Implementing Student ID cards.

[Rob_D]

Hi guys,

 

We're a mid/large secondary with around 1400 students, SLT are looking into implementing student ID cards/lanyards, which would be used for print release, canteen and the library, and possibly for access control. I'm hoping we can outsource most of this (at get least the initial and new cohort bulk printing done for us).

 

Can anyone who's been through this change offer any advice, suggest any companies, or have any gotchas that we might not have thought of?

 

Thanks!

[Steve21]

We did this previously but all in house, we looked external but when you are in things like getting them into tutor groups to hand out, registering them on systems, re printing those with name changes spelling etc we found it too expensive to make it worth while

 

Linked MIS to the template and ran through tutor by tutor etc, got them registered in one system to automatically pull across to others and got the badges handed to tutors to give out

 

Be prepared to do lots of reprinting early in and ideally get SLT backing to charge for them after 1st loss!

 

Steve

[psydii]

We have this centered around AMI / Easytrace which is our cashless catering system. They have been able to provide hooks to cascade the card numbers to the other systems. I've hardly touched it in the last ten years - just does the job.

 

I believe that (15 years ago) the initial run of cards were printed by them, but we have two card printers to support the printing of 300-400 cards in the final weeks of each summer break, and for printing cards ad-hoc throughout the year. The card printers need replacing every 3-5 years.

 

The printing of cards is handled by the school office team.

[icttech]

We are the same size secondary as yourself, and use ID card for printing and dinners, we have a card machine which supports printing of cards for new users and lost cards, it is more cost effective to have this in house, not to mention the quick turn around for cards having this in house.

 

Originally print out were done by the managed service company we had in place.

[Brax]

We use Inventry to sign in and out of site with the ID Cards, also staff use them for access control with swipe locks. Students use theirs for library and other things, We print the cards in-house, if it's lost then students pay a small fee for a replacement. Edited May 23, 2023 by Brax

[Aprice]

Same sort of experience here, internally, with a decent card printer. Personally I've had very good experiences with the Smart IDP range (last used a Smart 51) If you only need to do monochrome you can make a saving on ribbon as well.

 

I last tried to do cards for a whole year 11 group using a low end evolis card printer and it was a very slow and painful process.

 

MiFare cards are the best value we've found, and most systems support them, if you use Paxton then you can have the readers swapped for MiFare compatibles for about £80 a pop.

 

We used to charge students £5 for a replacement card.

[srafiq]

We have an in-house setup too, mifare cards using an Evolis Primacy card printer. We have this setup in all schools and the admin team take care of it.

Cunninghams IDStore is used to print student cards and Paxton for staff. We buy pre-printed cards with the school logo/important information at the back and only print identifiable personal data inc pic. Pre-printed lanyards with lobster clip for students and retractable reel for staff.

Mifare cards are used for catering, door access, InVentry and library. Student cards also used for exam verification.

We’ve had this setup since 2018 and no problems whatsoever, it just works really well.