Stupid o clock

[Donthavesanity]

I've nc as this is definitely something that would out me. To be truthful I haven't been on here much lately.

I had the worst day of my life yesterday. My older kids (primary school UK) went to school as normal. Within a few minutes my friend rang me to see if they were still at home because something had happened at the school, there were armed police and ambulance etc

If you Google berwick hills primary it will come up.

My kids are 10 and 11. Today they walked in separately. Luckily neither of them saw anything. One was already in class and the other was rushed in through a different entrance to keep her and others away from the danger.

I sobbed all morning and was an absolute mess. School updated parents by text to say all children were safe. We had to wait a couple of hours until we could pick them up.

My eldest seems to be totally fine. It was no big deal etc she doesn't like to show her emotions so I will watch her.

What I need help with is her sister. A window was smashed and she thought it was a gun and that her sister was dead. Her teacher called me this afternoon to check on her and tell me how scared and inconsolable she was. She is a very sensitive girl and is frightened by a lot of things. Had nightmares about wolves for example. What happened today was real though. She's absolutely terrified. My heart is broken because I can't fix this. I've reassured her and got her to concentrate on facts and not the what ifs.

I'm just really hoping someone has any idea of what I can do, or help I could get her. Anything at all really. She's in bed with me crying in her sleep.

Sorry for the essay. Thank you if you made it this far.

I can understand it's very frightening. Sounds like Cleveland Police got it all under control quite quickly though. Surely school will be putting support in place after such a dramatic event? Councillors tend to be drafted in after significant events so maybe ask the head what her plans are and how they will ensure all pupils will have the opportunity to work through their feelings. The teachers must have been very scared too so hopefully they will get good support so they can help the pupils

Sounds awful for both of you. I think you need to just reassure your daughter and focus on the fact the teachers knew exactly what to do to keep everyone safe and reiterate that no one inside school was hurt.
Keep talking to the school, they will likely have trained councillors in school next week.

The school and the police dealt with it all incredibly. They went into a full lockdown which they practice regularly. The police will be at the school on Monday to reassure children and everyone else really.

I know as an adult that the chances of it happening again are highly unlikely but as a 9 year old it isn't something that they can rationalise. I hope over the weekend that she will calm down and feel safer. Her dad works nights and she's already panicking about anything happening at home while he isn't there.

Helpless doesn't even come close to this feeling

We had something similar with my son at his old school, I think he was 11 at the time when someone brought a knife in to school and threatened teachers and staff. Took him a while to feel safe again, I had to sit with him at night fir a while. But lots of reassurance and support from school staff and he was fine, I’m sure your DD will be too. Sounds like you’re doing all the right things.