Customer: Rigby Hall School
Location: Aston Fields, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire
Requirement: The school felt it needed to respond to the growing number of cases of vaping in schools, by being prepared in their own setting.
Solution: Ecl-ips has supplied 8 Halo 2C Smart Sensors, manufactured in the USA.
Services: We pre-staged and supplied the Halo Smart Sensors, which the school installed and Ecl-ips provided training as needed.
Customer’s View:
“We were concerned about pupils vaping out of school and so wanted to be in a position to manage this, should this come into school”
Rigby Hall School, located in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, is an all-age Special School providing education for children between the ages of 4 and 19 (Reception to Post 16). Rigby Hall’s pupils have a wide range of learning difficulties; including autism, communication difficulties and other needs that are better met within its specialist provision rather than in mainstream schools.
The school said it provides its “pupils with a safe, positive, supportive provision that enables them to be stimulated and challenged within a learning environment where their individual needs are met, and where progress, achievements and success are seen, recognised and celebrated.”
Teachers were picking up conversations from the older pupils around vaping outside of school. Some students were partaking and some were observing.
Tracey Smith, Headteacher, said that with all the data in the news around vaping in schools, they wanted to be prepared in case pupils felt they could try this in school. The school approached Ecl-ips to supply and install Halo Smart Sensors. These devices can be installed discreetly in private areas such as changing rooms and toilets where students may feel able to vape.
“We felt the most obvious places 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 a power over ethernet (POE) device which means it receives its data and power over a single Cat5e ethernet cable so connecting it up and getting started is simple. Ecl-ips has well-established expertise in data cabling so we can do this as well as the installation. However, if customers can do the cabling we can come after this and install the HALO Smart Sensors as we did for Rigby Hall. We have also just supplied the Halo Smart Sensors to many schools after they have been pre-staged.
Ecl-ips will set up the HALO Smart Sensors, including ensuring the latest firmware is always up to date and that all the requirements for detection are set up correctly. Then we can train and support customers remotely if required.
The HALO Smart Sensor is always providing vape detection with no delay in event notifications and alerts which can be received by email. Additionally, the HALO Smart Sensor can also detect tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is found in cannabis.
The HALO Smart Sensor has a tamper detection which will alert you to problems such as students trying to interfere with the device and has an IK10 vandal-resistance rating.
Additionally, its aggression detection feature means the HALO detects abnormal noise levels. Rigby Hall has said this will be used to protect some of their more vulnerable children. For example, if a pupil has a seizure they may bang on the toilet doors setting off this alert allowing the staff to support them 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 pupils within the toilets by using the “Help Emergency” call.
Like many schools that we supply Halo Smart Sensors to Rigby Hall already had surveillance cameras installed. The use of CCTV cameras means Rigby Hall can identify pupils videoed leaving the toilets and if this footage is at a time when an alert for vaping was sent it gives staff time to go back to the young people and investigate the incident.
Ecl-ips has been providing security solutions, in particular CCTV, to schools for over a decade and the HALO smart sensor is a useful addition to its product range for schools. Rigby Hall will get support from Ecl-ips for
the first year if they encounter any problems with the device. After this they can purchase one of our support packages if they choose to.
Result: The alert was set off by a contractor not long after installation in the staff toilets! He was immediately met by four members of senior leadership team at the door of the toilet and had nowhere to hide when the sensor was pointed out.
Benefit:
“It has definitely been a deterrent to those who may have tried this in school”
Download a copy of the Rigby Hall School PDF