In any school classroom, installing a high-quality door lock is essential. Without a suitable lock, it becomes increasingly easy for classrooms to be disturbed. At the same time, a poor-quality lock can jam or stick at the wrong time, forcing the door to lock, which can be a serious matter in an emergency. Most schools today recommend installing a door lock with key access on each classroom door.
Why? To learn about the benefits of a door lock with key controls, we contacted the professionals at Locks & Hardware. In a chat with one of their lock specialists, we learned about why a door lock and key combination is ideal for most school classrooms. Not only can this make the door nice and secure to prevent unwanted access to the classroom, but it can also ensure that entering and exiting the classroom remain simple.
Let’s look at what we learned about a key-operated internal door lock in a school classroom in the UK.
Balancing Safety & Accessibility For Classrooms
We understand that finding the ideal internal door locks for a school setting can be challenging. After all, you need students and teaching staff to be able to come and go from classes without the door jamming or sticking due to poor-quality locks. At the same time, you need ample security.
Children coming to your school deserve to feel safe, right? That’s why classroom doors need to lock. In the worst-case scenario of a potential incident that leaves people trapped in class, doors need to be able to be locked. Therefore, the locks in your classroom doors ned to be highly reliable. That means they should rarely jam or stick, and they should not require regular repairs.
Access to the classroom should be easy; the door should open easily when unlocked. If the teacher has to unlock or lock the door, they should do so at the first time of asking. Doors need to be capable of being fitted with keyed alike systems, though, as each classroom is likely to be used by multiple members of staff throughout the school week.
You also need to find lock types that are compatible with internal doors and with the material your doors are made from. Where do you start when carrying out such a search?
The Best Key Lock Options For School Classrooms
So, you can appreciate the importance of reliability, consistency, safety, and compatibility. If you want to find the best door lock with a key combination for your school classrooms, we recommend:
Door Knob Locks
Many classroom doors benefit from having a doorknob as they tend to be a touch more robust. That said, door knobs can be hard to open for those with physical limitations or mobility issues. If any of your students or staff are in that position, you might wish to avoid installing door knobs and instead look at door handles.
Interior door knobs and locks can be operated with a thumb-turn internal lock or locked with a key. Though they are not the most physically durable door knob locks, they can be enough for school classrooms where security and break-ins are less of a concern.
Lever Locks
Lever locks are very popular when fitting handles in classrooms for younger children and/or classes with children who have disabilities. Levers are much easier to operate than doorknobs.
They require less physical grip and force to open, making them ideal for most schools. They also tend to be quite stylish, making them a great choice for schools that want a door lock with keys that match the minimalist aesthetic of the rest of the school’s design.
Mortice Locks
Mortice locks are excellent as they are installed directly into the door itself. That means that the lock cannot be removed externally, making it very hard to remove or override. They also tend to be ideal for thicker doors, which many school classrooms have.
A benefit of a mortice lock is that it is designed for heavy use, unlike more low-profile door locks with key types. They can also be attached to both knobs or levers, making mortice locks great permanent internal door locks regardless of the handle type you choose.
Latch Locks
Another choice, of course, would be a latch lock. Latch locks automatically lock behind them when the door is closed and must be turned again – usually using a thumb-turn mechanism on the latch – to open the door.
Latch locks are very strong and are hard to disable from the outside of the class. While that could pose a potential risk if the latch were to break during an emergency, that is a comparative rarity. They offer a moderate level of security whilst making it easy to keep the classroom door locked.
Remember: Never Settle For Second Best
The above should hopefully have opened your eyes to the benefits of having a door lock with keys in a school. However, there are many options on the market, right?
Sadly, many of the available options are of low quality. That means you could install internal door locks that have a habit of sticking and jamming, or fail due to the lock mechanisms snapping. It would be best to hire a locksmith to conduct a detailed review of your door lock needs.
They can recommend the best door locks with key controls to help you protect classroom doors. Remember that there is often not a one-size-fits-all solution: you might even find that you need several lock types for different classroom doors throughout your school.
For the most part, though, selecting from one of the above door locks with key options should give you enough variety to outfit your school classrooms with high-quality keyed locks.
