School fair risk assessment: a practical guide

A school summer fair is run by volunteers, on a site full of children, with cars arriving where children normally play. The school already has policies for most of it — the risk assessment's job is to cover what changes on fair day.

Start from what's different about fair day

A school site is already risk-assessed for ordinary use. The fair changes three things: the public are on site, the site is used in ways it isn't normally, and the people supervising are largely volunteers rather than staff. Write your assessment around those three changes and it will be short, specific and genuinely useful.

The general method is in our risk assessment guide. What follows is what's distinctive about school fairs — and what PTA committees most often miss.

The hazards that belong in a school fair risk assessment

• Vehicles on site. The biggest one, every time. Stallholders unloading, deliveries, and parents parking on the field or playground. Fix delivery windows before the gates open, escort any vehicle that must move during the fair, and keep parking physically separated from the activity area.
• Inflatables. Bouncy castles are the single most common source of injury at school fairs. Check the operator's PIPA or ADIPS inspection, their public liability insurance, anchoring appropriate to the surface, and supervision — see our inflatables guide.
• Lost children. You need a named reunification point, a procedure everyone has heard of, and a plan for who does what. On a site full of children who all look like they belong there, this needs more thought than at a village fete, not less.
• Safeguarding and access. The public are on a school site. Decide which areas are out of bounds and actually close them; know who is DBS-checked and make sure unchecked volunteers aren't left alone with children.
• Food. Home-baked cakes sold for charity are fine and specifically accommodated in food law. External caterers should show food business registration, insurance and a gas safety record where they use LPG. Keep allergen information available for anything not obviously labelled.
• Gazebos in wind. Weight or peg every leg, and agree the wind speed at which stalls come down. Playground surfaces mean you often can't peg — so weights, properly sized, not a couple of bricks.
• Existing site hazards. Ponds, climbing equipment, the car park gate, the boiler room. Fine on a normal school day with staff supervision; different when 400 visitors are on site.

Who is actually responsible

This trips up PTAs regularly. If the fair is a school event, the governing body or trust carries the health and safety duty and the school's insurance is likely to respond. If it is a PTA event held on school premises, the PTA may be a separate legal entity with its own duty and may need its own public liability cover.

Settle this in writing before the day, not afterwards. Ask the head or business manager directly: is this a school event or a PTA event, and which insurance policy covers it? Many PTAs are covered through a parent-teacher association umbrella scheme — check the limit and that it covers your specific activities, particularly inflatables and any fairground equipment.

Keeping it proportionate

Two or three pages is right for a typical school fair. Name real people, real locations and real decisions: who is on the gate, where the reunification point is, who calls it if the wind gets up. The test is whether a volunteer who arrives on the morning could read it and know what to do.

Share it with stallholders and volunteers before the day — a briefing sheet drawn from the assessment is more use than the assessment itself for most people. And keep the signed copy: next year's committee will thank you, and if anything is ever questioned it is the contemporaneous document that matters.

Common questions

Do we need a risk assessment for a small school fair?

Yes — and the school almost certainly requires one as a matter of policy regardless of the law. The school's insurer will expect it too. The good news is that it's short: a fair on a familiar site with familiar volunteers is a well-understood set of hazards, and two or three specific pages beat twenty generic ones.

Can parents sell home-made cakes?

Yes. Occasional sales of home-made food by volunteers for charity fall outside the food business registration requirements, and the Food Standards Agency publishes guidance specifically for charity and community events. Common sense still applies: keep allergen information available, keep cold things cold, and don't sell anything you wouldn't feed your own family.

Who is responsible if someone is hurt — the school or the PTA?

It depends on whose event it is, which is exactly why you should establish that in writing beforehand. If the school runs the fair, the governing body or trust holds the duty. If the PTA runs it as a separate entity, the PTA does, and needs its own public liability insurance. Ask the school business manager to confirm which it is, and which policy responds.

Do we need to tell the council?

Usually not for a fair on school grounds for the school community. You will need to involve the council if you are selling alcohol (a Temporary Event Notice, at least ten working days ahead), closing a road, or if the event is large enough or public enough to be treated as a public event rather than a school one. If you're unsure, a quick call to the council's events team costs nothing.