The current pandemic has forced the majority of schools to revisit how pupils, staff, and suppliers enter and exit the school site, whilst still observing the recommended social distancing guidelines. For some, this has involved invoking the use of electric gates which:
- Have not been in constant usage and therefore run the risk of not being adequately maintained
- Adapting a gate that was originally designed exclusively for vehicular access, to becoming an automated gate that now experiences a high flow of pedestrian traffic, or
- Using an old manual gate that has been locked for years and never had any maintenance.
The above scenario clearly rings alarm bells for anyone who has been trained to appreciate the risks associated with gate safety. The potential for an automated gate related accident in a school is further heightened when you also consider the fact that while schools remained closed during the national lockdown, it is doubtful that the usual maintenance checks were observed, and with so many other Covid-19 related issues to deal with, it is unlikely that this was a priority ahead of the schools re-opening.
At Gate Safe we urge those responsible for the external physical security measures within the school site to refer to the Automatic Gates Guidance for Schools found on the Gate Safe website, or better still, contact your local Gate Safe Aware installer to undertake a risk assessment of all the gates now in operation.
Parents are fearful enough of the health of their children due to the second wave of the virus, so schools have a responsibility to mitigate the risks to pupil safety which they CAN have absolute control over …
