Kids doing 'lockdown' exercises in school

[cantsleepwontcry]

1st day back yesterday for my year 12

Comes to tell me they did a lockdown exercise.... teacher blocked the door with chairs and they basically had to hide under desks, behind furniture until the threat was over

I'm quite surprised and upset that they feel the need to teach this in UK schools now.

Same - I only discovered that our primary school does them because I accidentally tried to come into the school when they were in the middle of one! (DS had forgotten his lunchbox, I went up to try to drop it at reception).

The alarm wasn't a loud jangly bell/siren, just a low buzzing.

Private schools often need these procedures more. You’ll never hear about it but many have disgruntled parents regularly posing a security threat. It’s why many only have a single entry / exit point

This resource explains all about the law around lockdown drills and why they may be used. They are about much more than Dunblane.

https://www.theschoolrun.com/lockdown-procedures-primary-schools

"Invacuation might be required if:

• There is local air pollution due to a nearby fire or chemical release.
• There is a dangerous animal (usually a dog) in the grounds.
• There is an incident or civil disturbance in the area that might affect the school.

Lockdown might be implemented if:

• There is an aggrieved, disturbed or intoxicated person trying to gain access to the school (this could be a parent or a stranger).
• There is an intruder on the site.
• There is an internal threat from a student."

They need to be doing lock down drills, it is a requirement - however hopefully it is low key enough for your children not to be reporting it back to you as "interesting news"

We definitely had them when I was a kid in school in London in the 90’s. I vividly remember it as it was a dangerous dog in the playground, then realised it was my (very soppy) Rottweiler who had escaped and was sitting in the playground waiting for me. 😂😬

My DD is year 9 in East Sussex and they do them once a year, they also did them in primary school. I think it’s a good idea to be fair, id much rather it was clear and everyone knows what to do than a whole panic situation if something happened.

Ive had to put lockdowns into practice 3 times in 30 years, and yes, it has probably saved lives

Have you never heard the expression "bull in a china shop"?

Much better to get the children inside and leave the cow/lion/armed criminal outside.

How about Montgomery drill? Anyone else had those?

It is a second world war ship wreck off Kent, which will possibly be the largest ever peacetime explosion in Europe if it ever explodes - I don't realistically know how much warning there would be though

Basically, the assumption is if the Montgomery blows up, every window in however many miles will blow out with glass flying away from the explosion

And in a school in the potential danger zone, when I taught there, every child had to know where to take shelter.

The Montgomery drill was used once, when an immigrant with no idea what he was doing rowed out to the wreck of the Montgomery and climbed up into its masts and sat there fishing.

I understand there was another Montgomery drill a couple of years ago when a disable yacht nearly crashed into it

Not necessarily parents disgruntled with the school, but parents disgruntled with the UK custody laws, pose a security threat in private schools

‘Much better to get the children inside and leave the cow/lion/armed criminal outside.’

ah, Jesus! Forgot about the lions. I might email the kids school now and ask them to start doing lockdown drills…

Bolting yourselves indoors and hiding under desks, however, is clearly not necessary (even with a bull!)

That would involve numerous alarm types though. 1 type for fire/evacuation out, another for lock yourselves in and get under desks, and another for lock yourselves in but press your face to the window for some potential excitement. I would think they try and streamline it as you are talking about 4yo through to 17yo in some schools, plus kids with SN. So, the alarm for lockdown doesn’t distinguish between scenario’s. One school my kids went to had an in-class PA system. It wasn’t used for under desk scenarios but for instance, dangerous dog, it would and the teacher would tell them all to get up and they would go to windows as no danger. Another school had in-class phones, and again, if no need to be under desks office staff would ring around and teachers would give the all clear, and they could look out windows. Another school had nothing so everyone stuck there not knowing if dangerous dog or gun wielding maniac. All schools are different and some don’t have the internal communication ability to know if under desk is necessary so need to work with worse case.

times change - did similar stuff at primary school, but that was because sitting underneath a desk was so obviously going to protect you from a nuclear bomb.

Those of you ridiculing the idea that you need a lock down drill because of animals have clearly never had to take charge of 30 frightened children. If you can present the practice as being in case of an animal, then it is less frightening to many

Not going to go into too many details, but we have needed lockdown because of an armed intruder within the last few months.

It is indeed.
Which is why that's what we do by getting the children safely inside.

I find this stuff so ott and damaging. There is no need for this in schools here. We don't get school shootings here. When was the last terrorist attack at a school in the UK? Never. It's over the top.

It's not about school shootings. If you'd ever had an angry parent who can't see their child turn up to school at lunchtime you'd absolutely see the need for such procedures!

As I just said, we had armed intruders within the last couple of months, thankfully they did not get their hands on any children - due to our lock down procedures. Yes, they are necessary.

I don’t know about that poster (sorry, didn’t check name) but I’ve been a teacher in England and Wales in a variety of schools - urban, rural, state, independent - for 35 years. Only one school had lockdown drills. A tiny independent in a safe area. And even then nobody had to sit under their desk, just close the blinds and lock the door.
im really surprised how many are saying it’s standard. I have a lot of teacher friends. To my knowledge none of them do them either.

It isn't necessarily about shooters. It can be about any kind of intruder or unknown person on school grounds - someone or people that shouldn't be there. It may also relate to other types of emergencies.

Well, we have had school shootings (Dunblane!) and plenty of knife crime too. In the last year we saw the murder of the Headteacher of Epsom College - not completely beyond the bounds of possibility that that could have played out differently.

I think it's a sensible policy to have a lockdown drill. If the worst happened and there was no policy and children died everyone would be outraged that this hadn't been thought about.

They won’t. Not in most schools. I’m a teacher, 35 years experience and still doing some work so it’s not old experience. Evacuation for fire/bomb/whatever - yup, every term.
Lockdown? As I said upthread, only one school in all that time, and then on,y very infrequently. I know of no teachers who do them.

Yes lions are ridiculous for most UK schools.

My child's school is next to a zoo with lions (and leopards, cheetahs, tigers, polar bears, wolves, rhinos...)

Escaped animal is one of the more feasible scenarios to most of the children!!

It may do at some schools but it’s really, really not as common as you are suggesting. 35 years and counting in secondary schools in England and Wales.
I’m sure you are right that some schools do them. But I’d be fairly confident in saying most don’t.

Perfectly sensible. Schools don’t need panic and chaos in an emergency.

but it is a requirement, like fire drills, so if you know of schools not doing them then you are duty bound to report them