CCTV in ICT suites

[sj2780]

Hi,

 

Im looking to push this in our school, due to vandalism and the like. just wondered if people are doing this elsewhere, and if so did you get much resistance and what setup did you go for? i was looking at putting cameras looking away from the teachers desk towards the class.

 

Regards

 

Simon

[gumbygaz]

We've got CCTV in all our ICT suites, it was already in place when I started so can't comment on the resistance part for installation. But pupils are made fully aware there is CCTV, the teachers love having it there as a backup (even when trying to find their lost keys on one occasion! ..sigh..)

On the whole we get very little vandalism in the suites, and usually the teacher threatening to check the cctv is enough for the pupil to own up before hand.

 

We've got a samsung dvr system (probably quite an outdated system now), requires very little attention. ticks along nicely...

[Disease]

We have Cams in out IT suites, installed by ourselves, we use AXIS ip cams and their own recording software on a beefy PC. We had the usual moaning about spying on teachers etc, but now mos staff forget they are there.

[stitch]

We put CCTV cameras in the ICT rooms which are bookable, which we installed ourselves and run back to a Geovision DVR card which we installed in a spare PC. The vandalism in both rooms has stopped, and as gumbygaz said that the teacher threatening to check the cctv is enough for the pupil to own up before going any further. We have just purchased four new cameras to monitor the ICT coridoor, so that it a job for February half term.

 

Stitch

[maniac]

We have a full sitewide CCTV system profesionally installed. Cameras in all the ICT suites and monitoring the locations where the laptop cabinets are stored, recorded on a DM Sprite 2 DVR. There's 30 cameras in all, although its getting a bit old now and the quality could be better. Staff just accept it as it's been here so long now, and it's proved useful on many ocassions.

 

Mike.

[mb2k01]

I have done this for several years.

Initial concerns from teaching staff were that it might be used to "spy" on them or used by Management etc. Pupils also initially felt it was 'unfair' as they were being watched while doing nothing wrong. Initial concerns were overcome with educating both sets of the population and making aware that recordings were only reviewed in the event of an incident being reported etc.

More recently we have had teachers actually request CCTV cameras to be present outside/inside their rooms to monitor/evidence behaviour and also act as a safeguarding (child and staff) tool.

 

If it is your first venture in to CCTV I would recommend that you visit the following website to make sure you adhere to laws etc.

Guidance for Organisation using CCTV Cameras - ICO

[WebbA]

Our main CCTV was originally ADT installed but the PVR was limited to 16 Cams and crap.

 

We binned ADT, now fit cameras in house and have upgraded our pvr to a 4tb 32channel box.

 

Between getting the new box, we did fit a few cameras panasonic pan/tilt ones in a few ICT rooms, recording to an ActiveWebcam server. All worked fine, and still does till we eventually replace them to be on the main system.

 

Most people accept CCTV in school as the norm these days.

 

Classrooms/Toilets may be not a good idea, but ICT Suites\Isolation (to protect staff more like as alot of kids are 1 on 1 with stadd) corridors shouldnt be a problem

[srochford]

If you can do Linux then take a look at ZoneMinder: Linux Home CCTV and Video Camera Security with Motion Detection

 

It's pretty easy to set up, works with most IP cameras and, of course, it's free :-)

 

As @mbk201 has said, there are regulations governing CCTV - eg people have a right to see the recordings you hold of them so you need to make sure that if someone comes into school and says "I want to see xxx recording" that people know what to do and how etc.

[ninjabeaver]

We've just finished installing a site wide Panasonic PVR Camera solution which has offered value for money already. I got 2 IP Cams in each IT Suite straight off and 2 with sound in the referal room. Amount of resistance was minimal (one member of SMT who was quickly quietened with a phone call to a Government Agency in regards to CCTV basically stating that they have no say in the matter:) )

 

The staff who need access to it were trained in 30 mins and use it when needed, and we have caught students stealing stuff from staff offices etc. all ready.

[PaulKonec]

Have a look at the mobotix Q24 camera. It gives a 360 degree view of the whole room when mounted on the ceiling, so you don't need multiple cameras or get blindspots. Also comes with a 4GB micro SD card for internal recording.

Paul

Net-ctrl

[mrbios]

We get instantly told to remove cameras from classrooms the moment we try to put one up.

 

We managed to persuade them to allow us one classroom which was getting ALOT of damage so long as the cameras were only a deterent and not recording. Teachers shout "union policy" etc the moment we try it.

[plexer]

We get instantly told to remove cameras from classrooms the moment we try to put one up.

 

We managed to persuade them to allow us one classroom which was getting ALOT of damage so long as the cameras were only a deterent and not recording. Teachers shout "union policy" etc the moment we try it.

 

Have you spoken to the union themself over this to find out if that's actually the case?

 

Ben

[localzuk]

We have cameras in 2 of our 3 ICT suites - the 2 which don't have a permanent member of staff in. The main ICT suite has the same teacher in pretty much all the time, so it gets looked after.

 

The other 2 suites used to get a massive beating until we put CCTV in and redesigned them. Now, I've not had an act of vandalism for 3 years in either of them.

 

The reason no camera was put in the main ICT suite was 'union agreement'...

[ticker]

at the pervious school I worked at we installed cameras in nearly all the ICT suites, once we caught a few of them vandalising the PCs and word got around they were monitored didn't have as many problems or acts of vandalism. Staff didn’t have an issue with this as the ICT team were the only ones who had access to the camera's. I also seem to remember that we used the cameras to prove that a male student had sent a rude and offensive email to a female member of staff by using the camera to zoom in on his screen.