While special schools that educate children with learning difficulties have very specific challenges they also face those met by mainstream education. Identifying problems before they take hold can also be beneficial as they could prove even harder to fix in specialist education.
Rigby Hall School, an all-age Special School providing education for children between the ages of 4 and 19, based in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, aimed to prevent vaping becoming an issue. The school approached Ecl-ips, located at the nearby Harris Business Park in Stoke Prior, Bromsgrove, about installing vape detectors after teachers picked up conversations from the older pupils around vaping outside of school.
It was clear that some students were already vaping and others were observing. After hearing these conversations, and knowing about the high level of vaping among young people generally, the Headteacher, Tracey Smith, said they wanted to be prepared in case pupils felt they could try using vapes in school.
After discussing the needs of Rigby Hall School, Ecl-ips installed eight HALO Smart Sensors in the school toilets.
Tracey said: “We felt the most obvious place to put the sensors was the toilets as this is where the pupils like to gravitate to in order to get ‘some space’ at times.”
The HALO Smart Sensor is always providing vape detection with no delay in event notifications and alerts which can be received by email. The school has also identified that the aggression feature of the HALO could be particularly useful in protecting some of their more vulnerable children. With this, the HALO detects abnormal noise levels and therefore could send an alert if a pupil has a seizure and they bang on the toilet doors, for example. This would allow the staff to support the pupil more quickly.
Separately, the HALO has five emergency key words pre-programmed so Rigby Hall staff will be able to ask for more assistance when helping more challenging pupils within the toilets by using the “Help Emergency” call.
Commenting on whether the Halo Smart Sensors have prevented vaping, Tracey said they have “definitely been a deterrent to those who may have tried this in school.” You can find out more in the school’s case study for Ecl-ips.
We can install HALO Smart Sensors, and do the cabling if required, or supply them pre-staged for all types of schools. If your school is already struggling with vaping, or wants to stop it becoming a problem, then get in touch.