Schools & Educational Institutions at the Forefront for Time & Attendance Systems

Schools and other educational institutions, such as colleges, universities and even nurseries, all play an extremely important role in educating the future generations of our society. Schools are very busy places, often with thousands of students, large numbers of staff and on-site visitors every day who can all benefit from what a time and attendance system has to offer.

This article sets out to explain exactly how a time and attendance system, along with other security systems such as CCTV systems and car park barriers, can all be of great benefit to schools and other educational institutions.

Schools can benefit from a time and attendance system

A time and attendance system can massively benefit schools across the country, streamlining staff clocking in and out of their shifts, as well as improving student safety in a number of ways.

Tensor's range of time and attendance systems can provide a quick and easy method for members of staff at schools to clock in and out of their shifts, either using smart cards and clocking terminals, or by using a more technically advanced time and attendance system such as biometric or facial recognition time and attendance. Each clocking is then recorded and stored in the database which can then be accessed by the HR department for payroll purposes and in order to obtain an honest reading of working hours.

Time and attendance software for staff

Tensor's time and attendance systems include an advanced time and attendance software, known as WinTA.NET, which provides teachers with the Self-Service Module (SSM). Teachers, lecturers, and other members of staff at schools, colleges and universities, can easily use the Self-Service Module to clock in or out of their shifts and book themselves on or off the fire evacuation list.

Members of staff can use SSM to request new periods of absence, cancel pending absence requests or cancel approved absence requests that have not yet occurred. Requests can also be made to add missed clockings, amend or delete clockings made in error. The Self-Service Module provides schools with a paperless staff management system, not only being more environmentally friendly but also streamlining the clocking process with a simple card, face or finger scan.

Fire Roll Call for student safety

A time and attendance system does not only have great benefits for members of staff at schools and other educational institutions. It can also massively improve the safety for students (and staff) by accurately devising who is on-site at the exact time a fire or emergency evacuation takes place. Tensor's Fire Roll Call app is an electronic, portable fire roll call for emergency evacuations that works with Android and iOS touchscreen devices. The app provides real-time information on people's location on-site and their safety status. It intended to replace the paper-based register of on-site personnel and to ensure that all members of staff and/or visitors are accounted for.

Visitor monitoring system for school visitors

Schools, colleges and universities of all sizes are constantly welcoming visitors onto their premises for a wide range of reasons. Student family members and guest speakers are often some of the most common and regular visitors for educational institutions to accommodate for, which in most cases is a daily occurrence.

Thankfully, Tensor's visitor monitoring system allows non-employee personnel on-site to register, book appointments and check themselves in when on-site. Our visitor monitoring system is capable of being integrated with your access control system, so that guests can be granted access to specific areas within a building using a temporary smart card.

CCTV systems for on-site school security

Ensuring 24-hour on-site security is undoubtedly the most important step for any school, college or university to take in terms of students and staff safety. Not only will CCTV surveillance allow students and staff to feel safe while on school site, but it will also act as a deterrent for unwanted visitors and give you the peace of mind that expensive teaching equipment is protected for 24 hours of the day.

At Tensor, we install CCTV surveillance systems that are tailor-made to meet your educational institutions requirements, while providing a 24-hour, all-year-round, remote monitoring service. It takes immediate action on the video footage that they see following an alert, either by using the intercom link to warn away offenders or calling the police and specified keyholders, which means there is no need for on-site security guards, reducing overall security costs.

While CCTV systems can ensure maximum security levels for your premises, Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) can guarantee only authorised vehicles can enter your schools site and car parks. More details on ANPR can be found in the barriers and turnstiles section below.

Car park barriers for school premises

It is essential that only authorised personnel and vehicles are able to gain access to your school, college, or university site - a car park barrier will ensure this. This includes deliveries of food and/or equipment, while also having the ability to limit the number of vehicles on-site in accordance to the number of available car parking spaces. This guarantees that all members of staff (and students) who require on-site parking, will always have an available space, while arranged visitors can receive a temporary pass for the duration of their visit.

Tensor's car park barriers are integratable with ANPR, meaning when a vehicle approaches the entrance to your car park, access will only be granted if the said vehicle matches to the database of vehicle registration plates stored in your access control software database. This is a further security measure to enhance on-site safety and security for both members of staff and students.

Case study: Holywell Middle School

Holywell Middle School needed to be able to account for staff as accurately as they did the pupils. The school's business manager reviewed the various systems available in the marketplace and on the internet and decided upon a system from Tensor because "Tensor was the only company to do a fire roll call system, according to my search engine, and the price was right..."

Click to Read

Time and attendance frameworks

Tensor's range of time and attendance systems can be purchased through approved frameworks. The full list of frameworks can be found on our accreditations page via the button below.

Accreditations

For more information on any of our time and attendance systems to help streamline your schools' staff management system and improve student safety, or if you would like to enquire about getting a demo or a quote, please do not hesitate to get in touch with a member of our sales team today who will be happy to assist you.