Stephen Hawking School
Corporate ICT implements ‘far more than just a phone system’ for leading London special school
Stephen Hawking School is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and is a special school for around 75 two to 11 year olds. The majority of the school’s pupils have profound and multiple learning difficulties and a significant number of them also have additional sensory and physical impairments.
The school is supported by members of the local Primary Care Trust who provide nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy for the pupils. In addition, many of the staff at Stephen Hawking School have specialist qualifications in the education of children with learning difficulties. All of these people work incredibly hard to help pupils reach their potential - and also to ensure that the school offers a safe, positive and challenging environment for them.
A safe and secure learning environment
Safety is of course a key requirement with an education establishment of this type, which is why the school’s communication system has some very specific and somewhat unusual requirements, as School Business Manager Berl Goldbart outlines:
“It is vital that our staff can alert other people in the case of an emergency. If they need assistance with a pupil, or if there are any other concerns, then the ability to quickly and easily send out a request for assistance or to raise a ‘Code Blue’ alarm is essential. Our existing communication system could do this to a point but it was not providing everything that we needed and in that respect it was no longer fit for purpose.”
In late 2008 Berl started to look around for a new telephone system which could also offer all of the additional features that the school required – and with no particular provider in mind it was very much an ‘open canvas’. Over time, various companies had approached the school and Berl had kept a bank of information for when the time came to upgrade. Corporate ICT had been one of those companies whose approach had come in recently - as Berl puts it, they were ‘in the right place at the right time’!
Professionalism and clarity win the day
Based on the information provided Berl decided that Corporate could potentially deliver what the school was looking for and added them to the list. Three companies were invited to tender in total, one of which was the school’s existing provider. This company proposed an upgrade to the existing Panasonic system and the third supplier proposed an Alcatel Lucent solution, whilst Corporate ICT recommended the Samsung OfficeServ 7200 IP Communications Platform. When it came down to it, the decision was made as much on the company as it was on the make of system. Berl continues:
us and then prepared a very clear and detailed proposal, which was clearly laid out and which showed us exactly what would be provided and why it would be right for our needs. We were impressed by the way Corporate addressed the specification. In fact, it was the best addressed by far.”
On the basis of the tender process, Corporate ICT was selected to implement the new communications system which Stephen Hawking School required, and this was installed during the Easter break in 2009.
Complete school-wide communications
The Samsung OfficeServ 7200 included 46 handsets, plus nine wireless access points and ten wi-fi handsets, as well as providing a nine-location tannoy system. The wi-fi capability and the tannoy system were the two vital components in this solution as they provided the premises-wide communications capability which Berl originally requested and which is so essential for a school of this type, as he explains:
“We have peculiar complications and the other systems which we considered could not meet our requirements. It’s not just about outside voice calls coming in, there is so much more to it than that. Communication within the school is extremely important also. We needed to extend and improve what we had already. We also needed to adhere to ‘best value’ methodology, it’s about quality as well as price and about choosing the best system for the nature of the school. We had to take an overall assessment and the Samsung solution was the right one for our needs.”
The wired handsets which form part of the overall solution are placed in numerous locations around the school including offices, classrooms and even in the changing rooms of the school’s hydrotherapy pool. These all have loudspeakers and can be used to communicate throughout the school, for example to issue Code Blue warnings or to page a nurse for assistance. In addition, the wi-fi system enables Berl and key staff members from the premises team to be contactable at any time, wherever they are on the premises.
The other key element of this solution is the tannoy system, with horns being located in key locations around the school where handsets would not be present. For example in corridors or in the playground where a Code Blue on a phone’s loudspeaker might not be heard.
Drivers for change
“There were three key reasons behind the need to change our communications system”, Berl elaborates. “We needed to add the tannoy and wi-fi functionality, but we also needed to improve the broadcast functionality. Our old Panasonic system had been extended by ‘piggy backing’ another system onto the original one, which meant that all emergency broadcasts had to be made twice to ensure that the alert went to all phones. Not very practical in a crisis situation if you’re in a panic and have to remember to make the call again!
Another issue which we had with the old system was that the loudspeakers were too quiet and alerts were not always heard. It was essential therefore that with the new system, the messages would be broadcast loud and clear. Corporate were great, they came to site with a demo system and tested it for us right here, so that we could be sure it would be loud enough. This really gave us peace of mind as we couldn’t have gone ahead without knowing this.”
The Samsung system has been set up to route all calls through main reception as this is the way the school prefers to operate, with calls being answered by a real person rather than by an auto attendant. There is also an overflow facility which enables staff from the admin office to log in to the reception group and to take calls as well during peaks of activity. This ensures that all incoming calls are handled swiftly and efficiently, although Berl does not rule out using some of the OfficeServ’s more advanced features in the future, as he explains:
“The new system has a lot of functionality which we were not really expecting, such as the auto-attendant. We prefer the old fashioned way, but it’s good to know that the capability is there if we need it in the future. Likewise, we only have a few voicemail boxes set up so far, but again, we have the facility to add voicemail to any extension easily if we want to. We also do not currently use DDIs as we prefer all calls to go via reception, but we might want to change this in the future. The potential is there to do all of these things, and the overall system is certainly far more sophisticated than what we had before.”
Additional benefits
Once the normal school day ends and pupils go home for the evening, the phone system automatically switches into ‘out of hours’ mode and any incoming calls which do come in will divert to the reception voicemail box after 30 seconds. Prior to this though, the call will ring at 15 different extensions throughout the premises, meaning that there is usually someone nearby who can answer it! If the person who answers the phone doesn’t know where the required staff member is, then they can simply ‘park’ the call and put out a page to say, for example, that there is a ‘call for John on Park 1’ - and then that person can simply pick up the parked call when they hear the message.
All in all, the school’s ability to communicate effectively at any time of the day or evening has certainly been enhanced thanks to the Samsung solution from Corporate, as Berl concludes:
“Everything was handled very professionally. For example, our senior leadership team was very keen to avoid having too many visible wires around the premises, but with the wi-fi and tannoy systems this was going to be difficult to achieve. Corporate managed to hide all of the wiring to our satisfaction, which wasn’t easy. Their engineers were very good while we were sorting out some of the other finer detail of the solution, they made a number of visits and tried different options to make things work the way we wanted them and to sort any issues as quickly as possible.
We have confidence in the system and we have been very taken with how Corporate handled everything. We’re very pleased with the outcome. I would definitely recommend Corporate ICT and have said that I will be happy to be a reference site for them.”
Looking for recommendations
From an admin and management perspective, telecommunications is a particularly vital aspect of the ability to run the school effectively. Being able to keep staff informed of day to day matters such as pupil absence and so on even when they are working at different locations around the school is especially important, as Head Teacher Michael Curtin explains:
“Our previous phone system was a BT Meridian phone system and was at least 15 years old and we’d been looking to upgrade it for some time. We had not actually started the process due to the fact that our Local Education Authority had suggested we wait, as they were implementing some new systems themselves which might have a bearing on what we were doing. But this did not transpire and so in late 2006 I decided that we should just crack on. At that time, we were keen to find a phone system which would give us all of the current communications technologies such as voicemail, plus some extra extensions as until then we only had six.”
To ensure best value Michael needed to get three detailed quotations for the new phone system. Based on some information which had been sent to him in the past, he discovered that North London based Corporate ICT had also carried out work for other schools in the area, and so contacted the relevant Head Teachers for more information, as he continues:
“Everyone I called was very pleased with the work that they had done and recommended that I spoke to them. I did gather the three quotes in total, but it was Corporate who impressed me the most and who I eventually selected. I was not as familiar with the other two suppliers, and I trusted Corporate to provide what we needed, based on the recommendations.”
Corporate proposed the Samsung OfficeServ 7200 phone system, an IP based communications platform as the ideal solution for Weald Middle School. Before installation, they brought the system phones in and went through all the features with the staff, to make sure that everyone understood everything that it could do. It was then installed in February 2007 during half term so that there was no disruption, and everything was up and running again by the time the pupils and staff returned.
Keeping teachers informed
Weald Middle School has a number of different buildings dotted around its site and it was important that these all functioned as one from a communications perspective. The Samsung system currently has 12 digital phones which span all areas of the school, so now all classrooms and offices have a phone and everyone has their own voicemail facility. This was something which was particularly important for Michael, as until then there has been some difficulty in communicating with teachers and other staff members who were constantly mobile around the school. He explains further:
“When phone calls come in for teachers, or we need to pass on internal information, it was always a bit of a nightmare to get messages to people in a timely fashion. When I first spoke to Corporate they explained that they could set up a single phone in the staff room with multiple voicemail accounts, which could all be accessed from the one phone. It was something that they had done before and I really liked the sound of it, so I spoke to the Head teacher of the other school and discovered that their needs had been very similar to our own in this respect.”
Staff now each have their own individual DDIs and voicemail boxes, meaning that messages can be left whenever necessary and all they have to do is dial in to pick up their messages using the staffroom phone and an individual entry code. This allows information can be communicated throughout the school quickly, efficiently and securely, with no concern about handwritten notes being lost or verbal messages not being passed on. In addition, phone calls can be recorded on any handset at the press of a single button, giving staff peace of mind that any potentially contentious discussions can be saved for future reference.
Planning for the future
There are already some building development plan in the pipeline and Michael is keen for the system to expand with the school, as he concludes:
“We have plenty of capacity with the Samsung 7200 phone system and we want the system to adapt to the new school buildings. I also see the IP capability of the phone system being of benefit in the future, but for now, we are very happy with what we have. As always with these things, there were a few minor issues to start with but the response was very quick when it came to solving them. They set up everything exactly as we needed it and did not leave until we were happy.
Corporate really seem to know what they are doing and the price was good in comparison to the other quotes,. Having said that, it wasn’t really a price-based decision for me, what really swung it was the recommendations from the other schools in the area. Once you get reassurance from another Head Teacher that’s all you need.”
About Corporate ICT
From its offices and showroom close to Euston Road in London, Corporate ICT supplies, installs and maintains business telecommunication solutions. The company can also integrate telephone, computer and Internet systems, providing a range of products which include telephone systems, voicemail, VoIP, unified messaging, voice networking, call centre applications, call management, CTI (Computer Telephone Integration), ADSL services, IP-VPN (internet-based virtual private networks), LCR (Least Call Routing), telephone line rental, cabling infrastructure and video conferencing.
Corporate ICT uses the latest technology to integrate information and communication systems. Services include assessment of current systems and technology, comprehensive project management and ongoing account management. Staff are continually trained and assessed, not just in technology but also in customer service, meaning that any system or product from Corporate ICT comes with top-notch training and support so customers can receive the maximum benefit from the technology.