Each school, just like its pupils, is different and has its own individual needs. There is no such thing as a ‘one size fits all' intelligent building solution, but by integrating a bespoke selection of building control technologies onto a common network infrastructure, it is possible to create a safe, secure and efficient learning environment for pupils, staff and school visitors.
Crucial to being able to develop solutions that truly address the educational, financial, operational and environmental needs of all school stakeholders is a clear appreciation and understanding of the real issues within education. To gain a more detailed insight into safety and security in schools, TAC UK commissioned two major pieces of research in the past three years: the first polled teachers across the country for their views on security and safety within schools, while the second piece asked parents a detailed series of questions about the security and safety of their children in school - the results of this research are due to be published before the Summer.
Installing the latest building automation technologies - such as energy management, access control, security and CCTV - within schools brings new and exciting possibilities regarding building management, security, safety and even teaching. It also allows other areas such as school carbon emissions and life cycle costs to be reduced.
From bullying and building security to dietary control and energy management Today's building management systems can contain a whole host of sophisticated elements that deliver an extremely wide range of benefits, but careful integration, clear data displays and intuitive controls ensure that the solution can be easily managed to optimum effect.
Two of the main areas where integrated building automation solutions can bring significant benefits are:
- Safety and Security: an intelligent identity card-based access control system gives pupils, staff and visitors controlled access to certain areas of the school at specific times, while also enabling cashless vending and in so doing removing one of the principal drivers of intra pupil bullying. The information captured by the access control system can also be used to simplify and speed up pupil registration, produce automated school absence alerts, emergency roll call checklists and even pupil diet/allergy management.
- Energy Management: maintains an optimal learning environment - in terms of temperature, air quality and lighting - while also managing energy costs down and also provide a practical educational tool assorted data (such as energy usage and weather readings) that can support the teaching of various subject on the school curriculum including Science and Geography.
Building control 24/7
In 21st Century schools, the building automation solution can deliver benefits to the complete range of school stakeholders 24 hours a day, 365 days a year - from the moment the caretaker arrives in the morning through to the time when the last member of staff leaves in the evening.
Even when the school is empty, many of the building systems can still be working to the benefit of all - whether that is controlling the heat and humidity within classrooms, offices and corridors, or monitoring certain areas of the school, its grounds and perimeter for unauthorised entry.
Despite a potentially bewildering array of functions, building automation solutions for 21st Century schools are highly intuitive and all Key Performance Indicators are readily displayed on user-friendly interfaces. This makes the technical data easily digestible, making it easy to realize the full cost, efficiency and operational benefits of an integrated building automation solution within a new school.
The benefits
BEFORE SCHOOL STARTS:
- Before pupils leave to go to school - parents and children can log on to the school's web portal to check whether the school will be open (eg in bad weather), recharge their child's ePurse for school meals etc, or to view attendance reports for instance.
- When the caretaker arrives - they can access the intuitive building management system and automatically unlock various parts of the school, deactivates the intruder alarm, checks CCTV from when the school closed the previous day, sets occupancy points and remotely switch on certain lights in key areas.
- Morning registration - each pupil's identity card can be read by proximity readers when the pupil arrives in their form room at the beginning of the day. The details are automatically sent to the class teacher as e-registration, and this information can then be used to trigger the sending of a text to parents/students regarding non-attendance, or for a role call in the event of an emergency.
In Lessons:
- Geography and Science lessons - real usage data and metrics collected from the energy management system and also the school weather station can be used to help pupils understand and be truly engaged within their lessons.
IN BREAKS AND AT LUNCH:
- Cashless vending and dietary management - the identity cards can also be programmed to act as debit cards (removing the opportunity for certain pupils to potentially take dinner money from their fellow students) and also to store any special dietary requirements and allergy details.
THROUGHOUT THE DAY:
- Temperature, humidity and noxious gas monitoring - a dedicated Air Handling Unit page within the building management system provides a comprehensive, easy to use management package that checks, controls and, where necessary, instigates an emergency alarm.
- Lighting - automatically dim lights up and down, motion sensors conserve energy and switches removed from walls and controlled from white board
- Access Control - time and people-restricted access to certain sectors can be set and monitored, so any unauthorised entry automatically brings up CCTV and triggers an alarm.
- Panic Button - these can be located within classrooms so that teachers can raise an alarm should an extreme security issue arise. Full lighting and CCTV triggered.
AT THE END OF THE DAY:
- Access Control - caretaker sets security system to take account of any evening use of the school's facilities (eg local community badminton club using the Sports Hall), then swipes out and full access control and fire alarm monitoring initiated. Any unauthorised activity will automatically trigger an alarm and also any relevant CCTV cameras.
- Lighting - late-working teachers can open up web portal to access CCTV and check the route to their car, and also to temporarily switch on specific lights en route.
