Oaklands School

Oaklands School is a community comprehensive secondary school based
in Bethnal Green, East London. It has just under 1,000 pupils on its roll
aged 11 to 18.

Rated as ‘good’ in recent Ofsted inspections, Oaklands is praised as a school where diversity is celebrated, where staff set high expectations and want the very best for their pupils, and ultimately where pupils flourish and achieve well.

Located in the heart of London’s East End, Oaklands School operates over three separate sites. Although the three premises are within a mile’s radius of each other – and two are on opposite sides of Old Bethnal Green Road, connected by a walk bridge – running a busy education establishment across different locations creates unique challenges compared to operating a single campus.

Communication is an obvious one. Until recently, the school had no dedicated comms system connecting the three sites, relying on staff member’s mobile phones and landlines.

School business manager Srividya Srivathsan commented: “Because of the old buildings we’re in, coverage for mobile phones wasn’t great. The school preferred that staff not use their personal devices and therefore decided to invest in a school-wide system.”

Oaklands School had not used two way radios before. However, through contacts at a nearby primary school, school leaders learned about the IDARO smart radio system. Attracted by the idea of having dedicated radios that would function on the WiFi networks installed across the three sites, the school contacted Brentwood Communications to find out more.

Andrew Turner, Senior Business Development Executive at Brentwood, said: “We arranged a trial of Hytera PNC380 handsets fitted with the IDARO app. The system was well received, and the school agreed to take 22 devices.

We worked closely with Srividya and the team to get the system up and running on site and to provide ongoing support to staff as the radios were introduced. This included delivering training via Microsoft Teams.”

Srividya explained how the new radios are used by both teaching and non-teaching staff across the school. “We’ve got handsets for our pastoral team. If a student needs to be supported in the classroom, teachers can call reception, and then whoever is on duty can be contacted immediately.

The premises team also carry radios now. Again, it means they can be reached for urgent queries wherever they happen to be.”