Managing a school or multi-academy trust involves balancing a range of responsibilities, from maintaining accurate information across multiple sites to ensuring effective emergency procedures.
As schools review their processes and responsibilities, the right systems can help reduce administrative pressures and support more consistent ways of working. In this article, we explore how centralised management and technology can support two important areas of school operations.
Managing Information Across a Multi-Academy Trust
For multi-academy trusts (MATs), maintaining accurate information across several schools can be challenging. Central teams need visibility across individual sites, while each school must be able to manage its own operational requirements.
Managing information and settings separately can create duplication and make consistency harder to maintain.
Cloud Central, InVentry’s centralised management platform, helps trusts manage staff, settings and key information across multiple schools in one place. This can support greater oversight and reduce the administrative effort involved in managing individual sites.
As trusts grow, having clear processes for maintaining information and managing access can help support effective day-to-day operations.
School Evacuations: Understanding Your Responsibilities
Keeping pupils, staff and visitors safe during an emergency is a key responsibility for schools.
In England, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 sets out fire safety duties for relevant premises, including requirements relating to risk assessments and emergency procedures.
Schools should ensure their arrangements reflect their premises and circumstances, with appropriate staff training, regular drills and clear procedures for accounting for everyone during an evacuation.
Government guidance on fire safety in schools provides further information.
How Can Technology Support Evacuations?
During an evacuation, staff need a clear way to establish who has reached safety. Manual roll calls can involve checking lists and recording responses, adding to the workload at a time when clear communication is essential.
The InVentry RFID RollCall Scanner offers another way to record this information. Worn by fire marshals, it allows staff and visitors to tap their RFID badge to be marked as safe in RollCall.
This can reduce manual recording and help staff update evacuation information more efficiently. Schools should also consider how their procedures account for anyone without a badge or who requires additional assistance.
Technology should complement, rather than replace, established emergency plans, staff training and appropriate safety procedures.
Reviewing Your School's Processes
Whether you manage one school or an entire trust, reviewing existing processes can help identify opportunities to improve consistency, reduce administration and support safety.
Consider whether your teams can access accurate information across sites, follow clear evacuation procedures and confidently account for everyone on site.
Every school and trust has different priorities, and understanding these challenges is important when considering where improvements could make a difference.
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