Aberdeenshire pupils to practise new safety routines

Families across Aberdeenshire should expect schools to begin incorporating new emergency routines into their existing safety arrangements. The changes cover evacuation, invacuation and lockdown, supported by procedures for quickly communicating instructions to pupils and staff.

Aberdeenshire Council has written to parents and carers explaining the plans. Individual schools will decide how to practise them according to their buildings, pupils’ ages and local circumstances, while detailed security plans will remain confidential.

Evacuation, invacuation and lockdown explained

The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, commonly known as Martyn’s Law, creates a new protect duty for premises including Aberdeenshire schools. The aim is to reduce harm and improve decision-making during a terrorist or serious violent incident.

Schools must prepare three physical responses:

• Evacuation: moving pupils and staff safely out of the school.
• Invacuation: moving everyone away from danger to a safer place within the school grounds or buildings.
• Lockdown: securing the school to prevent people from entering or leaving.

A fourth element covers communication. Schools must be able to distribute information and relevant instructions to pupils and staff as quickly as possible.

These arrangements will sit alongside established fire drills, severe-weather plans and other emergency procedures. Director of Education and Children’s Services Laurence Findlay said the purpose was preparedness, rather than frightening pupils or families.

Drills will be adapted to pupils and each school

The council is not prescribing one identical exercise for every Aberdeenshire school. For some pupils, practice may consist of a calm classroom discussion about following staff instructions. Older learners could be asked to move to a designated safe space within the school.

Headteachers will receive guidance on explaining the routines without describing alarming scenarios. The council says exercises will focus on the overarching plan—where pupils should go, what staff will do and how instructions will be communicated.

No school has been identified as facing a specific higher risk. Council staff will visit every school over the next 12 months to examine credible situations, practical safeguards and possible safe spaces. The authority also says its schools have not recently needed to activate these drills during a real incident.

The council acknowledged that the UK terrorism threat level was raised from substantial to severe at the end of April, meaning an attack was considered highly likely nationally. Its stated approach for schools is to remain “alert, not alarmed” and treat the new routines as precautionary measures rather than evidence of an immediate threat to Aberdeenshire pupils.

The two-year implementation period runs into 2027

Martyn’s Law came into effect in April 2025 with a two-year implementation period. Statutory guidance followed from the UK Government in April 2026, giving organisations more detail about how the requirements may be met in practice.

The timetable places the end of that two-year period in spring 2027. During the remaining months, schools will incorporate the procedures into their wider safeguarding and emergency arrangements. Aberdeenshire Council anticipates that a drill will then be conducted annually.

The law followed the 2017 Manchester Arena attack and is named after victim Martyn Hett. His mother, Figen Murray, campaigned for stronger protective arrangements at public premises.

Parents and carers will receive information through council and school communications, but specific assessments, safe-space locations and emergency plans will not be published because they contain security-sensitive details. Access will be limited to those who need the plans to carry out their safeguarding responsibilities.

Source: Aberdeenshire Council News