PE and Sport Risk Assessments
Starter risk assessments for PE lessons (including gymnastics and athletics), away fixtures, swimming lessons and climbing walls. Choose from the template list and add your space and equipment.
Starting points – Check every row against your school's policy and the venue's own risk assessment, and add what is specific to your group.
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This supports, but does not replace, your school's or employer's policy. The visit leader, EVC or head teacher must check and approve it.
PE lessons
Most of the risk in a PE lesson is managed by routine: checking the space and equipment, teaching pupils how to carry and land, matching tasks to ability, and rules on jewellery and kit. Your department's policy will cover most of it; use this assessment for a new unit, a new space, or an activity with more risk such as throwing events or gymnastics apparatus.
Away fixtures
Choose "Sports fixture (away match)". It's a small school trip: transport (minibus rules or a booked coach), injuries during the match, supervision at another school, and getting everyone home after school hours. Fixtures outside school hours usually need written consent.
Swimming lessons and climbing walls
Choose "Swimming lessons" or "Climbing wall". The pool or wall has its own operating procedures and qualified staff; your assessment covers the journey, changing, supervision on the side and pupils' medical needs.
Before
- Check the space, equipment and first aid kit
- Check medical needs (asthma, epilepsy, heart conditions) by initials
- For fixtures: transport, consent, return times
On the day
- Warm-up; jewellery off; boundaries set
- Inhalers at the side
- Head injury? Follow the school's concussion guidance
Afterwards
- Record injuries
- Update the assessment
Keep pupils' details out of it
Write "Pupil A" or initials, and say where the confidential plan is kept ("held by the visit leader"). Names, medical details and contact numbers belong in the school's own system, not in a risk assessment that gets printed, emailed and left on a coach seat. Everything you type here stays in this browser.
Sources and further reading
- HSE: School trips and outdoor learning activities – tackling the health and safety myths
- HSE: risk assessment – steps needed to manage risk
- DfE: Supporting pupils at school with medical conditions
We link to these so you can read the original guidance; we haven't copied it. Check for updates, and follow your school's or local authority's own policy where it says more.
Questions teachers ask
Do PE teachers need a risk assessment for every lesson?
No. Departments usually have assessments for their activities and spaces. Write or review one for new activities, new spaces or higher-risk work.
Do away fixtures need parental consent?
Fixtures outside school hours usually need written consent, or a one-off consent form signed when the pupil joins, with parents told about each fixture in advance.
Who is responsible for safety at the swimming pool?
The pool's lifeguards and operating procedures cover the water; school staff stay responsible for their pupils, including the journey and changing. Agree roles with the pool.