Chigwell School is a Co-educational independent school that has existed on its original site since its foundation in 1629. The School maintains facilities for over 750 boys and girls between the ages of seven and eighteen, and an additional 108 pupils in the new Pre Prep school which opens in September, in an area which covers some 100 acres.

The School’s motto “aut viam inveniam aut faciam” which translates as “find a way or make a way” is as fundamental today as it was at the time of its foundation. However, David Morrison, Bursar at Chigwell School believes that “Safe School, Safe Child” as an equally important message.

The School has had a basic CCTV system for many years but as the site has evolved and grown, the limitations of the analogue system both in terms of quality and flexibility were starting to become apparent. Today, the school has 34 buildings and several car parks which sit on the southern portion of the large site. In September of 2013, the school will open a new Pre Prep which partly prompted the decision to upgrade to a new digital CCTV system.
Following a detailed study of different CCTV vendors and technologies conducted by Tim Crispin, Network Manager, the school selected a Mobotix based system from CNS, a Mobotix partner. A key deciding factor was the decentralised technology offered by Mobotix which allows for flexible monitoring terminals without the need for an expensive dedicated control room.

Although the school has a dedicated security team, using Mobotix, senior staff are able to quickly monitor pertinent cameras from any authorised PC system. “The notion of collective security that is segmented to different staff across the campus really helps to make the school a safe and secure environment,” explains David Morrison.

Working closely with CNS, the school has deployed 40 cameras covering all key buildings and doorways. These include Mobotix M12, M22, and Q24 cameras offering up to 3.1MP images without the need for special housing or additional power other than the single PoE Ethernet cable. CNS also developed and implemented an automated number plate recognition (ANPR) system that allows the school car park barrier to raise only for staff vehicles and pre-authorised guests.

The new CCTV system also has sound capability and linkage to the building alarm system to quickly allow the visual and audio inspection of the site if any alarm zones are triggered. “Since, we have had the system installed there have been no attempted break-ins and the exceptionally high quality image is clearly a deterrent,” says David Morrison.

The school has had additional training from CNS for its security team in the use of the Mobotix system as well as an external audit by an independent security expert. “The consultant we used had previously worked on security at several key Olympic sites and was impressed by our security arrangements,” explains David Morrison, “We take our responsibility to safeguard our students and staff very seriously and investment in the new CCTV and our work with CNS has been roundly supported by both our Headmaster, governors teaching and support staff and above all else our parents and pupils.”