PDS brightens up lessons at Beverley Grammar School, with £1,400 of new equipment
A pioneering East Yorkshire-based technical support and installation company has donated £1,300 worth of equipment to help an East Riding school take lessons to the next level.
Pupils at Beverley Grammar School look forward to lessons when they can make use of state-of-the-art interactive whiteboards, which are fast becoming an integral part of classrooms all over the country.
Rob Hardy (Left), IT Manager at Beverley Grammar School, pictured with Paragon’s Iain Bland.
But since the invaluable teaching tool was installed in three of Queensgate-based school’s classrooms a year ago, pupils have only been able to view information which doesn’t incorporate sound because of a lack of equipment.
Rob Hardy, IT manager, got in touch with Paragon Data Services (PDS) – an expert in network infrastructure and AV Solutions – a year after the company which was commissioned to install the whiteboards failed to supply the accompanying speakers, which are essential for around 50 per cent of the time it’s in operation.
Iain Bland, managing director at PDS, was delighted to be able to help the school by supplying the labour and materials for this work, which would normally cost £1,300, free of charge.
He said: “We were pleased to be able to provide a solution to Beverley Grammar School’s problem. PDS installs interactive whiteboards and speakers, for use in both multi-media training and education, on a regular basis.
“We would never install a whiteboard without speakers in the first place – it’s simply not an option, because sound is used with this piece of equipment for lots of applications.”
PDS has installed speaker systems and wiring, including all of the necessary trunking and sockets, in three of the school’s classrooms which are situated in both the sixth form block and the humanities department. The whiteboards are used regularly as teaching aids at the school and are excellent for language lessons and playing DVDs.
Rob Hardy, IT manager at Beverley Grammar School, said: “We are very grateful to PDS for this generous donation of both the materials and the labour.
“The whiteboards are an excellent tool, but without the sound we simply can’t take full advantage of them.”