"Safety procedure" at school..anyone heard of it

[josiewosiee]

A friend mentioned today that her dd school had practiced a safety procedure at school, where shutters come down, doors are locked and children go under the desks. I have never heard of it, but apparently it is happening in all schools. To be honest, it frightened me a little. First I have heard of it though, anyone else heard of it

Yes, it's lockdown. In case there's an intruder or something. It's standard.

Sounds like an armed intruder drill. I've heard of it in schools in the USA but not over here.

Could it possibly be a 'lockdown', in case of intruders on site or similar?

Yes it’s a thing in most schools. We tell students it is in case of loose dog etc but yes, we are prepping for any sort of attack.

Lockdown? Yep completely normal, and practised just like fire drills.

We had a lockdown procedure in the private PreScool I worked in.. UK..

They did a 'lock down drill' at my daughters secondary school during the last school year. As far as I know it hasn't happened at my youngests' primary yet.

Normal. Practiced like a fire drill would be.

Yes I think it's in case of intruder. I have primary school aged children but had never heard of it.

I've never heard of it happening here (NW England).

PreSchool 🙄

Yep lockdown practice although in our case it did actually have to be put into play!

Yes, it’s standard and what we used to do at a previous job of mine (high risk of bombings or threats).

We have an invacuation drill. Get to the hall without passing any windows. All blinds come down.

Yes, it’s lockdown. It tends to be giving a slightly less brutal title though and is approached in an age appropriate, non-frightening way.

@LoseLooseLucy I'm north west too and never heard of it

We had one in the school where I worked. It was brought in about 2 years ago when they had all those "clown" attacks (and various other things at the same time).

In our school the students weren't aware of a separate procedure. The whole point being to keep it under wraps to minimise the chance of any potential intruder knowing the drill. There would be a warning appear on the teachers screen telling them to go to assembly point A, assembly point B or to remain in the classroom. The "remain in the classroom" option we were supposed to close blinds and door and hide under the desks.

Yep. Common in some areas
It was activated recently near me... a child had forgotten his pass so he jumped over a wall to get in... caused mayhem!

Standard.
Lockdown in case of intruder etc
They don’t make it sound that scary for little ones.

Think of schools needing to think of the risks and plans for dealing with, for example, an angry and violent parent threatening violence and trying to get in and take their child by force. It isn’t just a plan for dealing with US style school shootings. Itks any situation where the children’s safety is at risk.

Lockdown drill. Very common. In fact all schools just have one.
Most schools like ours are sensible and it just includes locking doors, closing blinds and sitting on the carpet away from Windows. Other schools do the ridiculous hiding under tables thing.
We just teach ours that sometimes there's a danger inside like a fire so we go outside. Other times there's a danger outside and we stay in. If they ask we'd say there could be a strange dog on the playground and we wouldn't know if it was friendly.
Of course every single time they then ask what we'd do it there was a fire and a loose dog 😂

Lockdown is practised as routine here.

An alarm goes off and we barricade doors and hide away from the windows. It's for school shootings and terrorists etc.

The older kids aren't fooled but we tell the youngest ones that it's in case a dog gets on the premises or something.

We do it twice a year and have for the past three years.

I’m surprised in the north west, given there was that man with a gun a few years ago-I can’t remember his name but it was the man where Gascogne turned up to ‘help’.

Ah so it sounds like a standard procedure. It just worried me a little at first.
Would school let parents know they are going to practice this with the children first

I’m south east. Never heard of it here either

No they probably wouldnt let you know in advance, as they wouldnt with a Fire drill. The whole point is for students and staff to act as though it is a real incident so if everyone knows in advance it wouldnt be the same.