Does your primary school have lockdowns drills?

[Frostythesnowman1]

I have twins in year 1

10 minutes before pick up we get a message to say they have carried out a lockdown drill

no warning, no context, no letting parents know how they explained it to 5 year olds so parents can do the same.

apparently they have it every year but “missed” last year so this is our first experience

Yes.
Parents not involved.

Yes
It's not something they have to notify you about

Yes, parents don't need to be involved.
The children have no concept of violence in schools (other than what they experience first hand)

Often phrased as 'dog loose in the playground" practise.
They close the windows, doors and blinds and sit below the window line.
Like fire drills it's an important skill that could save their life should they get caught up in something when out and about which is becoming more common.

Yes - and a few months ago it was put into use when there was a knife fight right outside the school gate at pick up time.

Yes my son has just left primary they did it yearly "dog on the playground" everyone inside we know why it's happening it was used in my dds school when there was a man with a shotgun roaming around nearby our primary school has just got brand new over 6ft metal fencing with automatic timed entrances for collection and drop off

It's uncomfortable to me but safety first

Yes every school is required to do this.

Well every day is a school day - pardon the pun

I was just taken a bit back by it - don’t disagree at all, makes me a bit sad but better to be prepared

Yes, we do. We don’t inform parents either, the whole point of a drill or practice is that no one knows!!! Isn’t that obvious op!

All schools by law have to have a lockdown drill per school year.

It can be used for all sorts of scenarios, not just active threats. Dog in the playground is a common one but also can be used if a building nearby is on fire to protect the children from smoke inhalation and such

Yes, schools have been doing this for some time (I have high-school children, 12 and 14, who did it in primary) and my 8 and 9 do drills like this still.
They always told us they'd done one incase the children came out talking about strangers or dangerous dogs on the playground, we knew it was a practice.

Yes, thank goodness. It's good to practice for incidents like loose animals, natural disasters or severe weather, violent incidents or accidents, or intruders. For the kids, it's a fun drill in primary school; they will do it in a child-friendly way. In high school, they explain more about the "run, hide, tell" campaign. I'm open with my children about what to do if they are in a scary situation.

No they don’t. My children’s primary schools and secondary schools didn’t. Whether they should another matter but they didn’t practice them.

Yes every school should practice both evacuation (leaving the building) and invacuation (staying safely inside the building) drills regularly.

A quick Google tells me this isn't true in the UK. They don't do them at my children's primary school - I just asked my daughter and she didn't know what I was talking about. I'm aware they are commonplace in the US but I've never heard of them being done here.
We are in Scotland if that makes a difference.

A local school used it in anger and they had three hour lockdown which in turn locked down all the neighbouring schools.

There are different levels, so extremely secure and everything is locked and everyone has to stay out of eyeline of closed and locked doors and windows and stay put until the all clear is given for a direct risk on site. Then the lesser version where windows and external doors are locked but you can move around the building internally - that's used for environmental risks like chemical spill, large fires in the area, or in response to other incidents in the area

Yes and the kids often have no idea it’s happening. Two short bursts of the fire alarm and we subtly lock the doors and close the blinds. We used it recently when the air ambulance had to land on the playground for a nearby emergency

I work in a primary school and yes, this is done. It's done in a very low key way. In a real situation the teacher would close the blinds and door to the classroom and the children would hide under the desks, but in the drill the teacher just closes the door and the children sit at their desks and read.

Sadly, it's a necessary part of being at school, just like fire drills. Hopefully it'll never be used in real life, but every time something happens at a school I'm grateful we have thought about and planned for the worse case scenario.

It's not currently the law you're correct but it is consider good practice.

Also don't be so sure your child has never experienced one. You'd be surprised at how few children take note of things like this. It's similar to fire alarms in that most children don't mention them happening.

My kids school had the annual "lion escape drill" yesterday, as uts jokingly referred too. However its next to a zoo, so its a believable scenario.

They do explain it in an age appropriate way.

Yep - ours call it “animal in the playground” which is totally plausible for the rural school setting.
Children are completely unbothered by it and will be as long as you don’t make it a big deal either!
It is a terrible situation to think our children have to be taught how to keep safe in a lockdown scenario but better safe than sorry with the state of the world.

Having said that I remember having a proper “dog on the playground” lockdown when I was in primary school in the 90s (as in, it wasn’t a drill) and I’d always accepted that there was a dog loose on the playground, I’m only now questioning what the actual threat may have been 🥴

Yes they have been doing dangerous dog on school grounds for the past thirty odd years. It's not new or anything to be sad about, it's on a par with fire drills, and is about safety and being calm in different situations.

She wouldn't generally tell me if there has been a fire drill at school but she knows what one is if I ask her. She had no idea what I was talking about when I explained what a lockdown drill is. Her friend is here at the moment and she didn't know either. Their school is very open with partition walls between classrooms. They would definitely notice if the teachers started locking doors and closing blinds!

My dc were well practiced at the ‘ naughty dog in the playground’ drill at their rural primary school. This came in handy when a cow strayed in to the playground !

Yes DD school in semi rural Wiltshire do this. DD tells me they had to use it last year when a swarm of bees were on the school field!