The radios will be used across the school to co-ordinate staff and pupils during its emergency fire process and as part of its new lockdown procedure.
School administration officer Lyndsey Kurs has been responsible for updating the school’s safeguarding plan and putting the necessary resources into place. “Hopefully we won’t ever need to implement it,” she said. “But in the event of an emergency, our lockdown procedure will be actioned and shutters will come down on individual classrooms.”
The radios will allow staff to communicate with each other in such a situation. Each radio has been programmed with an emergency alarm – pressing the alarm on one radio will activate the alarm on all the others.
The radios will also be used to manage the school’s emergency fire procedure. There are two fire assembly points, located on different sides of the school, one on the field and one in the car park. Site manager Don Forde said that the radios will allow staff to talk and co-ordinate the movement of the children.
“Up until now we have used pay as you go mobile phones, but they just aren’t practical. The occasional use of them meant that often they weren’t charged or had sometimes ran out of credit,” said Forde.
He went on to describe how the radios will provide a much more efficient and effective solution. Each teacher in the 15 classrooms will have their own radio, other radios will be located in the school office, the sports barn and the adjacent children’s centre.
Kurs said there will be a training and information session for staff, and aims to have the new procedures in place for the start of the school year in September.
