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

All schools do NOT do this in the UK. We’ve checked with 2 secondary schools in Wales via our kids (who are pupils in both) and they’ve never heard of it.

Confirming that we do it a couple of times a year, and at the beginning of the school year there's a staff meeting/training dedicated to it which covers invacuation and the procedures to adopt within the school in the event of something horrific. (designated phoneline to be used and only used between designated safeguarding lead and outside authorities etc who already have this number- officers from the police came in to do the training session with us) The training also covers what to do in the event of something happening while on a school trip.
I actually thought I remembered the guy doing our training telling us it's mandatory in all schools, but as others have said, maybe not.

I’m in Scotland - just asked DS now in his early twenties, and he never did it.

I teach in a UK primary and we do it.

We do it with the children. It's the same as a fire drill, everyone needs to know what to do, to avoid anyone panicking.

We've never done one in my secondary school.

They do it in my area because there's a prison within a couple of miles.

That actually sounds quite sweet while promoting child safety (if something awful were to happen) and animal welfare

Yeah but many posters think "UK" and "my bit of SE England" are one and the same thing.

DS's secondary have done this but only once that I am aware of. I thought he was making it up at first as I thought there might have been some communication from the school first. Maybe they just want to keep it very low key.

Not all school do this, but some do.

Need for it will depend on local threat assessment. The planning has to be done, but that may or may not include a drill.

You get separate bomb and fire drills too. Fire drill it's everyone outside asap and make your way to assembly point. Bomb and it's alert, ready to go, and leave building once instructed which are the safe routes (don't want pupils piling out of a side door if that's the side a suspected vehicle IED is pulled up

Yes should be in place - but in an age appropriate way ( ie the dangerous dog in primary school)
I know a few schools who have had to do this in an emergency so being able to practice ( just like a fire drill) is always helpful.
The situations I am aware of were
A person in the vicinity with a shot gun, later arrested by police and no threat to school specifically.
A large fire in the area is everyone went inside and windows and doors closed - end of school was extended so no children were leaving in the smoke plume.

should also say that ALL of us should know what to do - in public areas like shopping centres - should there be a threat of violence but especially a terrorist attack , the govt film Run Hide Tell is aimed at the general public.

A quick Google shows lockdown procedures are recommended in all schools, but not mandatory.

Neither DDs primary or secondary (in England) have done this. I'd be interested to know how often an incident that requires a lockdown actually occurs and what the process was to decide that this is something that is needed in this country.

Our Infants and Juniors do it. Yes to the ‘dog in playground’ scenario. I’ve seen a playground evacuated when a swarm of bees descended…so it can be needed for innocent reasons!

Yes, I work in a secondary school and we do this at least once a year, it was brought in around 2017/18

My DS is in year 10 now, he definitely did lockdown/intruder drills in infant school and I think in juniors too. Other DS year 6 different school and has also don intruder drills. We live in a pretty boring part of the country too!

Yes our school does it. They play cat and mouse and the headteacher is the cat.

Yes I am a teacher and they do it at my school

DC1 is now Yr8, first did this in reception and has done it every year since. Market town with a low crime rate. Neither of the DC ever seemed at all bothered by it as it was as routine as fire drill.

I voted yanbu as hadn't heard of any schools doing this locally or the 3 schools i've worked in but I stand corrected,just asked my 10 year old and she says they've done about 5 that she remembers.

But surely security at the school would be very tight anyway ?
my youngest son goes to a special school,I d in going to.a meeting there i have to press the buzzer on outside gate and tell them why I'm there and then sigh in at reception where I put my details in on the computer screen ,then they take a photo of me and make me a temporary security badge and then have to sit.in reception until who eve r I'm meeting collects me.

TBH your code word isn't a very good one!

my school does this (secondary), we have a special bell signal. My kids primary school also does it. These drills are about once a year.

Yes, exactly.
All UK schools, once a year.