The Client
Sommerville Specialist School is the largest specialist school in New Zealand, catering to students aged 5 through to 21 with special needs and intellectual disabilities. The school consists of 400+ students with 150 staff – including teachers and administration staff.
The Challenge
The combination of higher support needs of students, the need to be responsive to various incidents and a growing campus meant that Sommerville staff needed highly structured communication systems to be able to support both students and staff – particularly in times of emergency, including medical and behavioural incidents.
The System
Following an assessment of Sommerville’s requirements and unique challenges – Dove Communications implemented Hytera S1 Pro Radio devices. The lightweight, compact radio was most suitable for teachers & administration staff to carry on their persons on a daily basis. This device was paired with ‘parent radios’ on site that are continually scanning the school’s channels – allowing for all users to be kept informed about any/all incidents to provide timely support as required.
The Outcome
Sommerville Specialist School began seeing the value in this solution immediately. One day after implementing the new communications system, a medical emergency was able to respond to swifty with the system allowing for fast & efficient communication between staff.
