At 9.10 on a Tuesday in week six, the Year 4 teacher in Block C finds the classroom air conditioner blowing warm air and the room already at 29 degrees. Down the corridor, two of the four student toilets are blocked, and a cracked window in the library has been taped up since Friday. The business manager emails the plumber, the deputy rings an electrician they know, and the caretaker puts the window on a list in the shed. By the afternoon bell, nobody can say which of the three has someone booked.
During term, a fault is not a quiet facilities task. A classroom that is too hot or has no power means a class moved to the hall or the library. Toilets out of use mean longer queues at recess and complaints from parents by dinner time. Across a group of campuses, the same week can bring a broken gate at one school, a failed canteen cool room at another and a smoke detector fault at a third, each sitting in a different inbox.
OpsChase puts every term-time fault on one board: staff raise the job with a photo, it goes to your own team or your contractors and is followed up until the work is done, and the business manager sees which rooms and toilets are still out of use before the next school day starts.
From the classroom to a work order
Whoever finds the fault raises a work order from their phone against the campus, the building and the room: air conditioner blowing warm in C4, two toilets blocked in the junior block, library window cracked. They add a photo and a short note, and mark whether the room is out of use or can stay open until the repair.
Faults that students and parents report to the front office, such as a drinking fountain that will not stop running or a gate that will not latch, get raised the same way, so a message at reception becomes a job with a campus, a room, a trade and a time on it.
OpsChase looks after the buildings, grounds and the contractors who work on them. Enrolments, timetables and student records stay in the school systems you already use.
Your contractors per campus and per trade
The plumber who knows the junior block at your older campus may not cover the new campus on the other side of town. Set the order of your contractors per campus and per trade: the firm on your service agreement first.
The term-time faults that close a room
- Air. Classrooms that will not cool or heat go to heating and cooling.
- Toilets and water. Blocked toilets, leaking taps and running drinking fountains go to plumbing.
- Power and lights. Dead power points, tripped circuits and lights out in classrooms go to electrical; classroom equipment due for checks goes to test and tag.
- Windows, doors and gates. Cracked glass goes to glazing; classroom locks go to locksmith; gates and boundary fences go to fencing.
- Fire and safety. Smoke detector faults and fire door issues go to fire protection.
- Canteen. Cool rooms and fridges that will not hold temperature go to refrigeration.
- Grounds and fittings. Fallen branches over a play area go to grounds and landscaping; broken desks, cupboards and noticeboards go to handyman; spills and cleans after a leak go to cleaning.
Attend-by times that work around the bell
Every job carries an attend-by time that fits the risk: within hours for a gate that will not latch or a fire door that will not close; before tomorrow’s first lesson for a classroom out of use; within the week for a scuffed wall in the corridor.
Add a note on when the contractor can work: during lessons away from students, at lunch when a block is empty, or after the last bell. Late jobs show against your response targets, so the business manager can see which campuses still have rooms or toilets out of use before the next school day.
Screening and compliance before anyone is booked
Contractors who work on a campus while students are present often need a Working with Children Check, and in Queensland that is the Blue Card. Keep each firm’s Working with Children Check and Blue Card details on file with the rest of their paperwork.
Keep licence, public liability, induction and site-access details on file for each contractor firm through contractor compliance, so the school team can check them before booking. Add campus notes on where contractors sign in at the front office, which gate to use and which areas they should only enter when students are not there.
Proof before the room goes back in use
Set proof templates per job type: before and after photos, a note from the contractor, and a certificate where electrical, gas or fire work needs one. With proof of completion on the work order, the business manager can see the classroom is cool again and the toilets flush before telling staff the room is back in use.
Faults that come back every term
Some faults return every few weeks: the same classroom air conditioner, the same junior block toilets, the same canteen cool room. With Assets & planned maintenance switched on, each air conditioner, cool room, fire door and gate keeps its own job and service history, and you can run planned maintenance such as filter cleans, gutter clears and cool room servicing through scheduling on the same queue as breakdowns. When the C4 air conditioner fails again, every visit is on the record, so the call between another repair and a replacement is made on what happened, not on memory.
What the business manager sees on one board
With every campus on one board:
- Staff raise faults with a photo, the campus, the room and whether it is out of use.
- Your contractors are set in calling order per campus and per trade.
- Attend-by times put gates, fire doors and classrooms out of use first.
- Photos, notes and certificates are attached to the work order.
- The business manager sees every room and toilet out of use across the group in one view.
For holiday works, grounds and plant before the first day back, read schools: campus work closed before term starts. For the wider picture across a group of campuses, read about multi-site maintenance.
Starting with one campus
Pick the campus that lost the most classroom time to faults last term. Import its buildings and rooms, the contractor book and the trades each firm covers. Set roles for teachers, front office, the caretaker and the business manager. Set proof templates for electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling, and fire protection. Raise the next term-time fault into OpsChase instead of an email to the plumber, then add the next campus.
Read the education industry page or book a demo with your campus list and contractor book. Check pricing when you are ready to put every campus on one board.
A classroom that turns hot at 9.10 should have a contractor booked before lunch, so the class is back in its own room the next morning.