Protecting students has never been harder in today’s society. Knife crime and terrorist attacks appear to be daily events all over the world. Just locking the would-be aggressors out is not good enough. In some cases you could be locking them in. We have developed a solution that alerts all of your staff, not only what is going on, but where, thus helping your staff to make the right decisions should something we hope will never happen happens.
The Client Hurst is a thriving co-educational day and boarding school for pupils from age 4 to 18 years with approximately 1,100 pupils . Situated within a 140-acre campus, surrounded by countryside on the borders of the South Downs National Park; close to the village of Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex, with Approx. 1,100 pupils.
The Situation
The welfare of the students is at the forefront of the colleges mind and as such with recent attacks on schools and colleges around the world it was decided that they would need to be prepared for any critical incident that may occur. The campus manager, David Davies, contacted us looking for some ideas of how we could help with critical incident management.
Originally they were looking for a klaxon/sounder that could be triggered by a mobile phone or a text message, which would warn the students and teachers of something untoward happening on the campus. Whilst carrying out our on-site survey, we brought along with us a Master Blaster sounder so that the site would have an idea of the achievable sound levels around the campus. It was decided that three sounders would be needed to provide enough warning to all areas. We were then set the task of finding the best way of triggering the sounders, resetting the system after the all clear, and coming up with a way of providing clear information on what is actually happening.
The Solution
There were several ways we could trigger the sounders using GSM or wireless technology, however because there are many critical situations that could occur, and all of them requiring different actions, it was proposed that we used a smart phone app that not only triggered various alarms but also provided alarm information on teachers smart phones. For example, if there is an intruder on the field, the app is triggered with the button “intruder on the field” this then sounds all three sounders which in turn informs the teachers to look at their phone and take appropriate action i.e. lock the doors, or move the students to a safer area.
The Highlights
Because the system is mostly wireless, it was installed within a matter of two or three days during half term causing no disruption to the college at all.
The Benefits
- With just sounders and no other appropriate information, the teacher could inadvertently trap the students or move them further into danger; the app provides clear information as to what is happening. See screen shot 1.
- The system can be triggered by any authorised staff member who has the app on their smart-phone. The app requires you to enter a pin number to log in on your phone, so cannot be triggered if the phone is lost or stolen. See screen shot 2 and 3
- The system has full managerial control and the college can decide who can trigger the alarm from their smart phone, and those who simply just receive the information. See screen shot 4.
What the Client Thinks
“We are very happy with the simplicity and effectiveness of the system. It does far more than we originally asked, and It has proved to be a highly cost effective solution, which whilst we hope to not have to ever use, we are confident it will meet our needs.”
