Martyn’s Law for schools: begin with the plans you already have

Schools have a different tier rule

Childcare, primary, secondary and further-education premises that meet the 200-person threshold remain standard tier even if 800 or more people may be present. Higher education follows the ordinary standard/enhanced thresholds.

Count staff and other workers as well as learners and visitors. Sports day, a school production, parents’ evening or weekend letting may establish the busiest realistic occasion.

Reconcile before rewriting

Map the four public protection procedures against documents already held. Fire evacuation may provide routes but not a way to avoid a threat near the assembly point. Safeguarding lockdown may already answer much of the lockdown duty. Major-incident communications may identify roles, but should be tested when reception, site staff or senior leaders are absent.

The resulting procedure must work for the people on site, including contractors and staff supporting pupils with additional needs. A trust template is a starting point; local doors, gates, alarms and staffing patterns decide whether it works.

Use normal governance cycles

Assign ownership, bring changes through the existing policy process, brief staff during planned sessions and record a short exercise. Multi-academy trusts should set a shared standard and see each school’s status centrally while leaving local teams responsible for their building-specific truth.