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News, views and opinion from RM Education (a bit about this blog)

Whether you're looking for the latest news and views on ICT, seeking money saving advice or looking for ideas on how technology can help your school achieve its strategic objectives, this blog's for you. We'll bring you real world stories from schools making great progress with technology in these areas, and we're looking forward to your comments and opinions too.

The links above take you to to just the relevant posts on the blog (i.e. relevant for that particular audience, by being "tagged" as such). Enjoy

A world of learning @ BETT 2011

BETT is round the corner and, as ever, we're working like crazy to ensure we bring some joy to January. Our new year's resolution is to inspire engaging learning, and across the globe we're planning some fantastic events for you at BETT:

Our solutions showcase

A showcase of the very latest RM products and solutions to help you deliver engaging learning and futureproof your classrooms for the challenges yet to come.

RM Learning Emporium
Immerse yourself in our repurposed conference space away from the hustle and bustle of the main BETT Show. The space will be transformed by practical and affordable building blocks to create an inspiring and thought provoking learning environment; brought to life by teachers and learners.

Find out more

BETT: Get savings advice at the 'Achieve More with Less' BETT breakfast

On January 14 at 9.30 am we'll be running an hour long 'Achieve More with Less' breakfast in Olympia 2 at BETT. Enjoy breakfast on us, and discuss your budget and supplier challenges with peers, colleagues and RM's very own money-saving expert, David Everett, Commercial Manager. Book now and email us your top 3 (anonymous!) budget challenges for discussion on the day. Places on a first come first served basis, so don't miss out. Book now »

DFE: Taking the fun out of funding? Let's demystify it.

The Education sector's never been so busy assessing the impact of government announcements... Just as soon as we get to grips with the Comprehensive Spending Review, out comes the Schools White Paper, and now the announcements setting out the £430 Pupil Premium. Our Market Insight team spend their days and evenings making sense of such information, and we're very happy to share this with you.

Get our white paper on School Funding in England 2011-15. It summarises the current state of knowledge and by booking a consultation with one of our experts, we'll help you understand what it means for your school. Get our white paper

Technology use in your school - complete the survey to enter our prize draw

We're working with Intellect, Teach First and NAACE to understand your views on the use of technology in your school. Complete this 3-minute survey, by 31 Dec 2010, to be entered into the prize draw to win one of ten £50 vouchers for either M&S or Amazon. Complete the survey »

Wantage C of E Primary School secure FIRST LEGO League Champions Award

We want to say a massive congratulations to Wantage C of E Primary School who secured the regional title of the 2010 Oxfordshire FIRST LEGO League champions by demonstrating exceptional innovation in the field of Biomedical Engineering. The team of ten 9-16 year olds designed, built and programmed a LEGO robot to complete specific tasks relating to the Body Forward challenge theme. The team also presented detailed research and provided a solution to a medical problem affecting people across the world.

Wantage C of E Primary School now move on to represent Oxfordshire at the FLL UK and Ireland National Final at Loughborough University on Saturday 22nd January where they compete for the exciting opportunity to represent the UK at the World Festival in St Louis, America at the end of April 2011.

The tournament was held at Didcot Football Club on Monday 7th December and was covered by BBC Oxford News - http://bbc.in/gchGpW

Photograph - Terry Sweeney, CEO of RM, presenting Wantage C of E Primary School with their trophy.

Using your learning platform to minimise costs

Continuing our series of money saving tips for schools, today we'll share efficiencies schools are realising through their learning platforms.

• Governor engagement: Foley Infant school in Staffordshire estimate saving £500 per annum "since setting up the Governors space on the Learning Platform the resource saving in terms of time and paper has been immense"
• Parental engagement: through the creation of an online parent newsletter, Sandford Primary school reduced administration, photocopying and printing costs, saving two weeks of admin time that was then put to great use by adding content and resources on the learning platform
• What's the cost of all those hours of lost learning when the school gates close due to bad weather?
• Try using web conferencing tools for lessons or meetings to save on travel costs. Eureka Primary School stay in touch with each other and their global partners: “Some of my children were really lucky to be able to speak to me whilst out of school at a presentation I was doing for Becta – they were impressed. Just about to use it with Australia and America!"
• Many schools are now using forms and lists in their learning platform to manage bookings for resources such as the minibus and ICT equipment. Simple to set up, they're saving administrators time and effort by having all the requests online in a single place, meaning no more double bookings

Chris Drage, former teacher and now consultant and journalist covering learning with ICT says, "as funding gets ever tighter, a prudent school would be wise to look more closely at how to effectively implement its learning platform before spending more of the budget on extra resources. The government pressure might be off but economic pressures don't look like going away any time soon..." find out more.

Education is the key to life in Tanzania - how we helped build a school for the future

If you've had enough of sub-zero temperatures and school closures in the UK, read on to find out about an experience of a lifetime in Tanzania last month...

In November 2010, 13 RM staff (past and present) arrived at Uwa Primary School, Tanzania, to change the school for ever. The school’s motto, “Education is the key to life”, is true not just in Tanzania, but everywhere (in Tanzania, a child born on the plantations will have very little opportunity to go on to anything else). The work completed at Uwa School was the first step in breaking that cycle of poverty and giving the kids the best possible chance in life.

It was a world away from life in the office, but the group achieved something amazing for many generations to come. Watch the short video (4 mins).

It's Snow Problem as pupils log on from home amidst school closures

More than a thousand schools were closed across the UK yesterday, with snow causing the most travel chaos in Scotland and the north of England. This morning's new snow fall compounds the problem. But far from freezing, learning lives on (virtually) for the well prepared...

a) Watch ITN News article showing on how Glow keeps Scotland's pupils learning despite the atrocious weather conditions. 

b) During February's big freeze, Maxine Evans, head teacher at Rush Common Primary school, used the school's learning platform remotely to:

• set work for pupils
• inform parents of school opening and closing news
• recruit a JCB to clear the car park (it's snow joke!)
• hold a staff discussion to find out if enough staff could make it in to reopen the school

Listen to the BBC interview with Maxine and read the advice and guidance on how to harness technology to keep your school open.

SSAT National Conference - come and say hello and enter our prize draw!

We're at the 18th SSAT National Conference today, so why not come along to our stand to say hello and have a play with the new RM Slates. Enter our prize draw and you could be the lucky winner of your own RM Slate!

Highlights

• The keynote from Nick Gibb yesterday had some very welcome thoughts on the importance of teachers and teaching, stressing the government's desire to raise the status of teaching. Read his full keynote speech coming hot on the heels of the Schools White Paper.
• Tanya Byron was inspirational with her thoughts on technology use in schools, encouraging everyone to think positively about the amazing possibilities for engaging with students - especially the more difficult students - that technology can offer.
• If you missed the event, read the captured reflections of delegates on the SSAT Blog.

School Business Managers: are you a member of ASCL? If not, why not?

Only 2% of delegates at today's extremely timely* ASCL information conference in Huntingdon were school business managers (SBMs). John Fairhurst, ASCL President, who conducted the poll live**, urged members to encourage SBMs to apply for ASCL membership. Given the announcements due over the coming months, I find these events incredibly valuable in keeping up with the pace of change, and the role of SBMs will only increase as the national funding formula takes shape. Find out more by emailing jointheleaders@ascl.org.uk.

*Brian Lightman, General Secretary, painted the picture of ministers burning the midnight oil in preparing the Education White Paper due tomorrow. Be sure to follow our Education Policy & Research blog for comment and reflection.

**Incidentally, our friends at ASCL made excellent use of the TurningPoint voting system throughout the day, collating member feedback instantaneously, identifying key themes and lobbying DfE on behalf of members' key concerns.

Flexible finance schemes for uncertain times: RM Rentals

At today's NASBM Conference, I heard Stephen Kingdom, Deputy Director in charge of school funding policy at the DfE, remind us all of the financial pressures that lie ahead for schools, the uncertainty that still remains in terms of funding levels, and the growing importance of the role of school business managers in balancing the books.

Earlier this month, I introduced RM's ambition to develop the products, services and advice we offer our customers to help them through this age of austerity. Given the following backdrop to Stephen's speech, I thought it timely to announce the truly flexible finance schemes we're introducing:

• Real terms growth in education revenue funding of 0.1%
• 60% reduction in capital over the four year term
• Schools with uncommitted excess surplus balances (that could be clawed back by the LA)
• Pupil premium indicator and methodology yet to be confirmed

A truly flexible finance scheme will enable you to procure services by choosing how you want to pay, when you want to pay, and the amount you want to pay, over what period.

• if you have surplus balances you can kick start the plan and reduce repayments in later months
• or if money is really tight you can defer for a couple of months, a year or even longer
• or your repayments can be fixed for the duration so you can budget with ease
• and different repayments at different times can be achieved throughout the duration, maybe due to one-off funding or one-off costs to cover

Find out more

Truly flexible

Squeezing more out of your ICT spend: Primary Seminars Autumn 2010

With so much news surrounding budget squeezes and a new era of austerity in education, we've decided to take a refreshing approach to this year's Primary Seminars: by deciding to run a series of sessions looking at how you can squeeze more out of your ICT spend.

We'll focus on helping you 'achieve more with less', looking at ways we can get more out of your existing technologies, as well as looking at which new technologies can have a big impact, but not necessarily cost the earth. Register now for Exeter, Maidstone, Oxford, Stansted or London.

Trade in scheme for old PCs: saving you money + RM donation to charity

Trade in your old PCs and we'll donate £5 to charity as well as giving you a fantastic discount on the fabulous RM One. Here's how it works:

Use our handy ScrapIT Calculator tool to work out the savings you could make. Find out more.

Design Your Own Avatar!

Students from around the country are being asked to let their imagination run wild and design their own ideal Avatar for the RM Learning Platform/Merlin. The winning student will win an iPod Touch and have their own v-Me design turned into a real option that anyone can use!
The winner and the 5 runners up will be announced at BETT in January 2011.
Find out more.

Don't miss the latest deals, events, news and views

To offer you a more personalised experience and tailored recommendations, you can now set your own email preferences for the type, style and regularity of email updates you receive from RM. No more irrelevant emails, because you tell us what we should tell you. Set up your preferences now.

How to achieve more with less: RM Response to Comprehensive Spending Review

With capital funds declining by 60% over the next 4 years, it's clear that school budgets will come under intense pressure. In response to customer need, we're rapidly developing products and services to help you achieve your ambitions in the age of austerity.

We're developing flexible finance plans, a new range of affordable products, and some surprising services that will guarantee a reduction in your overall cost base. We're absolutely convinced that these solutions will enable you to achieve more with less. Find our more.

National Teaching Awards this weekend... come on Jacqui!

Good luck to all nominees for the National Teaching Awards this weekend. We're all keeping our fingers crossed for Jacqui Johnson of Eureka Primary School in Derbyshire. One reason for Jacqui being a contender is the school's use of the Kaleidos Learning Platform, which is at "the cutting edge of educational technology*" . Find out why Jacqui's special.

*Source: Burton Mail, 29th October 2010

Raise funds for your school by joining the RM Affiliate Programme

The Basement is our student store, where we can provide heavily discounted software and hardware (through great deals from Microsoft and the like).

The RM Affiliate Programme allows you to use your school or college website to make money. All you have to do is put a text link or banner advert on your web site to the Basement and, for subsequent sales from students at your establishment, we will pay your school 5% commission. Some schools have generated £250 without even trying! Find out more.