School and campus staff safety checklist

Front office and reception

• Reception has clear sightlines to the entry and a counter deep enough to keep distance
• Front desk staff can summon help without moving and without being seen to do it
• Visitors sign in and are escorted; no one can walk from reception into corridors unchallenged
• Office staff have somewhere behind a lockable door to withdraw to
• An agreed script exists for refusing entry and for asking someone to leave
• A second staff member can be signalled to the counter during a difficult exchange
• Aggressive-visitor incidents at the counter are reported, not absorbed as part of the job
• Reception is never staffed by one person with the rest of the office out of earshot

Parent and visitor aggression

• Records flag families with a history of aggression, with the reason and precautions visible to whoever books meetings
• Meetings expected to be difficult are scheduled with two staff, in a room near occupied offices
• Meeting rooms are set up so staff sit nearest the door
• Staff know they can end a meeting that turns abusive, and leadership backs them when they do
• A documented process exists for warning, then banning, an aggressive parent from the grounds
• Custody orders and court restrictions affecting pick-up are current and visible to office staff
• Phone and email abuse is logged in the same system as in-person incidents
• Escalation from a meeting reaches the principal or delegate within minutes, not via a note

Grounds, events and pick-up

• Car parks and paths used after dark are lit, and checked each term
• Pick-up and drop-off supervisors have a way to summon help from the gate or crossing
• Evening events have a named person responsible for staff safety and lock-up
• Contractors and visitors on grounds during school hours are identifiable
• Perimeter and gate locking is scheduled, and someone confirms it happened
• Incidents at the fence line or gate involving non-parents are reported to police as well as internally
• Duty staff at breaks can raise help without leaving their area
• Sports and excursion supervisors carry a charged phone and know the escalation contact

After hours and working alone

• Staff working back after [time] are known to someone: a sign-out, a check-in, or both
• One person never locks up the site alone after evening events; a paired procedure exists
• Cleaners and grounds staff on site alone follow the same after-hours procedure
• Staff on site alone can raise an alarm, and the response to it is defined and tested
• Weekend site access is logged
• Holiday-period skeleton staffing has its own arrangements, not term-time defaults
• External hirers of school facilities have an emergency contact and know the site rules
• The after-hours alarm response (who is called, how fast) is documented and tested annually

Escalation quick reference

Review

Completed by [name] on [date] with input from office, teaching and grounds staff. Review each term, after any aggression incident, and before major evening events. Keep completed copies as health and safety records.