Sedgefield Community College

Sedgefield Community College makes a robust decision with LapSafe®

01.07.2011

Sedgefield Community College is a Specialist Sports College with a national reputation. Located in County Durham, the college has been repeatedly recognised for its successes, including being awarded the most improved Specialist School or Academy in the North East Region, and the most improved Specialist Sports College in England and Wales by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. In January 2011, pupils and staff moved into a brand new state-of-the-art building, built as part of the Government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The new school’s open-plan layout immediately lent itself to the use of laptops, so the ICT department set about looking for a laptop charging trolley.

Designed with pupils in mind, space in the new building is often used for a variety of purposes, with open-plan areas doubling as canteen space. As a result, any laptop trolley that the school purchased needed to be able to withstand the wear and tear caused by multiple use and frequent movement to other areas of the school.

As Tim De Leeuw-Kent, ICT Engineer at Sedgefield Community College, explains, purchasing a quality product was of paramount importance for the school. He said: “With our new open-plan layout, we were looking for a laptop trolley that was secure and robust. Before we moved into our new building, we were using wooden and plastic constructed trolleys in two areas of the school that we bought from another manufacturer, but found that these didn’t fully meet our requirements. We planned to use our laptops in almost every lesson, and feared that, if we purchased the same make again, these plastic trolleys might not be able to withstand constant use.”

As part of Tim’s quest to find the perfect trolley, the ICT team visited education and technology exhibition the BETT Show to get an overview of the options available. Tim spoke to lots of manufacturers at the event, but his school had clear specifications in mind. Tim said: “We wanted something that was sturdy, but also secure. Unfortunately, we had experienced security problems with our previous plastic molded trolleys, so we were looking for a product with enhanced security to prevent security breaches from happening again. This was incredibly important with the move to an open-plan design.

“We’d already heard educators in our region talk about LapSafe® trolleys, but it was at the BETT Show that we immediately saw just why LapSafe® trolleys are the best on the market. We were attracted to the quality of the Mentor™, its robustness and level of security, and the superb after-sales service offered gave us peace of mind that we would be looked after throughout the product’s life. When it came down to deciding upon a trolley, the little details made all the difference, even down to the wheels the trolley featured. We wanted something that would last, and some other trolleys we looked at gave the impression that they might not last more than a year. ”

In addition to quality and customer service, the staff at Sedgefield Community College were very specific in terms of the features that their trolley needed to include. Tim said: “It was vital that we selected a trolley with a data transfer option. We now have five Mentor™ units and one Midi Mentor™ and update all of the laptops at 8am so that each device is ready to use by the time pupils arrive at school.”

Students at Sedgefield Community College now use laptops in almost every lesson in every subject across the curriculum, and Tim is convinced of the benefit. He said: “Being able to use mobile ICT on a wider scale has really changed the way our pupils work. We can now wheel the trolleys into any area of the school, and this makes learning much more flexible, fluid and dynamic. For example, pupils can be researching in the library and jump onto a laptop to add pictures or investigate other things online. Mobile ICT is definitely the way forward.”

Six months on from moving into the new school, the staff and pupils at Sedgefield Community College have settled into their new building and are using mobile ICT to aid their learning in a way that wasn’t possible before. According to Tim, LapSafe® has been a key part of this. He said: “So far, our Mentor™ trolleys have been fantastic. I’d recommend LapSafe® Products to any school, because the excellent quality of their trolleys and comprehensive after-sales support represent true value for money.”