Where does Martyn’s Law fit into your next school customer conversation?

5th November 2026
Pupils walking into the school building talking to one another


Martyn’s Law is changing the conversation around preparedness in schools. For installers already supporting education customers, emergency communications needs to be part of that conversation.



The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 introduces duties around how qualifying premises prepare for and respond to terrorist attacks, including procedures for evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication. GOV.UK factsheet

For installers, that creates an important question to take to education customers.





If something happened today, how would you get the right message to the right people?

That’s a conversation telecoms, IT and security partners are well placed to have. You don’t need to advise the school on its legal obligations. You do need to understand the communications requirements that sit alongside its wider emergency planning.





What would actually happen?



Pupils moving up a school staircase between lessons, with the stairwell, landing and upper corridor marked with question marks
Five minutes between lessons. Where would an urgent message reach everyone?


Imagine the school needs to communicate an urgent instruction. Five questions worth asking:

  1. How would you get an urgent message to everyone?
  2. Would it reach every part of the site?
  3. Who can initiate the communication?
  4. Could different areas receive different instructions?
  5. Is two-way communication part of the requirement?

A school may already have phones, PA, paging, intercoms and entry systems. The question isn’t simply whether those systems work.

It’s whether the communications environment supports what the school needs to do in an emergency.





The message went out. Did everyone get it?

Having systems in place is one thing. Coverage across the whole site is another question.



Site coverage check. Message reaches: classrooms, corridors, reception, hall and canteen. Not sure: sports hall, separate building, playground and playing field.

An uncertain answer doesn’t automatically mean new equipment is required. It’s a reason to look closer.





The fire alarm says get out. What tells them to stay in?

Martyn’s Law includes public-protection procedures covering evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication (GOV.UK). Different situations can therefore raise different communications questions.



Fire alarm: get out. Other incidents: stay in, move inside, lock down, with different instructions perhaps for different areas. Public-protection procedures: evacuation, invacuation, lockdown and communication.


  • What needs to be communicated?
  • Who needs to hear it?
  • Where are those people?
  • Can the school’s existing communications support the required response?




Be the partner that asks the question

Martyn’s Law is putting emergency preparedness into sharper focus for schools. For installers, that doesn’t mean having every answer. It means knowing which communications questions are worth asking.



A pupil raising a hand in class, next to three questions: What happens today? Where could the gaps be? What does the school need its communications to do?

That’s where a better customer conversation starts. And when the requirement becomes clearer, Yellowgrid is here to help you explore what comes next.





Technology to support the conversation

Once you understand the requirement, explore the technology that could support it.

Not sure what fits the requirement? Talk it through with your Yellowgrid account manager.