Page 17 | To think it's very depressing that school children need to learn this

Eastie77Returns · 2025-03-20T15:04:26+00:00

DD's school is producing a video showing children what to do in the event there is an intruder in the school and they need to go into 'lockdown'. I found out as she has been asked to take part in the video production.She is in Y7. DS is in Y4 and he told me they did a practice drill at his primary school where they followed the steps they needed to take in a similar situation. Honestly it makes me feel very sad. I understand in the current climate it's necessary and in countries like the US it's standard but I never thought I'd see something like this here.

PurpleDiva22 · 22/03/2025 21:59

I teach in a school that has had 3 intruders in the space of 7 years. Which is a high statistic. Not all had weapons. Having a drill like this and a plan in place has brought so much reassurance to staff, students, parents and the wider community! Its so sad we have had to do it, and the first time having this procedure in place was mentioned seemed scary, but those are the times we live in!

Tandora · 23/03/2025 00:56

noblegiraffe · 22/03/2025 09:34

Then you don't have a problem with lockdown drills, you have a problem with children sitting under desks.

fine. I really don’t care what terms we use as long as we all agree what we are talking about.

I don’t have a problem with kids practicing following teacher instructions and filing in and out of classrooms . Apologies if I gave the impression otherwise,

Tandora · 23/03/2025 00:59

Washingupdone · 22/03/2025 12:48

GeneralPeter · Today 12:05 I think if the drill is just practicing lining up and being quick, with no association made with an attack
No, sad to say this is not the case.

The French primary school for invasion where I worked, the children had to hide under their desks behind satchels and no making a noise. Teachers were also under their desks, och my back. The head with the police patrolled the corridors. If a child messed about they had to visit the heads office later.
There was also another practice when they had to go to and stay for an hour or so, in a big hall/ canteen, where the windows were taped and air conditioning stopped. They children knew in advance of this drill and could bring a pack of cards but had to be silent.
Of course there was the usual fire drill when the children lined up and evacuated the school.
Children from a young age watch films and the news. Unfortunately, frightening it may be but sadly it’s how we live today.

frightening it may be but sadly it’s how we live today.

no it’s not. This irrational belief is exactly the problem.

Tandora · 23/03/2025 01:01

PurpleDiva22 · 22/03/2025 21:59

I teach in a school that has had 3 intruders in the space of 7 years. Which is a high statistic. Not all had weapons. Having a drill like this and a plan in place has brought so much reassurance to staff, students, parents and the wider community! Its so sad we have had to do it, and the first time having this procedure in place was mentioned seemed scary, but those are the times we live in!

*but those are the times we live in!

no they aren’t. This is the harm of these drills right here

crumblingschools · 23/03/2025 01:14

@Tandora so what do you expect the school to do in these 3 intruder scenarios? What alarm should be sounded (can’t be fire one as everyone would go outside) Do you expect the teachers to scream ‘intruder’ and expect the children to know what to do and calmly.

Tandora · 23/03/2025 01:20

crumblingschools · 23/03/2025 01:14

@Tandora so what do you expect the school to do in these 3 intruder scenarios? What alarm should be sounded (can’t be fire one as everyone would go outside) Do you expect the teachers to scream ‘intruder’ and expect the children to know what to do and calmly.

What do you mean by “intruder”? What do you think the danger is to children in Uk schools? What evidence do you have for this danger? What are the statistics on the number of children who are harmed at school by dangerous intruders?
How do you think this (perceived) danger is proportionally and rationally mitigated? Why? What evidence do you have of this? Do you think there are any other potential consequences of these “harm reduction” measures? How have you weighed these harms?

crumblingschools · 23/03/2025 01:30

@Tandora so do you think anyone can walk into schools and nothing should be done?

mathanxiety · 23/03/2025 01:47

GeneralPeter · 22/03/2025 18:12

Normalisation the idea of attacking schools as a response to distress.

We know that in the US school attacks have a large social-contagion component. We know (including from the UK) that other responses to mental distress, such as suicide, anorexia and cutting do too.

Of course, the fraction of children who act on this will always be small, but it doesn't take very many to cause real harm.

It's not that it becomes 'normal' to attack a school, it's that it becomes thought of as normal that if you are deeply distressed, you might do that. Because we will always have deeply distressed children, we don't want that idea to be common.

I'm not saying this means we definitely should not do drills, just that we should be concerned if this gets thought of, and talked about, as being about attacks, and especially if it gets talked about as 'of course we need it, because of the risk of attack is so high', which is at least a fairly common view judging from this thread.

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So I take it you would also believe that insisting on helmets for motorbike and bike riders just normalises the notion that drivers can whiz past them?
And making child car seats and seat belts compulsory only normalises the idea that people drive badly?
And xraying baggage in airports only normalises the idea of hijacking planes?
Prisons only serve to normalise the existence of crime?

PurpleDiva22 · 23/03/2025 05:33

Tandora · 23/03/2025 01:01

*but those are the times we live in!

no they aren’t. This is the harm of these drills right here

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Ok pick out one line of my post and ignore the rest..... these are the times we (my school community) live in as we have had 3 incidents. Had we done a drill before the first incident we could've prevented some teachers getting injured and some students being traumatised. We do a fire drill twice a year and have never had a fire!

The people who enter schools are looking for a big impact, so surely the normalisation of drills (that's all this really normalises) spreads the word of a school's preparedness and deters people from entering as they know there is much less of a chance they will make their huge impact?

T1Dmama · 23/03/2025 11:26

JaninaDuszejko · 20/03/2025 15:07

How have you got a child in Y7 and never realised this happens at schools in the UK? It's standard practice and has been for decades. Just like fire alarm practices and about as likely to happen.

It may be regional?? I have a daughter in year 9 and she never did this till about 5 years ago… Even then they weren’t told why they were doing it, instead they were told they were practicing encase a horse got out of the field next door, they all had to close blinds and lock doors encase the horse came in the school and was scared… etc…
I did tell my daughter the real reason as I found their explanation very odd and my daughter isn’t silly enough to think horses can open doors.

Tandora · 23/03/2025 12:03

T1Dmama · 23/03/2025 11:26

It may be regional?? I have a daughter in year 9 and she never did this till about 5 years ago… Even then they weren’t told why they were doing it, instead they were told they were practicing encase a horse got out of the field next door, they all had to close blinds and lock doors encase the horse came in the school and was scared… etc…
I did tell my daughter the real reason as I found their explanation very odd and my daughter isn’t silly enough to think horses can open doors.

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So bizarre 😫

T1Dmama · 23/03/2025 12:28

It is sad that there is a need yes..
I was quite alarmed by it when we were emailed to say this was happening for the time a few years ago.
My DD’s senior school has a weekly ‘lifeskills’ session which each week occurs in their tutor group. In this they discuss things like lockdown drills, contraception, on line safety, mental health, vaping etc….

Ti the people saying lockdown practice takes away from other important drills/safety talks… These drills aren’t a regular occurrence, My daughter comes home and says they’ve done it about once every other year…. While attacks are reasonably rare here these lockdowns are used for various reasons… last year 2 dogs killed a man and were then running around the external school fence, children were called inside, parents were all sent an emergency text telling them not to come to collect their children as their was an incident, the whole school was locked down for several hours while the dogs were captured and PTS & the attacked man dealt with. The children would have been used to having to close all blinds and stay away from the windows due to these practises.
Dog attacks are not rare in the U.K.
Knife crime is not rare in the U.K.. it doesn’t have to be an attacker entering the school, but just a fight or something happening near the school… another local school had a road collision happen near by, it was rather horrific and 2 motorcyclists lost their life’s, The main road was closed and the children were effectively in lockdown until each parent/guardian came via a different entrance to collect their children shortly after drop off…
My DD’s infant school did have a swarm of wasps take over the playground, they didn’t go into lockdown, but all windows had to be closed and we were all informed … they took games etc in as they had playtimes in their classrooms…
Different again but my daughters junior school had one of its pupils that had recently started there, assault the teacher and run into the library screaming and having a tantrum (not sure how else to describe her behaviour)…. The school went into lockdown with all classrooms being locked and the doors all being locked so she couldn’t leave the premises and come to harm….
There are several scenarios where schools lockdown … and as said previously by lots of PP they are often told its for various reasons they’d need to lockdown (and there are lots of reasons).
Children themselves also now take things to school that they shouldn’t, it’s a sad world.
we live in a relatively nice area, but my DD’s school has had 2 occasions where police come in with sniffer dogs to sniff out drugs!
It’s the world we sadly in now.