Do Classrooms need phones?

[amusa]

Hi all,

 

Just wanted your guys thoughts on classrooms having internal voip phones. Is it necessary? I currently work in a primary school and at the moment every year group has 1 phone which the teachers have to share. Now they are getting removed so as to save money on the voip bill.

 

To me it would seem difficult for a teacher to have to communicate with anyone outside of their classroom without a phone as not all teachers have Teaching Assistant's.

[bald_pig]

It depends to be honest. My current schools have a phone in every class due to the nature of the schools, but my last school only had phones in staff rooms, if you needed something you would email, the expectation was that emails were open and monitored during work hours.

[mikkydoos]

We have them dotted around our primary for safeguarding purposes. Makes sense.

[Techykev]

We have done away with 90% of VOIP phones, teachers are expected to use skype (headsets provided for each staff member) or email. Though if the computer is not working they would need to ask the teacher next door or send a student to the helpdesk, so no system is perfect!

[dhicks]

I currently work in a primary school and at the moment every year group has 1 phone which the teachers have to share. Now they are getting removed so as to save money on the voip bill.

 

Each classroom has a PoE-powered desktop phone, with an on-site VoIP PBX. We use our phone system as our public address system for emergencies, so on the same network we have various VoIP loudspeaker-type devices out in corridors and so on - in smaller areas we've just stuck a phone handset up on the wall. Teachers only occasionaly use the phones, but they are handy if , for instance, the front desk is trying to locate a child - they can just ring round to classrooms to find them.

[noelmm]

If the classroom is remote then having a phone could be beneficial however in a standard classroom there probably isn't the need, in an emergency a student can get help etc.

[gmonks]

We have a phone outside some classrooms, one for each group.

[DrCheese]

We don't have them in classrooms (Secondary) with the exception of rooms like D&T/IEU & IT (For support) We put phones in department offices instead.

 

I couldn't justify the handset cost to put one in each classroom.

Edited February 10, 2020 by DrCheese

[TechMonkey]

We don't have phones in every classroom. We do have the Softphone software installed on every PC so staff could use that. The only exception is the IT lab so they can get hold of us in the event of a mass issue. But they don't.

 

It does depend on what the school wants. I think the thought process here was along the lines of "If there are phones in every class someone is going to ring them, this will disturb teaching. To stop this the ringer will be turned off. The phone is now 50% less useful so why do it". There are phones dotted around outside classrooms though so they can get someone if needed.

[Danp]

We are fitting a new phone sytem this week, voip phones in each classroom which will mean more than what is already there, but, we are linking them to a lockdown system

[pugrick_31]

We have phones in nearly every office but not in the classrooms. Most departments have an office to share with the department and they contain a phone for them to use.

[mavhc]

If you're paying per extension you're doing phones wrong, that's what a PBX was supposed to fix.

 

We have phones per classroom, only costs £40 per phone to buy the phone, that's what, £4/year of its lifetime?

 

Classroom phones can't dial out, or have a pin lock

[FishCustard]

They do in our school, but then they're used for announcements and calling for assistance (SEN school). In a mainstream school I'd still put one in classrooms if possible.

 

Agreed that paying per extension is a bad idea however.

[robyholmes]

Secondary here and we don't, just offices and staff room. We have one in the DT store which is more for safety and one in the science prep room, again more for safety.

[gmonks]

If you're paying per extension you're doing phones wrong, that's what a PBX was supposed to fix.

 

We have phones per classroom, only costs £40 per phone to buy the phone, that's what, £4/year of its lifetime?

 

Classroom phones can't dial out, or have a pin lock

 

Same here, just buy the phone and we block external calls from these phones.

[PotNoodleTech]

Phone in every classroom here. We wouldn't want to take the risk of not having a phone in the room if we needed to dial 999.

 

We probably dial 999 from a classroom several times per term.

 

Aside from the health and safety side, teachers can use the phone to phone reception to get a pupil removed or have an SLT member intervene if needed.

[TTG_Alice]

Most of our Edu customers have handsets in classrooms but some have soft-phones on the classroom computer. 3CX offer a mobile app where teachers/assistants are also contactable via the phone app wherever they are if that could be a possible solution?

[Guest Guest]

We have a phone in every classroom due to the nature of the kids - we're a special school

[FragglePete]

Phones in every classroom here - has been for sometime and seen as a safe guarding issue. Most are PoE so we have UPS on the switches that connect them to ensure they stay up in the event of a power failure. We have call plans in place that only allow internal calls only on classroom phones whereas office phones can dial externally (all can do 999 obviously). Looking to move phones from ISDN over to SIP very soon which will reduce our call costs substantially.

 

Pete

[Cat_Jam148]

Each classroom has a PoE-powered desktop phone, with an on-site VoIP PBX. We use our phone system as our public address system for emergencies, so on the same network we have various VoIP loudspeaker-type devices out in corridors and so on - in smaller areas we've just stuck a phone handset up on the wall. Teachers only occasionaly use the phones, but they are handy if , for instance, the front desk is trying to locate a child - they can just ring round to classrooms to find them.

 

Exactly what we do here. Teachers are always making use of the phone system and I'm not sure how our main office would cope if there wasn't a phone in all the classrooms.

 

They also play a key role in our lockdown procedures.

[MatthewL]

With VoIP no reason not to roll them out everywhere.

 

Paying per extension so one has had you on that, that doesn't sound right.

[Psion_emulation]

Need? No

Good to have? Absolutely

[mavhc]

Phones in every classroom here - has been for sometime and seen as a safe guarding issue. Most are PoE so we have UPS on the switches that connect them to ensure they stay up in the event of a power failure. We have call plans in place that only allow internal calls only on classroom phones whereas office phones can dial externally (all can do 999 obviously). Looking to move phones from ISDN over to SIP very soon which will reduce our call costs substantially.

 

Pete

 

Had great results with FreePBX, and using Gamma as sip provider's been ok

[witch]

We have a phone outside some classrooms, one for each group.

 

Same.....

[Oakinno]

If you're paying per extension you're doing phones wrong, that's what a PBX was supposed to fix.

 

We have phones per classroom, only costs £40 per phone to buy the phone, that's what, £4/year of its lifetime?

 

Classroom phones can't dial out, or have a pin lock

 

That might be the case with an old phone system where you pay thousands for the box then do what you like. These days the much more cost effective hosted platforms that offer SIP end point accounts are charged per user per month. I'd flip it round and say, if you're not paying per extension you're doing phones wrong. You're probably paying maintanance for a creaking system, that doesn't support softphones and are still getting billed monthly for calls when most hosted systems include them.