At Schools & Universities

Centrally located in Bengaluru city in Karnataka, India the Neev Academy is an esteemed international school built on providing world class modern education to primary, middle and high school students.

Within its state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructures are two major campuses the academy includes a cafeteria which utilized traditional non-folding furniture. Staff were faced with delays in moving tables and chairs in out of use, regular floor cleaning and the overall aesthetic look of the furniture which did not meet the required ambience of the space. SICO^® was able to provide the perfect solution in a range of SICO^® BY-65 Bench Tables, TSU Tables and Oval Graduate Tables.

Initially the project was specified for a small number of tables however once the tables were installed and proved how easily the space was transformed the decision was made to replace all of the remaining non-folding traditional tables with SICO^® Mobile Folding Cafeteria tables which ultimately allowed the campus to different age group of students with seat multi-height seats/benches.

InstaTheatre™ adds finishing touch to purpose built school.

A new purpose built school in Nottingham was not complete without a SICO^® InstaTheatre™ in their main hall. Commenting on the build is Adele France the School Business Manager.

“In moving into our new purpose built school we needed a solution for our recess in the main hall which would allow us to continue performances on stage; having come from the old facility which housed a very good production facility. After much searching we found the ‘InstaTheatre™’ by SICO^® which would offer the solution we were looking for.”

SICO^® were contacted by Karen Colwill, New Build Project Manager of The Bay C of E Primary School, Isle of Wight, who was looking to source dining furniture that would allow the dining hall to be used for a multitude of uses.

Like many primary schools the space not only serves as a dining hall but also facilitates breakfast and after school clubs, school assemblies, PE and Parents Evenings.

The school had a clear agenda, the new dining furniture would have to be quick and easy to set up and pack away but more importantly would need to store more compactly in the one store cupboard that would house not only the furniture but PE and cleaning equipment.

Our school purchased SICO^® table seating units for our new build in September 2013. One of the reasons for the purchase was the fact that within our new build our storage cupboard was smaller than we were used to and the SICO^® units seemed the perfect solution to our problems.

Two catering staff can set up Dunvant Primary School dining hall for 224 children in less than 10 minutes with 30-year-old tables!

Dunvant Primary School has been a customer of SICO^® Europe since 1979 when the school purchased 7 Rectangular Table Seating Units. Since then the school has purchased a total of 16 SICO^® Table Seating Units, 8 of which are 16 seaters and 8 are 12 seaters.

At the time of last servicing, all that was required was the application of 2 operating instructions and 1 new stool. Throughout the years Dunvant Primary has regularly had their tables serviced and every three years have renewed their 3 Year General Maintenance agreement.

Rumney Primary School recently had a new extension to the school and needed dining furniture that would allow them to use their hall for a multitude of purposes including a dining area.

SICO^® tables are designed to make life easier by saving you precious time, space and ultimately money, which is why Rumney Primary School looked at SICO^® to provide the dining furniture they required. The mobile folding design allows you to convert your hall into a dining area – and back again – within minutes!

After the eagerly anticipated extension to the school was completed, Head Teacher Ann Evans was pleased to hear that her Local Education Authority would ensure SICO^® dining furniture would be supplied.

Eastwick Infant School spent an hour each day setting up their dining hall. They needed something that was more efficient than their current dining furniture. School Business Manager Tracy Beard explains how SICO^® provided the solution… and why they needed new dining furniture.

“As a result of issues with sufficient staff to set up the hall for lunchtimes without impacting on teaching and learning, we reviewed the process. It transpired that we were spending an hour each day, which, after canvassing staff we believed could be used more effectively.”

Seven catering staff feed over 700 students a day and set up time is only 8 minutes thanks to SICO^® Table Seating Units!

Burton Borough feed over 700 students a day in the main school hall, which is also used for drama, lessons and exams. For 39 weeks, the multi-use hall is set out to cater for first break and lunch period.

Before purchasing SICO^® Table Seating Units the catering team had to set up separate tables and chairs which was not only time consuming but expensive. Three staff took 35 minutes to set up and 35 minutes to pack down tying up the school hall from 11am to 2pm.

Alsop High School recently created a fabulous new building, housing specialist facilities for English, Humanities and Modern languages, together with a Sixth Form Centre and a new restaurant area.

The older part of the school, built in 1926, has been totally refurbished and extensive landscaping of the school grounds has been completed. The older building is unique and something of which the school are very proud.

Alsop high school has over 1,700 pupils and growing, they wanted to move away from loose café style furniture to a solution that could accommodate their increasing number of pupils whilst creating a stylish and multi-function area to allow for other varied uses it now has.

Working closely with the school business manager we conducted a detailed sight survey and produced several drawing options using different SICO® products and layouts and after careful consideration the school chose the SICO® 8-seat combined table seating units at 740mm adult height.

Woodbridge High School in Woodford Green, London is a growing high school with over 1,500 pupils, as part of its recent impressive expansion plans they appointed Kier construction to design and build the new Roding Arts Centre.

The new block boasts drama and music rooms with cutting edge composition software, art rooms with pottery and glass kilns, and brand new history and computing suites. However, at the heart of the centre is a new theatre.

A space saving staging and seating solution was specified by the architect, enabling this theatre to be tailor made to occupy the available space to meet the exacting user demands.

Our key challenge on this project was to design a mobile folding staging solution that would give the maximum possible footprint whilst still maintaining suitable access and sufficient space for the new bleacher seating to be installed as part of the project.

Hadlow Rural Community School in Kent, recently opened in September 2016. The school wanted to create a purpose-built dining hall that could be used as a hub for the school.

They wanted flexibility for the dining hall so it could also be used for parent’s evenings, breakout sessions and coffee mornings, there was also a need for the hall to be able to host conferences and training events, presentations and also dances.

The main challenge for SICO^® was to deliver a suitable product that would meet and then exceed the high standards that Hadlow Rural Community School had set itself and help create a room that can be used for a multitude of different events, but also be comfortable place for students to dine every day, the school currently has 150 pupils but will reach 400 when they are at full capacity.

Ken Blanchard’s observation that “None of us is as smart as all of us,” holds true in this instance. Through collaboration with architectural firm Interior Systems Inc., mobile folding furniture manufacturer SICO^® America Inc. and High Pressure Laminate (HPL) supplier Wilsonart, the Edu-Source Corporation facilitated the renovation of the cafeteria and kitchen at the Fields Store Elementary School in Waller, TX. Although more than 55 percent of the student body comes from disadvantaged backgrounds, the school enjoys a reputation for excellence, including receiving the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program award in 2014. The only thing missing was an interior matching the intention.

After The Edu-Source Corporation translated the school’s idea and Interior Systems, Inc. developed the design concept/finish palette, SICO^® built the mobile folding tables to order. “Even though we have a standard construction for most of our tables, the wide range of Wilsonart’s HPL colors and surface designs lets our clients, in effect, customize their products,” says Chris Dickey, senior product development engineer for SICO^®. “Add the capability to get custom graphics, and the options are endless.” What makes SICO^® an industry leader in the segment however, is the company’s reputation for quality, safety and service. “We use Wilsonart^® HPL in most of our products for many reasons. It is UL GREENGUARD Gold Certified, which is important for materials going into schools. Plus, the surface is durable and easy-to-clean, even in long-term usage – and we warrant our products for 15 years against manufacturer’s defects and for lifetime on welds,” says Dickey.

Steve Thompson, maintenance director for the Oroville, Washington school district had contacted a SICO^® dealer because he was interested in purchasing our current BY-65 cafeteria tables, to replace the district’s existing SICO^® tables…from 1957. That’s right – 1957!

The district had still been using our Eisenhower-era tables until recently, when its superintendent purchased used cafeteria tables, made by another manufacturer, from a neighboring school district. The maintenance staff quickly realized that the nearly 60-year-old SICO^® tables looked and performed better than the 10-year-old tables made by the competitor. That is why later, when they were in a position to order new cafeteria tables, they contacted SICO^®. Not to mention the fact that the maintenance director and virtually all of the district staff sat at the old SICO^® tables for lunch when they were kids – so our tables carried a lot of sentimental value, too!

When provided an estimate for new stylish and reliable SICO^® tables, the maintenance director calculated his return on investment – based on an extremely long usage life. He quickly realized that the SICO^® BY-65 tables were “a steal.”