Weston Hills is a remote village located in South Lincolnshire. When the School moved to a state of the art new building in the village during the planning stages the County Council identified the need to have a CCTV system installed at the school.
The school was built and had a cost effective CCTV system installed that was monitored and recorded onto a digital recorder located in the school.
Once the school had opened the headmistress quickly realised that the locally recorded CCTV system had limited functionality and would not prevent incidents from occurring at the school when it was closed. Also, the building had been constructed completely from timber; with this being a big concern for arson attacks, seen at other schools in the country.
The headmistress contacted the County Council and relayed her concerns, at which point they contacted GBSG to give them advice on a suitable security solution. Our recommendation was to replace the existing CCTV system with a new detector activated remotely monitored CCTV system.
System Details
The system includes the use of two high speed colour/monochrome dome cameras, two fixed position cameras and eighteen external motion detectors. The system was installed using a video transmitter complete with hard disk recording, housed in a secure cabinet within the school including dual path communication and full audio challenge capabilities. We also provide the monitoring for the site in our fully approved monitoring station.
The system was commissioned and became the first BS8418 compliant CCTV system in Lincolnshire. The headmistress now feels happier when leaving the school knowing that the building is being monitored and looked after when they are not there and feels secure in the fact that should an intruder enter the site they will be dealt with quickly and efficiently, before a crime can be committed.
No one could disagree that crime prevention in schools must always focus on the key requirement to protect our children from harm and to provide a safe environment for staff and visitors. These are daunting responsibilities, particularly for those struggling to maintain essential services and it is understandable that decisions about security spending can present difficult choices. However, it is not whether effective security can be afforded, but whether the alternative can be tolerated.
