School to boost security at gates

SECURITY conscious . . . the gates at North Chadderton School that are to be manned

AN Oldham school is to post security on its front gates during school hours to keep out unwanted visitors.

North Chadderton School and Sixth Form Centre is believed to be the first secondary school in the borough to take such action.

It has placed an advertisement in the Evening Chronicle for a gate keeper to work 37 hours a week during term time.

In a sign of the times, the position is a security measure needed to stop people being able to walk on to school premises without permission.

The Chadderton Hall Road school says it had to act after a school in the North-East was recently failed by Ofsted when inspectors were able to walk into school unchallenged.

North Chadderton has security fencing around its perimeter and has a back gate kept permanently locked, but needs someone to man the front gate from 7.45am to 3.45pm.

A school spokeswoman said: “One of the issues that schools have is that it’s very difficult to close schools down because of the way they were built.

“We have decided to lock our perimeter down so we are employing someone to go on the gates and manage the gates. It’s about the school ensuring the safety of people on site.”

She stressed that the school has not had any security issues.

Members of its premises team currently take it in turns to man the gates at key times but it had been decided the role needs to be permanent.

The advert states applicants must have good communication skills and pass an enhanced criminal record check and offers a salary of £10,272.

The spokeswoman added: “I think we will probably get a lot of interest because of the economic climate. Anything we advertise we are getting inundated with applications.”

Councillor Kay Knox, Oldham Council’s cabinet member for children, young people and families, said: “Since September, Ofsted has placed a greater emphasis on the area of safeguarding pupils while in school.

“Security has always been a top priority, however all schools — especially our bigger and busier ones — have the option to put in place additional security measures if they see it as a requirement.

“If a school has the resources and sees it as important then, through their delegated budget, they have the option, as North Chadderton has done, to employ a gate keeper in order to confirm the identity of all visitors and therefore ensure the safety of the school site and all the children and staff on it.”