The nursery with the James Bond touch...
Published on Wednesday, 12 May 2010, Knuts Guardian                                                         

A KNUTSFORD nursery has become the first in the county to install a fingerprint system to gain entry.

Poppies Red Cross Day Nursery, on Northwich Road, has install the technology to create a safer environment for their children.

Now mums and dads of children at the nursery, which caters for youngsters aged three months to five years, can rest easy after the technology was brought in to keep out unwelcome visitors.

It may be the stuff of James Bond films but parents at the Knutsford nursery have to have their fingerprints scanned before they can get in.

Helen Woodman tries out the new fingerprint technology

Owner Helen Woodman said the new system was installed to look adter the children and give parents access to their children whenever they needed to.

"I don't think it is extreme," she said.

"At the moment, in order to answer the door if I am not in the office, the staff have to leave the room. Now they won't have to leave the chidlren alone while they do that.

It is also good for the staff to know that they [visitors] are the parents - it is two-fold really.

We have paid for it out of the nursery's budget.

It was the same price as the swipe card and pin entry system.

You can pass a card on but you can't pass on your finger print. If you are going to invest in a system, we felt we should invest in a good one.

So far, staff are just on the system but we have had positive feedback from the parents."

The system, which was installed by NurseryCam Ltd, also keeps a record of all access, so the nursery has a logbook of all the people who have gained access to the nursery as well as when.

Dr. Melissa Kao, the managing director of NurseryCam Ltd, which created the system, said: "When people think of fingerprint identification, they think of James Bond films.

This proves that state-of-the-art technology is available to everyday services too."

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