School
A primary school in Haldermoor
A building that has to empty in a hurry, with hall doors wedged, coats crowding the way out and a bin against an exit.
Town
Haldermoor
Floors
2
Floor area
2,300 m²
Occupancy
210 pupils and 28 staff
Assessed
Review date
What we found
Three findings, marked on the photograph.
1
Bin against exit door
Act now
Move the bin outside and keep the exit door free at all times.
2
Hall doors wedged open
Within a month
Fit hold-open units that release on the alarm and stop using the bench.
3
Coats crowd the route
Within three months
Move the pegs to bays off the walkway and set a limit on bags.
What changed
The same place after the work.
The bin has moved outside, the hall doors are held by units that release on the alarm and the coats are off the walkway.
The school has two floors, a hall, a kitchen and about two hundred pupils. We came on the second week of the autumn term, which is when a school is at its fullest and least tidy.
The cloakroom lobby is where children arrive and leave, and it is also the way out of the hall. The hall doors were wedged with a PE bench, because staff open them for assembly and forget them afterwards. The pegs were already over-full, and coats and bags had slid onto the floor. A recycling bin had been left against the exit door for a weekend collection.
The headteacher walked round with us and made notes of her own. She asked what a fire door would do on a normal day if it were shut, and we said: nothing noticeable. She decided the hold-opens were worth the cost.
The site manager moved the bin that afternoon. The pegs were reorganised in the half-term break, and the review is set for the same month next year.
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