RM has been appointed preferred bidder for a £20m, eight-year contract with Newham education authority. The project covers 140 classrooms in 30 schools in the London borough.

RM will provide teachers with Tablet PCs. Teaching assistants and more than 4,000 pupils will get laptop machines. The project also includes interactive whiteboards for classrooms and Kaleidos educational software.

A spokesman for Newham education authority said RM offered "real educational benefits, as well as technical reliablity."

At the begining of April RM announced a similar win in Warwickshire, it is also sole bidder for a project in Lambeth.

In other Newham news, executives from Oracle have been "e-mentoring" schoolchildren from the borough. Six staff from Oracle's City of London office have become e-pals to children from Portway Primary School, according to the Financial Times.

Andy Sutton, VP of financial services at Oracle, said the scheme was good for the kids but also helped his staff learn how to communicate in clear simple and jargon-free terms. He said responding to emailed questions encouraged staff to "use simple, everyday language that everyday people can understand". ®

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