Education, Riso

Thomas Buxton Primary School

Riso Come Highly Recommended...

The Background

We had four printers in our school but we were starting to have serious problems. The machines were old and needed new parts that we were going to be charged for. And the colour printing was expensive, at 7p a copy it was too much. The printers were also not being used how we wanted to use them.

The Profile

This is a two-form community primary school with a nursery situated in the heart of Whitechapel, a multi-cultural part of London.

It is maintained by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and currently has around 460 pupils.

The single-storey school has recently been refurbished, which it says reflects “the high expectations of both children and staff”.

"We had been spending a staggering £2,000 a month on printing. Now, we spend about £1,900 a quarter. That’s a huge difference, we now save about £25,580 a year.”

Cheryl Wason
School Business Manager, Thomas Buxton Primary School

The Story

We were having battles with the suppliers about how much they were charging us for the new parts for the machines that we couldn’t actually use as they often broke down. And they rolled the contracts on and on and there we were, stuck with old machines we didn’t use to their potential. It wasn’t just the parts though; colour was expensive at 7p per copy on one particular machine. It was a crazy situation we were in.

At the time, there was a lot of talk in the press about how much schools were paying for all sorts of things and the sheer impact that growing costs were having. Many other schools were having the same problems as us. We weren’t alone and it was a topic of discussion for a time. After RISO was recommended by another school, and RISO also got in touch directly, we had the conversation and we realised that there was a way out of the situation we were in.

We didn’t have to keep doing what we had been.

It is fair to say that we love our two RISO ComColor 7150s. We still use paper in the school for creating beautiful displays on the walls, to homework, class work, newsletters and information for governors.

We have a weekly newsletter and it had been the case that if we had two or more pupils from the same family, we would only send it to the eldest sibling, purely to keep costs down.

With the RISO though, we can just do it! We print 350 double-sided newsletters in colour every week because it is now so cheap to do it.

Everybody uses the RISO and they have their set limits but we are definitely printing more in colour than we used to. We don’t have to worry too much now.

When we audited what we had been doing, we knew we had been spending a staggering £2,000 a month on printing. That’s an enormous chunk of the budget and it simply wasn’t sustainable. Something had to change. Now, we spend about £1,900 a quarter. That’s a huge difference, we now save about £25,580 a year. The sums add up right now.

The admin team find the RISO is easy to use and so do other people when they have had the training on how to do it.

Comment from Riso

Like every school, Thomas Buxton has to ensure that budgets are adhered to. Staff recognised that the original equipment needed to be changed and they needed reliable printers to maintain the printing output and in fact do more, particularly in colour. We are delighted to have been able to work with and provide an ideal solution to Thomas Buxton.

Before ComColor

The school used to have four printers from a variety of suppliers. But staff recognised that although the old machines were doing their job, it was expensive to print in colour, at 7p a sheet, and parts needed to be replaced – at extra cost. Machines were jamming, there was no unified system, colour was expensive and printing was a laborious task.

After ComColor

The school now has two RISO ComColor devices. Where it was spending a lot of money on printing, it is now using cost-effective solutions. It’s no wonder then that the governors gave the go ahead to get RISO on board.