Secondary schools are continuing to struggle to curb vaping within their toilets but as the King Edward VI Balaam Wood Academy has discovered, Halo Smart Sensors can help them tackle the problem.
Like other schools we have supported since 2021 staff at Balaam Wood Academy realised that students were vaping in the toilets. Once this problem was identified the school needed a system to detect and alert staff so they could manage it and try to prevent from students vaping.
After a recommendation from another school, Ecl-ips was contacted for advice. Balaam Wood Academy is located in Rubery in south Birmingham which is close to where Ecl-ips is based in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.
The HALO Smart Sensor is a power over ethernet (POE) device which means it receives its data and power over a single Cat6 ethernet cable. The school wanted us to provide the cabling, as well as the installation, so we carried out a thorough site survey. This enabled us to calculate the cable runs and the location of the Halo Smart Sensors so that they would be effective.
After carrying out the cabling we installed 12 Halo Smart Sensors in all of the student school toilets and the detectors were linked to its IT network system. Balaam School Academy opted to connect their devices to HALO Cloud which is ideal if a school has a large number of sensors.
It means staff can view and manage the devices via a single dashboard so it is easier to track problem spots within a school. Historical data can also be viewed so patterns can be detected allowing schools to act more proactively to prevent vaping reoccurring. There is also the option to receive notifications on a mobile device via the Halo Cloud app.
Martin Hathaway, Estates Facilities and Sustainability Manager, at The Schools of King Edward VI Trust said: “Whenever vape emissions are detected, the system sends an alert to our caretakers’ phones who immediately investigate, then the guilty students are managed to prevent it happening again.”
The school paid a one-off set up fee for HALO Cloud and has a three-year plan to manage the cost. However, if schools have a small number of devices, it is not necessary to have an ongoing subscription or have the cloud dashboard as HALO Smart Sensors will operate as stand-alone devices that will send real-time email alerts.
Martin said: “The system works. It does what it says – it detects vape emissions and alerts us in real time. I would recommend this system to any secondary school that believes they may have vaping onsite issues”
If you manage a secondary school that is struggling to manage vaping among students then we can demonstrate how HALO Smart Sensors can help. If you want to know more, please get in touch.