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Original poster

Kids doing 'lockdown' exercises in school

234 replies

cantsleepwontcry · 07/09/2023 06:42

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.

OP posts:
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5
OCaptain · 07/09/2023 10:15

@cardibach

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.

We do them frequently in my kids' private school in Australia.

cardibach · 07/09/2023 10:16

Whinge · 07/09/2023 07:33

What happens when a situation arises where students need to stay inside (invacuation) and no one knows what to do because there isn't a procedure to follow?

Exactly. The posters who work in schools that don't do them should be asking why not. It's better to know what to do in an emergency than have everyone in a panic.

You tell them you’re staying in? Why would that cause panic?

Whinge · 07/09/2023 10:16

cardibach · 07/09/2023 10:12

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.

Show quote history

What do you do if an angry / drunk parent comes to school, or a child decides to start flipping tables? It's unusual to have no invacuation procedures. They may not be called lockdowns, but there's usually something in place.

YourNameGoesHere · 07/09/2023 10:16

cardibach · 07/09/2023 10:13

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.

Edited
Show quote history

You say most don't and you'd be confident in saying that but on the flip side most schools I've worked in (which is into the hundreds now) do have such policies and it's totally normal amongst all the friends I have who teach across the country in England and Scotland.

I'm always surprised when people say it's not something they've come across. I appreciate there is not guidance on it but in most schools it's considered best practice to have a plan and hope you never have to use it.

cardibach · 07/09/2023 10:19

gogomoto · 07/09/2023 07:34

Standard for years. There was a gunman in the loose near my kids school 10 years ago, whole school was locked down until 5pm and parents had to collect from back entrance then, guy was found a couple of miles away later that evening. Better to be safe

I’ve worked in 2 schools that needed this in my 35 years

  1. a student whose dad was a butcher brought a cleaver t9 school to go after another pupil. We just stayed inside.
  2. a man was acting suspiciously outside the front of school - paedophile concerns rather than violence. We all stayed in/used the rear yards and children went home from the back instead of the front while the police contained the man at the front. Neither caused panic. Neither required practice. ‘Staying in’ isn’t something that needs rehearsal really, is it?
Whinge · 07/09/2023 10:20

cardibach · 07/09/2023 10:16

You tell them you’re staying in? Why would that cause panic?

Show quote history

In that case why bother practising fire drills. Surely you just tell them to get out, why would that cause panic...

When you need hundreds of students to go inside they need to know where to go.

BlackeyedSusan · 07/09/2023 10:21

BellaTheDarkOverlord · 07/09/2023 06:59

We never did this in school 30 years ago but I remember being in the school field during a drill. We’d usually line up in the playground but this time they put us a lot further away in the field. Turned out to be a bomb scare.

Our bomb scares they lined us up in an area surrounded by buildings full of glass windows on three sides. Not the most sensible move.

Our kids have done lockdown dril recently.

Maddy70 · 07/09/2023 10:24

Yes it's a school requirement

YourNameGoesHere · 07/09/2023 10:26

Whinge · 07/09/2023 10:20

In that case why bother practising fire drills. Surely you just tell them to get out, why would that cause panic...

When you need hundreds of students to go inside they need to know where to go.

Show quote history

Point well made.

It's not the event that matters it's the knowing where all the children should go, it's not as easy and saying they would all just go into their classrooms which is why like a fire drill it's important to practice and hope you never need to use it in real life.

cardibach · 07/09/2023 10:27

GCSister · 07/09/2023 07:45

So you are doing them. You just call them something different 🤷🏼‍♀️

Show quote history

I’ve seen several posters reply to this saying ‘so you are doing them’ when the post clearly states they are not. They aren’t practising. It’s just that IF it were needed the process would be the same as end of break.

dootball · 07/09/2023 10:38

@DustyLee123
I'm not sure the main reason for the fences is to keep people out - it's to keep students in!

Goldbar · 07/09/2023 10:40

I couldn't get worked up about this. Thankfully in this country it would be a rare occasion when the drill actually had to be put into practice.

Actually, I think it's quite a good idea to break lessons up a bit. Children don't concentrate very well if they're stuck at their desks for more than around 20 minutes so some schools do standing up, star jumps etc. at intervals to keep the kids focused. Lockdown drill is another thing they could do. I imagine the kids quite enjoy the novelty of getting under their desks and having a few minutes break. We're lucky that hopefully they'll never have to do it for real.

fairyfluf · 07/09/2023 10:41

cardibach · 07/09/2023 10:19

I’ve worked in 2 schools that needed this in my 35 years

  1. a student whose dad was a butcher brought a cleaver t9 school to go after another pupil. We just stayed inside.
  2. a man was acting suspiciously outside the front of school - paedophile concerns rather than violence. We all stayed in/used the rear yards and children went home from the back instead of the front while the police contained the man at the front. Neither caused panic. Neither required practice. ‘Staying in’ isn’t something that needs rehearsal really, is it?
Show quote history

It is. I had to stay inside due to accidental chemical release once. We all knew we had to go to the main hall and sit in a line rather than our classrooms.

ButWhatAboutTheBees · 07/09/2023 10:43

Simonjt · 07/09/2023 06:56

I’m 35, we did this in school, I would find it more odd that this is their first lockdown drill.

I'm 30 and we never did this

BoredZelda · 07/09/2023 10:43

As above, most schools have been doing lockdown drills for years. Recommended by Ofsted etc.

We're in central Scotland. Daughter has been at school for ten years. They have never done this.

fairyfluf · 07/09/2023 10:44

Practice drills aren't all about making sure they don't panic it's about making sure the plan works and is quick

Nutterjacks · 07/09/2023 10:46

I'm quite shocked that this isn't common practice in all schools.

As for the very naive posters who think living in a nice area gives you a greater sense of security, think back to the Dunblane massacre.* *
Dunblane is an affluent small Scottish village.

Dunblane school massacre, mass shooting on March 13, 1996, in which a gunman invaded a primary school in the small Scottish town of Dunblane and shot to death 16 young children and their teacher before turning a gun on himself. The gunman, Thomas Hamilton, lived in the town.

BoredZelda · 07/09/2023 10:46

All these cow comments are hilarious. They are obviously all made by townies. We don’t have cows randomly accessing school grounds

I live on the edge of a town. We've woken up to cows on the streets of our estate quite a few times.

crumblingschools · 07/09/2023 10:46

@BlackeyedSusan I was at a hotel when it had a bomb scare in the middle of the night, we all had to congregate in the car park. It was thought the bomb was in a van! Not the most sensible move. Maybe an invacuation would have been better

ButWhatAboutTheBees · 07/09/2023 10:47

Having said that - we had enough incidents that I'm surprised we didn't!

(Vaguely rough area and rivalries with other schools, was usually a student with a vendetta coming on to the property. Had police around a few times at the end of the day in case of a problem)

Dotjones · 07/09/2023 10:48

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MelodiousThunk · 07/09/2023 10:48

BorrowedThyme · 07/09/2023 10:14

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

Show quote history

It's not a requirement. There is no legislation or DoE guidance on lockdown drills. It's up to each school or LEA if they want to do them. Many don't, as shown on this thread.

Fire drills are mandated by the DoE (in England, and the equivalents in Scotland, Wales, NI). Lockdown drills are not.

Desecratedcoconut · 07/09/2023 10:52

Can be needed for something as simple as a cow wandering across school premises in rural areas

Didn't rtft but is it just me wondering what kind of cows we have wandering the countryside that would require putting a chair behind a classroom door and has visions of the velociraptor scene from Jurassic Park?

BorrowedThyme · 07/09/2023 10:57

MelodiousThunk · 07/09/2023 10:48

It's not a requirement. There is no legislation or DoE guidance on lockdown drills. It's up to each school or LEA if they want to do them. Many don't, as shown on this thread.

Fire drills are mandated by the DoE (in England, and the equivalents in Scotland, Wales, NI). Lockdown drills are not.

Show quote history

They do actually, or if they don't they need to demonstrate why they don't, and what they do instead - they have to prove they have considered and practiced how to keep school children safe from armed incursion, and that is a lock down drill, or a demonstratabley equally effective alternative. On top of that ofsted, the local councils and the MATs expect them, and the teaching unions don't support working in schools without them

Dontstoptherain · 07/09/2023 11:09

@Choccyp1g Lions?! Wow, this is getting more ridiculous by the minute 😂😂

Another one that can’t actually read - yes, it’s reasonable to move people out of the way of a low threat like a cow, but hiding under desks?

Also already stated that the initial post refers to a response to a human threat and is appropriate, so not sure why you included that particular irrelevant comment either?