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

Indeed I'm often amused at parents who are surprised of what we expect from even the youngest children.

London zone 3. Yes it happens in an age appropriate manner. Parents are not involved.

I remember when I found out my kids did this as school and I felt so incredibly sad! It's so amazing that they do it but so sad that they need it 😞

My son said they do “animal alarms” and hide under the tables. Semi-rural setting. How sad that they have to do this type of thing.

I asked my 6 year old (in an age appropriate way) whether his school did this recently and he confirmed they did. I'm glad that schools are taking the necessary precautions, although I acknowledge that it's sad it is necessary. We have never been informed by school though.

Yea and it isn’t a new thing either.

We did actually have a dog loose in the playground once.

The head posted on the village Facebook group to try to find out whose it was and some of the teachers herded it away form the main school buildings.

The kids were fascinated.

I wonder if the teachers can lock the classroom doors? I think they should be able to in an emergency. I worry about this kind of thing in my office and how safe we all are in there. We need swipes to get in the doors but they take a while to close and someone could easily follow in behind you.

Started happening in Dts school when they were iny1. They're in y 9 now.

My dd who is nearly 30 did them as have all my subsequent kids. Dunblane was the trigger point. In dd3s school they also had a whole school evacuation plan which involved the school walking to the next primary school and assembling in their playground. Done every other year. I felt she was in safe hands!

yes, South London here, without warning the parents otherwise it would be pointless.

Same in secondary, but I saw parents of 15 year old complaining parents were not warned in advance 😂

I can't make a general comment, but in the few schools I have been to, you could just kick the door open if you really wanted to. Locking them would make no difference.

I'm nearly 50 and this was a thing when I was at school as we were close to Broadmoor. Lessons were also interrupted once a week when the escape sirens were tested!

Lockdowns do sometimes need to be enacted when children under child protection arrangements are at risk. We practice every term.

Yes , my daughter had one in her school back in April, she's 3 .

Telling parents in advance could cause absolute chaos. Imagine one kid being told it’s for if a gunman starts shooting them, and imagine that getting spread round the classroom.

Sorry, but it’s better to let professionals deal with it so all the children are given the same information at the same time.

Very naive to assume lockdown drills are only in relation to violence / crime..
There are many scenarios that require children to stay indoors for their safety.

You should keep in mind that this isn't just for use in schools, awful things happen all over the place there have been serious incidents in Shopping centres, cinemas, theatres, beaches, pubic transport hubs etc in recent years. Your children aren't always going to be children and they aren't always going to be in your (hopefully) sleepy town. When you drill something it becomes second nature and hopefully will kick in through autopilot rather than flight or fight just like a fire drill.

In my experience when the lockdown drill is known then staff know in advance on the week and run through the drill with students on the Monday morning, but don't know the specific day or time and children with ASD or other specific needs that may find it particularly tricky are collected up for 'intervention' before hand and it's explained to them.

Never had one at our school

I have an 18 year old and he mentioned doing it when he was in year 5. I suspect that they did it in earlier years too but he wasn’t the type to volunteer info about school until year 5ish.

Yes. I think we were notified in advance but I wouldn't have minded if we hadn't been.

DD is in year 1, and they tell the children it's in case there's an animal loose in the school or something.

I spoke to the teacher and she confirmed that they did lock the doors in this drill.

How did they use a lockdown in anger? I'm intrigued!

Our classroom doors don't lock as we were told if anyone burgled it if would cost more to replace smashed doors

Not a drill no, but a couple of years ago there was a genuine lockdown as one of the school's neighbours was attempting to set a fire.

It was towards the end of the school day so the school took all the kids into the hall and put a film on, made it out to be a big treat. Parents all kept fully informed throughout.

All handled as positively as possible under the extreme circumstances.

Not a thing in any of the local Primary schools here in my part of Scotland.