Understanding Benedict’s Law: Allergy Awareness and Safety in Schools

In 2021, five-year-old Benedict Blythe died from anaphylaxis at school after being given food containing milk — a reaction that should never have happened. His death, and the findings of the inquest that followed, exposed serious failings in how schools manage allergies — and gave rise to the campaign for Benedict's Law, which seeks to make allergy awareness training mandatory for all school staff. This course exists because of Benedict. It is a practical, thorough, and compassionate response to the legal, moral, and day-to-day responsibilities that every member of school staff carries when a child with allergies is in their care. Across five video modules, the course covers the allergy landscape in schools — including the sobering reality that around two children in every classroom live with a food allergy, and that 30% of severe reactions in children occur in those with no prior diagnosis. It moves through the recognition of symptoms and the correct use of auto-injectors, the legal framework and what Benedict's Law means for schools, and the practical systems — risk assessments, care plans, communication with families — that make a setting genuinely allergy-safe. The course closes with a focus on the human side: supporting the child with allergies, building an inclusive environment, and ensuring that every adult around that child feels confident enough to act. This is not a course about compliance for its own sake. It is about making sure that what happened to Benedict does not happen to another child.