No — not unless you are security staff.
Searching is a power you can be authorised to use, not a duty that can be placed on you. The Education Act blocks any enactment, instrument or agreement from being read as letting a head teacher in England order anyone other than a member of the school’s security staff to carry out a search. Your head decides who is authorised; being authorised is not the same as being compelled.
updated 20 Jul 2026last checked 1 Aug 2026
What the source actually says
The protection, in statute:
“Nothing in any enactment, instrument or agreement shall be construed as authorising a head teacher of a school in England to require a person other than a member of the security staff of the school to carry out a search under section 550ZA.”
— Education Act 1996, s.550ZB(3), current text as revised legislation
The same section defines who that exception covers:
“‘member of the security staff’, in relation to a school, means a member of staff whose work at the school consists wholly or mainly of security-related activities”
— ibid., s.550ZB(8) legislation
DfE’s statutory guidance describes the authorisation side of it, and mirrors the one group who can be required:
“Only the headteacher, or a member of staff authorised by the headteacher, can carry out a search. The headteacher can authorise individual members of staff to search for specific items, or all items set out in the school’s behaviour policy.”
— Searching, screening and confiscation in schools, DfE, July 2023, para 10 DfE
“The headteacher can require a member of the security staff to undertake a search.”
— ibid., para 11 DfE
Your school may still require it
Your school can lawfully name you as an authorised searcher, expect you to witness a colleague’s search, ask you to supervise a pupil while a search is arranged, and hold you to the recording that follows. What it cannot do is turn the search itself into an instruction you must personally carry out.
See also Can I search a pupil who refuses? and Do I need a witness and a same-sex colleague to search a pupil?.