancy covering all aspects of support and

Q Lawns’s reputation as a premium supplier for creative landscapers enjoyed a massive growth spurt at this year’s Hampton Court Palace RHS Show. With its leading products playing central design roles in no fewer than four awardwinning gardens, and its own 3-star award as a first-time trade exhibitor, Q Lawns has every reason to roll out the green carpet.

Having provided the core ingredients of many award-winning gardens in recent years, Q Lawns was persuaded by David Domoney to enter itself as a trade exhibitor this year. With a delightful greenroofed chicken shed and a beautiful wild flower meadow amongst its features, no one was surprised when Q Lawns was awarded 3 stars as a valued first-time exhibitor.

And what really delights Q Lawns is the imaginative and original applications that designers are finding, not just for its premium turf but also the acclaimed Meadowmat and Enviromat ranges.

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Confident in supporting children and families

engagement. Its consultants design and deliver training support packages that are highly targeted to meet specific needs within your organisation and also offers a range of standard training programmes.

All of Family Action’s work is based on well established research and evaluation, always with the aim of making a long term positive impact.

For more information about Family Action services please visit the website below.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 020 3640 2303 t&c@family-action.org.uk www.family-action.org.uk

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Words First specialises in linking spoken and written language, providing a service that breaks the mould of traditional speech and language therapy. In the words of Amanda Davis, Director of Words First: “When you’re reading, you don’t just have to decode the words, you have to decode the language – you’re reading language! When you write, you don’t just form letters, you form sentences! How then, can speech, language and literacy be separated? “ Their innovative approach to assessment and intervention for children with a wide range of

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Preparing for the future with Syzygy Renewables

clients identify the right funding partners from the many seeking to partner with property owners and occupiers across the UK. Syzygy’s approach is to help clients navigate the whole process from project inception, procurement (tendering) and ongoing management of the completed operational assets ensuring they continue to operate efficiently and importantly the financial benefits anticipated at inception are delivered.

Syzygy is not a contractor, but is there to help clients engage the best contractors on the right terms with the best design, ensuring the work is properly supervised and the client gets best value.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: +44 (0) 207 193 6040 www.syzygyrenewables.com

Volume 20.7 | EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE

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Products & Services

www.educationbusinessuk.net – THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION

ACADEMIES PROFILE

FREEMIUM

EdLex Solicitors is a specialist employment and education lawyers firm, providing a range of flexible and affordable legal and HR support services to local authorities schools and academies.

Its diverse, knowledgeable and fully qualified lawyers and HR professionals bring decades of experience of and commitment to the education sector.

EdLex Solicitors is passionate about providing legally assured and compliant environments for its clients and works closely with them to achieve tailored, cost effective and lasting solutions to their legal and HR challenges.

The company’s 24/7 employment law helpline (via telephone, email or Skype) ensures that legal support is available at a time and in a mode that suits the client.

Flexible service level agreements keep the school firmly in control.

Agreements are tailored to suit individual organisational needs and budgets and can be delivered on or off site, enabling each

The UK’s largest fair trade organisation needs your help! Traidcraft connects schools to the developing world every day with our free resources, creative competitions, and PSHE enterprise schemes.

Traidcraft is different in that it goes further than fair trade – pioneering the newest fair trade products, campaigning on behalf of the world’s poorest people, and helping young people to realise their potential as the world’s future decision makers.

This autumn term, you can show you care about fair trade and raise funds for school at the same time! Join hundreds of schools making a difference and share Traidcraft catalogues with parents and staff. Traidcraft offers brilliant discounts to schools, so when you collect the orders you’ll make a profit to use however you’d like!

You could even email around Traidcraft’s digital catalogue and

EdLex – Legal advice for schools and academies

client to build a personalised and tailored legal/HR service.

EdLex Solicitors provides: A 24/7 legal helpline; Employment Law Advice; Independent investigations; Mediation & Settlement; Tribunal case management; HR support; Education Law Advice; Safeguarding/Child Protection; Legal compliance; and Legal training.

For more information please visit the website below, or for a free, no obligation discussion about how EdLex can help your school or academy please contact via phone or email.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 0203 176 4390 info@edlex.co.uk www.edlex.co.uk

LEADERSHIP TRAINING

REFURBISHMENT

Professional Academy is the UK’s leading provider of accredited Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), Institute of Sales & Marketing (ISMM) and Communication Advertising and Marketing Foundation (CAM) qualifications, delivering high​quality, fully supported training in management and leadership, sales, marketing and digital marketing.

A one-stop-shop, the Professional Academy offers the complete package, from professionals looking to gain new qualifications and fill skills gaps to companies seeking in-house training to help their company grow. The Professional Academy provides customdesigned courses, exceptional trainers, one-to-one support and the most advanced online learning management system available, that are not only focused on achieving results but helping individuals reach their full potential.

Located in Brooke village about six miles South of Norwich, The Brooke Church of England Primary School is a brick building surrounded by an asphalted playground which tended to flood when there was heavy rain. As part of a number of measures designed to reduce future flood risk it was decided that the existing drainage needed to be upgraded.

The Hauraton Recyfix Pro 100 channel system, fitted with Fibretec C250, Heelsafe 9mm slot gratings was specified by NPS Group of Norwich, and used to provide perimeter drainage right around the school building.

This continuous 104 metre channel run not only drained the asphalt playground, it prevented standing water reaching the walls and acted as a drain for roof downpipes. The Fibretec grating design helps eliminate

Turning professionals into exceptionals

104

Raise funds for school with catalogue sharing

The Professional Academy not only offers a full support structure for each individual undertaking a professional qualification - whether studying via premium workshops at one of its six UK centres, via distance learning or as part of a bespoke in-company training & development structure - but the Professional Academy is also the only accredited professional training institute to offer a 100 per cent pass guarantee with all qualifications.

If you have the drive and desire to achieve a professional qualification, the Professional Academy will do everything to make this a reality.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 0844 800 5256 www.professionalacademy.com

EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 20.7

pre-prepared school order form!

Simply get in touch with our Schools Team via the details below to request your free catalogues.

Until the end of October, Traidcraft is offering a free box of 60 mini chocolately Geobars to every new school that opens a school account and places an order worth over £100. Visit the Traidcraft website below to view the online catalogue.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 01914 973999 schools@traidcraft.co.uk www.traidcraftschools.co.uk

Hauraton channels used as perimeter drainage

any cross-flow over the grating and important consideration for the Brooke project. The Recyfix channel component is made from 100 per cent recycled PE-PP. The channel for the Brooke project has an intake cross section of 92 cm2.

For full case study go to www.drainage-projects.co.uk or see information below.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 01582 501380 sales@hauraton.co.uk www.hauraton.com

FACILITIES MANAGEMENT

PLAY EQUIPMENT

The Water Management Society is a not-for-profit membership organisation that provides practical training in water management related subjects, including legionella control and prevention. Training courses are aimed at a wide range of delegates including water suppliers, plumbers, facilities managers and engineers.

Courses cover all aspects of water management including Legionella Risk Assessment, Cleaning and Disinfection and Temperature Monitoring, Sampling and Infection.

Training courses include prevention and control of Legionnaires’ disease within various water systems, including cooling towers, closed systems and hot and cold water systems. All courses are up to date with water industry legislation and are City & Guilds accredited.

Water Management Society’s unique Practical Training Area (PTA) enables course attendees to gain hands-on experience. It houses two

HAGS Schools understands that each school has specific needs and operates within a complex environment. This is why the company’s core mission is to adapt to the reality of each institution and recommend the right product mix within the limits of a set budget.

Whether your objective is to increase participation during PE classes or to improve general behaviour at break time, HAGS Schools strives to offer a solution tailored to your requirements. The company’s existing customers often praise the expertise and reliability of HAGS Schools’ business managers. This is the result of over 50 years experience working closely with schools, designing and manufacturing equipment which exceeds expectations.

HAGS SMP was born when two leading actors of the play industry joined forces: HAGS, an established Swedish manufacturer with a strong design ethos, and

Experts in water Outdoor play and fitness management and training equipment platform

cooling towers, which are utilised on a number of the courses. The PTA is used to assess the competence of delegates during practical exercises and to certificate that a person has the ability to perform his/her duties in a competent manner.

The Water Management Society can offer bespoke courses too.

All delegates receive temporary membership to the Water Management Society incorporating technical Q&A support and access to guidance documents. For further information on training courses, please contact via the details below.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 01827 289558 admin@wmsoc.org.uk www.wmsoc.org.uk

ENERGY

LANDSCAPING

Warm Space is dedicated to helping clients make energy go further with insulation, heating, conservation and energy saving solutions, providing lower energy bills, as well as helping the environment. Warm Space has been making buildings more energy efficient for over 20 years. In both the domestic and commercial markets the company has installed all types of insulation and solar PV systems, helping residents and organisations make energy go further.

Having worked with a number of schools, colleges, councils and housing associations, Warm Space knows the challenges of installing efficiently, effectively and to deadlines. The company’s experienced technicians ensure that both client and resident are delighted with the installation, resolving any

Q Lawns’s reputation as a premium supplier for creative landscapers enjoyed a massive growth spurt at this year’s Hampton Court Palace RHS Show. With its leading products playing central design roles in no fewer than four awardwinning gardens, and its own 3-star award as a first-time trade exhibitor, Q Lawns has every reason to roll out the green carpet.

Having provided the core ingredients of many award-winning gardens in recent years, Q Lawns was persuaded by David Domoney to enter itself as a trade exhibitor this year. With a delightful greenroofed chicken shed and a beautiful wild flower meadow amongst its features, no one was surprised when Q Lawns was awarded 3 stars as a valued first-time exhibitor.

And what really delights Q Lawns is the imaginative and original applications that designers are finding, not just for its premium turf but also the acclaimed Meadowmat and Enviromat ranges.

To find out more about the Q

Helping to make your energy go further

on-site problems quickly.

Back in the office, the Warm Space Customer Service team are there to keep clients informed of progress and deal with any post-installation questions.

Warm Space employs its own DEAs and GDAs, sales people and installation teams, so there is no sub-contracting, no handing off of problems and complete ownership of each project.

If you need advice on energy efficiency challenges, feel free to call and arrange a visit via the details below.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 0800 028 2499 sales@warm-space.co.uk www.warm-space.co.uk

Products & Services

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE FOR EDUCATION – www.educationbusinessuk.net

SMP, a British company with a distinctive engineering heritage.

HAGS Schools encompasses a wide portfolio of products, including trim trails, multi-play units and the Imagination Playground play system. The company regularly comes up with exciting innovations, such as Primary Arena, a multi-sports system specifically designed for Key Stages 1 and 2 with the National Curriculum in mind. Discover the whole range via the website below.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 0845 260 1655 www.hags-smp.co.uk/schools

Q Lawns – It’s not all about the grass

Lawns range of turfing products, Meadowmat wild flower matting or Enviromat roofing, please visit the contact details below.

FURTHER INFORMATION Tel: 01842 828266 Chrisc@qlawns.co.uk www.qlawns.co.uk www.meadowmat.com www.enviromat.co.uk

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ADVERTISERS INDEX

The publishers accept no responsibility for errors or omissions in this free service Alumasc Exteriors Building Products 37 Aspect Safety Mirrors 98 Blippar 52 BMS School Business Solutions 31 British Dyslexia Association 91 CFH Docmail 43 Collinson 98 D-Tech International 52 Dell 64 Edge Electricaland 100 Edlex Solicitors 104 Elliott UK 32 ESPO 75 eTeach 26 Eurospan 52 Exa - Networks 48 Family Action 103 Friesland Campina UK 75

106

Garran Lockers 4 Hauration UK 104 Healthy Roots 78 Helix Trading 71 Huck Nets (UK) 100 Innovation First Trading SARL 54 ISS Mediclean 6 Langley Waterproofing BC Laser Learning 72 Lenovo Technology UK 60 LGFL Trust 44 Makerbot Europe GMBH & Co 62 Margolis 42 Milk round Online 24 Monodraught 34 Netgear 50 New Market Group 92 Nimble Storage IBC OCR 68

EDUCATION BUSINESS MAGAZINE | Volume 20.7

One Touch Laser 66 ParentHub 22 ParentPay 14 PFU Imaging Solutions 40 PGL Adventure 95 Playdirectuk.com 18 Playforce 86 Proludic 88 Q Lawns 103 R & D Core 8 Rigid.Ink 58 RivaNET 74 RM Education 28, 46, Rock UK Adventure Centres 89 Rotatrim 41 Schoolcomms 10, 12 Space Zero 84 Stannah Lift Services 85 Succeedin 96

Swallow Evacuation & Mobility Products 82 Syzygy Renewables 103 Teachers 2 Parents IFC, 30 The Professional Academy 104 The Scout Association 89 Tor-Coatings 36 Traidcraft 104 Travel Bound 94 Urenco 56 Vernier Software and Technology 70 Vision 38 Vitax 101 Warm-Space Insulation 105 Water Management Society 105 Wilo UK 80 Words First 103

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