Lockdown drills in UK schools

[RoseslnTheHospital]

These were mentioned on another thread, and I genuinely had never heard of a school in the UK regularly doing lockdown drills with their children. In the manner of the active shooter drills in the USA. Apparently there's an official government example of a drill routine and policy on the gov.uk site.

So, I was wondering, do you know if your children's school do these drills, or if they have a published policy on their website?

I work in s secondary school. We have never done one

Yes, as per the other thread. At least once a term.

They should be done in all schools- a drill to practise getting out of a building quickly and a drill to stay in the building safely. Even though they are done in schools, they are important drills for life. Practising a fire alarm at school would hopefully have the same effect if those children are staying in a hotel, or in Macdonalds- keep calm and walk to the nearest exit, get out. The same is of a lockdown drill, hopefully those children might not ever need it, but perhaps having practised it, and it seemingly fairly normalised might mean the difference in a future situation away from school.

DD's school and the primary next door do. They are close to a special school for children with emotional and behavioural challenges. Occasionally one of these children breaks into one of the other schools and lockdown procedures activated until the escapee has been calmed down and returned to their school. This sounds terribly harsh, but there have been an incidents where the primary school roof has been set on fire, and the secondary school has had a member of staff held at knifepoint.

My DC's old school (secondary) used to do them once or twice a year.

DD is at new school for six form and not sure if they do them there.

I know they're important but it makes me so sad that kids have to know about this stuff now...

Yes we introduced them last year. Before we went through it with the kids, we did it as staff and we had to do everything like barricade the doors, cover all glass over etc and hide under our desks. SLT then went round the school trying to spot us and get into our classrooms. Even though it was a drill and we knew what was happening, it was quite frightening to hear your door being shaken etc.

I work with nursery settings and we have a major incident policy that covers evacuation (eg fire) and invacuation which could be e.g an intruder, a major incident outside like a chemical fire. We practice every now and again and staff have to know what to do/where to go. An active shooter is highly unlikely but the policy fits plenty of other things which might happen.

Yes. Dd3 is now 15.
Did them in lower school comprehensively, including evacuating the school to another nearby (and vice versa). Practiced lock ins, blinds down, doors locked, keep quiet.
In Secondary, different county they do the same. Its rural and surrounded by woods and forest so they all seem to think they would run out the external doors into the forest!

There is a genuine requirement for them to happen in our school (at least, that's what the staff handbook suggests) but in all honesty we never get around to them.

Or if we have, they've conveniently occured on a day I was away from work, for the past 8+ years I've worked there...

And it wasn't a thing when eldest daughters ( 28) were at school.

I had never thought of this! Will have to ask my two in the morning. I know this is going to sound really thick but if this is so well known and is well practiced by closing the blinds and hiding under the tables wouldn't it be obvious to where the children were if there is an intruder?

I suppose it's not so much to hide the children as to keep them as much as possible away from any projectiles or debris. If you intrude onto school grounds during the school day you know the children are there and can't be magicked away immediately.

I'm in an international school. Completely standard - everyone into the book cupboard pending the all clear.

It's likely to be a bit squishy, given poor recruitment & retention means our classes are bigger than the cupboard is designed for, but that's the plan.

We practise termly.

Yes dog in the playground drill.

I don't think there's an easy way of hiding several hundred small children perfectly. But doing this at least means that whoever the threat is can't see exactly where the kids are, especially where a specific kid is (e.g. estranged parent wanting to take them, or for older kids, gang members after someone). It also means the children can't see what's going on outside which might also be important!

My DS's primary has had one both years he's been there (currently in year 1). He was told it was in case a big dog came into the playground.

Yes, north west, when I was in primary school. I can't remember the reason they gave but we all had to get under our desks in the brace position as a drill.

My dd's primary school does this. She says it's in case someone breaks into the school. There is no mention of any policy on it on the school website

In the past couple of months all the primary and secondary schools in my region have had to do one - we were told it was some kind of government rule.

I'm a secondary school teacher.

We have a policy for a hard or soft lockdown.

Soft lockdown - dog on the school site, toxic smoke. Students must stay in their current building, external doors are locked down. This has happened to a few schools around us.

Hard lockdown - intruder on the site. Lock the doors, barricade with a table. Blinds down, students under the tables.

In both situations, there is a different type of bell, and the staff computer gets taken over with a centrally generated message.

My dds school did this recently and sent an email out to say they were going to do it.
Not sure if its really sad, or if they just did it really well - but dd didnt even MENTION it when we asked how her day was. We then asked specifically about it and she was really blasé 'oh yeah, we did that' like it was nothing.
So its not stressed her out but like i say - not sure if thats just sad that its not unexpected to kids these days or the school just handled it great in a way that didnt worry them

Why ‘dog’ in the playground? I know there are a lot of dog haters on MN, but to me this is teaching children that dogs are automatically something to be feared. Which IMO is a great shame.
An escaped lion would be better.🙂

@avocado44 they treat it like a fire drill. Lockdowns can be used for a variety of reasons. Think parents automatically think of an armed intruder, children (particularly Primary age) don’t.

I've said upthread that we just stay put in classrooms, but I must admit I have always had a plan for whatever classroom I am in to make things more secure than just staying put. I have mentally ear-marked furniture to barricade the door and currently deliberately leave one large cupboard fairly empty so it can be easily lifted to barricade the door and then filled with books etc as ballast.

I am not a nervy person and rarely consider it, but it's always best to have a plan, especially as our school has lots of smaller blocks outside the main building which would be vulnerable if anyone was marauding about. I'm like this in all situations, though - always have a plan. I watched a TV programme once and a guy said, 'Always know your exits, always have a plan and on public transport work out how you would get out if everything was upside down.'

Like I say, I am not an anxious person. I just like to have a plan, particularly if I am responsible for looking after 30 teenagers who in an emergency would look to me to sort things out and keep them safe.

My dcs high school does it a couple of times a year. It was used a few years ago when a pupil bought a knife into school and was threatening people with it.

I agree and was sat in my class room today wondering what I would actually do in certain situations.

I do it at home too but I am a lover of the end of the world type films!