Waipawa Primary School

Simplifying access and enhancing security was an administration necessity for Hawkes Bay’s Waipawa Primary School. 

The small rural school, 30-minutes south of Hastings is home to 310 students and 32 staff, and regularly shares it facilities with the wider community.
Paul Jamieson, Principal of Waipawa School was looking for a solution that would streamline access and security but remained flexible and easy to use. 
Paul chose the Gallagher SMB solution and is already recommending it to other schools.

Streamlined access

As is often the case for small community schools, Waipawa School was regularly sharing its facilities with the wider community which meant granting temporary access was an ongoing and time-consuming task. With the school’s old security system requiring multiple keypads, access codes and keys, Paul says it was getting difficult to keep track of who had access to the premises and ensuring it was secure after use.

“Being a one school town, people use our facilities like the hall. They all knew what the code was. It wasn't that great. I'd hate to think how many people had their own code, probably over 80 and then a lot of other people just knew the number,” says Paul.

With Gallagher SMB, the distribution and recovery of keys and PIN codes is no longer an issue. The community now unlocks the facilities using their smartphone, and Paul can assign who has access in a matter of minutes through the SMB app.

Better yet, he can set up community members as temporary users, granting them access to the facilities only for a limited period of time that he specifies.

Security that moves with you

Paul needed a solution that was easy to manage and flexible to accommodate staff changes and users from the wider community.

Previously, granting access to new users was costly and time-consuming and required a technician call out. Now, Paul says he can grant access and add and remove users remotely via the SMB app which is saving the school both time and money.

“It’s just easy, but also, we're in control, so that was the big difference. We've just had a staff member leave last Friday, so I've deleted him from the alarm set up. I've got a new one starting, so I've just set them up literally in two minutes, not even that, to do both of those things. It's just so easy, that makes a difference. I'm not relying on trying to get hold of a technician,” adds Paul.

SMB puts the power in Paul’s hands and gives him complete control over who can access the premises and at what time. Through the SMB app he can easily add and delete users and track who is gaining access to the facilities when using the History log feature. This offers better peace of mind, knowing only authorised users can access the school and at certain times.

Protecting what matters most

The move to SMB has not only enhanced the school’s security and access but has also enabled Paul and his team to focus on what’s most important, their students. 
“It’s (security) one of the things in a school that you just want to work well and not have to worry about because we've got too much going on. When you're worried about your security system, you're taking your eyes off what your real job is,” explains Paul.