Rm Regulatory News (RM.)

12 Jan 2005 07:00

RM PLC12 January 2005 RM takes centre stage at BETT 2005 RM plc, the UK's leading supplier of ICT and other services to education, willbe showing its widest ever range of products and services at BETT - the UK'sleading educational technology showcase, which opens today at Olympia. During the four days of BETT RM will host briefings for investment analysts andinstitutional investors, which will include a presentation from management and avisit to the exhibition. These briefings will include updates on: • Building Schools for the Future: RM will provide further information on the Department for Education and Skills' Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative. This will include details of: the procurement process proposed by the government agency Partnerships for Schools (P4S); the initial project timescale and LEAs involved; and the structure of Local Education Partnerships (the structure suggested by P4S for engaging private sector partners in the programme). • BBC Digital Curriculum: Each of RM and 3T Productions (the Group's interactive design subsidiary) has been appointed by the BBC as a 'preferred supplier' for Digital Curriculum subject commissions. • Lambeth LEA (local education authority) PFI project: Contract negotiations relating to this £16 million PFI project are continuing to proceed satisfactorily. RM announced that it was sole bidder for the Lambeth PFI project in March 2004. No update on trading will be given; performance in the year to date has been inline with management's expectations as communicated at the Group's preliminaryresults announcement in November 2004. Commenting on BETT 2005, Tim Pearson, CEO of RM, said: "BETT provides an excellent opportunity for RM to demonstrate our range ofeducational products and services designed to help teachers to teach andlearners to learn. "With LEAs and secondary schools developing their ICT strategies in response tothe Building Schools for the Future initiative, infrastructure products andservices and RM's Learning Platform architecture will be particularly importantthis year. With Connect Advance, we are showing a family of value-addedenhancements and add-ons for our market-leading Community Connect 3infrastructure product. "We are also showing a number of new content packs for Easiteach, ourstandard-setting interactive whole-class teaching software. New for BETT 2005are geography (our first key stage three content pack) and EAL (English as anadditional language)." - Ends - For further information, please contact: Mike Greig/Phil Hemmings, RM plc 08709 200200Fiona Laffan/Mark Antelme, Brunswick 020 7404 5959 Notes to Editors: BETT 2005 takes place at Olympia, London from the 12th January to the 15thJanuary 2005. It is the year's major meeting point for the UK educational ICTcommunity and also attracts significant interest from international educationalinfluencers and policy makers. With approximately 550 exhibitors and 25,000attendees, it is believed to be the world's largest educational technologyexhibition. The RM Group presence at BETT 2005 comprises the main RM stand, showing a widerange of new and improved educational information and communications technology(ICT) products, along with separately branded stands representing the Group'sSoftease, Sentinel and TTS subsidiaries. There is also a stand showing theSonica Spanish language learning software, which was developed by the Group's 3TProductions subsidiary for the DfES and is now being marketed by RM. At each ofthese stands, senior teachers and ICT co-ordinators will be able to discuss thelatest products and services with our education and product specialists. RM Group stands can be found at: • RM - Stand D50/E50 • Softease - Stand C56 • Sentinel (Ranger) - Stand E90 • TTS - Stand PZ1 • Sonica - Stand R36 RM will be providing consultancy sessions for local education authority (LEA)staff focusing on how the Group's Learning Platform architecture can provideICT-based services that improve teaching and learning. The Learning Platform,which was introduced at BETT last year, has seen significant development and nowforms the basis of RM's strategic education projects in Warwickshire and Newham.Focus areas for RM at BETT 2005 include: • Easiteach - The emerging standard for whole-class interactive teaching software. The Easiteach family now includes geography, early steps in literacy, EAL (English as an additional language) and animated book content packs. Existing Easiteach family products have been nominated in three BETT award categories. • DiscoverAlive - A new range of ICT resources for use across the curriculum at key stage three. DiscoverAlive includes materials for Maths, English, Science, Geography, History, French, and Spanish. It provides learning resources, tagged for use in RM's Kaleidos virtual learning and environment and support material including exemplar lessons and teacher notes. • Early Years Window Box - An RM Window Box especially designed for use in pre-primary educational environments, with a range of appropriate software and learning resources. • Sonica Spanish - An innovative tool for teaching Spanish at key stage two. Sonica was commissioned by the DfES and developed by 3T Productions (the Group's interactive design subsidiary). • Connect Advance - Community Connect 3, the market-leading ICT infrastructure solution; improved with a family of options and enhancements designed to address the challenging requirements of classroom networking. These include mass storage solutions, security and access control mechanisms, enhanced multimedia and video support and new communications options, as well as an improved training offer. • RM One - RM's innovative, all-in-one PC. The RM One has been received enthusiastically by both primary and secondary schools and is nominated for a BETT award. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange