Schools Information Centre for help and advice

Creating and maintaining safe and secure learning environments is fundamental to teaching success. A safe and secure school means that pupils look forward to spending time there, with their friends, enjoying their learning experience. But if basic safety and security needs are not met then students will not be able to focus on their learning and they may even be prompted to skip school entirely. Children who feel unsafe at school show worse academic performance than those who feel safe and they are far more likely to get involved with drugs and crime.

Health and Safety in Schools

The health, safety and welfare of all school pupils, staff and visitors is of paramount importance in all educational establishments. The management of health and safety in schools can be a complex and challenging task.

Students engage in a huge variety of school activities, from sports to chemistry classes. Ensuring appropriate risk assessments are carried out, inspections are conducted, audits are performed and all safety precautions are continuously re-assessed is an onerous job. Furthermore, health and safety legislation in schools is constantly under review and subject to revision. Staying on top of these changes in school safety legislation has become acutely significant due to the coronavirus outbreak. Follow this link to see the Government`s COVID-19 guidance for schools.

Health and Safety Policy in Schools

The UK government state that schools must appoint a competent person to ensure that their establishment meets required health and safety standards. This person must have relevant skills, knowledge and experience necessary to provide sensible advice and guidance regarding the management of health and safety risks in schools.

Another requirement defined by central government is the need for schools to have a defined health and safety policy. The school health and safety policy must define the roles and responsibilities of those involved in school health and safety, it must include details of the systems in place to manage and deal with risks and it must include details of how risks are controlled and measures taken to reduce risk.

Health and Safety in Schools Checklist

Students in schools and colleges take part in a huge range of classes and activities, all of which have associated health and safety risks and shool trips that take pupils away from school property must also be considered. A health and safety checklist (or multiple checklists for different environments and activities) is a useful tool that’s used in schools to help manage risk and keep pupils safe.

Here’s a link to the UK Health and Safety Executive Checklist for Classrooms. 

Common School Safety Hazards

School environments are enormously varied. The hazards that exist on the sports field are considerably different from the hazards that exist in a school physics laboratory. But all hazards can be classified as:

• Mechanical: shearing, cutting, punctures. For example:
  
  • Doors and door frames have the potential to trap fingers.
  • Needlework classes can result in punctures.
  • Woodwork and metalwork classes have many associated risks.
• Physical: manual handling, slips, trips and falls. For example:
  
  • Lifting of heavy objects.
  • Slipping on wet floors in corridors and classrooms.
  • Trips on stairs.
• Chemical: acids, corrosive agents and harmful substances. For example:
  
  • Chemistry classes are a obvious area of risk.
  • Cleaning agents and storage.
• Environmental: weather, noise, heat. For example:
  
  • Outdoor activity in stormy weather.
  • Noise from machinery in metal work classes.
• Biological: Weil’s Disease, Leptospirosis, Legionella. For example:
  
  • Cleanliness of the schools water supply.
  • Cleanliness of school swimming and sports facilities.
  • Animal faeces on school premises.
• Organisational: Work pressures, bullying, management instruction.

As part of the overall safety risk assessment conducted by educational establishments it’s important to derive an understanding of the most common and likely hazards that specifically apply to each school.

Practical Measure to Improve School Safety

Lets look at some examples of the safety hazards and what can practically be done to reduce risk.

Doorway Safety

There is a high risk of finger trapping accidents occurring in doorways that don’t have guards in place. Young children are especially at risk of this type of accident with can result in the loss of fingers and lifelong disability.

Schools and colleges need to protect pupils and staff from this type of accident. Our FingerPro system provides the necessary protection, preventing fingers from being trapped and injured by doors.

Electrical Safety and Security

Electricity outlet sockets can be irresistible to some children who might stick pencils and other objects into the holes, putting them at risk of electric shock. An effective way to make electricity sockets safe is to cover them with an immovable cover.

A related safety issue is that if pupils can access the on/off switches they can potential turn equipment on without authority, putting themselves and others at risk.

Our Sockpro electrical socket protectors and safety covers provide a simple but highly effective solution, protecting electrical sockets from tampering.

Bird Droppings

Breathing in dust or water droplets containing contaminated bird droppings can lead to serious disease. For example, salmonella and psittacosis can be present in bird droppings.

It’s therefore important that schools and colleges remain clean and free from bird mess, as far as possible. Our Bird Free Fire gel bird deterrent provides an ideal solution that’s now widely used because it’s a highly effective, instant solution that doesn’t cause any harm to birds.

Letterbox Arson

Fire prevention in schools and other educational establishments is extremely important. Unfortunately these establishments can sometimes attract arson attacks and one of the key areas of vulnerability are letterboxes.

Around the time of bonfire night, ever year, schools and other properties are often targeted by people who post lighted fireworks through their letterboxes. And the letterbox route is also a favourite for serious arson attacks involving flammable liquids being poured through and ignited.

Luckily there is a simple, cost effective solution. We offer a range of anti-arson letterboxes, specifically designed to effectively deal with this threat. These are widely used in schools, homes and establishments throughout the UK.

Weapons Detection

Sadly, many UK educational establishments have experienced problems with weapons, mainly knives. This has forced them to introduce enhanced detection systems which are also being used at sports stadia, live music venues and some public buildings.

We offer a range of handheld metal detectors that are commonly used in airports to carry out body scans and focus on people’s pockets to detect metal objects.

We also offer a number of high quality metal detector arches, sometimes called knife arches. These are the devices commonly used at airports to conduct security screening of passengers before they embark on an aircraft.

In order to avoid being accused of bias when making random selections of people for screening purposes we offer Random Search Selectors. These devices take the responsibility of selection away from the operator ensuring fairness.

School Security

Security in schools and educational establishments extremely important. As for health and safety, the UK government stresses that it’s important for schools and colleges to have a security policy and plan in place.

School Security Policy and Plan

School security policies and plans are required to recognise the potential threat and impact of a wide variety of security related issues including: cyber attacks, terrorist attacks, break-ins, incidents involving weapons, vandalism and arson.

Plans a procedures need to be based on realistic assessments of the risks and threats that apply to specific schools and establishments. The plans and policies must make it absolutely clear regarding what’s expected from staff, pupils and others if an incident occurs.

Luckily, severe security related incidents in UK schools tend to be very rare but security threat are generally increasing. It’s therefore essential that all educational establishments remain highly vigilant and continuously review their security policies and plans to ensure they are appropriate for the ever-changing diversity in potential threats.

Common School Security Problems

Although it’s important that a school security policy and plan acknowledges the possibility of terrorist attacks the likelihood is very low. But there are other security problems in schools which are far more common. These tend to relate to perimeter security, vandalism and break-ins.

Studies have determined that current perimeter security precautions around UK schools are, in many cases, unsatisfactory. School perimeter security measures have been seen to be ineffective in keeping children within the school grounds and equally ineffective in keeping unwanted intruders out.

Practical School Security Measures

Physical security measures around school premises involve the implementation of appropriate and rigorous perimeter security. An insecure perimeter is an open invitation to criminals who know that schools possess a wealth of valuable, resellable equipment. And once inside the school perimeter criminals know that they can often find ways to gain access to buildings, completely unseen.

Another important aspect of perimeter security is the need to keep pupils safely within the school grounds. But it would be entirely inappropriate to surround a school with aggressive, spikey or sharp anti climb barriers and an electric fence is out of the question. What’s needed is an effective yet non-aggressive anti-climb barrier that doesn’t look nasty and will not cause any mental distress. It must also look great and blend with the external appearance of the buildings. The Insight-Security Roller Barrier system meets all of these requirements and more.

Roller Barrier Non Aggressive Anti Climb Solution

Roller Barrier is a simple yet highly effective system that uses large rotating cups, mounted loosely on supporting poles. The cups are too large to be grasped by human hands making it almost impossible for the barrier to be overcome.

Roller Barrier is not only effective around the perimeter of schools, it’s also highly effective in preventing climbing on other structures often found around schools such as flat rooftops, gates and external equipment.

Free Help and Advice on Safety and Security

As a tried and trusted partner of schools and local authority customers since 1991, Insight Security has an enviable reputation for offering practical, no nonsense advice, which has helped our customers avoid buying inadequate or irrelevant solutions, thus saving them thousands of pounds!

How Can We Help You and Your School?

Whether you are new to the area of school safety & security, or already experienced in the role, you`ll find our information reliable and our advice impartial.

If you buy from Insight Security, you can be sure that what we supply will do what it promises as all products in our range are thoroughly tried and tested.

Our reputation is important to us which is why we constantly strive to deliver "Best Value Solutions" and you can be sure that you will get just as much help and support after you have bought from us as you did before the purchase. 

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We`re here to help, so if you need help regarding a security or safety issue at your school, call us now on: 01273 475500 ...and remember:

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