Ensuring that your nursery, school, college or university is secure and prepared for emergencies is an integral part of your health and safety procedures. Fire safety and security systems are a vital component for any education building, providing teachers and students with peace of mind.

Implementing the correct policies will prevent unnecessary danger and will make sure that you adhere to fire safety and security legislation.

With a wide range of systems ranging from advanced fire suppression through to state-of-the-art access control methods, the modern education building should always be secure. In this article, we’ll be discussing some of the best ways that your premises’ responsible person can guarantee safety at school.

Fire and Life Safety Systems for Schools/Education Buildings

What is a Life Safety System?

Installing effective life safety systems is the first step when securing your building, but what exactly are they?

A life safety system is a broad term for any aspect of a building that is put in place to protect both the building and its occupants in an emergency. This includes features like:

• Early detection & alarm systems such as smoke/heat detectors.
• Fire suppression systems like sprinklers/fire extinguishers.
• Emergency exit strategies (fire doors, emergency lighting).

As education buildings often have high volumes of footfall, correctly implementing and maintaining life safety systems is a key part of protecting your building from fires.

What Causes Fires in Schools?

Prevention is better than cure – holding regular fire risk assessments is a requirement by law. Ensuring that your risks are minimalised is the best way to ensure fire safety.

However, according to government fire statistics, 82% of school fires were accidental, while 18% of school fires were started deliberately as an act of arson.

With all the best will in the world, fires can and will happen. Developing a plan of action in advance and drilling it frequently is key.

Prevent and Combat Fires with Sovereign Fire & Security

If you need further information about how you can protect your school/education building from the impact of fires, get in touch with us at Sovereign Fire & Security for personalised advice tailored to your specific needs.

Security Systems for Schools/Education Buildings

As mentioned earlier, schools are often targeted for arson attacks, and there are both external and internal threats to students and staff in your establishment.

Installing quality security systems in your building is critical when looking to prevent unwanted personnel from accessing your premises.

We’ve gathered some examples of the best security systems available for schools below.

CCTV Systems in Schools

Closed-circuit television systems (CCTV) and video surveillance systems are one of the most common security solutions for any establishment. Using CCTV in schools can work well for a variety of reasons, but it must be implemented correctly to both properly secure the building and to reassure those working inside it.

CCTV works well when:

• Preventing entry of unauthorised people into the building.
• Monitoring playgrounds to prevent abuse or bullying.
• Watching specific rooms to deter unwanted behaviour.
• Keeping an eye on parking areas.
• Protecting expensive equipment such as computers.

Installing your CCTV correctly is paramount, as unnecessary cameras will result in more maintenance costs and less efficient management.

Intruder Systems for Schools

Many schools/education buildings are left empty for long periods of time, be that over the weekend or through holidays. Not only this, but staff have an obligation to keep their students safe. Installing a rigorous intruder system will ensure that your building always remains protected.

When looking to install an intruder system in your school, it’s important to make sure that your provider is NACOSS Gold and ISO9001 approved. These certifications assure clients of the highest technical standards and quality.

The function of an intruder security system will vary depending on the building. Schools/education buildings tend to require multi-zoned, networked systems due to their size. An intruder system’s main purpose is to quickly and efficiently alert staff to any potential security threats. This provides the means to process and action the correct response, be that informing authorities, dispatching security or activating an alarm with a panic button.

By combining monitored intruder alarms, panic systems and external perimeter detection systems, you can provide peace of mind for the staff and students in your establishment. All these systems can often be remotely accessed using apps on phones, meaning that users can be notified of any security concerns, even if they’re off-site.

Access Control for Schools

Having a robust access control system in your education building is a process that improves both security and convenience in equal measure.

Access control centres around providing and denying access to all people in the building; say, for example, only teachers being able to access a staff room. This is achieved using identifiers such as keycards, keypads, fobs or biometrics, or via access control panels.

Using a system like this allows you to designate access as required, efficiently managing and altering permissions seamlessly – an invaluable tool for an environment where strict access control will help protect vulnerable students.

Access control systems aren’t restricted to the inside of the building, either. When holding events, or for daily access, installing a traffic control system can improve security while mitigating the risk of unwanted parking in your secure car parks.

Learn More with Sovereign Fire & Security

At Sovereign Fire & Security, we understand the unique challenges that schools/education buildings face when it comes to fire and security.

We provide specialist, tailored fire and security projects for a variety of clients; working with a wide range of manufacturers so that we can guarantee that the optimum hardware is being used depending on your budget.

Get in touch with our team of friendly experts today for advice on how we can design, install and maintain your fire and security systems.