Health and safety for school children

Schools are responsible for your child’s safety while they’re at school or on a school trip.

Contact the school if you’re worried about your child’s health and safety.

If you’re still concerned, tell the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

When schools are responsible for health and safety

Schools are responsible for day-to-day health and safety whenever your child is in the care of school staff - this includes school trips and clubs.

What schools are responsible for

Every school has a health and safety policy. Ask the school if you want to read it. It should contain details of what the school is responsible for (eg school trips) as well as what they should do to look after your child.

Schools must follow the same health and safety law for indoor temperature as other workplaces.

Class sizes

There’s no overall legal limit to class size for health and safety reasons but the internal size and layout of many schools will limit the number of children that can be admitted safely to that school. To help raise standards in maintained schools, children between the ages of 5 and 7 have a maximum class size of 30.

If something goes wrong

Contact the HSE if there’s an accident or incident and you want advice about health and safety.

Who decides the health and safety policy and has ultimate responsibility for the health and safety of your child at school depends on the type of school.

Serious accidents at school

The school must report serious accidents, outbreaks of disease or dangerous incidents to the HSE. If you want to check that the school has done this, contact the HSE.