In the world of education, effective communication is essential for ensuring the safety and well-being of both students and staff. This blog considers the critical need for streamlined communication in schools, how it directly impacts safeguarding measures and how Storm’s solution can create a safer and more secure environment.
Communication in schools
From small primary schools to multi-academy trusts operating across multiple sites with 1,000+ strong teams, efficient communication ensures that daily operations run smoothly.
From teacher-student interactions, staff collaborations, administration and reception to maintenance, estates teams and security teams, effective everyday communication is essential. Timely and accurate communication ensures that everyone involved in a child’s education is well-informed and able to respond promptly to any concerns or emergencies. What’s more, a seamless flow of information is crucial to maintain a safe and secure environment.
Implementing instant communication technology such as push-to-talk (PTT) contributes to creating a setting that prioritises safety and a sense of security.
Read on to find out more about the benefits of PTT technology in educational establishments…
Emergency response
In emergency situations, including an evacuation, a medical issue or a security threat, quick, reliable and secure communication is essential. Instant communication systems enable schools to swiftly inform and protect staff and students across the entire site, allowing for a coordinated and timely response to any crisis.
In addition to enabling instant communications, Storm’s location feature can instantly reach and locate every member of the team across the whole campus, helping to ensure the safety of everyone, whether they are inside the school buildings or out on site. Our SOS feature sends an alert in the event of an emergency, enabling help to be sent.
Incident reporting
The adoption of real-time reporting fosters a proactive approach to issue resolution and the maintenance of order within schools and academies, thereby helping to prevent minor problems from escalating. Instant, site-wide communication supports educational staff to promptly notify managers of incidents, ensuring a timely and appropriate response.
Storm’s patented IPRS™ encrypted recording platform records, retrieves, and plays back one-to-one and group push-to-talk communications, ensuring a reliable audit trail to support internal reviews and Ofsted inspections.
Collaboration amongst staff
Effective collaboration among school staff is essential for both student well-being and operational efficiency. Teachers and support and administrative staff must be able to communicate seamlessly to share information, discuss concerns, respond to emergencies and ultimately to safeguard students. Clear communication channels also facilitate the reporting and recording of safeguarding concerns.
Demonstration of safeguarding compliance
The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) assesses schools on various criteria, including safeguarding. Part of this assessment includes how well schools comply with statutory safeguarding requirements. Efficiency of a school’s communication systems directly influences its safeguarding practices, which, in turn, affects its Ofsted rating. Schools that demonstrate robust communication protocols are better equipped to meet and exceed the safeguarding expectations set by Ofsted.
An institution with efficient communication processes can more effectively demonstrate compliance by showcasing clear policies, prompt reporting mechanisms, and a proactive approach to communication strategy across site(s). Storm’s platform can support schools’ safeguarding responsibilities.
Lone Worker
Our lone worker feature is a valuable safety feature for staff working alone or with challenging students. It makes it possible to quickly and easily track and locate staff and enables them to send SOS alerts to help keep them safe. It can help prevent accidents and injuries and provide assistance in the event of an emergency, creating peace of mind for teaching and support staff.
Usable anywhere with an internet connection, both on and off-site
Be it during a standard school day, a class outing or a field trip, staff need the ability to quickly reach colleagues should the need arise. Our instant communication platform provides the means to instantly contact individuals and groups of up to 5,000, regardless of their location.
Cost savings
The education sector faces financial challenges and the need to secure value for money. The right technology can help to make budgets work for your school improvement plan. Whilst many school sites rely on equipping staff with traditional walkie-talkies, push-to-talk solutions can reduce the costs and expensive infrastructure associated with these. Push-to-talk relies on existing cellular networks which makes it a more cost-effective and scalable solution. And it’s not just the infrastructure costs, two-way legacy radios often require extra accessories such as batteries, chargers, headsets and microphones.
In addition, push-to-talk solutions can be easily scaled up or down to accommodate the changing needs of an organisation. This flexibility is crucial for many businesses.
In summary, by adopting efficient communication solutions, schools not only enhance the overall safety and well-being of students, supporting their Ofsted safeguarding rating.
The Storm platform offers a broad range of flexible applications capable of adjusting to various scenarios and delivering exceptional cost-effectiveness without the burden of recurring charges or expensive infrastructure.
