Martyn’s Law for Schools
Since the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017, the threat of terrorism has remained a serious consideration for organisations across the UK, including schools and other education settings. While such incidents are difficult to predict, schools need to be prepared to protect pupils, staff and visitors should an emergency occur.
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, also known as Martyn’s Law in memory of Manchester Arena victim Martyn Hett, introduces requirements for qualifying premises, including education settings, to consider the threat from terrorism and put appropriate and proportionate measures in place.
Meeting the requirements
Martyn’s Law is expected to come into force in spring 2027. Schools that fall within its scope will need to have proportionate procedures in place for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communicating with people on their premises during an incident.
The standard tier will apply to all educational establishments (regardless of size). For the first time, those responsible will be required to consider terrorist risk and, in some cases, take steps to put in place procedures to reduce the impact of an attack. These could be as simple as training staff to lock doors, close shutters and identify a safe route to cover.
- Evacuation: Safely moving people out.
- Invacuation: Guiding people to a safe internal location.
- Lockdown: Securing a location against external threats.
- Communication: Ensuring clear information flow.
The requirements are lesser than other organisations because schools already have lockdown and emergency procedures in place as standard. However, high on the list will always be improving communication. After all, if staff and students don’t know quickly that something is happening, they can’t act on it.
How NetSupport Notify can help
Many schools already use NetSupport Notify, our mass alerting tool, as part of their lockdown/emergency plans and to support Martyn’s Law.
In seconds, staff can send out alerts that take priority on unattended large-screen public information panels and recipients’ screens (above everything else), so they can’t be ignored or saved for later. Plus, in time-critical situations, schools can also send a pre-configured “emergency response” message via a hotkey combination.
With the ability to distribute messages to up to 10,000 screens across multiple sites, NetSupport Notify can succeed where other forms of messaging fail, by allowing staff and students to react quickly once a message is seen.
Geoffrey Field Junior School
An excellent solution to our school’s lockdown alerting system.
Beacon Hill Academy
Should the need arise to send out an emergency message anybody can do it no matter where they are in the school. It’s helping to improve efficiency of communication around school.
Furze Down School
NetSupport Notify is reliable and easy to use and gave us the confidence that all users will be able to use it in an emergency.
