Kids doing 'lockdown' exercises in school

cantsleepwontcry · 2023-09-07T05:42:45+00:00

1st day back yesterday for my year 12 Comes to tell me they did a lockdown exercise.... teacher blocked the door with chairs and they basically had to hide under desks, behind furniture until the threat was over I'm quite surprised and upset that they feel the need to teach this in UK schools now.

Qilin · 07/09/2023 19:03

Invac is a lockdown drill. *The term invacuation rather than lockdown started to be used a couple of years ago for obvious reasons.

You are clearly doing lockdown drills from what you've said.*

We don't do invacuation drills but we do have a policy, which all staff are aware of. However, this isn't practised with the children - to be fair most of the actions are in-line with a lot of our other school policies and procures anyway, just without the alarm.

Qilin · 07/09/2023 19:00

GCSister · 07/09/2023 07:36

@Qilin do all children and staff know what to do if the alarm goes off?

Staff know as policy is distributed and updated.
Children know that is any alarm go off they stop, stand up and listen to their teacher, and that they follow all their instructions straight away, quietly and calmly.

In the case of the fire alarm they have to do the same anyway as they wouldn't go straight outside on their own regardless. They know what to do if not in their own classroom, or outside, as well. Basically - follow the teacher's instructions.

It's incredibly unlikely, due to the children's ages, they'd ever be somewhere in school on their own and without someone knowing where they were. For example, the toilets and one of the few places children go alone to - the toilet blocks are very close to classrooms and have to be passed to exit the school from most classrooms. Key members of staff also have a designated responsibility to check these non-classroom based locations and every knows if that is their job.

ErrolTheDragon · 07/09/2023 18:57

Nonsense?
A word that can be readily understood isn't 'nonsense', even if its etymologically questionable.

AllProperTeaIsTheft · 07/09/2023 18:57

Totally normal since ages ago. We did ours today. The kids are always very blasé about it, as they are about fire drills.

crumblingschools · 07/09/2023 18:53

Offensive?

cardibach · 07/09/2023 18:49

ErrolTheDragon · 07/09/2023 18:11

Of course you can! I'd never heard the term before but it was immediately obvious what it was supposed to mean.

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I didn’t say it wasn’t. It’s still offensively nonsense though. I shall not be using it.

cardibach · 07/09/2023 18:48

TeenDivided · 07/09/2023 17:48

Could you not consider it a portmanteau word, like Brexit?

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Brexit makes etymological sense.

crumblingschools · 07/09/2023 18:42

What’s the quickest way to tell someone @cardibach, an alarm bell (and a routine that has been practised) so pupils don’t panic, just like a fire drill

BerriesPineCones · 07/09/2023 18:14

dressedforcomfort · 07/09/2023 07:05

I went to school near a military base at the height of the IRA bombing campaigns in the 80s. I remember doing a drill for a bomb scare. Must have been about 12 or so....looking back, it's incredible how blasé all the kids were about it. I can't imagine having that conversation with my kids now....

Yes we did this. We had to go to the bottom of the school field (which was also a public park)

ErrolTheDragon · 07/09/2023 18:11

cardibach · 07/09/2023 17:27

Tell you what’s really bothering me - the nonsense word ‘invacuation’. Total misunderstanding of etymology so meaningless. Evacuation comes from the stem evacuare "to empty". You can’t just make up silly opposites.

Of course you can! I'd never heard the term before but it was immediately obvious what it was supposed to mean.

TeenDivided · 07/09/2023 17:48

cardibach · 07/09/2023 17:27

Tell you what’s really bothering me - the nonsense word ‘invacuation’. Total misunderstanding of etymology so meaningless. Evacuation comes from the stem evacuare "to empty". You can’t just make up silly opposites.

Could you not consider it a portmanteau word, like Brexit?

cardibach · 07/09/2023 17:27

Tell you what’s really bothering me - the nonsense word ‘invacuation’. Total misunderstanding of etymology so meaningless. Evacuation comes from the stem evacuare "to empty". You can’t just make up silly opposites.

cardibach · 07/09/2023 17:24

crumblingschools · 07/09/2023 14:36

@cardibach but there are different invacuation levels. Local schools seem to have the following plan; level one which would be go into your class, level 2 would be keeping quiet and drawing blinds and level 3 would be an under the desk scenario. If there was a chemical leak in the area, you would need to go into class and windows closed but could carry on lessons and certainly wouldn’t need to barricade the door and hide under your desk

And most of those don’t require anyone to practise anything. Just tell the teacher to shut the windows, not let anyone out and crack on.

cardibach · 07/09/2023 17:23

YourNameGoesHere · 07/09/2023 14:04

Not a training provider but a supply teacher so quite an objective sample. Most schools outline their fire evacuation and invacuation process upon my arrival so I'm familiar with both. I'd say it's rarer to attend a school without a lockdown policy than it is to attend one with in my experience.

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35 years teaching full time and now I’m a supply teacher. Still only 1 with drills for ‘lockdown’.

Trixiefirecracker · 07/09/2023 15:35

I’m in and out of lots of schools which I know well and none have any of these procedures in place or practice drills, so can’t be that common as everyone suggests. Same as the ‘all schools must have high walls around them’ myth.

DottyLottieLou · 07/09/2023 15:35

Better safe than sorry. Life skills.

zeibesaffron · 07/09/2023 15:25

sounds sensible to me! sounds like the school is making sure it’s prepared!

crumblingschools · 07/09/2023 14:36

@cardibach but there are different invacuation levels. Local schools seem to have the following plan; level one which would be go into your class, level 2 would be keeping quiet and drawing blinds and level 3 would be an under the desk scenario. If there was a chemical leak in the area, you would need to go into class and windows closed but could carry on lessons and certainly wouldn’t need to barricade the door and hide under your desk

Moglet4 · 07/09/2023 14:17

GCSister · 07/09/2023 07:07

Honestly, I’ve never known this and I’m a teacher! Only ever had fire drills

How long have you been a teacher?
The school I'm a governor and we stopped doing them during Covid but they've started again now.

For nearly 20 years! In different schools too in both London and Manchester. It’s honestly never even occurred to me before now.

YourNameGoesHere · 07/09/2023 14:04

cardibach · 07/09/2023 12:42

Working in ‘hundreds of schools’ suggests some sort of training provider - is it providing lockdown training, perhaps? In which case it’s a bit of an unrepresentative sample.
35 years. Schools in various areas. Loads of teacher friends - between us quite possibly hundreds of schools. Lockdown in one I’m aware of - and that was more theoretical than actual. I never actually experienced a drill, just knew it was a possibility.
im not saying it’s not something to think about, but many of the scenarios people on here are saying would require lockdown procedures really don’t. And since lockdown is effectively ‘staying in’ I’m not sure why it needs practising that much.

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Not a training provider but a supply teacher so quite an objective sample. Most schools outline their fire evacuation and invacuation process upon my arrival so I'm familiar with both. I'd say it's rarer to attend a school without a lockdown policy than it is to attend one with in my experience.

Rinoachicken · 07/09/2023 13:54

Sorry - wrong thread

cardibach · 07/09/2023 13:02

We all know that @OCaptain
I was saying, as part of a discussion about UK schools, that in the UK schools I’d worked in it wasn’t.

OCaptain · 07/09/2023 12:50

@cardibach

Not that relevant to my comments about schools in the U.K.

It's relevant in that school lockdown is practiced across the world?

cardibach · 07/09/2023 12:47

GCSister · 07/09/2023 11:16

I’ve seen several posters reply to this saying ‘so you are doing them’ when the post clearly states they are not. They aren’t practising. It’s just that IF it were needed the process would be the same as end of break.

That particular poster WAS doing them though......

No they weren’t. It clearly said so. It said they would use the same procedure as the end of break and therefore it didn’t need practice.

cardibach · 07/09/2023 12:43

Whinge · 07/09/2023 10:20

In that case why bother practising fire drills. Surely you just tell them to get out, why would that cause panic...

When you need hundreds of students to go inside they need to know where to go.

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Because you aren’t just saying ‘go out’ in a fire drill, fairly obviously.
theyneed to go to a specific place and line up in a specific way. A lockdown is staying out or going to where you would normally go. It’s not a special manoeuvre.