Locked classroom doors.

[Anonsie]

Hello,
My agency sent me to a primary school this morning in west London.
The teachers lock doors using those sliding locks. Doors that lead into the corridor and fire exit doors are also locked using these slide across locks. When I asked why these locks are in place the teacher said its because they have a few children wandering off.
My question is is this legally allowed? Iv never seen anything like this in UK schools..
Tia. Just curious.

Do the fire exit disable when the fire alarm is activated?
I wouldn’t want to work there again. Did you raise your concerns with the Premises Manager or Head?

Doors are still accessible but an adult will have to do the sliding locks first in order for the door to open.

I think you can lock fire exists but they have to be really easy to unlock. No key etc. I cant quite envisage how easy the lock mechanism is.

Id be very intrigued what thier fire risk assessment said about this.

Id be aaking the agency to follow it up aa it would worry me.

The teachers lock doors using those sliding locks. Doors that lead into the corridor and fire exit doors are also locked using these slide across locks.

Do you mean bolts?
Or something else?

If the teacher was unable to, would the children be able to open the door? Or can the doors be opened from the outside?

Yes bolt locks that slide across.
Easily opened by an adult.

Nope cant be opened from the outside. And impossible for children to open it because its high up.

How old were the children? There was a thread on here about this some months ago in a nursery, and I'm pretty sure the conclusion was if the children might be in an area alone and would be safe to start the evacuation process themselves, then it was illegal to have doors on fire exits or leading to fire exits that they couldn't open. If, however, the children were so little that they wouldn't know how to exit alone, or would wander out but immediately be in danger because they wouldn't understand to say go to the playground not wander onto a busy road, then they a) should not be without an adult, and b) even in a fire unless it was like right in their room, they would be safter waiting 30 secs for their adult to un-catch the door, than leaving immediately by themselves and getting lost or hurt.

But if the adult was incapacitated and there was a fire,could the children get out?

Then I would say that the arrangement is unsafe.
There needs to be a solution to open the doors from the outside. What if there was a fire and kids/teacher were overcome by fumes?
what if the teacher was taken ill and collapsed?

Believe me. Year 1 children can slide bolts at the top of a door.

Sometimes schools have to make a 'lesser of two evils' decision. And if you have 4 runners (& climbers - who'll be over the outside fence in a matter of seconds), and 2 TAs, what can you do?

This seems the case at this school. Although reception aged children there are some serious runners who can jump over fences and squeeze through the tiniest gaps.

I’d ask to see the risk assessment associated with this policy.

As PPs, I’m concerned with what the plan is for if a teacher becomes incapacitated. I’ve had colleagues over the years become unwell in the classroom - one had a stroke. A child needs to be able to leave to get help.

Is it a behaviour management problem? Do there need to be consequences for ‘wandering off’? Is the site otherwise insecure? Could the bolts be replaced with keypad/card activated locks, so other adults could gain access (& automatically unlock in the event of a fire alarm)?

That would make me uneasy, to say the least, and suspicious of the competence of whoever put the policy in place.

I would be asking about the risk assessment and specifically if the Fire Service are aware of the use of the locks on all doors. I'd be very interested to hear this HT response. If there was a fire then it would be so much harder to evacuate the premises as quickly as should be possible.

I think the local fire brigade might have quite a lot to say on it