To wonder why DS's school is closed this afternoon?

[cottonwoolbrain]

It's been in the calendar since the start of term. It does not really cause us an issue as he's 11 and in year 7 and there's usually one of us working from home anyway.

But they're being very vague as to why. Usually they tell us - teacher training, planned repairs etc. but all they've said this time is school closed. DS says someone asked in registration this morning and was just told "because it is"

I can't help wondering if the staff are having an absolutely well deserved party as they reach the end of the school year - I certainly wouldn't begrudge it I'd want a break if I had to spend all year in the company of a thousand noisy kids!!

It just seems - odd

Where do you live that the risk of terrorism if so high that the staff need special training.

What could civilians learn in half a day that would stop terrorists anyway, that's some pretty high skilled stuff

They’re all on Amazon buying prime bargains!

Maybe youngsters being radicalised. What to look out for, how to dob them in.

It could possibly be disaggregated training time. In layman's terms they use half a day of the 5 allocated as INSET days but give staff time off and do the training in extra after school sessions outside of directed time. So it could be one big jolly or they could be recognizing that lots of mock marking/report writing now happens at this time of year and are giving staff some time, having covered the 2 or 3 hours training in twilight sessions earlier in the year.

Yes it does happen but the point is the hours will already have been made up elsewhere, e.g. first aid training from 4-6 one day, then two other similar trainings on other days.

Aaah, That makes sense, for some reason I was imagining how to stop terrorists getting into the school, like American school shooters

School being taken over by a new academy?
New Head taking over?
Discussing arrangements regarding problems with the building such as asbestos etc

It won’t be a jolly.

I teach in a small, southern, English school. We had whole school training in the event of a terrorist attack. We had to practise evacuating all the children. Probably a couple of years after 9/11. Not particularly relevant, but I was reminded.

I work in a school and we did lockdown training where we went through all the protocols for different types of lockdown, how to handle staff/children missing during a lockdown (e.g., at the toilet), practiced barricading classroom doors with a security wedge thingie, and consider where to hide children. It's not necessarily about terrorism, a lockdown could be needed for all sorts of scenarios - someone taken seriously ill/injured in the corridor and children need to be kept in classrooms, dog in the playground, chemical spill (we're a rural school and the nearby farms use various substances), air ambulance landing (they've used our field in the past), parent kicking off/attempting to do an unauthorised pick up (E.g., parent who doesn't have custody). That was a half day training session.

I recall about 30 years ago the school where I was teaching had an early closure, 2pm rather than 3.30pm, unspecified to parents, in fact many of the staff, Head included, had tickets to go and see the Rolling Stones!

Unfortunately threats in schools are rarely from unknown terrorist bogeymen, but usually from violent parents and ex partners (almost always men).

Our laws are in a poor state when it gets to the point that police can visit schools to brief staff about dangerous threats a parent has made, but don't actually have the power to do anything about the threats until they are followed through on.

Children, ex partners and school staff are so often put at risk. Lockdown measures are sadly essential.