Lockdown policy

[dapaulio]

Ofsted and the government have apparently advised schools to consider having a lockdown policy.

I have been asked whether a on screen notification system or similar could be used. Today I have been speaking to net support about their system notify

 

Any reviews on net support or Has anyone got any similar systems in place already?

 

Have half considered writing my own but given the importance of the impending policy due to be written. I didn’t want to be inevitable circumstance where months / years down the line the requirements change and I have to adapt it to suit

[kidpressingbuttons]

Netsupport Notify all the way. Insanely cheap and works really well. Had it set up and ran drills with it at my previous school.

[dapaulio]

Netsupport Notify all the way. Insanely cheap and works really well. Had it set up and ran drills with it at my previous school.

 

How much did it cost you license wise? If you don’t mind me asking

[kidpressingbuttons]

i think i bought 40 licenses with support for £100. they give you the option to purchase support but I didnt the year after purchase.

[jthompson]

We're just about to start out with a quick and cheap option using Winsent. Winsent Innocenti deployed to staff machines (with some reg hacks to lock the options down) and Winsent Messenger installed on SLT laptops. SLT can therefore send out a message that will pop up on staff screens (those with the Innocenti component only get to receive messages, they can't send anything). Innocenti is free, and the Messenger licenses needed for SLT are about £5 each.

 

Yet to see how it performs at full scale. It's not the most polished, but it's dirt cheap and may just do the job.

[theeggmaster]

We have already purchased Impero for different reasons, so we'll probably put a message on screens using that.

[dapaulio]

We have already purchased Impero for different reasons, so we'll probably put a message on screens using that.

 

Yeah impero was my other thought but we don’t use impero and have systems in place that impero was primarily used for.

 

I have another school which fully utiliZes impero. Really good and great support but know it to be expensive especially if we were just to use it for the notification system

[dapaulio]

i think i bought 40 licenses with support for £100. they give you the option to purchase support but I didnt the year after purchase.

 

Wow it is cheap. Just had quote through.

£250 for the 250 client pack + £50 maintenance.

 

I was expecting in the £1000’s

[jthompson]

Wow it is cheap. Just had quote through.

£250 for the 250 client pack + £50 maintenance.

 

I was expecting in the £1000’s

 

Is that a one-off or an annual cost?

[dapaulio]

The licenses are a one off but the maintenance is optional annual.

Includes all the updates and support

 

May consider support for 1st year and assess whether it is require the second

[denzal2k4]

We ran lockdown procedure last week, utilized the tanoy system, as its an emergency and requires an immediate response, what if someone (god forbid) isn't on their computer??

[jthompson]

In our case, SLT wanted to have something more discreet, which primarily notified staff and could be controlled from anywhere on site. It was felt that some kind of audible alarm could potentially escalate an emergency. Yes, not everyone will necessarily be at their computer, but that's understood. Edited November 9, 2017 by jthompson

[keyboards]

We said Impero but I have a few issues with it

 

If Impero malfunctions

If Impero isn't on every machine(ie we've got it deployed by GP here but it skipped a few)

We may not be in the room to send it

If a bloke with a gun is here, I'm getting out, not sending messages on Impero

[jthompson]

If a bloke with a gun is here, I'm getting out, not sending messages on Impero

 

Having members of SLT all have the ability to send out an alert from their own machine gives some flexibility there, allowing the IT bods to calmy run/hide/tell.

[TwistedHelixis]

I know a few Google schools that use hangouts for instant alerts as its free and works on any device and can also be directed at specific groups of users

[DCUK6]

We ran our first test the other day,

 

We can broadcast a message to all phones in every room, the receptionists repeats what lockdown it is partial/full.

It plays through the speaker no matter if they are on a call or not and broadcasts are set to max volume.

 

Considered a IT message but the time it takes them to see the message when teaching, we decided to just shout at them.

[denzal2k4]

If the school was on fire would you send a discreet message to not cause alarm?? IT can do a lot but I don't think it has a sensible solution here, what about the far flung art room where they aren't using the PC that lesson, or the PE lesson on the field, drama lesson in the hall, student that's left lesson to use the toilet, steps out and gets attacked by the rabid dog on the loose (this was our example). Needs to be something audible that everyone can hear not a popup message on a computer.

[jthompson]

I'm not involved in the decision-making, just being asked to deliver something that's X,Y and Z. The limitations seem to be understood well enough, in fairness.

[dapaulio]

We all know this is to the school just another tick box to show they have done what ofsted have suggested. Ofsted say jump and the school ask how high. The logistic are irrelevant.

Here we have teaching computers vlan separately and all teachers are expected to take registers through sims. So Generally majority of teachers who are teaching will be logged in to a teachers computers.

My immediate concern is they want it discrete but they want a way of informing teachers. Well generally all teacher use ppt in their lesson. What is more discrete then a message box blown up on a projector screen for all the kids to see informing them of an issue. [emoji23]

Edited November 9, 2017 by dapaulio

[dapaulio]

Once more I can foresee this like all system being misused and becoming a method of communicating with someone to to pass on a sensitive message rather than having to walk couple 100yards to have a quiet word in ear of the member of staff teaching the concerning pupil. Instead they will blow it up on a projector screen somewhere or accidentally everywhere that little Poppy of 7G is to be sent to the nurses office.

[jthompson]

We all know this is to the school just another tick box to show they have done what ofsted have suggested. Ofsted say jump and the school ask how high. The logistic are irrelevant.

Here we have teaching computers vlan separately and all teachers are expected to take registers through sims. So Generally majority of teachers who are teaching will be logged in to a teachers computers.

My immediate concern is they want it discrete but they want a way of informing teachers. Well generally all teacher use ppt in their lesson. What is more discrete then a message box blown up on a projector screen for all the kids to see informing them of an issue. [emoji23]

 

The whole classroom (or even assembly) projector issue is understood here, and has been taken into consideration. It at least allows a bit more information to be conveyed than just setting off a siren. Let's face it, if a terrorist incident is occurring, a fire alarm is likely to be set off anyway.

[DCUK6]

The plan in my old school was if its a lockdown then there would be a intermittent fire alarm.

When i read this, i asked how many people knew this and how confusing it would be, turns out nobody knew despite signing to say they read this. This includes staff that had been at the school from 2 months to 20years.

 

If its a man wondering round with a knife or worse you need to be able to tell people to lock doors and keep students in.

As mentioned the message given should be generic as to not alarm students.

 

We just say partial/full lockdown.

Partial being a kid kicking off and to lock classroom doors. Full meaning every door gets locked depending on the situation.

Edited November 9, 2017 by DCUK6