Martyn's Law for schools
Martyn's Law for schools, colleges and nurseries
Martyn's Law applies once 200 people may reasonably be present at once. Education and childcare settings sit in standard tier at that point, whatever their roll size.
Does it apply to you
Sports day is usually the number that matters.
Count everyone on site at your busiest realistic event, not a normal Tuesday.
Count more than the roll
Pupils, teachers, teaching assistants, office and site staff, governors and parent helpers. On event days, add parents, grandparents and siblings too.
Your peak is rarely a normal day
Parents' evening, the school play, sports day. These bring more adults onto site than any ordinary Tuesday does, and that is your number.
You stay standard tier however large
Childcare, primary, secondary and further education settings enter standard tier at 200 and stay there. A large secondary is standard tier, not enhanced, for the education use itself.
Lettings bring other people's numbers
Hire the hall to a church, a club or a polling station, and those people are present on your site too.
A multi-academy trust with twenty schools can end up with twenty different lockdown procedures, written by twenty different people, with no easy way to see which are current. One board answers that.
See how portfolios workWhat the standard tier asks
Four procedures, and a notification to the SIA.
- Evacuation
- Moving people away from danger, out of the building.
- Invacuation
- Moving people to a safer place inside the building.
- Lockdown
- Securing the premises so people cannot enter or leave.
- Communication
- Telling staff and the public what is happening and what to do.
These four, so far as reasonably practicable, plus telling the SIA your site is in scope. If you share the site with another responsible person, such as a letting group, you need to coordinate with them.
What it does not ask: standard tier does not require you to buy equipment, hire security staff or use any particular product. Detailed documentation is recommended, not required by law. Most schools keep it anyway, since it helps when a governor or the local authority asks what is in place.
How Muster helps
Procedures that survive staff turnover, not just the person who wrote them.
Muster drafts the four procedures around your building, then keeps a record of who has been briefed. It flags a re-brief when one falls due. Muster also tracks your SIA notification and prepares the details, though it cannot file the notification for you.
Questions people actually ask
Straight answers for schools and trusts.
Does Martyn's Law apply to every school?
Only once it is reasonable to expect 200 people present at once. A small nursery may never reach that. A large secondary school almost always will, on an ordinary day.
Does the school roll decide our tier?
No. Education settings enter standard tier at 200 and stay there, however large the roll. A school of 1,800 is standard tier, not enhanced, for the education use itself.
Do we need security staff or scanners at the gate?
No. Standard tier does not require equipment, security staff or any particular product. It asks for four procedures and a notification to the SIA.
Who is the responsible person in a school?
Usually the headteacher, governing body or academy trust, depending on how the school is run. Lettings to outside groups may need a coordinated answer.
We run twenty schools in a trust. Do we do this twenty times?
No. A multi-academy trust can put every school on one board. You see, site by site, what is in place and what still needs doing.
Do we have to write all of this down?
No. Documentation is recommended, not required, at standard tier. Most schools already hold safeguarding and lockdown plans that cover much of the ground.
Find out where your school stands in about a minute.
Six questions, a cited answer, and a result you can print and take to governors.