Your school or educational establishment cares deeply for your students’ safety, but do you have everything you can in place to make their health, safety, and security a top priority? Can you confidently say that you are doing everything that you can to prevent any accidents or incidents that may arise? Whether your answer is a yes or no, here are 4 education essentials that you can use to protect your staff and students.
#1 Window Film
Window Film is a cost-effective health and safety and security measure that can be applied to all of your existing windows in your establishment. Not only does it improve your existing glazing, therefore making your premises more energy efficient, but it also provides many other benefits depending on the type of film:
- Climate/Solar control window film – reflects heat away from your building but also reduces heat loss through the glass. This can help to optimise occupant comfort levels, therefore, increasing work productivity.
- Anti-glare window film -filters out 99% of harmful UV rays. This can help reduce glare, especially from computer screens, to increase visual comfort.
- Safety/Anti-shatter window film – strengthens existing glazing, upgrading the glass to meet building safety requirements. This film also holds glass fragments together in the event of a bodily impact or an explosion.
- Security window film – provides an additional layer of protection to the glass to deter a burglary or an intentional attempt to break the glass.
See yourself how 3M™ Window Film fairs when put through Break In Entry Testing!
While the safety and security film may be the obvious measures to put in place to protect your staff and students, don’t overlook those that aim to help with climate and solar control. Unwanted solar gain through glass can cause uncomfortable working temperatures which, if they increase beyond 24 degrees centigrade, can reduce concentration levels and mental performance which may lead to accidents as well as causing migraines, eye strain, and the worsening of conditions such as asthma.
3M Window film is easily applied with minimum disruption to the building occupants, yet the effect that they have on the safety and protection of your premises and students is invaluable.
Read: 6 Pesky Problems That Window Film Can Solve
#2 DDA Manifestations
It is a health and safety requirement to apply manifestations to glass doors, glass partitions and screens, to make sure that the solid glass is evident. The aim of the manifestations is to help make glass obvious thereby reducing injuries by preventing people from walking into the glass.
By law, if you have full height glass windows, doors or building partitions, they must be marked with two rows of 50mm white or frosted dots, squares or bands on the glass at heights of 85-100cm and 140-160cm from the floor. As long as these minimum legal requirements are satisfied, however, you can make these manifestations into special shaped logos if you so wish.
Here are a couple of other ways that you can satisfy the manifestation requirement whilst also increasing privacy and safety in the process:
- Frosted window film or graphics – partially obscures the glass to provide some privacy from passersby.
- Reflective materials – these create a one-way vision so that only students can see out.
- Solid colour vinyl film – this material completely obscures the glass providing complete privacy.
Read our blog on How To Use Your Budget Cost-Effectively To Protect Your Educational Establishment
#3 Anti-Slip Materials
Slips, trips and falls are the leading cause of general accidents and injuries in public spaces, yet the majority of them can be prevented by implementing the right safety measures and by raising awareness.
Protect your staff and students from unnecessary injury by using anti-slip materials such as:
- Fibreglass anti-slip – a very durable, long term solution (dependent on foot traffic) and available in contrasting colours (grey, yellow, white and glow in the dark) to help with DDA requirements.
- Anti-slip liquid – a medium to long term solution (dependent on foot traffic) and flexible due to liquid properties.
- Anti-slip tapes – suitable for short term or low foot traffic areas, available in standard or conformable (aluminium backed) material for uneven surfaces.
- Entrance matting – wide-range of fitted or loose laid matting.
The best way to implement this safety feature is by identifying the potentially hazardous areas in your establishment – usually stairs, ramps, walkways etc – and then choosing the appropriate anti-slip material to apply.
All slip-resistant materials are durable and quick to install as well as being an extremely practical and cost-effective solution to preventing accidents. Doesn’t this simple measure seem worth it to you to minimise risk and ensure the safety of your occupants?
#4 Finger Guards
In many schools and nurseries where there are young children present, injuries that you perhaps haven’t thought of before can occur such as getting their fingers trapped in door hinges. In fact, in any establishment where there is high traffic of all ages, this injury can occur, so finger protection should be another area where you apply easy and cost-effective preventative measures.
Not only are door finger guards durable, inexpensive and easy to fit, but they also completely take away the risk of a door causing injury. This seems like a very easy fix to us! If you don’t think of finger trapping as that big of an issue, then maybe these figures will highlight the need for them:
- 30,000 children under the age of 15 in the UK trap their fingers every year
- 1,500 a year need some form of surgery
- Several finger amputations take place every year from this accident
Do you think finger guards are worth it when they eliminate the risk completely?
Safety is your number 1 priority
Most of us know what we should do but we don’t. We risk it with the thinking that “it will never happen” or “I’ll deal with it if it happens” but you can’t think this way when you have hundreds of students and staff whose safety is in your hands.
By using these 4 highly effective and inexpensive education essentials, you can create a solid safety and security foundation that protects your premises and all the occupants in it. Safety, after all, should be at the forefront of all your decisions as you’re shaping the minds of tomorrow. Make sure you protect them today.
WE AT APPLIED PRODUCTS OFFER A RANGE OF HIGH-QUALITY SAFETY PRODUCTS TO SCHOOLS IN THE UK…
If you need any help or advice on what products you need to ensure the complete safety of your staff and students, don’t hesitate to get in touch; we’d love to help! Applied Products has a large range of specialist products that will help you keep your premises and everyone in it as secure as possible.
Applied Products – [email protected] / 01792 895730
