School CCTV systems
Cameras in a school are a data-protection decision before they are a security one. We treat them that way.
Most school CCTV is pointed at the wrong things
Walk round almost any school and the cameras look inwards at corridors, and outwards at nothing.
Corridor cameras generate a great deal of footage of children going to lessons and almost never answer the question anybody actually asks. The incidents schools need footage for happen at the boundary, in the car park, at the bike sheds, at the delivery entrance and around the sports hall at seven in the evening.
So the first thing we do on a school survey is not count cameras. It is ask what has actually happened in the last two years, and where. The answer usually redirects half the proposed positions and removes a few.
The second thing is the paperwork, because a camera system without a DPIA, a retention period and signage is a compliance problem the school owns, not the installer.
And where they do not
The boundary and approaches
Where an incident starts, and where Martyn's Law would look if it applied to you.
Entrances and the car park
Vehicles, deliveries, collections and the people who should not be there.
The bike sheds and bin store
Statistically, your most productive cameras.
The sports hall out of hours
Lettings are where an unmonitored building meets the public.
Never in toilets or changing rooms
There is no version of this that is acceptable. Use a sensor instead.
Carefully in corridors
Some, at junctions, with a reason written down. Not everywhere because it is easy to cable.
What a school actually has to do
None of this is difficult, and all of it is expected.
A lawful basis and a DPIA
The ICO expects a data protection impact assessment for CCTV in a school. It is a short document and we will give you a starting point.
Signage
People have to know they are being recorded and why. Including visitors, contractors and parents.
A retention period
Decided, written down and actually applied. Most schools land on around 30 days, with specific incidents exported and held separately.
Subject access
Someone can ask for footage of themselves. You need a process, and redaction of other people is part of it.
What we install, and why
Recording on the camera, management in a browser, and no recorder in a cupboard.
- No NVR to steal or flood. Footage is on the camera, which is on the wall.
- Search by description. Find a person in seconds rather than scrubbing an evening away.
- Share a clip properly. A link to the police, logged, rather than a memory stick.
- Roles that restrict. The site team, the head and the DPO see appropriate things, and every view is logged.
Use this on us as well
- Camera positions justified individually, with a reason for each.
- Positions explicitly excluded, and why — toilets, changing rooms, anything overlooking a neighbour.
- The retention period, and what it means in storage terms on the model quoted.
- Who will have access, at what level, and how that is reviewed.
- A DPIA starting point and signage included rather than left to you.
- Cabling, containment, power and certification stated, not assumed.
- What happens to the old system — removal, or a Command Connector licence per retained channel.
Three installations, and what each one is doing
Cameras in a school are a data-protection decision before they are a security one. These are the placements that survive a DPIA, and the reasoning behind each.
Questions we get asked
How long should we keep footage?
Can parents ask to see footage of their child?
Can we keep our existing cameras?
Sources
Everything on this page is taken from these. Checked 25 September 2026.
Start with a survey, not a quotation.
We walk the site, look at what you already have, and tell you what would genuinely help — including where the answer is that you do not need anything.
Book a free site survey Call 01727 822 833Tell us about the site
Send us a few details and an engineer — not a call centre — will come back to you within one working day.
This is not a monitoring centre
If you are dealing with an incident now, call 999. This line is monitored during office hours.