In previous years communication around the school during the school day has been performed using an age old method of school bell based signalling and very little has changed. From hand rung school bells in the playground, signalling the end of break to the old timed school bells which rang throughout the school to signal the change in lessons.
Today the need to effectively communicate a message around the school has never been more important and the amount of differing messages has also increased. Previously the 2 main messages were end of lesson or break and the need to evacuate in the event of a fire.
In today’s social climate there is a need to be able to signal a shelter in place or lockdown which needs to be easily distinguished from day to days alarms for lesson change, or indeed the need to undertake a fire drill or evacuation.
In the early days of the introduction of lockdown and shelter in place procedures, many schools have attempted to adapt the existing school bell notifications to mean different things by ringing the school bells in different ways. This soon creates a situation of multiple messages being signalled by multiple rings of the school bell and leads to situations or potential confusion, which isn’t only not ideal, it could be dangerous.
SchoolCare has developed SchoolSafe as part of its portfolio of safety products called 360Safety, a modern alternative to School Bell and Lockdown solutions. SchoolSafe adds Public Address functionality and deploys it over a modern IP Network.
The idea of public address in schools is not new however schools which have public address have been built with this in mind, with the infrastructure (which is specific to Public Address) being built into the fabric of the school. SchoolSafe has been designed to replace the traditional school bell solution by connecting to the schools existing IT network.
SchoolSafe provides a complete public address solution which includes a web based control panel to control and manage “School Bell” schedules, as well as built in emergency messaging and the ability to send live Public Address messages throughout the school.
SchoolSafe is a Hybrid Public Address and Lockdown solution which allows the deployment of a complete network based solution as well as the ability to connect to existing systems to further extend their functionality and protect previous investment.
SchoolCare can provide a full design and implantation service which include onsite consultancy to ensure schools get best value from their requirements and ensures a system which fully meets their needs is deployed.
