The fencing of our medium-sized primary school was the first major project I tackled after starting here. Not only was it quite old and in need of repair, it wasn’t especially high. The risk of intruderrelated incidents is fairly low, due to the school’s location behind a housing estate and backing on to farmers’ fields – but in practice, anyone outside could have got past our fencing quite easily.
The first thing we had to do was settle on the type of border security we wanted. After some discussion, the SLT’s original intention had been to install automatic gates at the front of the school, but after the costs proved prohibitive, we looked at what alternatives there might be for getting what we needed in terms of security and safety and value.
We received some suggestions for recommended specialists from two local network groups in Leicestershire that we’re part of, but I also happened to receive a marketing approach from a company based in Leicester that none of the other schools had heard of. We ended up inviting a couple of the known companies along with this other company, and it turned out our SLT liked the latter’s solution best.
We then consulted with our School Council – the kids – about what they wanted to see and also spoke to parents, who’d expressed some concern that we’d end up looking like a prison. The other thing we did, which can sometimes be forgotten, was check in with the residential properties that neighbour the school. I went knocking on doors, explaining what would be happening at the school and what the impact was likely to be.
We ended up going with a form of mesh fencing around 8 feet high that can be seen through and looks far better than what we had before. Our field comes right up to the school car park, so in place of the automatic gate we’d looked at we fenced around the field. Anyone can enter through the school’s main gate, but it’s not possible to get from there into the school or the playing fields.
The installation was done in school time, with hardly any disruption. It’s often assumed that this type of work can only be done during the summer holidays, but if managed properly, it can be completed with the kids on site. Doing that enabled us to drive the price down a bit, as they were able to come straight in and get on with things. It helps to be cheeky with contractors – they want the job as much as you want it doing.
We’d originally been looking at spending close to £40,000 just to have the gate work done. After some negotiation, the total cost of the fencing we had installed came to just over £11,000. We have a solution that works, our stakeholders are happy, and we’ve been able to use the money we saved on installing a new ICT suite.
Philip Burton is business manager at Hallbrook Primary School in Broughton Astley, Leicestershire
