Many people often have the misconception that schools are the safest places on earth, yet they are still at risk of potential crimes, even more so than some premises due to the large amounts of time teachers and students have off throughout the year.
For example, schools are increasingly likely to have a range of different visitors throughout all hours of the day. Furthermore, there are more and more reasons that students need to stay late or leave the premises during the day and managing these issues as well as the risks of crime and vandalism can be a monumental task.
Therefore, ensuring that your school or college remains safe is essential not only for the protection of staff and students, but also the premises when no one is present..
Access control security
Access control security systems are simple and effective methods of limiting the flow of people in and out of your school or college. Something as simple as a keypad entry system, pin code or ID badge can help manage and control visitors and employees, as well as restricting access from unauthorised personnel.
Manage your parking
With parents, staff, and visitors all using the same car parking areas – especially in smaller school premises – can often mean that school car parks become overwhelmed with vehicular traffic making them less efficient and more dangerous to pedestrians.
In order to effectively control and manage the flow of traffic in and out of your car park you may want to consider the implementation of automatic security barriers as these are ideal for managing the flow of traffic, securing the car park out of hours, and making the car park safer for pedestrian traffic.
Effective use of signs
Effective use of signs around the facility detailing aspects such as CCTV has been known to be an effective deterrent to would be criminals. The additional benefit of signs is that they compliment other security systems such as security gates and barriers and are extremely useful when keeping your premises safe – especially out of hours.
Signs can also be used to highlight any exit points of your school or college in case an emergency situation should occur.
CCTV
CCTV has long been known as one of the most effective methods of securing any premises and provides the additional benefit of being able to monitor an area and record any incidents. This is highly beneficial in a learning environment as it allows you to keep an eye on students as well as having physical evidence of any incidents that may occur.
Upgrade your visitor sign-in procedure
Visitor management is now going digital, and this allows you to track who has visited your school and what they were there for. Digital visitor management software is far more streamlined than traditional methods and can help you easily access visitor records should you need them, rather than flicking through paper records.
Effectively, digital visitor management help ensures your guests have a seamless sign-in experience and you can benefit from hassle-free, accurate reporting.
Perimeter security
A secure perimeter is essential to the safety and security of any premises. With regards to schools, colleges, and universities, they should all have clear boundaries secured by fences and effective security gates.
Additional perimeter security measures to consider includes:
- Security gates– having a gated entrance, preferably with an additional keypad or card entry system is ideal for securing a school premises and can add an extra level of protection for both staff and students.
- Security barriers– Security barriers can be less effective than larger security gates but have the added benefit of allowing for visitor and car park management which can be a great benefit during peak hours at the start and end of the school day.
- Pedestrian access gates – Along with security gates and barriers, you can also add smaller pedestrian access gates to the side of the main security gates to help manage footfall or these can be positioned for access to restricted areas
Ideally your school or college will have a variety of these systems in place as relying on just one security system is not enough to ensure adequate security for your site. Having a mix of systems adds several layers of security and ensures that the building, staff and students remain safe and secure at all times.
Contact Newgate today!
If you require any of our security gates, barriers or bollards for your business or require any additional information about keeping your school protected, please contact the team at Newgate today.
