Do they do lock down drills at your dc school?

[PrincessHoneysuckle]

The secondary i work at has announced they are starting soon due to the recent stabbings in the news.

All schools are meant to have them as regularly as fire drills.

Yes every school I've ever worked at has had invacuation (lockdown) drills.

There was a thread discussing just this a few days ago that would probably be worth a read.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5262732-does-your-primary-school-have-lockdowns-drills?page=4&reply=141896903

Ours had their first one in October this year. They didn't do it last year. I assume its been advised generally this year given the levels of disillusionment, depression and general angst in teens - of course 99.9% of those teens struggling won't take it out on others this way, but there's always that 0.01% - maybe until recent years that's only been 0.00001%.

We’re in NZ and yes have always had lockdown drills the whole time DD has been at school (she started in 2014).

Not sure when they were first brought in - we didn’t have them back in my day.

They called it a 'stay put' drill at the school my kids attend. They did one last month, for the first time in the 7 years my children have attended there....

I spoke to friends with kids at other schools in our local authority area, and no one else had heard of them before. So whatever the approach is supposed to be, it's obviously not consistent.

My daughter (who suffers from anxiety) was really scared by it.

Yes. We call it the dog in the playground drill

Mine have had them since dd1 started at secondary in around 2010. They do them about once a year and it's not really a big thing - just like doing a fire practice.

Interesting.Weve never done it.Bit worried about the kids who have SEN as they get overwhelmed with fire drills and this drill alarm is harsher apparently

We do one every term in our primary school.

There's a relatively recent thread on this here.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amiibeingunreasonable/5262732-does-your-primary-school-have-lockdowns-drills?reply=141900765

After reading the last thread I asked DD (year 7) if they had ever had these or anything like a stay in place/dog in the playground drill at her primary, and she said never. So it can’t have been a requirement - I was also a governor and never heard of this at all either!

Surely the drills are traumatic in themselves

Pretty sure they don't happen in Scotland

Can't see how they are any more traumatic than a fire drill.

Way less traumatic than a school clueless and ill prepared in an emergency?

This subject comes up alot on MN.

yes. Our school has done lockdown drills since my now 14 year old was in prep - so 10 years. They started after a man running from the police ran through the school- followed by the police. The prep classes were evacuated to Costa coffee and were all given a hot chocolate and DS recalls it as the best day he has ever had at school. Now they do it once a year- the last of which was last week.

It's not an alarm like a fire drill- it is a silent alarm that flashes up on all the school computers. Because if there is a dangerous intruder they should not be alerted that an alarm has been triggered. The students have been taught to drop to the ground and crawl under their desks and the doors are locked and curtains drawn.

It's a vital part of emergency training IMO.

Yes. Both my kids school and nursery practice Lock- In drills each year. We usually get a letter a week or two before they do it.

It's horrifying that such a thing is necessary. I actually cried the first time we got a letter telling us about it.

Fire drill=filing out of school calmly
Lockdown drill= hiding under tables etc because of danger

Yes ds school (senior) have 2 every term. I do supply work in an infant school, we do one a term.

At my primary, we have an invacuation drill but it's a 'get inside quickly and safely' type thing. The children are told it's incase a dog got on the playground, or there was a swarm of wasps, or something.
We don't bolt classroom doors, shut blinds, get under desks and stay silent or anything. Maybe we will need to start doing this soon, though.

It's the latter we're going to be doing

None of the drills I've ever done have involved children hiding under tables?? It's about safely getting children inside the building instead of outside.

My daughter’s secondary school did one recently, she’s just started year 7. They had to turn all the lights off, lock the door of the changing room and huddle together. Other kids had to hide under desks/in cupboards or lock themselves in the hall and hide. It caused quite a stir among her and her friends and I got a frantic voice note from her afterwards saying they had just had a drill but it was just a practice and she was ok. I don’t think they were warned it would happen before hand.

This has been going on for many years in most schools. It is nothing new. Nothing to be frightened of. It's a good thing for the kids to know what to do in different scenarios.

I think they must differ from school to school.

At our school the alarm went off, all kids went to the classroom, the teacher shut the door, closed and locked the windows, shut the blinds and all the children had to sit on the floor against the wall.

Simply, yes. For years. I've got 6 dc, the eldest is 18 and he did them when he was at primary, so it's been a thing for some schools for a long time. Now, they are all in 4 different schools/settings and still do them. They usually treat it like a stranger on the school site or dangerous dog on the playground type of thing in the younger years and real life scenarios for the older ones.

In primary, the teacher locked the doors, windows and shut the blinds and the children sat at their tables. The older ones actually get under the tables or sit on the floor against the walls.

They hide under the tables here. It’s doors locked, lights off, curtains/blinds closed. They are expected to be quiet but not silent, I believe the teacher will read to younger classes, not sure what older ones do.