A school facility inspection is the weekly walk a site manager, premises officer or business manager makes round the whole school: the grounds and playground, the entrances and how visitors get in, corridors and escape routes, every classroom, the practical rooms, kitchens and toilets, the fire equipment and the weekly alarm test, first aid, and lock-up. This one follows that route, lists each classroom separately so the report says which room needs what, and you can fill it in here and download a finished PDF without creating an account.
Why a weekly walk, and who does it
Most of what goes wrong in a school building goes wrong slowly — a fire door that has started to stick, a corridor display that creeps further along the escape route each week, a cloakroom where bags have moved from the pegs to the floor. A weekly walk catches these while they are a five-minute fix.
In most schools it is done by the site manager or premises officer, with the head teacher or business manager reading the result. Governors and the trust or local authority often ask to see it as evidence that the premises are being managed.
Escape routes are the thread through the whole walk
Every corridor, cloakroom and classroom on this form comes back to one question: could everyone get out quickly if the alarm went now? That means fire doors closing on their own and never wedged, exits signed and clear on both sides, and no furniture, trolleys or piles of PE kit in a corridor.
Paper displays in corridors are worth a look too. Pupils' work on walls is part of school life, but large areas of loose paper along an escape route add fuel exactly where people need to walk; your fire risk assessment will say what your school allows.
Practical rooms, kitchens and medicines
Science labs, design and technology rooms and food rooms carry their own risks: chemicals, gas, machinery, hot surfaces. Their sections switch on only if the school has them. The school kitchen is often run by a contractor with its own checks, so this walk looks at what is visible to the school — doors kept shut to pupils, a gas shut-off within reach — rather than repeating the caterer's audit.
First aid is more than a green box. The walk checks that kits are stocked, that a list of first aiders is up, and that pupils' own medicines — inhalers, adrenaline auto-injectors — are stored where staff can reach them quickly and are still in date.
From walk to actions
Every check that does not pass becomes a finding with the room it was in. The action list at the end turns those into jobs with a named person and a date, and next week's walk is the place to see whether they were done.
Speak while you walk, and the document writes itself — say what you see in each room and the entry fills in, with photos landing on the room you are standing in.
Common questions
How often should a school site inspection be done?
Weekly is common for the general walk, alongside the weekly fire alarm test. Many schools add a fuller termly inspection, often with a governor, and a check before pupils return after each holiday.
Who is responsible for school site safety?
The employer — the local authority, the academy trust or the governing body, depending on the type of school — holds the legal duty, and day-to-day checks are usually delegated to the head teacher and the site team. This form records those day-to-day checks.
Does this replace the fire risk assessment?
No. The fire risk assessment is a separate, more detailed document reviewed regularly by a competent person. This weekly walk checks that the controls it relies on — clear routes, working doors, extinguishers in place, the alarm tested — are still there.
Can this be used in a secondary school?
Yes. Classrooms are a list, so you add as many as you walk, and the science and D&T section switches on for schools that have those rooms. A large site may split the walk by block and fill one form per block.
What should go in the lock-up check?
Windows shut, external doors locked, lights and equipment off, nobody left in the building, and the intruder alarm set. The section switches on only if the walk is done at the end of the day.