Lockdown drills in Wales

As others have said, lockdown drills are increasingly routine but gun crime is very much not. We have lockdown in case of deer incursion on the fields!

I would be more concerned about getting a suitable school place for your DD, who is likely to be going into year 10 in Sept (assuming she turned 14 after Sept 1), or year 11 (if before). Both are difficult years to start a UK education because of GCSE timings, and if she's due to start Year 11 it will be exceptionally hard (and worth trying to get her into the year below TBH).

No security guards in our school. The leadership are always on call and will rush to any emergency but zero weapons.

Yeah, British police don’t routinely carry guns. They have to be specifically trained and are only used in extreme situations, or specific places like airports in times of high alert as another poster said.

We are In wales and both my primary aged children have lock down practise every half term, they have to hide under tables or on clock rooms ( and hide from the head ) they are not aware of the real reason they practise.

This is completely irrelevant (no you won’t get a school shooting in Swansea. The Dunblane massacre in 1996 is, in fact, our only school shooting), but have you looked at Atlantic College? I don’t know how old your kids are but i’d Love to send mine there.

I would expect state schools to have a list of their policies on their website so that you can see them. At my daughter's school - not Swansea - it is in their Critical incident policy and procedures document. So you ought to be able to see something similar on local school websites.

They have a lock down drill once a year - but this involves sitting in classrooms, keeping away from doors and windows.

Never say never but guns are uncommon in the UK and the chances of such an attack are small.

Incidentally, if you are looking at state schools you can enquire of the individual schools about the chances of having places next September for your daughter to join the school.

I'm in Essex, England. My DD's are at secondary school and two Ds's at college. Both have lockdown procedures but neither practice them.
Here they are mainly for a terrorist incident rather than a shooting.
I have explained to my children what to do in the event of a terrorist attack but not a shooting as they don't happen here like they do in America.

Wales is beautiful, lovely choice.

In the meantime, thanks for reassuring me that we're moving to a saner country.

I'm not sure I'd go that far. Presumably you've been following the Brexit palava...

What other people have said - Lockdown drills are precautionary. In 20+ years I've seen it used once, and that was after a report of something near to the school with no direct threat. The vast majority of UK schools have no additional security staff, and even if they did they would not be armed. although some days on car park duty a dart gun for tyres would be welcome

We call them "invacuation", and both the primary and secondary I work in have plans. The older high school children understand that an "active shooter" is a slim possibility because they see the news from the US, but that it's almost certainly something else here. For primary we sell it as "dog in the playground", and I myself have a story to tell them about a chemical leak from a factory near my school when I was a child (what a mess that day was, nothing like as well handled as we do it now!).

As staff we've talked about using this protocol for "unauthorised person in the building" scenarios - to my mind it's part and parcel of safeguarding. And I'm glad we've had a few run-through as it identified a couple of weak spots, not least an unlockable door into the room where I work!

The roughest school in our city apparently has metal detectors but our school doesn't.

I did some exam invigilation in Edinburgh a few years back. It was a VERY rough school and the police were in and out but that's the most that will ever happen, I think.

You might have a bit of culture shock!

Forgot to say that there is a prison about 1 mile away so I suppose that's a remote possibility too. The school said that it was basically a logical extension of having fire drills.

My kids school in England had a lockdown drill practice before Xmas. The kids were told this was to deal with the unlikely situations like extreme weather and chemical spillage.

I'm not in Wales but lock down drills have been introduced in my kids' primary school this year. It's done in a very 'not scary' way and it is I think a good thing. There's definitely no armed security in fact the only security is the caretaker and the fact the gate is locked as soon as the kids are in.

It did strike me how open the school campuses are in the US when we were looking at schools with my step sister.

So I can expect for there NOT to be at least two armed security guards on the campus of any secondary school in Wales?

I haven't heard of a single secondary in Wales that has specific security...even the school not far from us that takes in all the troubled children from other schools that are schooled in a secure unit away from the rest of the children.

In fact, you won't find armed security in the UK unless there's an important dignitary nearby (in which case they'll be police or government security services) or at airports during levels of high alert...but again they are government provided rather than just civilians with a gun.

I think lockdown drills are a sensible precaution to get children used to the idea that not all emergencies are to leave calmly via the nearest exit, and that some mean listening to your teacher carefully and doing what they say to stay safe.

When I was in school they literally locked us in because some chimpanzees escaped from the neighbouring zoo! That's more likely around here than an idiot with a gun.

Swansea resident here. None of my DC or my DP’s DC in schools have had lockdown drills, but as others have said, it’s more likely to be something similar to a fire drill type thing (ie this is what we do if for example something is on fire nearby and we can’t leave the premises). There is no gun culture in Swansea. The first gun I’ve seen my whole 33 year life is my DPs shotgun (farm boy) and you’ve got to jump through such strict hoops to get a licence, keep it locked up etc. Schools are generally lovely around these parts, even the ‘rough’ ones (I lived next to one and the kids and staff were lovely). No security (and no need for it!) beyond maybe a scary receptionist . Good luck with the move!

A form of lockdown was used in the school by daughter teaches in recently, a noxious chemical incident occurred nearby and the school implemented a lockdown.

Also in South Wales and mine have had any lockdown drill practice. Also, we have a local ‘super school’ and there’s no security guards on site. The Receptionist is quite terrifying though

Hi OP. I live and teach in Swansea (secondary teacher) and we have lockdown drills in the same way as we have fire drills. Both are done as a precaution and I’ve only every had them as drills. Feel free to inbox me with any questions about state or private schools in Swansea.

My school used to do lockdown practice in the 90s as we were very close to Broadmoor. It was always badged as something less scary than potential escaped prisoner though.

Lockdown drills are more widespread now for a few reasons- potential terrorist threat (which is as real, possibly more so, in the US as it is here) and there have been a lot of bomb hoaxes in recent years too. The approach is sensible and precautionary and doesn't generally scare the children.

Worrying about active shooter scenarios in Swansea compared to the US is frankly laughable though (that's meant to be helpful, not rude!). There was one school shooting in the UK 20+ years ago and the response to that was massive. This is a very sensible country in respect of gun laws where access and use is extremely carefully controlled and monitored.

There was a report of a gun man in a small town in Cornwall England. The schools were put on lockdown within minutes. There must have been some plan in place. I found it quite reassuring as my DGC were in there.

Errrrrr...no. 😀 I'm not saying our schools are perfect, far from it, but gun crime is not a concern.

Schools in Kent all have lockdown policy