Schools in lockdown

[Bigcomfyknickers]

Primary school children, and for all I know, secondary too, are having drills on school lockdown. Hiding under tables, etc, and barricading classroom doors. A teacher on the news this morning said that the children were used to it now. If you are a teacher, do you agree with this, do you find it a useful exercise or would you say that it is instilling unnecessary fear into young children, as the possibility of schools being attacked is pretty minimal? I know it can happen and has happened, but such an event is extremely rare in the UK. (I am thinking Dunblane).

Friends were over recently from Sydney and their teenager said they do it routinely. She was moaning about having to sit on the floor when they do them, as it's dirty.

If it's done as part of the routine (like fire drills are), I don't see the problem. It's just sensible. Imagine if the worst happened and your child's school said they had no plan / hadn't ever thought of it. You'd be furious, wouldn't you?

I know some children (at two different schools to mine) who have done actual lockdowns. One was because a large dog got into the school, the other was because strangers were seen coming towards the school across the playing field. In both cases the children did not know it had been 'for real' until afterwards, though they were old enough to be aware that it had gone on for less nager than the drill usually takes, so had their suspicions. Having drilled it, they were quite chilled about the actual events.

It's no different to fire drill, really. Thechildren do not need to know the details of what we fear.

We did it back in the 80s when I was at school. Can't see what difference it makes doing it now, surely its better for the children to know what to do rather than go into a panic?

Some of my older students asked after the London Bridge attacks why we don't do this. I told them it was so unlikely to happen but I did wonder what we would do if something did happen.

DS's secondary school has been in lockdown a couple of times. Once when a man who needed mental health services support decided he wasn't waiting in the A& E department any longer and legged it over the railway tracks towards school. The second time was when an armed burglar decided to try throwing off the police by cutting through school grounds. School clearly has a protocol and it has worked fine both times. Yes the children were a bit excited at seeing armed police and the police dogs on the premises but none seemed panicked. They didn't have to hide under tables etc as intruders were outside the buildings.

We've been doing drills at ours for at least 2 years. All lights have to be turned off, all the doors that lock automatically do so, all blinds down etc and we just sit in silence with no phones so as to not make any light. Everyone in the building basically sits frozen for a bit, we know it is over when we hear the doors automatically unlock or the corridor lights come on

Our school has a lockdown drill every so and often. The kids should know what to do if there's an incident.

but such an event is extremely rare in the UK

It's also extremely rare for a school to burn down but we have fire drills.

Hmm, if my dc's schools do this, I don't know about it. I wouldn't mind if they did though. Rather that than absolute chaos if a real crisis happens and no one has a clue what they need to be doing.

We do it.

It's not just for terrorism etc. Most likely reason to lockdown realistically is an angry/aggressive parent who poses a risk!

My school and the primaries in our town had a lockdown for real a few years ago. We hadn't practiced and basically our lockdown consisted of locking the doors to the building and then carrying on as normal. Ours was because an ex pupil was heading towards our school with a gun that he'd just used to commit armed robbery. The police caught him before he got anywhere near us, and most of the kids were completely unaware of being in lock down. Ours is probably not the best way of going about it, as my classroom is about 50% windows, and glass doesn't stop bullets

Primary teacher - never done it.

Never heard of this in schools near me in Glasgow. Fire drills yes. And a friend in NZ has earthquake drills at her school.

Our school is all open plan with no locks on classrooms (no doors) so "lockdown" would be impossible.

My children have had a lockdown drill this week. Theyre both fine with it. A local colege had to do it for real recently. There are lots lf reasons for needing to get kids indoors quickly.

It's a new requirement I think. My son's primary school practiced this term. The alarm sounds different. They were told as an example it would be used if a dangerous dog was on the school grounds. My son asked me what other reasons and I said some people can be dangerous too. And that was the end of the conversation really.

Schools have been advised to do them. It's not obligatory. I would think it will become common.

Our school developed two versions of a lockdown plan about 2 years ago after advice from authorities following terrorist attacks but we haven't had a drill yet and I don't think many people would remember what to do. We have regular fire drills every term but not lockdown drill. So a bit of a pointless exercise really.

Ours did due to an angry parent, it was good to know the procedures worked, for that situation at least.

Local schools have some rated doing them. Especially after a local private very rural school had an intruder and lockdown for real. It ended peacefully but showed that nowhere is totally free of threat.
My DC treat them just like fire drills now.

This happens in schools in SE London too. I think it is a really good idea, it is much better to be prepared.

I've done lockdown drills at various schools for years, its not a new thing. Only had to do it for real once and that was for an angry/drunk parent! I've heard of other schools doing them for dogs and for a local factory fire that produced poisonous fumes.

We had a real lockdown at my last school (Primary). There was an escaped prisoner in the area and the Police landed a chopper on our field.

We have drills at my current school. No hiding under tables though, just all doors locked and pupils moved away from windows.

I have also worked in an EBD school where we locked down all the time- but that was because of our own pupils.

We've done lock down drills. Lock doors, pull down blinds, tell students to put their phones on their desks (so we can see they're not using them) and carry on teaching. I'm not sure what we're supposed to do if a student doesn't/says they don't have a phone.

We also have a second lock down policy which involves sitting in the dark, in silence, under desks but we've never done a drill for this.

It is rare, but so are fires and nobody objects to fire drills.

We lived in the US for a few years and the DCs had to do routine fire, tornado and intruder drills at elementary and middle school.

The schools were excellent and dealt with it as well as possible, but even years later it still makes me feel physically sick to think about why they did it.

However, it was necessary, very sadly. We lived in a state where people freely wandered around with firearms and that was 'normal' and any restriction is seen as an affront upon their freedom and the constitution .

Recently a 14 year old took a gun into the(affluent area) middle school where we used to live...to 'show off' apparently. Very sadly, in the US, the threat is real, and preparation by way of having a lock down plan is essential.

Btw, intruder lockdowns were DCs in internal bathroom/against a wall, crouched down, in the dark, blinds pulled down on windows and door glass, totally silent.

That whole procedure is a hideous thought, as a parent.