A shocking piece of news caught our attention this month. The BBC reported that up to 30 teachers had gone on 2-day strike and parents had picketed the gates, at The Starbank Secondary School in Birmingham, following concerns over safety.
A member of the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), said there had been three incidents in the last three weeks, including one which saw a pupil bring a 12-inch knife into the school. On another occasion, a teacher was also threatened with a knife, and a pupil that had to be excluded for a number of days but later returned to the school.
Staff are also wrestling with the phenomena that is ‘Fight Thursdays’, which they say takes place on the school playing fields.
Very concerned teachers and parents are demanding:-
- A ‘knife audit’ for pupils
- Extra training for teachers
- A new behaviour policy for pupils
All very concerning stuff as knife crime is on the rise in our society and safe-guarding becomes an increasing concern, not the least in our schools and colleges.
Evoke Telecom’s ‘Call to Action’
Here at Evoke Telecom we work very closely with nurseries, schools and colleges to provide market leading solutions to help them become safer places for our children. Our telecommunications platforms offer different in-built and integrated alternatives to help with the big 5 safety challenges facing the education sector today:-
- Evacuation
- Lock Down
- Reverse Evacuation
- Lock In and
- Lock Out
One of the greatest challenges facing schools is effective and campus wide communication. How do you communicate across campus with a single message when there is an emergency or potential crisis? Our systems enable messages to be broadcast into classrooms, halls, none teaching areas and even playing fields ensuring everyone is kept updated. We can co-ordinate door and gate locks for lock downs, as well as lock in and lock out scenarios, and much much more.
Here is a recent Evoke Telecom case study. A first in the UK for a campus wide #safeschools solution, which has been published as a global example by Avaya.com.
If you work at a school, advise a school, are a governor or just a concerned parent, please do feel free to contact us so we can share how the team at Evoke Telecom might be able to help at your school, nursery or college. Our super helpful team can be contacted at [email protected] or why not smile and dial 01509 278278
