The school statutory compliance checklist
Every recurring building duty a school in England carries, on two printable A4 pages: the weekly, monthly and termly rhythms your site team owns, and the six-monthly, annual and longer cycles your contractors deliver, each with who does it and the evidence to keep. Download it, print it, put it on the site office wall. No sign-up, no email gate; it's useful or it's nothing.
The duties, by rhythm
The same content as the PDF, duty by duty. Frequencies reflect common practice and British Standards benchmarks: your own risk assessments and service contracts take precedence.
| Rhythm | Duty | Done by | Evidence to keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | Fire alarm call-point test (rotating points) | Site team | Point tested, result, date, tester |
| Weekly | Fire door / escape route walk-checks | Site team | Route walked; defects photographed and actioned |
| Weekly | Playground equipment visual check | Site team | Check log; damaged items out of use, repair raised |
| Monthly | Emergency lighting function test | Site team | Test log per circuit |
| Monthly | Water temperature checks (sentinel outlets) | Site team | Readings logged; out-of-range actioned |
| Monthly | Fire extinguisher visual checks | Site team | Check log |
| Termly | Evacuation drill, varied by time and scenario | School | Date, duration, observations, actions |
| Termly | Health & safety walk | School / site team | Findings with photos; actions with owners |
| Six-monthly | Fire alarm system service (BS 5839-1) | Competent person | Service certificate |
| Six-monthly | Fire door inspection, all doors (BS 9999 benchmark) | Competent person | Per-door condition report; defect actions |
| Six-monthly | Lift thorough examination for lifts carrying people (LOLER) | Competent person | Thorough examination report |
| Annual | Gas appliance service & safety check | Gas Safe engineer | Gas safety record |
| Annual | Emergency lighting full-duration test (BS 5266-1) | Contractor | Annual certificate |
| Annual | Asbestos re-inspection & management plan review | Surveyor / responsible person | Updated register and plan |
| Annual | Portable appliance testing (risk-based) | Competent person | Test record |
| Annual | Fire extinguisher service | Contractor | Service labels and certificate |
| Annual | Fire risk assessment review (and after significant change) | Responsible person / assessor | The written FRA, mandatory since Oct 2023, plus review trail |
| Annual | Playground equipment main inspection (BS EN 1176) | Competent person | Inspection report |
| Five-yearly | Fixed electrical installation inspection (EICR) | Competent person | EICR report; remedials closed out |
| Kept live | Legionella risk assessment; asbestos plan; contractor insurance / DBS | Responsible person | Current documents, retrievable on demand |
For the statutory instruments behind each line, see our guide to school compliance software; for the year mapped month by month, the compliance calendar; and to count what this workload means for your estate, the PPM forecast calculator.
What this sheet can't do
A checklist tells you what's due. It cannot chase the gas contractor three weeks before the service, photograph the failed fire door, notify anyone when a date slips, or roll the schedule forward when work completes, and from autumn 2026, responsible bodies complete annual estate returns that assume records are retrievable, not stapled to a clipboard.
Small, disciplined single sites make paper work; we wrote the honest case for that in spreadsheets vs compliance software. When the estate outgrows it, the same schedule runs itself in EstateProof, with every record in your school's own Microsoft 365. Score where you stand in three minutes with the free compliance assessment.
About this checklist
Is this checklist really free?
Yes. No email gate, no sign-up. Download it, print it, copy it within your school. It's two A4 pages: the site-team rhythms on page one, contractor-led annual and longer cycles on page two, each duty with who does it and the evidence to keep.
Are these frequencies legally required?
The duties are legal; most frequencies are established benchmarks from British Standards and HSE guidance rather than fixed statutory intervals: weekly alarm tests from BS 5839-1, six-monthly fire door inspections from BS 9999, monthly lighting tests from BS 5266-1, and so on. Your own risk assessments and service contracts take precedence, which is why the sheet says so in its footer.
Does this cover everything a school must manage?
It covers the recurring building duties: the compliance backbone. It deliberately doesn't cover people-side health and safety (accident recording, training), curriculum-specific regimes like D&T machinery, or site-specific items your risk assessments add. Treat it as the spine to build on, not the whole skeleton.
What happens when the checklist outgrows paper?
The failure points arrive with scale: paper can't chase a contractor, attach a photo, or roll a date forward, and from autumn 2026 responsible bodies complete annual estate returns that assume retrievable records. That's the point at which the same schedule is better run by software, ours or anyone's, and our guide to school compliance software covers how to choose.
Take the checklist. Or retire it.
Download the PDF above and it's yours. Or see the same schedule running itself (jobs raised, contractors chased, evidence filed) in the live demo, no sign-in needed. Call 020 4558 7729 or email info@estateproof.co.uk.