Security Systems for Schools & Education in Sydney and the Sutherland Shire

What makes a schools job different

1. 1

   The term calendar decides the program, not the other way around

   Anything that opens a wall, drops a ceiling, isolates a circuit or takes a door out of service goes in a holiday break or a pupil-free day. We sequence the job so the disruptive half lands in the shutdown and the quiet half — commissioning, database build, administrator training — runs during term without touching a classroom. That means the site visit and quote a term ahead, not a fortnight. Tell us the break you are aiming at and we will say honestly whether the scope fits it.

2. 2

   Child-safety clearances and who is actually on your grounds

   Working with children in NSW carries clearance obligations, and schools are entitled to know exactly who is on site and when. We work to your sign-in, supervision and induction requirements as a condition of the job, and keep the crew small and consistent so the same faces return rather than a different subcontractor each visit. If your policy needs clearance evidence before day one, ask at quote stage and we will supply what we hold.

3. 3

   Lockdown is one action — and it must never trap anyone inside

   A lockdown that requires someone to find a computer and click through a menu will not be used. The design question is which single action triggers it — a counter button, a key-switch, a keypad code — and exactly what it does: which doors secure, which stay free for egress, whether the PA announces, who is notified. Securing a school against someone outside must not trap the people inside, so every locked door carries a documented fail mode decided against its role in evacuation. We agree the sequence on paper with your leadership team, build it, then run it live with staff watching.

4. 4

   Duress at the counter, and the false-alarm problem

   A button mounted where a knee catches it becomes a button nobody trusts. We site duress devices where they are reachable but not accidental, decide with you whether activation is silent or audible and who it reaches — office, executive, monitoring centre, or a combination — then test the whole chain rather than just proving the button closes a contact.

5. 5

   Supervision blind spots, not maximum coverage

   Cameras on a school are not about watching children. They are about where adult supervision cannot reach: perimeter fence lines and back gates, bike racks, delivery access, car parks at pick-up, demountables, and the roofline and play equipment that attract after-hours damage. Retention and access are settled before anything is recorded — a school's obligations around student images are a governance question your executive owns, not a setting we should pick.

6. 6

   Out-of-hours use and shared community access

   Halls, courts and car parks get used by community groups, after-school care and weekend hirers, each needing some parts of the site and none of the others. A hirer's credential can open the hall and accessible toilet only, on their booked evenings, and expire when the hire does — the difference between solving the after-hours problem and moving it onto the site manager's phone.

What a typical scope covers

• Access control on Inner Range Integriti and Concept, Gallagher and Bosch AMC2 — cards, fobs and mobile credentials
• One-touch lockdown with a documented door-by-door sequence, integrated with duress and PA where present
• Front-office, reception and executive duress — sited, wired and tested end to end
• Intruder detection and after-hours alarm across buildings, demountables and outbuildings
• CCTV over perimeters, gates, car parks, bike racks and delivery access, with retention agreed up front
• Gate and pedestrian-door automation, intercom entry at the front gate and reception
• Data cabling, comms-room work and the switching the above depends on
• Licensed electrical — supply to controllers, door hardware, gate motors, lighting and switchboard changes
• Scheduled maintenance timed to holiday breaks, with duress and lockdown tested at each visit

How the work gets bought and delivered

1. 1

   Site visit, with the right people in the room

   Free within 100 km of our Caringbah workshop. We walk the grounds with the site or business manager and, for anything touching lockdown, someone from the leadership team — that sequence is a leadership decision a facilities walk-through cannot answer.

2. 2

   Itemised quote, written to be read by a committee

   A door-by-door and camera-by-camera schedule priced ex-GST, with staging marked against the breaks it is meant to land in. Schools rarely approve a security spend in one meeting, so the quote is built to survive being forwarded: a board, a P&F or a department approver can cut a line without a requote.

3. 3

   Installation under your site rules

   Induction, sign-in and exclusion-zone requirements followed as given, cabling labelled so the next contractor can follow it, and anything that must happen in term confined to areas you have released.

4. 4

   Commissioning, training and handover

   Every door cycled through valid credential, invalid credential, request-to-exit and power fail. Lockdown run live with staff watching, duress proven to whoever receives it, the cardholder database built, your administrators trained, and documentation handed over with the CCEW for the licensed electrical work. Optional scheduled servicing then runs on the holiday cycle, with duress and lockdown re-tested and signed off at each visit.

Compliance & licensing

What moves the price

School security is quoted door by door and camera by camera, itemised ex-GST. What moves the number:

• Controlled openings — each carries a reader, locking hardware, a request-to-exit device and a cable run back to the controller
• Site spread — one two-storey building is cheap to cable; separate blocks and demountables mean conduit, trenching or point-to-point links
• Existing infrastructure — usable cabling, a serviceable panel and a comms room with spare capacity take real money out of a quote
• Lockdown complexity — one key-switch securing eight doors is modest; a multi-zone sequence tied into PA, duress and camera bookmarking is its own scope
• Credential mix — cards and fobs are cheapest per head, mobile credentials usually carry licensing, and mixed staff, contractor and hirer populations need more administration
• Work window and building fabric — holiday-break pace, out-of-hours term work, and older brick-and-plaster or heritage construction all add time to the same task

Because the quote is itemised by opening, deferring a wing to next year's budget is a visible subtraction rather than a requote — the shape a school approval process needs.

Frequently asked

Can you do the work in the school holidays?

That is how most school jobs are programmed. Anything disruptive goes in a break or on a pupil-free day; commissioning and administrator training can run during term. Book the site visit at least a term ahead so the quote and lead times land before the break you are aiming at.

Can you set up a lockdown system for our school?

Yes — as a single action from a defined trigger, with a documented door-by-door sequence, integrated with duress and PA where those exist. Exit paths keep free egress in lockdown; that is confirmed at commissioning, not assumed. We run it as a live test with staff present at handover.

Do your technicians have Working With Children Checks?

Tell us your contractor clearance and induction requirements at quote stage and we will supply the evidence we hold before anyone attends site, and work to your sign-in and supervision rules on every visit. We keep the crew on a school small and consistent rather than rotating subcontractors through.

Which access control platform suits a school?

For most NSW schools we recommend Inner Range Integriti, because access and intruder alarm run on one controller — the system that badges a teacher in at 7 am arms the block at night, which is simpler to administer than two systems. Gallagher is stronger where policy enforcement and reporting requirements are heavier.

Can community groups and after-hours hirers be given limited access?

Yes, and it is one of the best reasons to move off keys. A hirer's credential can open the hall and accessible toilet only, on their booked evenings, and expire when the hire ends — with a record of every use. Cancelling a departing staff member takes seconds from a browser.

Who can see our CCTV footage, and how long is it kept?

Both are set to whatever your privacy and child-safety policies require. We configure retention, restrict viewing to the people you nominate and set up a defined export procedure — and raise it at design stage so it is a decision your executive makes, not a default we pick.

Can you take over a system another contractor installed?

Usually yes — we service and extend existing Inner Range, Gallagher and Bosch systems. Bring the panel type, software version, who holds the admin credentials and any programming notes to the site visit, and we will tell you what can be kept, what needs replacing and the honest cost of each path.