A button that never
answered back.
Greenwood Academy replaced the emergency alert button in its MIS with teamSOS Enterprise — and took the isolation out of the classroom.
An alert with no way to reply
Greenwood used the emergency alert button built into its MIS. When a teacher pressed it, on-call responders were still summoned by radio — and the teacher heard nothing back.
There was no way to get confirmation with the MIS button. You’re in a situation where you feel you need to call for help, but then have no idea if anybody has picked it up or not.
Deputy Principal
Two-way support, without opening the door
Staff call for help, see the response and know it is coming. On-call responders reply by text rather than radio, so confidentiality holds even when the exchange happens in front of a class.
The chat has mattered most to supply teachers, early-career staff and anyone new to the school: a channel for guidance from a colleague who knows the student, mid-lesson, without the class seeing an SLT member arrive at the door.
It also keeps more students in learning. A teacher can ask on-call to log a detention remotely, rather than a member of SLT walking in and removing the student from the room.
And it deploys the on-call team better: whoever is closest picks up the call and attends, and responders help each other — sometimes simply telling a teacher to send the student along, because they are nearby.
The key thing for us is that teamSOS takes away the isolation that you can feel in a classroom.
Support that supply staff can use on day one
Easy to train, and they feel far more supported in the classroom than a radio and a hope ever allowed.
Advice, not just attendance
Responders coach through the incident and afterwards, so the class teacher keeps the authority in the room.
Enough detail to triage
Responders can judge urgency before they move, so the right person goes to the right incident.
A record while it happens
Department heads and leaders see incidents and responses in real time — useful later for evidence and review.
Four places nobody planned for
Greenwood started with on-call and medical. Once staff trusted it, the uses kept arriving.
Online parents’ evenings
Staff running meetings remotely ask a colleague for guidance, or for the detail they need, without the parent ever knowing.
Emergency drills
In a practice drill, being able to see instantly who is and is not OK has proved the most useful part of all.
Safeguarding alerts
Smoothwall Level 4 and 5 alerts flow into teamSOS and go straight to the right people, repeating until somebody responds.
The dashboard review
Richard reviews the day’s calls and responses to see which staff need more support, and which groups of students are driving behaviour.
The integration of Smoothwall Level 5 and 4 alerts with teamSOS has been beneficial, as these are flagged up straight away to the most appropriate people. Using teamSOS means you are constantly alerted until someone responds to the concern.
Two incident types, then whatever came next
Richard kept the launch deliberately simple — on-call and medical only. The whole staff was running within a week, and adding categories after that was easy because people were already familiar with it.
Greenwood is rated Good, having recently moved up from Requires Improvement, and is on a journey to excellence — with the systems that support staff treated as part of getting there.
Putting a message out via teamSOS to ask for advice and having an answer instantly builds teacher confidence and improves class management.
See what this looks like in your school.
Book a 20-minute demo and we’ll show you teamSOS with your own on-call scenarios.
