Sign In App

How to improve safety in schools, colleges and universities

Educational institutions are responsible for creating a safe learning environment for their students and equally a safe workplace for employees. But across the world, schools, colleges and universities are faced with different safety and security challenges.

As with any type of organisation, whether that’s a business or a school, there’s various pieces of legislation that organisations in the education sector should follow to ensure they protect the safety of anyone on site. These can vary by country or state, so we’d always suggest further research to ensure your organisation is complying with the relevant regulations. But if we take the UK as an example, The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 outlines duties of employers, including ensuring that employees and pupils are not exposed to any risks to their health & safety.

So, it goes without saying that it is crucial that any school safety processes are seamless to implement and easy to follow no matter the age of the person.

Safety has always been at the core of Sign In App, and with education being our largest sector, we have always strived to ensure that any new safety feature released in the app can easily be implemented into schools to streamline health and safety procedures for visitors, employees and students.

Below are a few of the top features education sites can utilise to improve school safety for employees, students and visitors.

Safety+

Safety plug logo overlayed on a person complete a evacuation roll call outdoors

Safety+ by Sign In App is our newest release and it introduces a series of features that put health and safety at the core.

Shared evacuation reports

Efficient emergency evacuations can save lives. Sign In App’s shared evacuation reports is the perfect feature for education sites, allowing multiple staff members/fire marshals to join a roll call on Companion app for more efficient evacuations. With integration to your existing MIS system, you can also pull through all registration data so that Companion app can be used to account for everyone on site during an evacuation, so you can put that hefty visitor sign in book away for good.

Learn more about shared evacuation reports here.

Safety Check

Safety Check was the second new feature included in the initial release of Safety+ and it gives sites the tools they need to manage specific entry requirements and comply with local/industry safety regulations and guidance. Safety Check allows you to issue digital health certificates to visitors and/or staff members following confirmation of their health status, such as vaccination record or a negative PCR test, without storing any personal health information. With Safety Check, you can also create a block list which enables you to prevent high risk individuals from signing in.

For more information on Safety Check, click here.

More features to improve school safety

Person using a smartphone to scan a contactless QR code

MIS Integrations

As mentioned earlier, it’s vital to have an accurate record of everyone on site in the event of an emergency. Sign In App uses a secure platform to integrate with existing MIS systems to automatically keep student and staff data in sync; this can be extremely helpful when recording late arrivals or early leavers.

MIS integration starts from £120 per year.

Learn more here.

Messages and policies

To ensure visitors comply with important safety and security notices or policies, Sign In App allows you to present messages and policies to visitors for them to read, accept and sign at the point of sign in, whether they are signing in at the reception iPad or signing in through their personal smartphone device.

Messages and policies can also be used for employees, and it’s easy to update these when you need to present new information or new regulations have been introduced. Read more about this feature here.

Visitor badges

Visitor badges are often used in schools to confirm visitors have been approved when walking around to improve site security. By connecting a compatible printer, Sign In App can automate this process by printing a badge as soon as your visitor has completed their sign in. Badges are fully customisable, so you can choose what information is shown.

Learn more about visitor badges here.

Employee sign in

Transform the staff sign in experience with a variety of different secure sign in options for employees. Our mobile Companion app is available on iOS and Android for free and enables your staff members to sign in from their personal smartphone; the full sign in experience is supported and Companion can also be used for emergency evacuations. Our Sign In App Tap feature allows you to use your existing door access cards or fobs to sign in securely with just a tap on the reader.

Read more about our employee sign in options here. Our Sign In App Tap reader is a one-off fee of £250; learn more here.


If you’d like to find out more about any of the features above or want to learn more about how Sign In App can improve safety in schools, colleges and universities, get in touch. Our customer experience team is on hand to help 24 hours a day, 5 days a week on live chat, phone and email, and we promise they’re really friendly! You can find all of the ways to contact us here.