Little Aston Primary School in Sutton Coldfield is nothing if not innovative. The school is the very first in the country to have its own outdoor interactive playground that enables children to log onto a computerised system, collecting points from nine different pieces of apparatus around the playground as they play. “It’s fun and keeps the children active,” explains head teacher Liz Pearce. “They love the fact that there is great equipment to run around on, and with their own unique swipe cards they can compete against one another and better their own times.”
The school’s new Finnish-designed play equipment, with its Smartus computer nerve centre that links directly to the school’s ICT suite, is a significant investment for Little Aston and one that needs round-the-clock safeguarding. Liz and her team opted for CCTV equipment from Dedicated Micros, on the advice of Wolverhampton-based installers Spectre.
“The playground has to be secure and although it is vandal-proof, it’s very attractive to unwelcome visitors because it’s such a unique item,” says Liz. “We already had CCTV for the school but we felt something more state-of-the-art was required to match our new playground.”
To guard against vandalism and theft of the school’s new equipment, Spectre specified a Dedicated Micros NetVu Connected SD Digital Video Recorder (DVR) and a Dennard pole-mounted 2060 dome camera, both of which can integrate with the existing network of five CCTV cameras.
The new installation has already proven itself to be a valuable investment. Liz continues, “If we were deemed to be not supervising the children appropriately then our insurance could be invalid and that is simply not acceptable for a school. This is particularly relevant now that we have a piece of equipment as tempting to children as the electronic playground.
“At the end of the school day when parents are waiting for their children, younger siblings are naturally keen to try the playground for themselves and until our insurance provision allows for that, we simply can’t let it happen.
“It’s sad, but in this day and age the Health and Safety implications of a piece of equipment like this are a nightmare so the new CCTV system has been very helpful in monitoring activity and ensuring the school and the children stay protected.
To ensure the school gained the most benefit from the system, the DVR was installed in the school’s main office and linked to a permanent large display screen. The flexibility the Dedicated Micros SD unit offers means office staff can keep an eye on the electronic playground covered by the new dome camera and view the rest of the school premises covered by the existing camera network simultaneously.
With the whole project completed in just six weeks, comprehensive staff training on how to use the equipment and even help with grant subsidies all provided by Spectre, children at Little Aston can now play safe in a ground-breaking new interactive playground that brought the school to the attention of national newspapers and television.
