Dangerous person in school?

[WhinnieThePoohHead]

I’ll preface this by saying I know it’s not a AIBU, I just want to use the voting option :)

Met Friends for dinner today. One friend, a teacher, mentioned that her school does ‘lockdown drills’ as well as fire drills. I asked what they’re for and she said in case someone dangerous gets into the primary school. They lock the classroom door, shut the blinds, turn the lights and screens off and hide under their desks silently. My friend told me that all schools do these drills the same way they do fire drills. this is in the U.K.

YABU- yes all schools do this, you’re out of touch
YANBU- schools in the U.K. don’t do lock down drills

I teach in primary UK. Staff know what the procedure is but we don't do drills as we think this would scare the children.

Fire drills are standard and children are taught about the dangers of fire from a young age.

As a whole staff, we felt that putting in their heads that there could be a risk from an outsider may make some children feel unsafe.

Hang on - you are a TEACHER and you think that OFSTED inspects in Scotland/Wales/N Ireland?

UK does not equal England.

But there was a genuine Montgomery alarm given once, because a foreign person, who clearly didn't understand the warning signs around the wreck, decided that sitting in the masts that protrude above the water was a good place to settle down and do some fishing.....

There was talk of taking the masts down last year, wasn't there, but I don't think it happened in the end.

Do they? Because I work in one, my dc go to 2 different ones, I went one in a different LA, I've friends all over the country who's dc go to several schools in different LA'soe Ernst work on them and a lot of my family work in schools - including in Stirlingshire where Dunblane is situated and they don't do them either. I'd say a school in Scotland that does this based on what i know is unusual

ofsted doesn’t exist in Scotland. As I’ve says and others have Not All schools in the uk do these drills.

Schools in Scotland don’t do this to my knowledge. That includes Dunblane primary school.

schools I have worked in have had intruders and they are typically dealt with in as low a key manner as possible. In practice I can’t see how these would work in older buildings when many classrooms don’t have keys (or the teacher doesn’t). It will work in newer buildings which are designed with this in mind.

It's highly unlikely to be an active shooter though. It's much more likely to be an angry parent, a potentially risky person outside who's not a direct threat to the school, or even a pupil with a knife. In all these scenarios it might be necessary for pupils to stay quiet in locked classrooms with blinds drawn. Without a thought out plan it will take longer to get things into place and there may be chaos and confusion.
Luckily in the UK we have the best defence against school shooting - strict gun laws (strengthened after Dunblane).

Agree with this. Examples given seem to be mainly about something happening in the local area. Surely unless it's beginning or end of day the kids are locked in anyway. If kids were in playground they would get called in. Not sure what hiding under desks is going to achieve?

All the primary schools round here are mostly prefabs in extensive grounds that back onto woodland or farmland or sometimes back gardens. The grounds are fenced but it would be easy to get in if you wanted. The buildings themselves have key fob access but there are weak points such as reception class having access to outside all day and their outdoor area only has a low fence. Anyway I worry more about them being hit by a car while walking on the pavement to be honest

Some schools will have different levels of lockdown, so hiding under desks will be only in extreme circumstances. Our local schools do them, using dangerous dog in playground scenario. Children see it in same way as fire drill.

My daughter attends a small, independent primary school, small town and yes they have done this.

Locks, lights, out of sight

Obviously adapted drills relevant to areas.

Untrue.

In 17 years as a teacher, not once have my schools done it.

Primary school TA here. We have lockdown drills twice a year, and have had to actually use it three times in the five years I've been at my school.

Once, when one of our SEN pupils had a serious, violent outburst on the playground at lunch (the classrooms all surround the playground in a horseshoe sort of shape), and we had to get everyone in and away from the windows as he was trying to smash them with a concrete birdbath; once when there was a tractor on fire in the field behind the school; and the last, just before hometime, when someone was on top of a nearby block of flats, visible from some classrooms, and which 90% of our pupils walk past to go home, threatening to jump.

It's honestly not just about US style active shooter situations.

@CaptainCallisto But they are situations my school I went to would have dealt with without havi9ng to do official lockdowns. Its just keeping kids in and away from the windows. Its not that big a deal.

Certainly all secondary schools which I have taught at, for the past 15 years, have done lockdown drills. I thought that it was compulsory! My sons never seemed to do them at primary school, I really wished that they had.

I left a UK sixth-form less than 10 years ago (being vague so I don’t put myself) but in my final year of sixth-form we had a lockdown drill in the school. Every class had to participate, gates were shut, doors and blinds were closed, students went under the desks.

This was the first time I’d ever had to do one of these drills at any school/college I attended and it was the first time the school in question had done it either, it had only been recently introduced.

Get in stay in drills are a feature of my DCs secondary education. I was shocked when my eldest told me about it. But we live in a rural area so she reassured me 'It's not about bombs or anything. It's because we're not a secure site so animals get in. Once a horse got in the playground Mum and it took six teachers to get it out again and they had to get a new basketball hoop.' The school has farmland on three sides so that figures.

I agree to a certain extent. I was at school in the 90s. We had to do similar things on occasion without the drill, and we managed fine, but getting 300 kids off the playground is so much quicker and more efficient with the bell. In the incident with the pupil in crisis, we had everyone in within less than a minute. If the dinner ladies had been trying to run round and usher everyone in, it would have taken much longer, and the risk of someone being seriously hurt would have been far higher.

Christ @Nimbostratus100 that's horrific. Where abouts in the world?

They would have done if they had found out

I'm sure if it was a requirement they'd have checked. It's their job to 'find out' if schools are doing all required/expected of them

Thats not how it works, you have clearly never experienced an ofsted, they justtake samples of what is going on in and around a school, and extrapolate - they dont look at everything, they dont even look at 5% of everything

Or their "tiny minds" find it incredible that children aren't prepared by their schools for something that is recommended by the government, the police, and Ofsted and might just save their own child's life.
I don't think it's the people who assume that (sadly) intruder drills are just as important as fire drills who have the tiny minds.

As an aside, why are the people whose schools don't do have systems in place for this kind of thing, talking as if not being prepared for it is a good thing?
Beggars belief.