Context

Brown’s School in Orpington, Kent, was established in 1997 specially for children with dyslexia. It is one of the original dyslexia specialist schools. With 90 students, the school is a small, independent day school providing education to boys and girls aged from 9 to 18 years.

Brown’s School caters to young people with specific learning difficulties, including dyslexia, dyspraxia, dyscalculia, or speech and language difficulties, autism, and ADD/ADHD.

Lessons are tailored to meet the individual needs of each student, with a strong staff : pupil ratio. The school strives to create a positive, safe learning environment and make people feel valued giving opportunities for pupils to reach their full potential.

The school has a comprehensive health and safety policy which is reviewed every year, in which the duties of all members of staff are outlined. Duties include reporting any defects in equipment or facilities and taking an interest in health and safety matters; suggesting any appropriate changes to how the school can become safer by reducing injuries and accidents.

Requirement

The school was originally demarcated with traditional wrought iron railings with finials, with the car park being surrounded by a footpath leading to and from the school buildings.

With a number of cars coming and going at various times of day, a suggestion was highlighted by staff that fencing was required between the car park and the footpath to increase safety for students walking between different areas of the school.

Solution

Jacksons Barbican Imperial® steel railings were chosen to create a safe and secure school environment and segregate vehicles and pedestrians.

Secure railings with rounded pales

Over 86m of 1.8m high fencing and three gates were installed.

With welded pale-through-rail construction, no visible bolts and tamper-proof panel-to-post connectors, the Barbican Imperial steel railing fencing system is highly secure.

With slender, rounded pales, it also presents a smart aesthetic which does not create a hostile environment and closely matches the existing fencing and gates, of which some remain.

Safety requirements

Safety requirements were stipulated in the fencing contract – due to the children having special needs, the fence needed to be free from anything that could cause injury or could be inadvertently removed by students to create an unsecure fence. This included having no visible bolts, and also the requirement for the pale tops to be capped to prevent a finger trap hazard or any sharp edges. Capping pales is always an option with Jacksons vertical bar fencing if required.

Wildlife-friendly design

Due to the vertical pale design, hedgehogs and other wildlife are able to move freely past the fence, which for the school - situated on the edge of the Kent Downs - is important to be as environmentally-friendly as possible.

Protective finish

The fence and gates were hot dip galvanised to protect them from rust and finished with an optional polyester powder coating in black RAL 9005. Polyester powder coating, unlike traditional painting, does not chip or crack and therefore the risk of sharp flakes of paint causing injury will not be a risk over time.

Jacksons 25-year guarantee

The fence and gates are guaranteed for 25 years against rust and manufacturing defects. Having a long guarantee reduces the time spent repairing, replacing and maintaining the fence aside from simple security checks, ensuring staff can dedicate their time to helping and educating the students.

Access control with audio intercoms

To provide robust and reliable access control through the gates, Jacksons installed audio intercoms and pin pads, with gates having magnetic locks and self closers to prevent gates being accidentally left open.

Scheduled installation for minimal disruption

Jacksons can work around school or business hours to create an installation schedule that works for the client.

For this school, Jacksons Fencing tailored working hours around the school times in order to minimise interference, working from 9am-5pm and taking a break between 3 and 4pm to allow cars in to collect children. All Jacksons installers that work in schools during term time were DBS cleared.