Fire Alarm System for Akeley Wood School | School Fire Alarm Company

The Akeley Wood Schools in Buckingham provide private education for children from Nursery to Sixth form and over 850 pupils are educated across three stunning rural campuses located between Buckingham and Milton Keynes.

The Junior School campus is at Wicken Park, the Senior School is split over 2 sites, Year 7 and 8 at Tile House Mansion and the Senior & Sixth form provision is based at the Akeley Wood House campus. All 3 properties are former private residences in extensive grounds, and the main campus buildings are grade II listed.

Over recent years significant refurbishments have been made to ensure each campus provides modern, fit-for-purpose learning spaces. Some parts of the school were protected by an EDA Millennium fire alarm system which was no longer in production and operated using a radio frequency that was no longer approved to EN54 part 25 and BS5839 Part-1 standards.

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The challenge

Tecserv UK has been providing all routine regular fire alarm maintenance and repairs to Akeley Wood Senior School for many years.

Part of the school fire alarm system which protected Akeley Wood House and the Stable Block operated using an EDA Millennium radio fire alarm system which will become obsolete in March 2021.

The School therefore decided to upgrade the entire system and replace it with the latest technology.

The solution

Although Tecserv UK had to submit a formal bid as part of a formal tendering process, we fully met the technical brief and budget criteria and, along with our previous experience of the campuses, our fully responsive service and the trusted relationships we’d built with the facilities team, we were appointed to install a new EDA Zerio Plus wireless fire alarm system to the Main House, the Art Building and the Stable Block at the Senior School campus.

This system was preferred as it was compatible with the other existing systems in newer building on the school site and operated on the EN approved frequency. This meant that all systems could now be integrated and centrally monitored by a facilities team. All of the new detection devices, call points and control panels were also like for like in size and shape for the ones being removed which also ensured that very little ‘making good’ works were required to the walls and ceilings of the listed buildings.

The outcome

Everyone who visits, learns or works at Akeley Wood School can now rest assured that should a fire break out, its precise location can be uniquely identified very quickly, and appropriate action taken to ensure the affected areas can be evacuated safely.

All buildings, some of which are of great historical importance, are also better protected by the latest fire protection technology. Routine maintenance can be monitored more efficiently and compliance record keeping will be much more comprehensive.