Under Martyn’s Law, or the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, operators of public events are required to adopt standardised anti-terrorism safety practices. Martyn’s Law for schools will require senior leaders to reassess and, potentially, enhance existing safety plans.
Most events held at independent schools will fall under the Standard Tier of Martyn’s Law, a new set of public safety requirements for events attended by between 200 and 799 persons.
To achieve compliance, administrators and senior leaders will need to provide evidence that they’ve appointed a responsible person to oversee the event, developed evacuation and lockdown plans and provided terrorism awareness training to staff.
For schools in particular, response plans must be created in accordance with current mandatory and statutory safeguarding rules such as the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) framework and Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) guidance. School leaders will be required to strike a balance between deploying robust security protocols and preventing children from feeling distressed, especially in early years settings on independent school sites.
Keeping independent schools safe under Martyn’s Law will involve using smart, discreet access control and observational measures to comply with new standards while maintaining a welcoming environment for children and their families. These measures must be applied to all aspects of each event, from drop-off and guest check-in to logistics and risk management.
To achieve this, leaders should approach compliance with Marty’s Law, the EYFS and KCSIE as a combined objective, factoring all requirements into a unified, coherent school security plan.
In practice, an integrated security solution spanning access control, communications, visitor management and video security technologies can help school leaders deter, detect and respond to safety risks discreetly and effectively. Unknown persons can be blocked from the site, guests can be safely checked in, and access events can be viewed remotely at all times, with AI-enabled cameras that automatically identify suspicious events and trigger live responses.
With support from custom, integrated Avigilon school security solutions, independent schools can maintain compliance with Martyn’s Law and help school children enjoy safe public events.