Let’s say you’re a parent. You start your day – get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush your teeth and of you go to drop the kids off at school. From that moment until the end of the day, you’re at work and your kids are in the hands of the school. Your expectations of the school are very straight forward – to educate your children and most importantly, keep them safe.
Schools owe a duty of care to their students, and especially in this day and age, this duty is taken more seriously than ever. Parents and communities demand higher security standards from schools. In response to this, governments implement stricter regulation to make sure schools screen, manage and supervise visitors in addition to keeping track of the students’ whereabouts and their safety.
There’s a variety of people who frequent schools. Students, teachers, admin staff, cleaners, gardeners, guest speakers, parents. It may be daunting at times to keep tabs on everything that’s happening in school campuses, but this task becomes far easier with the help of a Visitor Management System. Here’s what Visitor Management Systems can do for schools:
1. Know who’s in and out of the school
Visitor Management Systems can help you with day-to-day tasks such as keeping track of the people within your premises. Schools must be absolutely clear on who the people who enter their premises are not to put students’ and staff’s safety in jeopardy.
Whether you’re expecting a visitor or just want to know when your staff, teachers or contractors have arrived and left, visitor management systems can be of great help. With an easy iPad app – using a QR code, FaceID or manual detail input – you can streamline the way you handle sign-ins and outs and well as providing a pleasant experience for system users. Like that, you will know exactly who is on campus, when and where, avoiding unpleasant surprises.
2. Screen visitors
One of the most important parts of a Visitor Management System for schools – and also one that is heavily enforced by legislation – is screening visitors to the school. As addressed by the ACT’s “Working With Children Act”, effectively screening visitors is crucial to keeping vulnerable people – children – safe from possible offenders.
With school visitor management systems, you can add a list of previous offenders – both to the school or from a police list – to the system. If the offender tries to sign in, their access will be denied and the system admin will be notified of their attempt straight away.
3. Increase visitors’ visibility with badges
With so many people in and out of their premises – contractors, volunteers, guest speakers, substitute teachers, visitors – school staff can feel confused about who’s who and whether they’re supposed to be on campus or not. Visitor badges can help staff identify visitors from contractors and other staff as well as spot possible intruders. Further, the Victoria Government’s Visitors in School Policy also highlights the need to segment visitors in types such as sessional lecturer, contractor, volunteer, bookseller and more so that schools can report their visitors with more accuracy.
4. Comply with emergency planning
Accidents happen, it’s a natural thing. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be prepared for them. In case of emergency, schools have a minimally required to have a list of all persons present onsite at the time of the incident to ensure no one got left behind as well as to assist with future investigations.
Visitor management systems can provide you with a timely and accurate list of everyone on campus during the time of the emergency based on sign-in activity. Additionally, once an emergency has been detected, the system admin can send emergency SMSs to all people on campus, alerting them of the situation and providing an evacuation diagram that will guide them to safety.
5. Track student attendance
As well as helping with the routine task of tracking students’ late arrivals, early departures and absences, Visitor Management Systems help schools to spot whether students present on campus are missing from the classroom. This can assist in detecting when a student is skipping class or even with more serious cases such as accidents that impair that students’ wellbeing.
It is clear that schools are under a lot of scrutinies when it comes to maintaining their students’ safety and keeping track of the people within their campuses. Although this might seem like a gigantic task, visitor management systems have the ability to better equip schools to face this challenge.
For more info on how visitor management systems for schools work, click here!
