GROUP | Think Once

Article by Katherine Keable

Unsurprisingly, when you check online parenting forums such as Mumsnet you find hundreds of parents who are concerned about the health and safety of their children when theyre at school, especially when theyre out on school trips. Alert ID Group, based in East Tuddenham, Norfolk, has developed a service to assist schools with their student records and provide peace of mind for the parents.

The last ten years has seen a decline in the amount of school trips being offered to children in the UK, partly due to the increasingly litigious nature of society causing teachers to be concerned. This is a huge shame when you consider the many benefits to children of learning outside the classroom.

The Alert ID Group originally specialised in providing visible identification for sportspeople and horse riders, with athlete Steve Cram MBE playing an active role as a business partner in the company. Now the company is expanding to offer a new and unique service for schools, travel and health organisations.

Focusing on education, Alert ID is providing an efficient way of identifying pupils, something that will prove especially useful on school trips. Many parents worry that in a large class, the teacher will not be able to keep track of their childs individual needs. This can be especially true if the child has any medical conditions such as diabetes, epilepsy, allergies or conditions such as autism or ADHD.

Schools have to put a lot of effort in when planning to take their pupils on a school trip and despite the Department for Education dramatically cutting their guidelines, it can still involve a fair amount of paperwork, for parents as well as teachers. Probably the most important information that a school requires is contact details for the childrens next of kin and any medical information. Rather than filling in this information by hand every time there is a school excursion, Alert ID provides an easy way for it to be completed online.

The personal details, which can include next of kin contact details, medical information, allergies and a crisis plan for emergencies, can easily be registered online by the childs parents. This profile is available as a pdf to be printed out and carried by the student and can also be emailed to all of the necessary people. These could be secretaries at schools, school trip organisers or sports club leaders. The beauty of this system is that it reduces paperwork for the schools and, as the profile can be updated at any time, the parents can be sure that the school will always have the most up to date information.

Although this is a relatively new venture for Alert ID, they have already had lots of support from schools in Norfolk. A contract has already been arranged to register the 14,500 students and staff at City College Norwich and Langley Independent School, with more partnerships with local schools lined up for the near future.

About Alert ID Group:

Alert ID Group has a number of brands providing visible identification for runners, cyclists, adventurers and horse riders, as well as providing a unique ID service for large groups including schools, health organisations, travel companies and other clubs.

The Alert ID Group consists of Cram-Alert, Ride-Alert, BEIDS, EasyID and Alert ID.

For further information please follow us on Twitter or visit the Alert ID Group blog. If you would like to enquire about signing up your school, company or club to the service, please contact support@alertidgroup.co.uk.

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Article by Andy Demidont

The SERAPH Research Team which provides a biyearly school safety report for Congress has released its “FIVE CRITICAL SCHOOL SAFETY ISSUES list.

The list was developed from interviews with teachers, school security personnel, police and principals from 120 school districts throughout the United States.

1. LACK OF ACCURATE UNDERSTANDING OF SAFETY ISSUES – Many schools and school districts have performed poor assessments of their school safety as it relates to everyday management of the schools. Schools have security audits performed which focus on physical security such as cameras and emergency plans. These audits do not address classroom management, sub cultural groups, educational objectives, special education, negative behavior cliques and sexual issues.

“School environments must be analyzed from an educator’s perspective”, says SERAPH Research Team leader Andreas Demidont, “Another aspect of this issue is that schools often have no real way of collating the data into a meaningful set of action plans.”

2. REACTION NOT PREDICTION – Many schools and school districts have policies against student aggression and criminal behavior but fail to develop clear management procedures to assist staff and administrators in predicting and preventing these problems.

“Because schools generally do not have effective school safety management plans they resort to a crisis with reaction rather than preventing a crisis from happening”, states Demidont.

3. POOR MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS – Management issues in school generally fall into several categories :

Poor time management. “Time is the currency of learning and it needs to be treated that way by the schools,in the same manner as it is in the business community,” says Demidont.

Non-data based decisions. “Not because the data does not presently exist within the school but rather schools often lack an effective and efficient means of gaining access to it,” states Demidont.

Unwillingness to depart from conventional thinking.” If you always do what you have always done you will always get what you always have gotten,” states Demidont.

School boards being asked to make decisions without essential data. Poor use of technology to handle the mundane tasks. “A complete lack of understanding of how technology can be utilized to assure that administrator and teacher time is spent on educating students,” says Demidont.

Lack of effective on-going interactive community wide communications. “School officials must actively and regularly interact with parents and the community in general,” states Demidont.

4. LACK OF EFFECTIVE PLANS TO COMBAT TRUANCY AND LATENESS – School Districts do not seem to be willing to engage local, state and federal social service agencies as real partners in assisting them with truancy and tardiness.

“A formal plan of action with local courts, social services, and law enforcement is critical to reducing and controlling this serious problem”, says Demidont.

5. POOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT – Many schools have emergency plans but fail to train their staff members in the management of an emergency situation. An example of the problem is the lack of training for school staff members in the handling of special needs children.

“Special needs students are being placed in regular education classrooms without providing regular classroom teachers with the necessary and proper training and support,” states Demidont. “Children with various emotional or mental issues will panic in emergencies; proper training must be performed to give staff the skills necessary to manage the inevitable chaos and emotion that occurs in an emergency situation.”

Mr. Yeager began his education as a criminal analyst in 1988. He has extensive training including advanced training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

Mr. Yeager’s research work on violence has been published in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin and “Profiling Violent Crimes” [third edition] by Dr. Ronald Holmes.

Mr. Yeager is also a Federal law enforcement trainer for the HIDTA and MAGLOCLEN programs.