Martyn's Law: Four Key Mistakes Schools Make

Martyn's Law requires schools to take reasonable, workable steps to reduce the impact of a terrorist incident, however unlikely that may feel in your setting. When schools come to us for help, it's usually after trying to write their own procedures and finding they don't hold up.

In our experience, that first attempt tends to run into one of four consistent mistakes.

In this blog, we look at each Martyn's Law mistake in a bit more detail. Can your school relate?

1. Hostage to fortune

Plans that only work during lessons ignore transition times, lunchtimes and sports fixtures. That leaves you hoping an incident happens on your terms, at a time when a classroom-based alert will actually reach people. It rarely will.

2. Too complex

Plans with lots of moving parts, each dependent on different people acting independently, tend to break down under real pressure. The result is confusion, not control. Keep it simple: identify the key actions needed and document them on a single page.

3. Hollywood hype

Action films dramatise terrorists as gun-toting, unstoppable figures with unlimited ammunition. It makes for gripping cinema, but it's the wrong basis for planning. Focus instead on more realistic scenarios, such as a distressed individual, a former pupil allegedly armed with a knife approaching the school or a dangerous dog getting on site.

4. Vague and generic

The opposite problem: a document that reads like a policy, useful for a post-incident investigation but not in the middle of one. Think from a student's perspective and be specific about the three things they need to do the moment they hear the signal.

Having supported schools through multiple real incidents, we've learned through hard experience what works and what doesn't. Most schools we work with realise, once their plan is compliant with Martyn's Law, that they'd either overthought parts of it or been too narrow in others.

When an incident happens, a clear, concise response plan that staff and students can remember under pressure is worth its weight in gold.

That covers the Emergency Response phase. But how does a school manage the incident and its wider impact once it's underway - the Control Phase? Our Martyn's Law package includes a two-hour SLT training session to address exactly that.

Want to know how your current plan measures up? Get in touch to talk about our Martyn's Law training for schools and colleges.