Noak Bridge Primary School in Basildon has just installed a dynamic lockdown alert system to inform staff and students what actions they must take for their own safety should a crisis occur.
Deputy head and inclusion manager, Clare Barrett, commented: “Noak Bridge is a single form entry school with over 200 pupils with ages ranging from 4 to 11 years. With such a broad age range, it is critical that in an emergency situation, any instructional information must be clear and easily understood, especially by the younger children.”
The system was installed by Hertfordshire-based Bodet and includes a master clock, a central control box, seven internal Trio sounders and two external sounders. The control box has four activation buttons, each activating specific announcements for partial lockdown, full lockdown, evacuate or all clear. Alerts can also be triggered by using the Harmonys Notify App. For users wishing to broadcast microphone announcements the Harmonys Talk app is available. In addition, an alert can be triggered by telephone for specifically permitted telephone numbers which the system administrator can control. The internal wall-mounted Trio sounders are multifunctional incorporating a flashing light and an LED message display as well as the sounder.
During normal schooldays the sounder is in standby mode, and the LED display shows accurate time in a digital format that is synchronised by the master clock. When an alert is activated, the display changes to a scrolling text message of up to 50 characters to visibly reinforce the audible announcement. At the same time that the alert is broadcast, a flashing light is also activated which not only draws attention to the announcement, but enables those with hearing difficulties to be alerted.
