Today (Tuesday 17 August), school leaders’ union NAHT has signed a joint letter to the Secretary of State for Education in response to the government’s consultation on fire safety in schools ‘Building Bulletin 100’.

The letter, written by a coalition of fire safety and education organisations, urges the government to ‘to immediately reconsider and expand its proposals to mandate sprinklers in all new build and major refurbished school projects, not just Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools, boarding schools, and those over 11 metres.’

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: “School leaders take the safety of buildings very seriously, but they must be supported in doing so. It is deeply concerning that the minimum protection standards being set out for schools in England, fall far below those of Wales and Scotland. Fires are a UK-wide concern, yet with this disparity in approach the Government risks creating a post-code lottery for pupils, both in terms of safety and disruption to education.

“If the Government is as committed to ‘educational recovery’ as they say, then a key part of this should be ensuring that the school estate is fit for purpose. This means doing everything that is necessary to ensure that school buildings are not only safe, but are designed in such a way to minimise any potential future disruption for the pupils within them. As they currently stand, the government’s proposals for fire safety and sprinklers in new schools do not go far enough in order to mitigate this.

“The government must listen to the call from experts and commit to going further for children to ensure their safety, and the protection of their schools.”