Blog

UK Film Festival Video Contest

Tue, 09 March 2010

Promethean announces the ActivClassroom Film Festival!

Do you use Promethean ActivBoard, Learner Response Systems or ActivInspire software? If so, show us how these products bring your classroom to life. Create and submit a video answering one of the following questions for a chance to win!

1) How does the ActivClassroom bring your class to life?

2) How does the ActivClassroom bring your subjects to life?



The winner of each category has their choice of either an ActivBoard+2 378 Pro fixed or a set of 32 ActivExpression devices! The winning videos will also be showcased on our corporate website.

Videos must be submitted by no later than 8 April* (deadline extended from 15 March), 2010. Hurry the first 10 video submissions will receive an ActivView document camera!

Final few 2010 Calendars left. Contact us now for one!

Wed, 17 February 2010

Ashfield Boys School

Fri, 12 February 2010



Here is a perfect example of some of the new furniture we are offering home economics departments. These images were taken in Ashfield Boys School in Belfast.

IPPN 2010 Prize Draw Winners Announced

Tue, 02 February 2010


After a successful 2010 IPPN, we had a record number of entries into our prize draw.

The winners are as follows

ACTIVvote (kit of 32 handheld devices) Mags Coffey, St Mark's, The Glen, Cork
ACTIVslate Denise Deery, Kilmovee NS, Co Mayo
ACTIVslate Jerry Coakley, Ballyheadans NS, Cork
2Tone Table and 4 chairs Michael Maher, St Thomas' JNS, Lucan, Co Dublin

Promethean Planet membership passes half million mark

Thu, 07 January 2010

Promethean Planet membership Passes the Half Million mark

Membership doubles in one year

Blackburn, UK, 7th January 2010 — Promethean, a world leader in the rapidly growing global market for interactive learning technology, today announces that membership of Promethean Planet, www.PrometheanPlanet.com, has passed the half million mark, doubling in only one year. Promethean Planet was launched in 2006 and in less than four years has become the world's largest online community for users of interactive learning technology.

Available in ten languages with members in over 150 countries, Promethean Planet is free to join and enables teachers from around the globe to exchange ideas, share new and innovative lessons and have access to a wide variety of professional development materials. The site contains over 16,000 fully customable lesson resources for all ages, representing over 225,000 pages of teaching material, and includes premium interactive educational content from leading publishers such as Dorling Kindersley, National Geographic, Scholastic, Waterford Institute, Harper Collins and Oxford University Press.

Promethean Planet received the Worlddidac Foundation Award for Excellence in Education in 2008. Recent monthly statistics show that there were more than 250,000 unique visits, 5 million page views and over 550,000 downloads on the site[1]. Planet is currently supported in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Kazakh and Arabic.

Brent Taggart, Chief Strategy Officer commented: “Promethean Planet’s growth has surpassed all our expectations and has become the world’s leading online community of its kind. As well as providing an unrivalled resource base, helping teachers to prepare and make lessons more interactive, it is also a global forum for members to interact and share ideas. Its success plays a key role in helping to bring learning to life in the classroom.”


[1] November 2009

FREE Visualiser Offer

Wed, 25 November 2009
















We have a brilliant new offer to all customers who purchase a Promethean ACTIVboard+2 Interactive Whiteboard system before Dec 31st 2009.

Every purchase of ACTIVboard+2 systems (fixed height or height adjustable) will receive a free ActiView 322 Visualiser.

Put any object under Actiview's gooseneck-mounted lens and lamp combinations and your treasures, text, even flora are projected in vivid detail on your ACTIVboard. Examine the smallest shell with automatic zoom and focus. Share your work with the entire classroom or build an image library of everyday objects and extraordinary finds for use in your lessons.

ActiView puts the whole wide world on display.

ACTIVexpression Try and Buy Offer

Thu, 29 October 2009


Official Opening of Pond Park PS

Tue, 13 October 2009








SOS GROUP was delighted to be invited back to the official opening of Pond Park Primary School on Friday 9th October. The school looked fantastic and we wish all well in their great new surroundings. Principal, Victor Spindler, invited Cecil Kirkwood OBE to officially open the new school 28 years after he opened the previous school. Guests were treated to a wonderful performance from the school choir.

TOP GEAR filming outside SOS Group

Wed, 07 October 2009





Traffic came to a standstill today outside SOS GROUP as Jeremy Clarkson and his Top Gear crew tunred up for filming. The star of the hit BBC television series was in town recording for the current series.

Ashfield Girls' High School Official Opening

Wed, 30 September 2009













SOS GROUP was thrilled to be invited to the official opening of Ashfield Girls' High School on Tuesday 29th September. This new state of the art school is a wonderful facility for the pupils and also the community of East Belfast. Guests were treated to performances from the School Choir and Rock Challenge 2009. Speeches were given by new principal Alison Mungavin and outgoing principal Adeline Dinsmore OBE before guests were able to take a tour of the fantastic new facilities.

Love Your Whitebaord Event

Wed, 23 September 2009


'Love Your Whiteboard' Roadshows

Tue, 25 August 2009

SOS GROUP and Promethean will shortly be holding some local 'LoveYour Whiteboard' events across Northern Ireland. Regardless of what brand of interactive whiteboard you are using, and what subject areas you need support with, these free, local sessions will give you more confidence at the whiteboard, pass on some great time­saving tips and exchange exciting lesson ideas.



We want to show you how your interactive whiteboard and software could be used more effectively; saving you time in planning, teaching and assessing. Capture your students’ attention, rejuvenate topics and involving the whole class, without adding to your workload.


What’s more, we’ll be giving away free software trials, DVDs and magazine supplements with loads of ideas, suggestions and resources.


So what are you waiting for? Come along to one of our free ‘Love Your Whiteboard Roadshows after school hours. For more information visit www.PrometheanPlanet.com/LYWR or contact us on 028 9046 9047.

E Newsletter

Tue, 21 July 2009

We will soon be launching our first e-newsletter. To be on the mailing list please sign up now. You'll be first to hear about new products, special events and great special offers. Click here to sign up.

School Food Trust Study

Wed, 08 July 2009




This report was published in Daily Telegraph 07/07/09 claiming that a new study shows pupils benefit from improvements to dining rooms including the purchase of new furniture. For a selection of our dining hall furniture click here


Eating healthy school lunches in modern dining rooms can improve pupils' concentration by almost 20%, research has found.

A School Food Trust (SFT) study found that improving food and dining facilities had a positive effect on pupils' behaviour and meant they were better at working on their own.

Researchers made improvements such as introducing new healthy menus, holding taster sessions, redecorating the dining room and buying new furniture in seven secondary schools across England.

A further four schools were used as control schools, with no improvements made. They then assessed the results to see if the changes had an impact on learning and behaviour in the classroom after lunch.

Observers recorded pupil behaviour at the beginning of the study and then again 15 weeks later.

The study found that pupils at the schools where improvements had been made were 18% more likely to be "on task" (concentrating and engaged with learning) compared with those in the control schools.

Pupils in the schools which had seen improvements were also 14% less likely to be off-task than those in the control schools, it found.

The study said: "These findings have important implications for classroom teaching in secondary schools.

"If pupils are likely to be more on-task and less off-task for up to one third of the time, teaching is likely to run more smoothly with fewer disruptions.

"The net effect of these improvements in behaviour is likely to mean that more time is spent on achieving the objectives of the lesson and less time on activities or discipline needed to retain the pupils focus."

SOS GROUP in IN! Magazine

Sun, 05 July 2009

SOS GROUP's 40th birthday event in the Culloden Estate and Spa is featured in the July/August edition of IN! Magazine which is on sale now.

SOS GROUP wins Quality Management System Scheme – ISO 9001:2008

Fri, 03 July 2009



Quality Management System Scheme – ISO 9001:2008

SOS GROUP is pleased to confirm that BM TRADA Certification Ltd has given its approval to the Quality Management System operated by our company and has issued our new certificate.

Termoncanice Primary Video Animations

Fri, 03 July 2009

Termoncanice Primary Video Animations

Thu, 02 July 2009

Spotlight on Termoncanice Primary

Wed, 01 July 2009



Back in 2005 SOS GROUP sold Termoncanice Primary School over 20 Promethean Interactive Whiteboards. We installed and trained them on how to use them.....and they haven't looked back since. They have now reached the heights of creating a digital creative classroom, pupils creating animated videos and exploring the world of Apple iMacs including software such as garageband, imovies and idvd. They have also invested in our brilliant learner response devices ACTIVvote and ACTIVexpression. This is a school that is unquestionably committed to academic excellence through ICT

Apples Blooming In Granny’s Garden!!

Termoncanice Primary School has a wide array of educational ICT equipment but as yet they haven’t got a machine that will travel back 20 years in time!! While my hair may be arctic blonde and the forehead looks like a page in an exercise book, fortunately the memory hasn’t gone…… yet!!

Back in 1989, when I started teaching , the old BBC computers were all the rage and Granny’s Garden was at the cutting edge of gaming technology in schools. A Computer disc looked like the microfilm in a spy movie. In time schools moved on to the Archimedes, the A3000 and the A500. Programmes such as Pendown and Our Facts were the forerunner for Word and Excel respectively.

When the PC’s arrived notice board’s were filled with lovely stories printed in coloured ink, each paragraph a different colour. In time, I, like many of my peers, reckoned I had the full capabilities of the computer sussed. Powerpoint, Excel, Textease, Paint etc were used in a variety of lessons. There was nothing knew to be learned… or so I thought!

When I was told by the principal Mr Seamus Coyle that I was getting an Interactive Whiteboard I said “Great!”, what I meant was “What’s on earth is an Interactive Whiteboard??”. ( having sussed the full potential of a PC I couldn’t admit the truth!!).The board arrived in my room in Easter 2005 and my class were spellbound by this technological marvel. One pupil was on the verge of tears when the installation was delayed by a day. In a short time all of the staff were smitten by my the IWB and were convinced of it’s benefits.

One year later all twenty two classrooms in Termoncanice had an interactive whiteboard. All the permanent members of staff are trained to at least Promethean Level 2 standard. I attained Level 3 in September 2008 and some other staff members are working towards this level. The boards and the training represent a huge commitment from the principal in terms of money and time. Prior to the new curriculum it showed the school placed ICT on a level footing with Mathematics and Literacy.

The IWB’s are only one part of Termoncanice’s commitment to academic excellence through ICT. We have invested in the Activ Voters and Active Expression voters which compliment the boards. The voting pods have tremendous learning potential for children across the curriculum. I have used them in end of term Maths tests, results are not only instant but they provide diagnostic information. I might even go as far as to say they made testing fun.

Termoncanice have a well equipped ICT suite so that children can spend some time every week learning other subjects though the use of ICT. The C2K platform has been used extensively in all lessons in a bid to make the learning context more interesting. Pupils have produced websites, movies, animations and composed their own music using the ICT equipment available to them.

ICT coordinator Mr Eamon Toner is a busy man. On a day to day basis he ensures that teachers not only avail of the superb computer suite but also the Bee Bots , Roamers and other control devices in the school. He has also spent the last two years as part of the Mediascape project. Eamon, his class and learning support teacher Miss Hilda Quinn, have been customizing PDA’s so that they can tell parts of The Lighthouse Keepers Lunch story when certain Hotspots are reached around the school. This project incorporates ICT, Literacy and Art. Kevin Coyle has been mentoring all participants through this exciting and challenging technological journey

Termoncanice lead a cluster of other schools in a pilot exploring the use of Apple Computers. The staff involved were trained in the use of the apple and given themes such as Bullying to explore via the Apple Mac. The results were excellent and shared between schools when they met together. Learning support teacher, and Vice Principal, Mary Harron used programmes such as Comic Life and I Can Animate to great effect. When Mrs Harron organised the Summer Literacy School in 2008 I was invited along to enhance the Literacy experience through ICT. Plays were filmed, animations of the American Civil War were created and an excellent Punch and Judy show was captured on film.

In the room next door to where I started teaching is the new Digital Creative Classroom. The room is equipped with 12 iMacs, a place where technology meets creativity. The IWB is connected to an iMac so that teachers can show the pupils how to avail of programmes such as iMovie, Garageband, iDVD etc. In the middle of the room an area has been provided to shoot movies and produce animations. The green wall allows the film editors to put a host of different backdrops into the finished product. A sound proof booth facilitates the creation of podcasts and will be the ideal location for final editing of movies and animations.

As Literacy coordinator I am excited about the potential for the subject in this room

ICT is embedded into the culture as well as the curriculum in Termoncanice. After twenty years it’s nice to see Apples blooming in Granny’s Garden!!

Leo McCloskey

Termoncanice P.S.



SPECIAL OFFER ON POSTURA+ CHAIRS

Thu, 25 June 2009


We have 60no nearly new Postura+ 350mmh in green to give away at a knockdown price of £13 each. These are ex-stock and available immediately. Our RRP on these chairs is £32 each, representing a saving of £19 on each chair. Contact sales now on 02890 736543.

SOS Press Release 23rd June - Record Sales

Tue, 23 June 2009


P R E S S R E L E A S E

SOS CELEBRATE 40 YEARS WITH RECORD SALES IN EDUCATION SECTOR

SOS Group, the local manufacturers and distributors of educational equipment and contract furniture for the public and private sectors, are celebrating their 40th Anniversary this week with the news that the last twelve months have been their most successful ever in the education sector.

This year has seen the company’s sales of furniture and equipment for schools, colleges and universities reach £3.25million. Recent successes have included the winning of contracts with Farrans Construction, Patton Construction and Heron Brothers to supply and install over 200 Promethean interactive whiteboards to six new schools currently in construction. SOS has also won the contract to install the first SICO Insta-theatre in Northern Ireland at Oakwood Integrated School, Dunmurry. The Insta-theatre is an innovative, full size performance theatre that folds conveniently into a pocket, or against a wall enabling schools to transform their assembly hall or gym into a professional theatre in minutes.

Commenting on their success in the education sector Phillip Walsh, Partner, SOS Group said

“We are delighted to have reached our 40th Anniversary and to be able to report a year of such outstanding success in the schools and third-level education sector. The educational furniture and equipment market has seen tremendous changes since the our business was first established back in 1961 and today technology, particularly internet based technology is transforming the way pupils learn and teachers teach at all stages in the education process. We have been able to establish our premier position in this marketplace by keeping pace with the technological developments and that is very much reflected in the highly technical nature of the contacts we have won over the past year”.

SOS Group was established in 1969 under its original name of Irish Schools Furniture, by former teacher Harry Walsh who nurtured it from a workshop on Barrack Street, Belfast to a state of the art manufacturing facility in the old Olympia Typewriter site on the Boucher Road. Showcase projects over the years have included Trinity College Library, Millennium Theatre, Derry and the National Maritime College of Ireland in Cork.

Harry Walsh died suddenly in 2002 but the business has continued to thrive in the hands of his sons Phillip and Chris. In 2005 the company moved to a purpose built manufacturing and distribution complex at Heron Road in the Belfast Harbour Estate. The company which has a total annual turnover of £4.2million employs a full time staff of 28.




Photo Shoot for 2tone desking range

Tue, 23 June 2009






Our last photo shoot was in Blackstaff Mill on a freezing winter's afternoon for our own home grown desking range. Today's photo shoot couldn't have been done in more contrasting weather as temperatures soared into the mid 20s. So where better to photograph our new 2tone range of desks than at the beach! The location was Seapark in Holywood, only a mile or so from our factory in Heron Road. More to come soon on our new range that marks our 40th year in business.

Something new from SOS GROUP

Tue, 23 June 2009

Link
Link is a new chair we are pleased to add to our collection. It is suitable for indoor and outdoor use and stacks. Also available with arms.
Link

Extreme
Extreme is a dynamic new chair which has been been selected for the Award Young and Design 2009 - Milan 2009. This innovative new design is a success because of its lightness and sturdiness.

Orangefield Primary Official Opening

Fri, 19 June 2009


It was great to be invited to the official opening of Orangefield Primary on June 19th. Principal, Ernie Long was joined at the opening by First Minister Peter Robinson and Lord Mayor Naomi Long.

SPECIAL LIMITED OFFER - SOLD OUT!

Fri, 19 June 2009





SORRY, THIS OFFER IS NOW SOLD OUT!!!



Here is your chance to snap up a stylish classroom of our latest Heron Desks and Titan chairs for an incredible price of £975 + vat. These desks and chairs retail at a price of £2175 so this represents a saving of over half price! These desks come complete with baskets and are 590mm high. The Titan chairs are 310mmh and available in certain colours while stocks last. Contact sales immediately on 02890 736543.

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