In 2018 the school was looking to upgrade their print solutions and had begun negotiations with Canon, which in turn became the start of an exciting journey and a solid partnership. In Principal Stephen Kendall-Jones’ own words “as we got more involved in the process, one of the reasons we chose Canon was because they have a wider understanding of what education is about” .It is one thing to claim you understand somebody’s market, but for someone directly involved in and effected by the struggles in that market to present you with that accolade, is something Canon is extremely proud of.
Canon’s print solution was like for like but featured newer, more efficient machines that would add value to the school in being easy to use and in the right locations. In terms of the transition from the old print suite to the new one (including PaperCut and software install), Canon exceeded expectations turning the install around in three days over the school holidays to ensure minimal disruption and downtime.
When we spoke to Canon about those opportunities the students being at the center was prime. Not just ‘can we give you some photocopiers and make some money’ it was ‘how do we help the youth of today match the needs of tomorrow?
Providing a wide format printer has allowed the students to not only shoot photography, but to produce high quality prints. The same wide format printer has also allowed the school to print their own school banners and pop up signs in-house, rather than having to pay a premium to outsource the work. Canon trained the school in their own print room, and they met with specialists onsite at Canon’s showroom to understand what the machine could do with different medias.
The Canon Media Suite solution gives Albany Junior High School this ability, and represents Canon’s ethos of ‘delivering value to our customer’s customer’ - being able to provide a platform that adds value to the student’s journey throughout and beyond school.
A true struggle for education providers is being able to engage students on a more significant level by giving them a hands on, interactive experience, thus ‘hooking them in’ as Stephen says.
What we want to do is have experiential learning. To hook kids in deeply, they’ve got to experience it - they’ve got to be hands on
Though it is somewhat of an anomaly in a junior school, Canon was able to identify that the school had a keen interest in being able to immerse students in photography, giving them a coveted head start before college and university.
Being able to offer media, photo journalism and photographic studies from such a young age is a major point of difference for Albany junior high school – allowing kids to start the journey a lot sooner if that is where their interest lies. Unlike other suppliers, Canon’s ability to deliver a total end to end imaging solution made the choice a lot easier for Stephen – snapping it, printing it, sending it.
From photography and art, to interactive learning and drama - identifying what top priorities are at a school is the most important part of Canon’s process. It’s about finding out what it is that makes a school unique and finding a solution to make the experience great for the student.
Canon’s genuine approach to wanting to help the school made the biggest impact, and with a partnership like this Albany Junior High School have absolutely been able to further create inspiring, future-focused experiences for their students.
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