Six weeks holiday?
The holidays are busy periods for us and this year has been no exception, whilst the schools are out we have been in and fitted radio fire alarms in several schools, with timescales shorter than you would expect.
Teachers get loads of time off?
People believe that the schools are shut for the complete six weeks and that the teachers get all that time off, well our experience is different to that. We find that in fact there is only about four weeks that the buildings are available for companies like ourselves to go in and replace the aging fire alarm systems. We are soon under pressure to be out of the way so that the school admin staff can get in to prepare for the new entrants and order supplies required for the next hectic term. We often find that hot on their heels are the teachers getting ready for the next term, making sure that they had prepared their lesson plans, are up to date with the latest curriculum change, the latest teaching methods or looking forward to the new head teacher.
Packed in
The timescales are further affected by the fact that the site may also have a mains change over, new wiring or lighting to be installed, heating and plumbing systems to be altered or replaced and even whole kitchens to be refurbished.
Training and Support
As part of our works we go back to the school following the installation with a view to training the teachers and site staff how to use the new fire alarm system and more importantly the implications of having automatic smoke detection throughout the school. What is often an issue is the fact that some things that the school do, which was not an issue with the old system may actually affect the newly installed system. We find that most people stand in front of the fire panel and listen to what we are teaching them and then move on, its only when they are in to the new term and want to do their fire drill or isolate some detectors that we get a call and we make sure that our engineers are available 24/7 ready to answer the questions which are sometimes a bit frantic!
