Classroom emergency alert

[Sheridan]

Slightly non tech question, but how do your teaching staff alert SLT/first aiders etc from a classroom in the event of an emergency/issue etc?

 

Do you have classroom phones (which seem a bad idea to me!) or other methods? I've used SIMS emergency alert but that's only any good if you're signing into SIMS every period (and we used classcharts predominantly)

 

I'm even thinking of knocking up a basic desktop app that when run sends a message to specific users 'i.e Medical issue in Classroom 1 - send first aider asap'?

 

Email etc are too easy to miss and staff mobiles are hit and miss

 

I've used a system in a past role, but that was the reverse as it sent an alert to all powered on desktops from a manager console and was used for important announcements/fire alarm false alarms etc - it was bought in for the event of a lockdown situation which fingers crossed never arose

[Sibrows]

In a previous role I integrated netsupoort notify with paxton for most of what your after.

[Alex0x7F]

I'm even thinking of knocking up a basic desktop app that when run sends a message to specific users 'i.e Medical issue in Classroom 1 - send first aider asap'?

 

 

NetSupport Notify would be ideal for this. Pop up messages that have to be 'acknowledged' by the user.

 

 

I've used a system in a past role, but that was the reverse as it sent an alert to all powered on desktops from a manager console and was used for important announcements/fire alarm false alarms etc - it was bought in for the event of a lockdown situation which fingers crossed never arose

 

 

 

IMHO lockdown alerts should be analogue and never relying on digital connectivity. Panic buttons or a different alarm tones/pattern beep from the fire alarm work well in various settings.

 

Too many variables with a network notification system to hiccup for something you'd only ever use in potentially dangerous scenarios! My last school were in the process of testing cheap and nasty walkie talkies for partial/full lockdown procedures (not my recommendation one bit!) As you can imagine that was totally unreliable.

[thimon]

+1 for NetSupport Notify. Good value for money and their support team is awesome.

[round2it]

i used little green button https://www.littlegreenbutton.com/gb/

[steveg]

We have phones in every room which can also be used as a tannoy, we use a bell for lockdown which should be more reliable than an IT solution.

 

We also recently issued cordless phones to key staff so they are contactable wherever they are on the site.

[FragglePete]

Phones in every room - quick and easy solution, dial first aid or whoever in the event of an.... incident. Allows for 999 also (and 101) which we then get an e-mail alert when it's dialled. People are used to picking up a phone.

 

Key staff have radio's to communicate throughout the site.

 

We have a specific e-mail distro list that key members of staff pick up on in the event of help needed in a classroom by a teacher.

 

Have a Bodet Tannoy system across the site with lockdown 'panic' buttons in each of our main receptions. Looking to get it wired into the Fire Alarm system so gives an audible alert and instructions (ie. please evacuate) along with the fire alarm bell.

 

Pete

[Sheridan]

I think a software solution might work best for us, as we're a couple of years away from a new build - so any investment in current infrastructure is highly unlikely (although we're trying to also move to cloud phones so that would be portable anyway!)

 

Having said that - the new build keeps getting postponed and a change of government isn't going to help either!

[gwendes]

Little Green Button users, can another (USB?) device be plumbed in, instead of their product? Thinking of using the discreet buttons already in our reception areas.

[pete]

In a medical emergency? Phone (school phone or personal mobile) or pick two responsible students and send them both to the (always staffed with first aiders) office with actionable info.

 

Our test is "You have a child who's just split his head open on a table while trying to do a backflip. You're stemming the bleeding until a first aider appears. Is your first aider alert mechanism usable without access to both hands or another adult?"

 

Hence the "Bob and Sarah - go to the main office and ask for a first aider and tell them Firstname Lastname is in classroom 02 with a head injury. Repeat that back. Right, off you go."

[dhicks]

Little Green Button users, can another (USB?) device be plumbed in, instead of their product?

 

The kind of thing you're possibly aiming for is a customisable "USB foot pedal", e.g.:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Annadue-Customized-Sensitivity-Mechanical-Programmable-default/dp/B0B1J4HQFW/ref=sr_1_11

 

These are great fun / very handy for physical computing projects in general, you can customise the foot pedal (basically a large, heavy-duty button) to produce any keypress you like, and I think the software also supports triggering macros and so on. I've used a bunch of them to make quiz input buttons, you could possibly use them for panic buttons.

[PotNoodleTech]

In a previous role I integrated netsupoort notify with paxton for most of what your after.

 

Ooh just seen this - I've got paxton with a big red lockdown button installed which locks all the doors = great.

 

And notify as a seperate bit of software that I have to manually lock down and send message myself if the big red buton is pressed - not so great.

 

How can I get the two to communicate please, netsupport said it wasnt possible.

 

Thx

[gwendes]

Excellent tip, I'll have a look! Thanks.

 

I've set up a trial, the only thing I find a bit confusing at the moment is that you only seem to be able to see alerts from mobile devices? Does anyone know if it's possible to monitor alerts from the webUI?

[Skylark56]

So we utilise something that doesn't take that long to set up, utilising Power Automate and Microsoft Excel.

 

So the idea is we have something called a 'Red Card or Medical Emergency' system. A staff member fills out a form using MS Forms, this then with Power Automate, scrapes the data from the form and adds it as a new row on an Excel spreadsheet. Once this row has been added, an email is then sent out to all the relevant people (Red Cards for Pastoral and Medical Emergency for First Aiders).

 

Our Pastoral team have Surface Go 3's so they can action callouts and emergencies whilst on the go. They either usually have the Log on Excel open, or they check their emails.

[ITGURU]

In-house built 'on-call' system. imports students from SIMS automatically, teacher selects student - on-call options, behaviour, medical etc. staff pick up as required and logged into sql database for student reports.

also an emergency button where enter room only and then recipients radio for assistance to the room.

[machy]

So we utilise something that doesn't take that long to set up, utilising Power Automate and Microsoft Excel.

 

So the idea is we have something called a 'Red Card or Medical Emergency' system. A staff member fills out a form using MS Forms, this then with Power Automate, scrapes the data from the form and adds it as a new row on an Excel spreadsheet. Once this row has been added, an email is then sent out to all the relevant people (Red Cards for Pastoral and Medical Emergency for First Aiders).

 

Our Pastoral team have Surface Go 3's so they can action callouts and emergencies whilst on the go. They either usually have the Log on Excel open, or they check their emails.

 

 

How does this work for serious emergencies?

 

Like anything requiring more than a plaster?

 

I can see this being absolutely excellent for post incident reporting or medicine logs, just not for "right now" kind of things