Some companies, to mangle Shakespeare, are born to the education sector; others have it thrust upon them. Redstor is definitely one of the latter.
For more than a decade the Reading-based IT firm has provided data storage, back-up and recovery services to a roster of corporate clients including Standard Chartered Bank and British Energy. As recently as 2005, the firm had barely dipped a toe in the education sector.

Promethean, a UK-based maker of interactive whiteboards, is rumoured to be planning an initial public offering. The move would make a fortune for the company’s founder, Tony Cann, and his private equity backers Apax Partners. But, if successful, it would also put the relatively low-profile sector firmly on the investor map.

Chris Woodhead, to put it mildly, has never been afraid to speak his mind. He hit the headlines during his six year stint as Ofsted’s chief inspector of schools when he pointed out that 15,000 teachers were incompetent and should be thrown out on their ear. And when he held a press conference to announce he was suffering from motor neurone disease he casually suggested he’d rather drive his wheelchair off a cliff than deal with “bearded social workers” in Switzerland.

Perhaps more than any other policy, the Building Schools for the Future programme was a product of Labour’s long boom. Instead of restricting itself to those schools in the direst need, it was to cover every secondary in England. Ministers wanted not just to replace crumbling schools, but to transform education. Its price tag even leapt up by a nifty £10 billion, as it expanded to encompass academies and special needs schools. This was a programme devised in good times. Read more...