A Northwest primary school has invested in a new Internet Protocol (IP) audio lockdown system to improve the protection of staff and pupils against threats of terrorism and unauthorised intruders.

Burnley Brow School is a two-form entry community primary school in Oldham, Greater Manchester.

The school is currently catering for 480 pupils from 3-11-years-old as well as employing approximately 60 full-time and part-time teachers/support staff.

Netgenium enables the school to abide by Martyn’s Law

In an ongoing commitment to ensuring the schools pupils are able to learn and develop in an environment that remains safe and accessible, Burnley Brow School has introduced a site-wide audio lockdown solution from Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) specialists at Netgenium, in anticipation of the requirements for the forthcoming Terrorism Protection of Premises Bill/’Martyn’s Law’.

Martyn’s Law, which is set to come into effect later this year, aims to improve security protocols in public spaces by mandating that venues, such as schools, have robust emergency procedures in place to prevent and reduce the harm of terror attacks. 

New investment by Burnley Brow School is part of a plan to use the latest internet-based technology to improve levels of safeguarding while being able to manage and respond to its own security-related incidents quickly and effectively.

IP networked speakers

The Netgenium solution, installed by education wireless technology specialist CDN Networks, features 20 state-of-the-art IP audio speakers located in and around the school’s premises.

The Netgenium solution and CDN Networks have been linked together via a secure network and connected to a central control point in the schools office, where an operator can implement a partial or full-scale school lockdown at the touch of a button, depending on the level of the security breech.

Improved levels of protection in the event of an emergency is one of the benefits provided by an easy-to-use solution that allows the school to broadcast in real-time a variety of important audio evacuation and safety messages.

During an intruder alert, Netgenium’s IP networked speakers will inform pupils about what is happening and guide them to a safe place.

By utilising the IP networked speakers, it allows the senior leadership team to be able to rapidly place the school in either a partial or full lockdown, triggering full access control capabilities and locking down varying doors depending on the location and nature of the threat.

This ultimately helps to deter any prospective intruders and prevent them from gaining access to key parts of Burnley Brow School.

Preventing intruders

Playing a vital role in keeping pupils and staff safe, the audio system provided by Netgenium has already proven its worth, when staff noticed police presence in the area and a suspicious person entered the staff car park.

During this incident, the school went into ‘partial lockdown’ mode (which means nobody can enter or leave the premises but teaching continues as normal in the school) before the intruder was found and taken away by police. 

The flexibility and versatility of using IP networked speakers allows them to be utilised by the school for other applications such as public address (PA) or broadcasting music, whilst the in-built system scalability can easily adapt to any expansion or changes the school’s future requirements and infrastructure.

IP-based technologies are reliable and efficient, future-proofing networking solutions, providing a wide range of security and operational advantages for schools.

The technology provided by Netgenium delivers significant financial benefits due to simplified installation, cable routing and network infrastructure.

Keeping children, staff and visitors safe

Helen Atkinson-Smith, Headteacher, Burnley Brow School articulated that schools face a variety of risks posed by intruders or emergency scenarios.

Unfortunately this necessitates the utilisation of lockdown measures, evacuations and timely warnings to keep children, staff and visitors safe and secure.

Atkinson-Smith remarked: “We need a reliable, accessible and cost-effective lockdown system, engineered specifically with the objective of enabling us to swiftly relocate students and staff away from potential dangers during any emergency situation and keep them safe.

“Netgenium’s solution meets our needs and with the easy-to-use partial or full-lockdown features and ability to deliver audible and targeted alerts, it’s both easy-to-use by the team and a highly effective communications system.

“We are very pleased with its all-round capabilities and have already used it to deal effectively with a couple of incidents and keep the pupils safe,” added Atkinson-Smith.