Why All Schools Need Extensive Security Systems
Blog: Why All Schools Need Extensive Security Systems Published: 25/07/2022
Why All Schools Need Extensive Security Systems
Providing a secure environment is essential in every school to support effective learning and keep staff and pupils from harm. In recent years, the topic of how to improve school security systems has become a central issue due to rising crime statistics. For example, in the 5 years prior to 2016, school vandalism cost taxpayers £4.5 million, not to mention the disruptive impact of anti-social behaviour on the ability of schools to deliver positive educational outcomes.
Some security issues are common to all schools, such as bullying and the need to protect pupils from threats to their safety from people outside the school, while some risks are more prevalent in some schools that others. A school security system, therefore, should be extensive enough to cover all risks and provide a well-rounded level of security and safety. The key to this is to provide staff with reliable and effective communication channels to facilitate a rapid response to any emerging security concerns.
If you’re looking to strengthen security on your school premises, you’ll probably have looked at various options and systems. In this article we’d like to discuss the benefits of using 2 way-radios, which are a simple but effective security measure, especially in a secondary school environment.
Four reasons to use two-way radios in secondary schools
1) They enable instant communication between staff
Two-way radios allow instant communication between staff members across extended secondary school sites and external areas (bus stops, sports fields, local afterschool ‘pinch points’ etc). In the event of an incident, teachers can instantly reach out to security staff instead of waiting for the situation to be detected via CCTV monitoring. Moreover, if an incident occurs in a classroom, teachers don’t need to leave the area to seek help while leaving children unattended.
2) They facilitate a fast response to any incidents
Using 2-way radios ensures that security staff can respond to the many different incidents that can happen in a school every day, much faster than if they didn’t have access to these devices. This allows action at an earlier stage and is often enough to prevent potentially serious incidents from escalating.
For example, once staff are notified, they can immediately respond to the presence of unusual or unwanted visitors within the school grounds, liaising with security teams and implementing a coordinated response. The same applies to any bullying incidents reported by teaching staff, which can be handled straight away.
3) They eliminate the need for additional security staff
To be effective, a communication system needs to be extensive and cover the school grounds and the surrounding area. This often-required larger secondary schools to employ dedicated security guards to physically patrol the area out of hours or at busy times – such as opening and closing times. With two-way radios allowing smoother communication between security staff and teachers, you don’t need as many feet on the ground to provide the same level of security coverage. Schools can rely on just one or two security staff and still ensure other staff members can quickly notify them if there is a security issue that needs dealing with.
4) They help consolidate your security operations
Most secondary schools already have security systems in place, whether they are CCTV, access control systems, alarms, or a mix of all these. All these solutions are useful in helping keep school premises secure, but sometimes it can be a challenge to coordinate different security systems. This isn’t a problem when using 2-way radios, as they can easily be integrated with your existing security management system and thus help consolidate your school security operations.
School radio systems from DTS Solutions
Two-way radios enable instant two-way communication and help provide a fast and effective response to bullying incidents, medical emergencies, unauthorised access, and anti-social behaviour.
If you’re planning to improve your school security system, DTS Solutions can help with our hand-picked selection of two-way radios for the education sector. We go the extra mile to ensure our products are scalable and compatible with existing systems so you can instantly upgrade your security levels.