School and childcare security over the holidays in Ipswich.

School and childcare security over the holidays in Ipswich comes down to covering grounds that are visibly empty on published dates. In 2026 the Queensland state school breaks still ahead run from 19 September to 5 October and from 12 December to 26 January 2027. A workable plan pairs randomised overnight patrols with an alarm that a licensed officer attends and cameras someone checks. On childcare and vacation care premises, officers attending while children are there generally need a blue card.

Why empty school grounds get targeted

Over the 2020/21 Christmas break, Queensland state schools recorded 91 vandalism incidents and 67 break and enters, and the School Watch line took 167 calls about suspicious activity, according to the Queensland Government. Those are statewide figures from one break, so read them as a sense of scale rather than a local rate.

The risk comes from how a school is built and used:

• Grounds designed for people to move through. Several gates, long fence lines, covered walkways, and building corners that screen someone from the street.
• Vacancy on a timetable. The Department of Education publishes term dates well ahead, so the start and finish of every break are public.
• Few eyes on the site. In term, staff, parents and students are around from early morning into the afternoon. Over the break the nearest person might be a neighbour behind a back fence.
• Costly things to replace. Classroom laptops and tablets, projectors, shade structures and playground equipment, plus graffiti removal and repairs that have to be finished before students come back.

For a business manager, that last item sets the deadline. A smashed tap left running in a classroom for ten days, or a scorched demountable, has to be repaired before day one of term.

Who organises the cover

State schools sit inside the Department of Education's own arrangements, which the government has described as monitored intruder detection, CCTV, and surveillance by police, Protective Services and private security firms. The School Watch program, a partnership with the Queensland Police Service's Protective Services Group set up in 2014, adds community reporting on 13 17 88.

If you run an independent school, an early learning centre, a community kindergarten or an outside school hours care service from your own premises, the cover is generally yours to organise. This guide is written for you.

What a holiday patrol plan looks like

The September break runs 17 days and the summer break 46, which puts more weight on the quiet stretch in January. Either way, we would usually lay it out like this and adjust for your site and its history:

• A lock-up inspection on the first evening. External doors, windows, gates and roller doors, the alarm armed and reporting, and nothing valuable visible through a window.
• Randomised overnight passes every night. A site with no incident history might start at one pass a night. A site hit in past breaks warrants several, at times that change from night to night.
• Each pass on foot. Perimeter, gates, demountables, sheds, the canteen and anywhere a fence meets a neighbouring yard, since a drive-by only confirms the front gate is shut.
• Daylight checks where the community uses the grounds. If your ovals or courts stay open over the break, a daytime pass puts a presence there at the hours people are around.
• A report with photos after each pass. Graffiti, broken glass, water leaks and failed lights get logged, so repairs can be booked while there is still time before term.
• A return inspection the day before staff come back, so any damage is found and reported before anyone else walks in.

Mobile patrols suit this schedule because an officer's time is shared across sites, which keeps nightly attendance affordable for weeks. Much of the logic matches what we set out for vacant commercial and construction sites over the holidays, including the lock-up checklist.

Alarms and cameras only help if someone acts on them

A monitored alarm tells a control room that a sensor has tripped. Somebody still has to go and look, and over a school break the keyholder on the call list may be a principal on leave two hours away. Alarm response sends a licensed officer to the site instead, to check the perimeter and call police if there has been an intrusion. If you are unsure which your contract covers, our post on alarm monitoring vs alarm response walks through the difference.

Before the break, test the alarm, update the contact list, and confirm every camera is recording and holding footage. Better to find a recorder that stopped writing in August now than after an incident. Put the cameras that matter on gates and the approaches to rooms holding IT equipment.

Blue cards and screening on sites built for children

Queensland's blue card rules turn on the setting and on whether children are present, and school holidays change the second part.

At a school, Department of Education guidance says a contractor does not need a blue card where the work is not directed at children and contact with them is only incidental. At an education and care service, which includes childcare centres, kindergartens, outside school hours care and vacation care, a contractor working on the premises while children are there needs one. Work done when children are not there, such as nights, weekends or holidays, is exempt.

The complication is that a school in its holidays is not always empty. A vacation care program or holiday sports clinic may run on the grounds for part of the break, and a patrol officer walking through those premises during program hours is working where children are present. There is also a general exemption for work of no more than seven days in a calendar year, which is easy to exceed across several breaks.

Treat this as general information. Blue Card Services can confirm your situation on 1800 113 611. Before any provider attends, ask them:

• Which officers hold a current blue card, and will only those officers be rostered to our site?
• Is every officer licensed in Queensland, and can you give us their licence numbers?
• How will you handle days when vacation care or a holiday program is running on site?
• Who holds our keys and alarm codes, and how is that access logged?

Questions we get

How often should a closed school be patrolled?

There is no fixed rule and no legal minimum. A reasonable starting point for a closed school is a lock-up inspection on the first evening, randomised overnight passes on every night of the break, and a walk-through the day before staff return. Sites with incidents in past breaks, or grounds the community uses after hours, usually warrant several passes a night and daylight checks as well. Vary the times so the gaps cannot be learned.

Do security officers at a school need a blue card?

It depends on the setting and whether children are there. Department of Education guidance says a contractor at a school whose work is not directed at children, and whose contact with them is only incidental, does not need a blue card. At a childcare centre, kindergarten, outside school hours care or vacation care service, a contractor working on the premises while children are present generally needs one, and work done when children are not there is exempt. A school or centre can still make a blue card a condition of the contract, so ask a provider which officers hold one. Blue Card Services can confirm a specific situation on 1800 113 611.

Scope cover for the next break

We patrol across Ipswich, Bellbird Park and the surrounding suburbs from our Silkstone depot. Send us your closure dates, any programs running on site over the break and what has happened in past holidays, and we will come back with a written scope. Request a site visit → or call 0414 829 850.

Published 15 September 2026 · Anthony Tupper, Founder · Tupper Security Services holds Queensland Security Firm Licence (Class 1) #4572076.