Global Series: Albany Junior High School Canon case study

Albany Junior High School’s principal Stephen Kendall-Jones is proud of the future-focused and positive social environment his school offers. Being ‘future-focused’ is one of the reasons Canon were the perfect partner, bringing a solid understanding of education and state-of-the-art equipment together, to provide the ultimate learning experience for the students. Stephen believes that by providing an interactive, hands-on experience you can engage students at a deeper level.

The Need

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.

The Solution

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.

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.

Point of Difference

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.

Working Together

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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