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

[Eastie77Returns]

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.

My child’s school doesn’t but I wish they did

"Most schools didn't have secure fencing and keypad entry system prior to 13 March 1996 either but they all do now."

I was teaching at the time and I remember the school installing keypad entry and lockable doors soon afterwards.

I agree that it’s sad they’d need to but sensible that they do these drills.

Don’t be silly.

We have 3 different drills at our Primary:

The fire drill (evacuation) which takes the children from classes to the school playground/field.

The lockdown which takes place when the children are in class and involves locking the doors and moving away from windows/under tables.

The invacuation that takes place when the children are outside (ie lunchtime) and involves either bringing them inside to classes or going to their class space on the playground for a head count.

We do all 3 a couple of times a year. The children barely notice, and do them as a matter of course, including the nursery. They all have their place, and aren't necessarily for 'depressing' reasons - ie we had to do invacuation recently when one of our automatic gates failed and we needed to be sure that none of the children had escaped!

The lockdown drill is explained to children as 'someone coming into school who shouldn't be there' - our children are taught to challenge any visitor that isn't wearing a visitors lanyard and photo badge - as a few of our Governors have discovered! We've never had a child scared of it in all the years we've been doing it (and in this day and age when so many parents complain about every little thing, we've never had a parental complaint either).

Personally I think the drills are completely ridiculous and no I wouldn’t want my child doing them. Thankfully she’s at a school that doesn’t buy into the hysteria.

I think it's a good idea. The school will be talking to the dc about it in a calm, non scary way so that if something happens (much more likely to be an angry parent than a stranger with a gun) then the children won't panic.

Again, don't be silly.

The government recommendation is that schools have a procedure in place for various scenarios. It's not hysteria, it is utterly common sense.

Schools do have to use lockdown procedures occasionally.

Unfortunately, 'child with knife' is also not an uncommon scenario.

I'm a nursery teacher and we do this too, weve even needed to use it once.

They don’t have to use procedures that involve children hiding under tables. They really don’t . That is silly- and potentially frightening for small children. . I don’t care if the government recommend it - they recommend all kinds of ridiculous things - eg sending asylum seekers to Rwanda.

I teach at an inner-London primary, and it’s very much part of our safeguarding policy now. Depressing but, sadly, potentially necessary.

So how do the compulsory fire drills sit with you?

And less of the misogynistic language while you're at it.

This.
Sadly

lol we are not allowed to use the word hysteria?

Fire drills are fine, because a) it’s an actual risk and b) it’s not frightening.

You can use it but you'll get called out.

What makes you think fire drills aren't frightening?

WWII? Gas masks? Fire drills. It’s safety. Unless you live in Stepford, this is life.

You can use it but you'll get called out

by who? You ? 😂. If I had directed it at a woman or at women as a group you might have a point. Otherwise it’s a perfectly ordinary word.

What makes you think fire drills aren't frightening?

Because they aren’t.

My children haven’t done this drill, nor did I or anyone else I know (or anyone else’s children I know) 🤷‍♀️

The govt suggestion is that lockdown drills in primary and younger are for staff only.

Kids are generally more resilient to this sort of thing than you seem to give them credit for though.

Yes. By me.

Unless you've been living under stone all your life, you'll know exactly what the connotations of the word are.

As previously said I’m in Southport. Your comments are completely out of touch and insulting to those of us who watched as 3 children were buried last summer

I remember doing this in high school early 2000s the teacher said we were practicing for if there were a natural disaster and we hid under tables and the teacher said they'd be securing the door. Very unlikely to be a natural disaster in the north West of England but I guess it was a way for us to 'practice' for any event that may have meant hiding under a desk was necessary.

I don’t think my previous message was clear: in my DC’s previous school, the headteacher confirmed the school did not do lockdown drills. Parents asked her because they were concerned about criminals entering the school grounds. HT apparently deemed it unnecessary.

There are teachers on this thread who have stated it doesn’t happen in their schools…

It’s really not a big deal but I don’t know why some people cannot accept that not all schools do this? It may have been the guidance after Dunblane but clearly it’s not a legal requirement.

Intruder as in a person who enters the school premises without permission? An angry parent is not the same as a lunatic with a gun. If school incidents in which the children's lives were at risk happened 12 times a year I'm sure we would hear about them on the news. We don't. They are still very occasional in the UK, thank God.