What is Benedict's Law?

Benedict's Law is a new piece of legislation that came into effect in September 2026 to improve allergy awareness and strengthen allergy safety in schools following the tragic death of 5-year-old Benedict Blythe. It promotes a whole-school approach to allergy management, ensuring that schools take proactive steps to reduce the risk of allergic reactions while supporting pupils with allergies to participate safely in all aspects of school life.

At Brunel School, we fully support the principles of Benedict's Law by embedding allergy awareness into our everyday practice, policies and culture.

Our Approach

Brunel School takes a proactive, whole-school approach to allergy management. We have a Designated Allergy Lead who oversees allergy management across the school, supported by trained first aid staff, catering staff and the wider school team.

Our approach includes:

• Maintaining Individual Healthcare Plans/Individual Support Plans for pupils with allergies.
• Keeping accurate allergy records and ensuring relevant staff have access to this information.
• Providing annual allergy awareness and anaphylaxis training for all staff.
• Holding spare adrenaline auto-injectors on site and ensuring that emergency medication is readily accessible.
• Considering allergy risks when planning lessons, including educational visits, and school events.
• Working closely with our catering team to provide clear allergen information and safe meal options.
• Carrying out allergy risk assessments and making reasonable adjustments to support inclusion.
• Recording and reviewing allergic reactions and near misses to continually improve our practice.

Although no school can guarantee an allergen-free environment, we take all reasonable steps to reduce foreseeable risks and create a safe environment for everyone.

Allergies and Anaphylaxis Policy

Our comprehensive Allergy and Anaphylaxis Policy explains how we identify, manage and respond to allergies across the school, including our emergency procedures, staff responsibilities and support for pupils with allergies.

You can find our Allergies and Anaphylaxis policy here:

Information for Parents and Carers

Parents and carers play a vital role in helping us keep children safe.

If your child has an allergy, we ask that you:

• Inform us as early as possible and provide full details of your child's allergy.
• Provide an up-to-date Allergy Action Plan from your healthcare professional.
• Work with us to complete and review your child's Individual Healthcare Plan/Individual Support Plan.
• Ensure that any prescribed medication, including adrenaline auto-injectors, is supplied to school before it expires.
• Notify us immediately of any changes to your child's allergy or treatment.
• Support your child in understanding their allergy and, where appropriate, developing independence in managing it.

We also ask all families to help us by following any food guidance issued by the school and by avoiding sending nut products into school wherever possible.

If you would like to discuss your child's allergy or arrange to meet our catering team, please contact the school office.

Inclusion

We believe that having an allergy should never prevent a child from enjoying school life and accessing education.

Our aim is to ensure pupils with allergies can participate safely in lessons, educational visits, sporting activities, celebrations and other school events through careful planning, appropriate risk assessments and reasonable adjustments.

We also recognise the emotional impact that living with an allergy can have. Staff are trained to promote allergy awareness, challenge allergy-related bullying and support the wellbeing of pupils with allergies. Wherever possible, activities are adapted so that pupils are included rather than excluded.

Anaphylaxis Drills

Preparation saves lives.

All members of staff receive regular allergy awareness training, including recognising and responding to anaphylaxis and the safe use of adrenaline auto-injectors.

In addition, Brunel School carries out annual anaphylaxis drills to practise our emergency response procedures. These exercises help ensure that staff know how to recognise the signs of a severe allergic reaction, access emergency medication quickly, summon assistance, and work together effectively during a medical emergency. Following each drill or real incident, we review our procedures and identify any learning to continually improve our response.