PAT Testing in house

[ElGuapo]

Hi all,

Does anyone here do their PAT testing in house? If so, what does it entail to get set up to do it? Is it worth taking it in house, or is the saving in costs not worth the time and hassle? Do you have to get your PAT testing machine recalibrated every year?

Cheers

[thecaretaker]

It depends on the size of your school. I got a firm in to do mine, I couldn't spare the time to do it on my own. You will need PAT training and yes, your equipment will need checking periodically.

I know a lot of Caretakers do their own, so I'll hand over the comments to them

[ElGuapo]

Thanks Caretaker. Yes I should have said - I'm at a two form entry primary school, roughly 420 kids.

[Vera]

Thanks Caretaker. Yes I should have said - I'm at a two form entry primary school, roughly 420 kids.

Don't bother get a company in.
Seriously by the time you have tested half of what you have you will want to quit.

[Gazza]

i do mine in house, and it roughly takes me 3-4 days. Thats testing appliances, labelling and writing up a report.

we are 1 form entry so it makes sense (Good job for the october half term when its wet and miserable outside)

[Red]

We do it in house. There are two of us though. Tough job and boring. If the powers that be are going to buy you a nice new tool shed with the money saved, then save the money. But if not I'd get a company to do it.

[Nail]

Total waste doing it in house as far as I’m concerned. Much better things to be doing.

[Teabee]

I took it on thinking it would be a money saver. Most mind numbing task under the sun. Even breaking it down to a monthly task was no help, it hung over my head like a cloud, never really caught up with it. Lay it off!!

[MrMatt]

I'm at a two form entry school with approx same number of kids (420). I took this job on as I thought the company doing the checks of the equipment did it too quickly......720 items in 4.5hrs. When I went to do the training i was told that to do the job properly it will take around 7-8 mins per check not bad you think, but when a computer can take up to 4 checks (cables, monitor, hard drive) the time adds up, but you do speed up when you know what to look for.

Yes PAT testing is boring, yes it's time consuming, but if I do it, I know it's done properly. I usually do it during May Half term and finish it during the summer hols, once I'm in the swing of it, I can do 4 classrooms a day. Also some items that don't get moved eg interactive TV or even computers, they only need to be done every two years.

Training is every three years and the equipment used has to be calibrated annually.

Stick some music on and PAT test away

[Taz]

I did in my old school, and it was a pain in the you know what. It also meant that I had to go searching for missing bits that would usually end up in someone else's room, meaning I had to change the details on my spreadsheet/report.

New school someone comes in once a year (so I'm told), to do the whole school. We do have a test kit, just to keep on top of stuff that is missed, bought in from outside, or new items.

With the new items some people say you don't need to do them, as they are new, however I once failed a brand new out of the box laminator, that not only failed the test, also made a crackling noise if you slid the power button across. Pays to still check these things.

As others have said, if your school is willing to carry on getting someone in, then go with it. If not, just do it on the usual wet weather days (October - February) during half term when you can't get outside much anyway, put the radio on, and test away. You will get quicker the .ore you do it.