Yarrabilba State Secondary College serves the students of Logan City in southeast Queensland, a rapidly growing area between Brisbane to the north and Gold Coast to the south. The college opened in 2020 with 250 foundation students and 50 staff and once it’s at full capacity will have four times those numbers.
Deputy Principal Janelle Whatmore explains the ethos of the college: “One of the points of difference for our college is that we really value outdoor and project based learning for our students. So it's quite normal to see students out in the community learning in the natural environment and being hands on and engaged with their learning.”
Access Points
Staff
Students
Our staff love the SALTO system and particularly using the fobs, which really simplifies their working day.
It was a pleasure helping Yarrabilba State Secondary College to achieve their access goals. Removing heavy keyrings and replacing them with a SALTO smart access control system saves time, increases overall security, and ensures peace of mind for the staff and parents. The system will easily flex and grow alongside this progressive new school.
When the school first opened, access to the campus, classrooms and other facilities were via traditional locks and keys. But they soon realised that this approach wasn’t practical and carried a high overhead to manage.
Janelle explains: “It's quite common for staff, especially teachers, in a high school to be moving buildings throughout the day. Some of our staff had to carry up to seven keys around with them! That’s simply not practical or convenient, especially as they were trying to unlock doors whilst also carrying laptops or learning materials. We wanted a single credential which gives them access to all the places they need to be across the campus.”
Not only were keys a hassle for teachers to use, but if they were lost or misplaced, replacements were expensive to replace.
Being a brand-new school with state-of-the-art sports and arts facilities, Yarrabilba hires out spaces to local groups, like community basketball associations, so they also wanted a way to allow access to external users without compromising the safety of the campus.
Yarrabilba implemented Salto smart access technology to integrate student and staff physical security needs into a single card, providing the most convenient and secure access for them and more control. The student, visitors and staff smart keycards are programmed – by user profile, by area and by time. By integrating Salto with student cards and campus facilities staff can easily access all the areas of the college that they need, based on their role. Cards or fobs can also be given to external users, with the ability to instantly grant access to resources, facilities and lift access even out of hours. For example, in evenings or weekends — with or without on-premise staff, the basketball club can access the sports hall, but no other parts of the college, and only on their designated day and time.
If a card or fob is lost, or a member of staff leaves, it can be very rapidly decommissioned to ensure there are no breaches of security. Programming a replacement is cheap, fast and easy, making the system much more convenient for users.
The access cards and fobs can be programmed for other functions too – such as releasing printing, and using scanners and photocopiers, so that staff only need a single credential.
The Salto system also provides audit reports so that the school can easily see who has accessed (or tried to access) which areas.
As a progressive and modern college, Yarrabilba is delighted that they have been able to harness Salto’s innovative leading-edge technology to keep their school secure and make life easier for their busy staff. Janelle says they’re keen to continue their EAC journey, with plans to fit Salto locks to more of the internal doors within the college. “Our staff love the Salto system and particularly using the fobs, which really simplifies their working day. We want to extend the system and continue to use this great technology to make our staff’s lives easier.”
- Ease of use – access only requires the smart keycard to be touched on the lock, making it fast and easy, even when staff are carrying multiple items as they move from classroom to classroom.
- Convenience – staff no longer have to carry multiple keys, just a single smart card or fob.
- Multiapplication – the same card or fob is used for access, printing, scanning and other functions.
- Reduced management overheads – if a card or fob is lost, it is rapidly decommissioned and replaced.
- Lower cost – cards and fobs are cheaper than keys, and locks never need to be replaced if credentials are lost.
- Audit trail – the college values transparency and the Salto system provides reports on who has accessed (or tried to access) each area.
- Security – the Salto system helps to keep staff and students safe by ensuring there is no unauthorised access to the college grounds or buildings.
- Community engagement – with Salto the school can make its great facilities easily accessible to external groups, without sacrificing security.
Yarrabilba State Secondary College serves the students of Logan City in southeast Queensland, a rapidly growing area between Brisbane to the north and Gold Coast to the south. The college opened in 2020 with 250 foundation students and 50 staff and once it’s at full capacity will have four times those numbers.
