What makes a school different
Two things. First, the buildings: assembly halls, sports halls, science blocks and Victorian brick are among the worst radio environments a small system will ever face — steel and concrete swallow signal, so a radio that covers an office happily can fail across a school site. Second, the stakes: a school radio net carries lockdown alerts, medical calls, missing-pupil searches and lettings coordination. That combination — a hard RF environment doing safety-critical work — is exactly why the cheapest consumer twin-pack is the wrong tool, and why coverage and audio discipline matter more than any feature on the box.
The three routes, and when each fits
| Route | Fits | Licence | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business-grade licence-free (PMR446) | Single, compact primaries; light coordination | None | Coverage across steel-framed halls; shared public channels near other users |
| Licensed radio | Secondaries, split or steel-framed sites, safety-critical use | Ofcom, ~£75 / 5 yrs (Simple UK Light) | Needs a supplier to programme; private channels are the whole point |
| Network (PoC) radio | Multi-site trusts; trips; site-to-site coordination | None (uses mobile networks) | Per-radio SIM/subscription cost; depends on network coverage |
The honest short version: a small primary school is often well served by business-grade PMR446 with earpieces and no paperwork; a secondary or any steel-framed, split or safety-critical site should be on licensed radio for coverage and private channels; and a multi-academy trust that needs the site team, the trust office and minibuses on one system has outgrown conventional radio entirely — that is network radio territory, because it removes the distance limit between sites.
The spec that matters
Coverage first, always
Test the actual weak spots before you commit: the sports hall, the far science block, the basement plant room, the field. If a licence-free radio can't hold those, a licensed system — with more power and, where needed, a repeater sited high — is the fix, not a "longer-range" handset.
Discreet audio (safeguarding)
Earpieces or remote speaker-mics are non-negotiable in a school. Incident traffic must never broadcast across a corridor of pupils, and staff need hands free. Budget an audio accessory per handset from the start — it changes usefulness more than any radio upgrade.
Built for a school day
A battery that lasts a full day under real use, drop-resistant build for lanyard life, and drop-in multi-chargers in the office and site room so nothing goes flat at pick-up time. Lone-worker and emergency-alert buttons matter for premises staff working alone out of hours.
Privacy where it counts
Licence-free channels are public — anyone nearby can listen. For anything touching pupil welfare, that alone is the argument for licensed radio with private channels, or network radio with encrypted calls. Treat the airwave like any other place pupil information travels.
How many, and which channels
Plan by role, not by headcount. A workable starting fleet: the site/premises team, reception, the senior leader on duty, and pastoral/safeguarding leads — commonly 6–15 handsets for a primary and 15–40 for a secondary, plus a couple of spares always on charge. Then separate the channels: a site-operations channel for the day-to-day (deliveries, premises, lettings) and a leadership/incident channel that stays clear for when it matters. The single most useful discipline you can teach is that routine chatter never lives on the incident channel.
The mistakes schools make
- Buying consumer twin-packs for safety-critical use. Brilliant on a Year 6 residential; back in the drawer, flat and unpaired, by half term when a site relies on them.
- Testing coverage from the car park. The radios always work where you're standing when you buy them. Walk the sports hall, the far block and the field before you commit.
- One channel for everything. The moment a lettings call and a medical call share a channel, you have a problem you designed in. Split operations from leadership.
- Skipping earpieces to save money. A handset barking pupil information across reception is both useless and a safeguarding issue. Audio accessories are core kit, not extras.
- Forgetting the trust. If radios need to reach another site or a minibus, no conventional radio will do it. That's a network-radio question, and worth asking before you buy anything.
Quick answers
What radios do most schools use?
Business-grade PMR446 with earpieces on single small sites; licensed radios on secondary, steel-framed or split sites; network (PoC) radios for multi-site trusts and trips.
Does a school need a licence?
No for licence-free PMR446. Yes — about £75 for five years — if you use licensed frequencies for better coverage and private channels. Network radio needs no radio licence at all.
How many do we need?
Plan by role — site team, reception, duty leader, pastoral/safeguarding — roughly 6–15 for a primary, 15–40 for a secondary, plus spares on charge.
Radios or phones?
Radios for live coordination and incidents (instant, one-to-many, robust, all-day); phones alongside for one-to-one. Most schools run both.