Fire Training for Schools: What Do I Need To Do?

Posted 5 years ago

Due to the nature of staff responsibility within the Education sector, having sound Fire Safety Training is more important than ever. All staff are legally required to complete Fire Awareness Training under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 as well as the general duty of employee health and safety placed on employers in the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

True Fire Safety means having adequate emergency procedures in place so that in the event of a fire, everyone knows what to do. It also means understanding what constitutes a fire risk within the working environment in question, as well as performing the correct risk assessments and taking sensible steps to mitigate avoidable fire hazards.

The responsible person must ensure that his employees are provided with adequate safety training. [this must] (a) include suitable and sufficient instruction and training on the appropriate precautions and actions to be taken by the employee in order to safeguard himself and other relevant persons on the premises; (b) be repeated periodically where appropriate

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order 2005, Section 21

Picture of a school pointing out dangers in furniture.

In order to give Schools, Colleges, and other Educational institutes the tools they need to ensure they are doing everything they should be to keep their premises safe, we have designed two titles that cover fire safety in the education environment. As with our other Health & Safety programmes, these courses are delivered in an entirely online format and are suitable (an accessible) for all levels of staff and management.

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 is designed to provide the minimum standards expected in non-domestic buildings. If the building is a workplace, then the Order designates the employer the Responsible Person (RP). The HSE states that employers in workplaces with more than 5 people must carry out fire risk assessments and keep them up to date. These risk assessments should identify what may cause a fire to start, substances within the building that could burn and anyone who may at risk. As a result of the assessments, adequate fire safety measures should be in place.

Building Bulletin 100: Design for fire safety in schools

The Building Bulletin 100: Design for fire safety in schools shows how to protect school buildings from fire damage and is relevant to building works being carried out on an existing school or the building of new schools. It covers design guidance, deterring arson, risk assessments, fire protection systems, fire detection and alarms, means of warning and escape, internal and external fire spread and more.

“It brings together guidance on how to make schools even safer places for children to be in, with guidance on how to protect the continuity of their education.” – Jim Knight, MP Minister of State for Schools and Learners.

Who do these Regulations apply to?

The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 applies to all different educational institutes, this includes:

Nurseries
Free schools
Specialised schools
Primary schools
Secondary schools
Academies
Pupil referral units

Fire Safety Training in Education

Fire Awareness for Education and Fire Warden for Education take accredited content from our standard programmes and enrich these already comprehensive courses with information about the correct way to safeguard your school against the risks fire poses.

The two courses can be completed in between sixty and one hundred minutes, and cover a range of topics that are punctuated by end of section tests to ensure constant attention and maximum knowledge retention. Chapters in Fire Awareness for Education include: The Nature of Fire; Fire Signage; Common Fire Hazards; What to do if you discover a fire, and the correct way to use fire extinguishers.

Chapters in Fire Warden for Education include: An introduction to how fire spreads within a building (plus an overview of common fire signage); The importance of a Fire warden; The correct way to organise and perform an evacuation; Different classes of fire extinguishers (and which kinds of fire they are appropriate for), and a section on fire legislation.