Can lanyards increase the safety and security in your school?

When it comes to running a school, safety and security has to be your top priority at all times, but with stretched budgets it can be difficult to find the best ways to look after everybody in your care. By introducing a measure as simple as lanyards, you can take an extra step towards a safe school in a cost effective an unobtrusive way.

You might wonder what impact lanyards can have on the security of a school, so in this article We Print Lanyards, specialist in creating lanyards, ID cards and wristbands, take a look at what the advantages are and how you can make the most of this solution in your school.

What is a lanyard?

A lanyard is simply a loop of fabric which sits around the neck and has a clip on one end. This clip can be used to carry an ID card as well as other items and allows identification of staff within a particular building or business. The loops can come in different colours, and they can be personalised with your school’s name and logo to make them much easier to identify. This makes them incredibly useful and as they are visible at all times, they can play a big role in security.

Staff Identification

One of the biggest steps in a school setting is to make sure that you are in control of who is on the site at any given time, and that you keep strangers out of the way. A lanyard makes identification incredibly easy, as you can see who someone is at a glance and make sure that they are where they are supposed to be.

All staff can be issued with a lanyard that holds an identification card so that you or anyone else can quickly establish who they are. This card can include their name, a photograph, and the area that they work in so that there is no doubt about where they should be.

All visitors to the school can be issued with a temporary lanyard which not only shows that they are supposed to be on site but also that they have been through the relevant security checks when they arrived.

Lanyards can be different colours to identify people from different departments at a glance. You can also give visitors, governors, and supply staff different coloured lanyards to make them easily identifiable. If anyone is seen walking around the school without a lanyard, then you know immediately that they need to be challenged and dealt with.

Deterrent

A lanyard is not just a great way of identifying people who should be in school, it can also be very effective at deterring anyone from attempting to gain access who should not. As lanyards are so visible, it is easy for people to see that this will be required and should put them off trying to enter without the correct identification.

Emergencies

Lanyards are not only effective at identifying people from different departments, but also those with special roles within the school. If an emergency were to occur, you can easily find and identify staff who are fire wardens or trained in first aid from the colour of lanyard that they wear or the badges that they display on it. This makes it much quicker for people to act in the case of an emergency and to know who to trust.

Students

It was once thought that only the adults in school need to wear a lanyard, but it can also be very useful for students to carry one as well. Not only will it help to identify their position in a world where many teenagers can pass for adults, it is also another way of showing that they are in the right place.

Many identification cards can have smart capabilities, giving them everything they need to open doors, lockers and pay for their lunch. A lanyard makes it harder for them to lose this and ensures that they have it with them at all times. Teachers are able to quickly identify students and monitor them, especially if a colour coding system is in place.

Other items

We have talked a lot about the identification cards that can be carried on a lanyard, but they can also be used for other things. The clips that they are fitted with can make them very useful for carrying all sorts of important items to ensure that they do not get lost of forgotten and are always on hand if they are needed.

This might include things such as keys or other cards. It can also have a list of emergency contacts or procedures printed on it so that everyone has access to this information at any times.

School trips

Keeping children and young people safe while they are in school is one thing, but it can be a much bigger challenge once you take them off the school site on a trip. In busy areas, it can be difficult to keep track of which students belong to you, particularly if they are wearing coats that mean their uniform is not easy to spot.

A lanyard can make them much easier to identify, even from a distance, making it a much simpler task to round them up when needed and to keep an eye on behaviour. It has also been found that students are much more likely to behave when out and about if they know that they can be identified by others, and so a lanyard can play a big part in making sure that a school trip runs safely and smoothly.

Lanyards can be a simple tool, but also a very effective one. They are easily accessible to everyone, perform a number of different tasks and their personalisation options mean that they can also be a great advert from your school when you are outside of the school environment. They give a quick form of identification that can go a long way in keeping your staff, students, and school safe at all times, without needing to break any budgets.