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Original poster

If your primary school (UK) went into lockdown

86 replies

RainyWeekend · 10/07/2023 11:56

Would you do as the school suggest and go to a local named venue for information or would you go straight to the school?

An incident has happened locally and parents were urged not to go to the school. Local schools have gone into lockdown.

But seriously? I really don't think I'd be able to stop myself. Yes yes, I know it it not the right thing to do but how would you be able to keep away?

I feel sick just thinking about it.

OP posts:
MooseAndSquirrelLoveFlannel · 10/07/2023 14:39

It happened in our primary school late last year, a mentally unwell male gained access during playtime and just ran wild. Teachers did a fabulous job of shepherding the kids safely into the school hall and keeping the mad male out of the hall till Police arrived.

Terrifying, but we didn't find out about it till after the fact as the school kept a lid on it. Thinking now, one side of me would want to be there and getting my kid to safety but the more logical side of me says the teachers handled it like pros and all the kids were thankfully safe (albeit a bit shook up) and it's better for parents to stay away.

I think, I would follow the rules but I'd be a basket case of worry!

Qilin · 10/07/2023 14:41

If this was my school crowds of parents would make any emergency access near on impossible. City centre school in a crowded area, busy roads and narrow paths. Add 100+ parents and it would be chaos and would lead to a more dangerous situation than beforehand.

Whilst instinct says get to your child you really have to try and follow the rules in such situations. It's for everyone's benefit including the safety of your child.

Not following the rules could actually put your child in greater danger - and no one wants that surely.

Qilin · 10/07/2023 14:45

babysharkdoodoodedoodedoo · 10/07/2023 14:37

I would RACE there. And probably try to enter the school.

Even though this could likely cause greater danger to your child and/or to others in the school?

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WhereTheSuburbsMeetUttoxeter · 10/07/2023 14:46

I don't have a car, but I probably would have run faster than I have in 30 years to be close.

DD is in secondary now. 2 men got in with knives. They had to take them out down a back staircase (a school of 2000). They had a practised plan and executed it.
Men were arrested, and only then we're we informed of the 'incident'.

Otherwise I still would have legged it up there.

WhereTheSuburbsMeetUttoxeter · 10/07/2023 14:47

*take them = take the students.

Taking the armed men would have have easier I suppose, if they were compliant 🤷

LarkspurLane · 10/07/2023 14:51

babysharkdoodoodedoodedoo · 10/07/2023 14:37

I would RACE there. And probably try to enter the school.

I assume that if parents did this and ended up making the situation worse, that they would also be arrested.

ErrolTheDragon · 10/07/2023 14:53

And now think about the effect on your child if while they're being kept safe from whatever the threat is by the professionals, their panicking parent gets injured or killed trying to intervene...

BaronessEllarawrosaurus · 10/07/2023 14:56

BodegaSushi · 10/07/2023 14:30

A park?

Show quote history

There isn't even that. Local church maybe but that's a decent distance from the school. I'm in an old cotton mill town, the primary school is up on a hillside on a road that's a dead end that you can access through rows of terraced housing. Its awful for access. The local park is roughly 2 miles in the opposite direction. Between the school and attached nursery there's probably 400 children so a big space with parking is needed

EarthlyNightshade · 10/07/2023 14:56

OnToTheNextOneOntoTheNextOne · 10/07/2023 14:26

Genuine question (not goady): why did the school today need to 'lock down' for more than 3 hours, for an incident that the police and ambulance services had probably resolved within an hour?

It feels very authoritarian to me as a parent to be told - you cannot collect your child until we say you can.

Was the boy today who stabbed the teacher working alone?

ArabeIIaScott · 10/07/2023 14:57

Aye, but there's logic and rational thinking and understanding all of the reasons why, and there's parental instinctive responses ...

StarchySturgess1 · 10/07/2023 15:01

Tinkietot · 10/07/2023 12:20

I would be running to the school as that’s what my heart would want. Logically I would want to follow rules but that doesn’t work when it comes to children.

This is why there's chaos and hysteria when actually we need calm and logic. Even more so when it comes to children.

StarchySturgess1 · 10/07/2023 15:04

ArabeIIaScott · 10/07/2023 14:57

Aye, but there's logic and rational thinking and understanding all of the reasons why, and there's parental instinctive responses ...

Again, your instinctive parental response should be to do what you need to do to protect your child, and interfering in a process that has been put in place and instructions (presumably from emergency services etc) isn't the way to do that. If anything you'll just make it worse and put yourselves at risk.

Milkycoffee2sugars · 10/07/2023 15:05

My child was a pupil in the school where a teacher was killed a few years ago and was in the class next door when it happened. Parents went to the school that day, my child still talks about that day

ArabeIIaScott · 10/07/2023 15:08

StarchySturgess1 · 10/07/2023 15:04

Again, your instinctive parental response should be to do what you need to do to protect your child, and interfering in a process that has been put in place and instructions (presumably from emergency services etc) isn't the way to do that. If anything you'll just make it worse and put yourselves at risk.

Show quote history

Instinct often overrides reason and logic. That's my exact point. I'm not advocating for instinctive responses.

PTSDBarbiegirl · 10/07/2023 15:12

Can you be more clear, do you mean if school contacted you re incident inside the school? Or do you mean something else like school damaged in accident so locked down to skeleton staff only..

toomuchlaundry · 10/07/2023 15:16

@PTSDBarbiegirl i assume OP is referring to an incident like today where s hook has requested parents to go to a meeting point away from the school, but some parents went to the school

YetMoreNewBeginnings · 10/07/2023 15:22

OnToTheNextOneOntoTheNextOne · 10/07/2023 14:26

Genuine question (not goady): why did the school today need to 'lock down' for more than 3 hours, for an incident that the police and ambulance services had probably resolved within an hour?

It feels very authoritarian to me as a parent to be told - you cannot collect your child until we say you can.

3 hours to deal with a situation from being called to knowing what happened, dealing with it, contacting the teachers next of kin, finding who witnessed it, who was involved, and putting things in place before parents (a number of whom had already shown they wouldn’t listen to what they were asked to be doing) started questioning the children and starting speculation about the child and teacher involved, their friends, previous incidents and the likes is pretty good going imo

nasanas · 10/07/2023 15:33

I would do what I was told to do, I'm not good at thinking and processing quickly so usually follow instruction.

ChiefWiggumsBoy · 10/07/2023 16:47

I would stay away, for one because our school is in a city so if there's loads of parents there, then emergency services would not be able to get through.

It would probably take all my power not to though. I'd probably drive as close as I could then walk.

toomuchlaundry · 10/07/2023 17:44

@OnToTheNextOneOntoTheNextOne think the boy was arrested 3 miles from the school site, so they needed to make sure the area was safe before letting other children off site and that he was acting alone

KnitMePurlMe · 10/07/2023 18:20

So many drama llamas on here talking about wild actions that would cause the situation to potentially be far worse and directly interfere with what the school were doing to keep the kids safe. Teachers are trained to do this - and to call emergency services to help. They don’t put a call to arms out to all parents for bloody obvious reasons 🙄.

LacieLane · 10/07/2023 18:30

OnToTheNextOneOntoTheNextOne · 10/07/2023 14:26

Genuine question (not goady): why did the school today need to 'lock down' for more than 3 hours, for an incident that the police and ambulance services had probably resolved within an hour?

It feels very authoritarian to me as a parent to be told - you cannot collect your child until we say you can.

They said on the BBC news that the student with the knife wasn't found until later in the morning. Not authoritarian at all for the school to follow what the poluce had told them to do to make sure everyone was as safe as possible.

Anyone in the vicinity of the school was at risk.

Qilin · 10/07/2023 18:35

OnToTheNextOneOntoTheNextOne · 10/07/2023 14:26

Genuine question (not goady): why did the school today need to 'lock down' for more than 3 hours, for an incident that the police and ambulance services had probably resolved within an hour?

It feels very authoritarian to me as a parent to be told - you cannot collect your child until we say you can.

The boy who stabbed the teacher ran off. They initially though he was hiding in school grounds.
He wasn't arrested for a further two hours, about 3 miles away I think.

So the lockdown was longer as they believed he may still be in school,grounds so potentially still a threat.

Shinyandnew1 · 10/07/2023 18:37

I would do as the school requested. I can’t imagine the staff organising a lockdown and safely following their protocol and protecting the children, only for hundreds of parents to turn up outside! What would you hope to do? Just stand around and watch? Make the staff break their lockdown and open the doors to let 100 individual pupils out one at a time to their correct parent (all in a line at the office door?!), whilst trying to protect themselves and the remaining pupils from whatever danger has caused the lockdown to happen?

I would RACE there. And probably try to enter the school.

This sort of response is utterly bizarre. What if you somehow got through the school door and by doing that, let an armed shooter in who killed lots of children/staff and or you?

Floatwithfred · 10/07/2023 18:39

Both my kids go to a school who precautionary locked down today. my DD was at school and ds was with me for an appointment. I couldn't drop him off due to lockdown. I genuinely felt he would have been safer at school today. They handled the situation so well and I was an anxious mess. Definitely would not have gone to the secondary school it would be mayhem and a crowd is exactly what the perpetrator needs to hide in.
I'm so greatful to the emergency service and proud of the way our community handled the situation. I actually drove through Stoke orchard just after 11am (where they were arrested) and there wasn't a hint of an issue. Fantastically handled by the local police force.