School intruder training

[incognitoe]

DC12's school organised "intruder training", which involved an actor banging on windows and shouting and an alarm going off for around 40 mins, and the children being asked to close curtains of room, get under desks and stay silent for that time, teacher they were with apparently not knowing anything about it. Half the class were crying or not able to breath properly.

Has your school done this? Actor came and met them at the end of the "training" to tell them it was not real.

Thanks

In Australia, where we have pretty stringent gun controls, my kids have done these since they started school (now in high school) with no warnings ahead of time to parents (not sure if parents of kids with SEN get a warning as I’ve never asked). They are as common as fire drills are. They know the procedure - lock doors, close blinds, desk up against the door and all kids down low out of sight, silent as possible. I’d prefer they lived in a world where it wasn’t needed but seeing as they don’t, I’d prefer they knew what to do.

Unexpected drills are usual - they are to test your response which is different if you know it is a drill.

Having an actor bang on windows/ doors is taking it too far though.

Every time lockdown/invac threads appear on here, people say they don't do them in their schools or their children have never said they've done one .

There's a simple response to that: they should be doing them. The unions, Ofsted, and the govt recommend them. The fact is, sadly, you're far more likely to need to do a lockdown/invac than you are an evacuation. They aren't a legal requirement but a strong recommendation.

We're starting our summer school in 4 weeks and one of the components of the staff induction will be evac/invac procedures. Both will be carried out as drills in the first week of the course. The students won't be told when the drill will happen, but will be told what the procedure is.

That said, the way this one was done was bizarre. Had the children never been told before what to do in case of an intruder? That in itself is a strange way of going about things.

Lockdown drill is normal in the uk. Hiring actors to terrify children is not. Most schools just tell the chn there’s a swarm of bees on the playground or a fox or something.

DSs primary school actually did this. Parents had to line up with the children in the assembly points et, those who hadn't made it into the playground were made to wait outside while the fire engine was stuck in the street outside the school blocked by all the cars illegally parked with its sirens and horn blaring. It certainly did focus some minds for a few weeks anyway but it quickly went back to how it was before unfortunately.

I’m in the UK and have never heard of a lockdown drill at any of my DCs schools.

My DCs schools don’t even have a campus they could secure - lots of school premises and grounds are easily accessible to any member of the public with either no gate or fence, or unlocked gates. Especially the primary, the grounds are huge and there are loads of places kids could just leave or randoms could just come in. If they fixed anything it should probably be that.

Lockdown drills are totally normal and have been happening in schools for the best part of 10 years.

Having an actor and pretending it's real is crazy though!

@incognitoe if you Google lockdown drill guidelines, you'll get thousands of hits from the govt, the unions, individual schools and local authorities explaining the policies. The NASUWT website has very thorough guidelines.

If it's the first time your child at 12 has done one, that should be questioned more than the strange pretending to be an intruder thing.

DDs primary school used to call it the "wild animal" alarm. They were told that a vicious dog/lion escaped from the zoo etc was within the school grounds so they all had to shut and lock doors and get down from windows. Obviously (to me) it was an intruder drill but the kids generally thought it was fun in a weird way.

I'm going to guess something has been lost in the retelling. Anything else is too ludicrous to think of, including half the class of 12 year olds being hysterical.

Where in the UK are you? All schools in my area have to have a secure perimeter and gates locked during the school day. The only part you can enter is the school office and that is after being buzzed in and has no further access to the rest of the school without another door being unlocked.

Our secondary school does this (England) but everyone is told in advance that there will be an intruder drill and is reminded what to do (lock classroom doors, pull down blinds/ cover door windows, hide under desks and keep quiet. The 'intruders' are 2 members of staff who go around trying doors and identify areas of vulnerability. Pupils are told what day to expect the drill and staff are told what time on that day so it does not come as a shock. Springing it on people without warning and using an actor must be terrifying for all.

Then we had a real bomb alert with police running though the building shouting at us to get out, no picking up bags and ambling then!

We used to have bomb drills and were told to stay inside until told where and how to evacuate as the most likely place for a bomb to be is outside the building and/or in a vehicle and the chances then of walking right into it is increased. This was a government building and the bomb alarm sounded different to the fire alarm. Fire we left/bomb we stayed.

Advice in the US is now to run away in a zig zag motion. Intruders know now that in silent, blacked out classrooms there will be sitting ducks. I'm inclined to agree that sitting under the desks in my classroom would be one of the worse things we could do.

Gosh I'd be scared even if I had prior warning - some actors can be very convincing. It's usually norm in workplaces not to give prior warning of fire drill but most kids are used to those

Yes our bomb procedure at work was to stay inside the building away from the windows until a safe evacuation route and assembly point had been identified by the police/bomb squad. When we sis actually have a bomb scare it was in the mail room so everyone was moved to the opposite end of the very large building and stayed there until a safe evacuation route was planned.

Schools in rural heritage areas aren't necessarily allowed the large green security fences you see around a lot of urban schools. A child could easily vault our not even waist height dry stone wall, but it is what it is. In Scotland, a lot of schools have rights of way through the playground. The situation is definitely not the same throughout the UK.

Nothing was lost in the re-telling. The school sent an email with a debrief after the event, with all the same information, asking parents to talk to their children about it (afterwards...) and you can see her response to my email to her above.

I was initially surprised to hear about some of the children's reactions, as they are generally a gungho lot, but that might be an indication of how shocked they were. DC usually goes to sleep quickly at night but on the eve of that event it took him three hours, literally, to go to sleep, and he overreacted to everything for a couple of days afterwards, which shows the effect on him. Back to normal now though.

However, you are correct about the ludicrous in relation how the drill was done!

Yep thats what we did, the room with the least amount of windows, all blinds and curtains closed. We never had a real bomb or bomb scare but with it being government then we had to do routine training as often as fire drills. Ours was still an education setting but attached to government buildings so that is why ours was included in the drills.

I work for a big US company and the training we are given is actually run, hide, fight. So yes, run in a zig zag pattern (and don’t stop) but only if you are a certain distance from the shooter. If not, and you can, you hide. If hiding isn’t an option, you fight. You pick up a chair or whatever you can get your hands on and fight.

It's not even close. Lockdown isn't over and done within 5 minutes. It's a much longer process. Most schools I know do it.

I mean all these kids crying would be my main issue. Why are they crying? Is the teacher not explaining quietly what is going on? Do they actually think there is an intruder outside? That would be an issue.

Parents and students do not need a heads up. It kind of negates the whole thing!

We started doing these in 2012 in my old school based in South London. While I was there we did intruder drills, bomb drills and fire drills. Although, never with actors. We have also had real intruder alarms go off on a few occasions. I remember once an intruder entered the school brandishing a knife. The school was locked down until the police could remove the perpetrator. It was actually a former student.

@WeeWillyWinkie9 The bomb had already detonated in the building next to us, although not as effectively as the bomber had hoped, so assume they were clearing the area as quickly as possible just in case it fully detonated. We didn't even know it had gone off, the first thing we knew were the police running around. Not sure they knew what to do in the situation to be fair.

We do intruder training but not involving actors. Seems surprising that so many of the were upset. We have actually had two intruders, one with a knife, so it is worthwhile.

honestly breaks my heart that we need to try to explain and teach young children these kind of things, that even adults struggle with.

I wouldn't even know what to do or tell my kids in case of a shooting or terrorist attack, it's not just the US, there as a stabbing in France just last week, and genuinely frightening.