Education settings are treated as standard tier under the Act regardless of how many people are on site. A large secondary school and a village primary have the same duties.
Are schools in scope?
The 200 threshold still determines whether the Act applies at all, and the count includes staff as well as pupils. A primary school with 180 pupils and 30 staff is over the line. Most schools above the smallest will be in scope.
Nurseries are more variable. A setting with 40 children and 12 staff is well under, while a large day nursery may not be.
Why the tier is fixed at standard
For most premises the 800 threshold moves you into the enhanced tier, which brings protective measures and a documented assessment sent to the regulator. Education settings stay in the standard tier whatever their size, which keeps the duties proportionate for a sector that already operates under extensive safeguarding and safety obligations.
What schools usually already have
More than most venue types. Established fire drills, an invacuation or lockdown plan in many cases, a trained staff body, a communications system that reaches every classroom, and a culture of recorded drills.
The common gaps are narrower than elsewhere:
- Procedures written for an intruder, not reviewed against the four procedures the Act names.
- Invacuation as a distinct response, rather than folded into lockdown.
- Records held across several systems, so producing evidence takes a day rather than a minute.
- Lettings and out-of-hours users who have never been briefed.
Lettings are the usual weak point
A school hall hired out on a Saturday for a community event brings people into the building who have never seen a procedure, often with no school staff present. If the school controls the premises, the duty remains with the school.
Whoever runs a letting needs the procedures in front of them before the booking goes ahead, with a record that they saw them.
Schools within a multi-academy trust
Control usually sits with the trust as operator, with practical delivery delegated to each head or site manager. Delegating the work does not move the legal duty. Trusts should be explicit about which responsibilities sit centrally and which sit at each school, and should expect to demonstrate consistency across their estate.
What to tell pupils
The duty concerns people working at the premises. How much to explain to pupils is a judgement for the school, and the guidance does not require you to brief children on terrorism. Most schools handle this the way they handle fire drills: children learn the response without being given the reasoning.