Entries should feel welcoming, so students and teachers feel excited to be there and feel valued. This can be done through architecture and graphics for school pride.

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED) fundamental strategies to use:

Territorial Reinforcement: Provide adequate lighting and landscaping techniques as important factors in the “see and be seen” approach to prevent crime.  Sufficient lighting in parking areas and outside circulation zones increases student, parent and staff safety, especially after hours.  Site lighting to cover parking lots, spaces for evening events and the areas used for pick-up.

Natural access control: Use walkways, lighting, signage and landscape to direct people and vehicles to and from entries.

Natural territorial reinforcement: Clearly define private areas from public areas to deter trespassers.  Good landscape design can contribute to this by creating a “no man’s land” buffer of landscape (prickly planting) that would make a person walking in that zone stand out as an intruder.

Super graphics for first responders and wayfinding: Agencies who respond to emergencies are recommending super graphics instead of small room tags to help them get to the zone they need to attend to when there is a threat to safety.  Supergraphics help first responders get to where they need to be quickly.