Using cloud-managed environmental sensors and smart cameras to monitor and keep schools safe and secure.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Providing a healthy school environment
2. Vaping and noise
3. Sustainability targets
4. What is a Smart Space?
5. Creating your Smart School with Cisco Meraki – Qualify for a FREE TRIAL*

There is increased awareness that the quality of our immediate environment can impact on how we learn and engage with others. By leveraging the small yet powerful functionality of the Internet of Things (IoT), progressive schools have seen the benefits of cloud-first technology that has evolved beyond the doorbell camera to provide real time data to act upon.

Today we discover how IoT technology is transforming educational environments to enable schools to meet their policies and obligations to provide & maintain safe inspiring environments for all.

1. Providing a healthy school environment

The importance of air quality

In order to maintain good air quality in schools, it’s crucial to monitor and control the levels of CO2 and VOCs to ensure a safe and conducive learning environment for students.

Effects of CO2:

• Reduced Cognitive Function: High levels of CO2 can reduce the amount of oxygen you breathe in, which means there is less oxygen going to your brain. For example, this could make it hard for students to pay attention to their teacher, concentrate on tests, or even stay awake. High levels of CO2 can affect decision-making abilities.
• Physical Discomfort: Too much CO2 can also cause physical discomfort such as headaches, dizziness, nausea, tiredness, and trouble breathing.

Effects of VOCs:

• Breathing VOCs can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat.
• VOCs can cause difficulty breathing and nausea.
• It is known that VOCs can cause damage and more serious health issues.

2. Vaping and noise

Detecting and managing safeguarding issues

Vape detection – This is a highly emotive subject for institutions, parents and government. NASUWT – The Teachers’ Union, having called on the Government to do more to protect children from the dangers of vaping, recently surveyed 4,000 teachers, with 75% responding they felt that vaping had increased.

Vaping is a safeguarding issue in schools for several reasons, including:

• Disruption to Learning: Students may leave lessons to vape, causing a significant loss to learning time.
• Peer Pressure and Social Influence: The popularity of vaping among teenagers can lead to peer pressure, causing more students to start vaping.
• Gateway to Smoking: There is concern that vaping can act as a gateway to smoking traditional cigarettes.
• School Reputation: Schools have a responsibility to provide a safe and healthy environment for students. If vaping is prevalent, it could harm the school’s reputation.
• Contradicts Health Education: Vaping in schools contradicts the health education that students receive as part of their curriculum.

We can summarise the 3 main benefits of Vape sensor deployment as:

1. Deterrence: The presence of Vape detectors is a visual reinforcement of school policy, making students less likely to vape in school.
2. Detection: They can alert staff to engage with students who are vaping. This can help educators address the issue and get students the help they need.
3. Prevention: They can help deter students from turning to cigarettes. Young people who vape are much more likely to become smokers in the future compared to those who don’t vape, due to the nicotine addiction they could potentially develop.

Noise – Excessive or prolonged noise in the school environment can be detrimental to focused learning, and in extreme circumstances impact physical & mental welbeing. The use of environmental sensors to monitor safe noise levels can additionally provide enhanced safeguarding protection – for example alerting staff of unmanaged gatherings, or a bullying situation that requires immediate intervention.

3. Sustainability targets

Smart monitoring with sensors can drive small changes that make a big difference

To help achieve net-zero targets, schools must optimise energy use across their estate, which can be achieved with smart building management. Infrastructure investments typically now adopt a sustainability lens through which understanding how electricity consumption, resulting from the IT network, could be optimised. The aim of moving away from the ‘always on‘ state is shown to reduce power usage, and therefore cost and carbon emissions. For example, this can be achieved with monitoring individual appliances, to the powering up and down of core network components.

There is potential for greater cumulative carbon and financial savings from further deployment of IoT technology, for example by utilising sensors to provide insights into the hourly air quality, noise level, temperature, and humidity in teaching spaces across schools. This would help to identify when these spaces are over cooled or heated during operating hours, enabling decisions about how best to control and regulate the temperature. A room’s usage could be monitored, to potentially automate closing off unused parts of the school.

The benefits leveraged from healthier, safer and sustainable environments can be achieved through implementation of Smart Spaces.

4. So, what’s a Smart Space?

Using technology to help protect and enforce school policies

Let’s start with asking the question: what is a Smart Space? Smart Spaces are created when you apply IT and connected IoT technologies to classrooms, school facilities and offices, and restricted areas; in fact, any space you want to monitor. Sensors and cameras form a smart monitoring mesh that provide data that enables decision-making, ranging from the opening of windows to alerting staff of safeguarding issues. Customisable power monitoring helps meet energy saving and sustainability targets, whilst dedicated server room sensors can help protect a school’s IT investment.

A flexible and agile modular network of Smart Spaces enables the creation of complete Smart Schools.

5. Creating your Smart School with Cisco Meraki

Safeguarding, sustainability, and simplicity + scalability. Meraki smart space IoT technology that integrates into your existing infrastructure.

Cisco Meraki Smart Space technology consists of a network-connected modular system comprised of indoor air quality, CO2, and workspace environment sensors (importantly, with Vape detection), cameras, and power monitoring sensors; all of which are managed from a single pane view (dashboard), integrated into the wider onsite network IT infrastructure management. With the Meraki app, real time monitoring and pushed alerts enable assigned staff to react and implement safeguarding policies.

Safeguarding

“We’ve created visibly healthier and safer environments”

Environmental sensors working in combination with smart cameras

Meraki air quality sensors help ensure a healthy environment for students and staff, especially in classrooms where chemicals are present. With CO2 detection built in, the system can prompt ventilation adjustments to maintain healthy indoor air quality that helps ensure focus. Vape detection is a significant interest to schools, and sensors implemented with smart cameras enables protection and opportunities to educate around usage.

• Air quality and particle detection – Vape detection, CO2, TVOC, and PM2.5 level monitoring.
• Noise level detection –  for alerting of disturbances or machinery noise.
• Incident response times –  with motion alert capabilities, staff can react promptly to any unusual activity, helping to curtail incidents before they escalate. The search feature allows for quick retrieval of footage by time and date, significantly accelerating the incident review process.
• Quick and easy access to footage – Meraki Smart Cameras enable customized access levels for various staff members, ensuring that only authorised personnel such as safeguarding, security, and on-duty staff can view live and recorded footage. Access is facilitated through the Meraki dashboard in combination with the app for notifications sent via text, webhook, pushed alerts, or email.

Sustainability

“We’re no longer afraid to turn it off”

At the ‘kettle plug’ level, Meraki MT40 Smart Power Controllers monitor and alert on power usage, and provide remotely controlled power for connected devices. Schools can safely move away from the ‘always on’ state, for example to reduce unnecessary overnight usage and resulting cost and cumulative carbon emissions.

• Gain insights into power usage.
• Get power outage and anomalous power usage notifications.
• Troubleshoot connected devices with remote powercycling commands.
• Monitor voltage, current, apparent power, real power, AC frequency, power factor, and energy.
• Configure alerts for thresholds, deviations, or power outages.
• Send alerts via SMS, push notification, email, or webhook.

At the IT infrastructure level, Meraki Network Switches with Port Scheduling, permit significant power saving by enabling automated network shutdown and restart at scheduled times, at night for example. Additionally, by scheduling Meraki Wi-Fi Access Points to power down outside hours, schools can take back control of power usage to realise significant cost savings by eliminating unnecessary consumption.

Simplicity

“I have one platform I go to, one dashboard, and I can see everything”

The Meraki cloud-first platform eliminates the complexity of bringing networking, sensors, and analytics together by providing combined connectivity, security, and AI-driven analysis into a single pane view – the Meraki Dashboard. Meraki Smart Spaces are designed as a natural integration into the Meraki WAN, as well as deployment within a non-Meraki WAN as required.

• Simple architecture: there is no need for NVRs, DVRs, or additional software.
• Security and GDPR Compliance: Built-in security features safeguard your camera network against cyber threats. Compliance with data protection regulations like GDPR is paramount, and Meraki cameras meet these requirements, ensuring that surveillance practices in schools are responsible and lawful.

Scalability

“We can ramp up or change the system coverage as needed”

The Meraki dashboard is designed to be intuitive and flexible, making the configuration and deployment of cameras seamless as well as providing the capability to manage other aspects of your school’s physical environment, such as environmental sensors, and network infrastructure; all from a single interface. A truly modular system of sensors and smart cameras.

• Zero-touch deployment for seamless implementation.
• Intuitive Meraki Dashboard single pane view for efficient management and actionable data.

Let’s talk about your Smart School – FREE trial*

We are very interested to discover more about the commitment to student & staff safeguarding at your school, and to help explore where environmental sensors with supporting smart cameras could improve on the protection currently in place. Additionally how enhanced air quality data could enable effective decision-making, with energy sensors delivering measurable savings for a more sustainable future.

To arrange an Advantage Start Smart and Protect consultation, and to discuss a free trial*, get in contact with our team.

Let’s create smarter spaces that monitor and protect, together.

*Free trial subject to location, qualification and acceptance.