The challenge
Harton Technology College is a highly successful 11-to-16 Department of Education and Skills (DfES) designated technology school with over 150 members of staff and 1,350 students drawn from a large area of South Shields. In 1996, the management team made a considerable investment in new learning technology. Since then, the College has received three Government Achievement Awards and has been recognised as one of the top 50 'most improved' specialist schools in the UK.
In 2002, the college was facing a number of critical security issues. With 16 entrances distributed across various buildings, the college was becoming increasingly vulnerable to incidents of anti-social student behaviour, hoax fire alarms, vandalism and theft. These incidents were costing the school a substantial amount of money each year. However, the school's existing analogue CCTV cameras did not support responsive and efficient monitoring: they simply did not offer high quality images and recovering footage from the system was extremely time-consuming.
"Working with our local Crime Prevention Officers, we decided that we needed an advanced digital monitoring system that would help maintain a safe environment for our biggest assets, our students," explained Derek Bohill, Assistant Head Teacher at Harton Technology College.
