To think we need to re-think security for children's schools and clubs following Southport

Kids don't need to be in prisons, there's enough anxiety about already.

do you mean Dunblane?

My girls primary school is locked during school hours, but the gates are opened from 3pm - 6pm for wrap around care. I've always felt a little uncomfortable about this.

My girls also go to a dance school on a saturday morning. When the southport attacks first happened the doors were locked once the kids were inside, but I've noticed that this has now started to slip and it's rarely locked. There is a security gate which is only accessed by pin code but an attacker could easily just follow a load of parents through at the same time.

I can stomach most things that I read, however horrific, but I cannot read this story. It is just too horrific

True, but there are gatherings of children in hundreds of places with zero security at all because it's just not practical or even desirable. Parks, football games, swimming pools, libraries - if someone wants to inflict random violence on a group of children there is no shortage of opportunities.

Maybe we need to look at the fact that something, or somethings are going seriously wrong in society and maybe we should try and work out what, and if it is possible to backtrack

I thought after Lockerbie school and kids’ activities generally was much more watertight

I can't see how you can make a school fully secure against a determined attacker without turning it into a prison. Our school is secure in the sense that it has a 5/6 foot fence around the perimeter and you have to be "buzzed in" to enter the building, but if someone wanted to scale the fence and attack kids in the playground then of course they could. Not much to be done about it but it's not something that I worry about because the risk of something happening is incredibly low.

And do you think locking those doors would have stopped him from killing children? Or would have stabbed them at the park? Or soft play? Or pretended to have a package and rung the doorbell?! We can't lock children up forever. They will then become the problem.

The issue is that MH services are dire which is why people don't engage. Or that people fall off the radar and no one chases it up

I take my granddaughter to a couple of playgroups ( church hall based ) and absolutely anybody could barge their way in. No security whatsoever.

I agree with this.

Each year in the UK, around 20 children are killed on the roads and around 500 seriously injured.

Whereas murder by a random person is (thankfully) incredibly rare.

Schools should most definitely be secure if your school isn't then it needs to be addressed immediately, literally OFSTED will highlight for child safety.
I help run a Saturday group and we were on holiday when this happened. We immediately updated our safeguarding policy before starting back in Sept.
We hire our local school and are the only group in the building. It's a bit of a hassle, doors are manned as kids come in and then locked . And then manned and opened, for parents at the end of the session.
A couple of parents complained because 'what's likely to happen?' ' it's a safe area' and yeah it is but I bet the dance teacher thought the same.
Risking kids, regardless of how small a risk, especially when parents are trusting us to care for them is not something we were willing to do.

Where will the money come from for the changes and how will risk assessments happen if they want to let the children play at the park, go on a field trip? Do the dangers of the outside world stop if they're taking the tube to a museum?

Many schools refuse to allow children to leave before y6 when most of us walked home well before that. We are already locking them away. The more we lock them inside the more we drive to spend time online in front of screens and away from other humans.

It’s easier to get into Fort Knox than my children’s primary and secondary schools. My youngest attends weekend Theatre school and they are also locked once the kids have arrived.

All the schools and nurseries around here ( outer London ) have got secure entrances - you can’t just wander in. These are permanent, purpose built or adapted full time locations.
The problem with extending this to clubs is that they are rarely full time, just some days for a couple of hours after school or at the weekend and in a wide variety of premises that are able to rent to the class/club owner for that time. The buildings may well have other activities going on. There has been a huge loss of community halls and spaces here over the past few years and I can see that what the OP is suggesting would result in further decline in availability for activities for children.

I don’t think making schools and activities secure is ‘locking children away’. How would they even know the doors are locked?

We can't build walls and locked doors to keep out every risk in the world. Much better to invest in mental healthcare can support stronger communities so people don't become isolated and radicalised.

We shouldn't have to think about this stuff, but we live in a world where we have to.

I think the bigger worry and the bigger risk is the mental health of our children. Locking them away won't improve mental health, it will make it worse and that in turn will make life more dangerous for everyone.

If people knew what was bubbling away under the surface because of the total lack of MH care they'd be terrified

It is not. There is no such thing as a full secure school, it's not possible.

Most school now have to be locked during the day - ours lock the gates as well as have a buzzer entry door at reception. Classroom doors to the playground are locked also - you see them unlocked before letting them out at the end of the day. Our nursery is also the same buzzer entry at reception.

I usually choose a summer camp that is at school so behind the same locked doors/gates but some clubs aren't setup like this - thinking football camp at the local football club. Although you would have to go through the clubhouse to get to the children on the pitch the doors are not locked.

Schools and nurseries are secure.

Clubs are more difficult because these tend to take place in village halls and similar community spaces that aren’t set up to be secure. I suppose the teacher could lock the door and I suspect more will think to after this.

But at the end of the day, as horrible as it is, it was a rare event in the grand scheme of things and you can’t protect children from everything that might happen to them.