Fire safety hub
Fire safety in schools
Fire is the highest-consequence risk most schools manage, and the one where paperwork and reality drift apart most easily. This hub brings together every fire safety guide and service we publish — from fire risk assessments and fire doors through to drills, evacuation, compartmentation, wardens, PEEPs and boarding arrangements.
What a school's fire safety arrangements should cover
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 the school's responsible person must have a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment and keep it under review. Everything below flows from that single duty. The most common failing is not an absent assessment — it is a sound assessment whose actions were never closed out.
Fire risk assessments
The legal foundation under the Fire Safety Order 2005. A suitable and sufficient assessment, reviewed regularly, with every action tracked to closure and evidenced.
Fire risk assessment supportFire doors
Condition, gaps, seals, closers and signage — checked on a routine cycle rather than only when something visibly fails.
Fire doors in schoolsFire drills
Termly as a minimum, varied by time of day and escape route, with roll call timings and lessons recorded and acted on.
Covered in: fire safety in schoolsFire evacuation
Assembly points, roll call, refuge areas, out-of-hours and lettings arrangements, and reunification with parents.
Covered in: fire safety in schoolsFire prevention
Arson control, waste and bin placement, electrical safety, hot works permits, storage in corridors and kitchen fire risks.
Fire risk assessment supportFire compartmentation
Walls, ceilings and service penetrations that hold fire back. Most commonly breached by cabling and pipework installed after handover.
Contractor management in schoolsFire wardens and marshals
Enough trained wardens for every zone and every shift, with sweep responsibilities that are understood rather than assumed.
Covered in: fire safety in schoolsPEEPs
Personal emergency evacuation plans for pupils, staff and regular visitors who cannot self-evacuate, reviewed as needs change.
Special schools health and safety supportBoarding school fire safety
Night-time evacuation, sleeping accommodation risk, staff cover ratios and drills held out of hours as well as in the school day.
Independent and boarding schools support
Fire safety guides
Fire safety in schools — a practical guide for school leaders
The overview: fire risk assessments, alarm and emergency lighting testing, drills and the duties that sit with school leaders.
5 min readFire doors in schools
What makes a fire door effective, the defects found most often in school inspections, and how to run a proportionate inspection programme.
6 min read
Fire safety support from SchoolSafe Systems
SchoolSafe Systems provides independent review of your fire risk assessment and evacuation arrangements, help commissioning a competent fire risk assessor, and a prioritised plan for closing out fire authority or insurer actions. Fire sits inside the wider school compliance service, so open fire actions appear on the same register and the same governor report as everything else.
Delivered personally by Paul Shehean — 25+ years in health and safety, more than 15 of them working directly with schools. South West-based, working across the UK.
Get an independent view of your fire safety arrangements
Send your fire safety or health and safety policy for a free Policy Compliance Snapshot, or arrange a discovery discussion about a fire safety compliance review.