Case Study

Below is a case study, kindly produced by Kings Meadow Primary School. Schools may have their own unique processes which work for them. However all have the same in common, benefit from an electronic system to record visitors and staff in the most efficient way possible, as well as providing best value for money with good quality service and support.

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Case Study – Kings Meadow Primary School Visitor System

- School wanted to update from paper signing in books to an electronic visitor system

- We received a quote for £5000 from Inventry, the initial quote was for £2000 for their basic system, but when we advised that we wanted a second signing in screen for the rear of the school, we were advised that we would have to have the full system. They weren’t prepared to discuss our requirements and try to meet our needs

- The quote from Inventry was way beyond what we were looking to spend

- I contacted a couple of other companies that I found online but no one got back to me

- I then spoke to Kev at School Supplier who offered to come out to school and give us a demo of their signing in system

- Having used a system in my previous school I already had an idea of what I needed an alternative system to do for us

- The system he showed us had a tab for staff and a tab for visitors

- The elements that I asked about were:

• A second screen at the rear car park entrance for staff to sign in & out of
• An additional tab for regular visitors, visitors that are on our SCR & visit school weekly
• An additional tab for parents to sign pupils in/out when they are arriving late or leaving early for an appointment or similar

- Kev then went away and designed the elements that I had asked for & came back to further demo the system. He sourced brackets for us so that we could locate the screens exactly where we wanted them. He also designed new staff lanyards with the school name & logo on in the school colours, which along with staff ID cards, were much cheaper than our current provider.

We now have a system that provides the following:

- Staff signing in/out with a simple tap of their ID card

- Parents signing in late children and signing out for appointments

- A regular visitor button, which holds the names of our DBS checked regular visitors, e.g. PTA member, music teacher, dance teacher, sports coaches. When they arrive the tap regular visitor, find their name, sign in & are issued with a green visitor lanyard

- Non DBS visitors sign in via the ‘visitor in’ button, they are handed a red or green lanyard (dependent on their DBS status) with a numbered visitor card, they tap the card on the reader & then enter their details.

Benefits

- No need for a paper visitors book

- Provides us with a fire evacuation list which shows all staff & visitors in school and signed in along with a list of pupils who have arrived late or left early. This part of the system can be used on a mobile phone during an evacuation

- We look much more professional to visitors

- Faster system for regular visitors so that they don’t have to enter all of their details each time they come into school

- We now operate a red/green lanyard system. Anyone in school wearing a red lanyard should not be unaccompanied and should be challenged by a member of staff if they are seen on their own. Anyone wearing a green lanyard is recognised as being DBS checked & authorised to be on site unaccompanied.