Help please! Terrorist drill @ holiday club!!

[Justtryingmybest123]

Hi everyone

Hope you're doing well and surviving the holidays!

I need some help please!!

I just completely flabbergasted!

My daughter attends a well known holiday club in the west midlands. Today she came home, extremely upset, distraught and distressed. She mentioned that they had a procedure called the 'lockdown'. She went onto say that basically if someone comes into the garden etc, they will announce it's a lockdown and you need to hide and ensure something is over your head so you can't be found. She is 5 years old and is part of the 5-7 group at the holiday club.

This evening she's been so upset and distraught about the whole thing, she didn't manage to cover her head, so was worried about that, asking what would happen in that situation, she's worried there will be a lockdown at home, the door shook because of the wind as the windows are open, she was scared because of that, and also would not go to sleep as she's scared something will happen.

Furthermore she absolutely loves this holiday club after trying a different one, and is extremely excited to go even when it's term time, now she's sooo worried and scared about going back as apparently there's going to be another lockdown.

I honestly don't know what to even say or think! My initial reaction is what the you know what! I didn't know anything about this, I wasn't informed, I didn't provide consent or anything! She's absolutely shook, scared and worried for her safety and that something may happen to her.

I know about the awful tragedy that did take place and sadly little girls lost their lives, without the details I guess this is as a prevention for something like that occuring, but having this sort of impact isn't the right answer, surely they need to let us know about this and get consent?

I've emailed, text and rang the club as I had to do something.

Any thoughts on the matter or advise would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

All schools have to practice lockdown protocols. It’s not ‘city schools.’ Terrorism and the like can happen anywhere.

We used to do it at school in the mid 90’s, it’s not a new thing. BUT they need to be able to practice it without scaring the kids, I’d just chat to them about their process

Sadly its just a reflection of the world we live in.

I'm sure she'll calm down if you explain to her.

I taught in the UK and overseas for some years and have done lockdown drills, earthquake drills, you name it. The kids get used to it.

All this nonsense about tigers and dogs is just as ridiculous. Honestly.

Six people have been treated in hospital after being attacked by two dogs near a primary school, which went into lockdown to protect its pupils.
Children at Barford Primary School in Birmingham were kept inside for an hour until the animals were under control.
Six injured in dog attacks near Birmingham primary school - BBC News

Yep, I did wonder how they were going to approach it this time as the last few didn't proceed as expected.

I'm not a fan of these at all.

I have a medical condition which is exacerbated by stress. I was working at a school and explained to the head that I needed advance notice of stressful situations such as observations as I needed to double up on medication beforehand. She appeared to understand.

The next day they held a surprise lockdown drill which was presented as real, put me in bed for 2 days and nearly hospitalised me.

In reality there hasn't been a terrorist attack or mass murder in a UK school since Dunblane. It's not necessary to scare kids and teachers like this.

I’m not even a person but your right. If I had if my way the only people who would own dogs is police and short sighted people 💯

*dog person /dog lover

I've never heard of this happening except in America (I actually know a family who left America because of these happening in their kid's school).

Surely a holiday club should have spoken to parents about it. My kids would be terrified if this happened. I cannot imagine how a five year old encountering this for the first time would feel.

All English schools (I'm not sure about other parts of the UK) have to have a security policy and most hold lockdown drills now just as they hold fire drills. It's not a legal requirement to hold lockdown drills but it's hard to know if the systems will work without having practised them.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67ed54d298b3bac1ec299be5/Protective_security_and_preparedness_for_education_settings_guidance.pdf

I've been teaching in primary schools for a little over 30 years. I can't remember when they started - a long time after I started teaching but we've done them for several years now. Parents are told in advance, children have an assembly or story session to prepare them, nobody panics. Younger children think it's a game, some older ones understand why a school might need to use the drill in real life.

I remember the horror of Dunblane vividly - it was parents' evening and a parent came into my classroom and asked if I had heard what had happened. I'd gone straight from teaching to meeting parents so I had no idea. It was hard to take in.

There's been nothing approaching the awfulness of Dunblane since then but many schools have had to use lockdown procedures eg if a parent with a restraining order or a violent former pupil is trying to gain access to the building or if somebody with a weapon is in the vicinity of the school. I know of a school where it was used because some very unpredictable horses had got onto the school grounds!

I think the problem with the situation described by the OP isn't that a lockdown drill took place, it's that the parents weren't informed, children weren't prepared and it wasn't carried out in an age appropriate way.

Moggy's coming (book, video and/or powerpoint) is often used to prepare young children for a lockdown drill.

Accidentally posted and it's not letting me edit.

I'm not keen on the Moggy's Coming video (just shared for info) because I think that the voiceover is too scary. But the book, read by a friendly and familiar teacher, works well.

At our school we don’t tell the parents because whilst some might talk to their children sensibly, others would not and then there would be an extra problem to deal with. At school, children are used to just getting on and going with the flow far more than they are at home. However, the play scheme that the OP’s dd is in does not sound like they have handled it very well at all. Finding something to put on your head is ridiculous and like someone has already said it’s too much responsibility.

It'll just be a routine safety thing. Hardly something for you to get in a pickle about and, in fact, by doing so you are making it a bigger thing. You should've just smoothed it over and explained that it's a bit like hide and seek and nothing to worry about. You've made it a huge, negative focus with your reactions and your child will feed off that.

I like the idea of calling them tiger drills, might make it less scary for the kids.

Saying that when I was young a boy in my hometown (England) was killed by a lion which had escaped from the circus.

I’m 46 and i never did them ( i lived both South and north) . I very much doubt they were a thing in most places back then, i mean our school playground or even school wasn’t even locked like they are now.

I dont think these are as common in every single setting in the UK as people are making out. I also didn’t do them when i briefly worked in a school.

I work in primary school in England and they they started about 5-7 years ago.
We gather in a central part of the school but there is no getting sunder tables etc.
We call it an ‘Emergency In’ Parents and staff are NOT told so that we can react as naturally as possible. Only the head teacher and office staff know when they are going to do it Same with a fire drill

I am pretty certain that the whole thing is designed to cause people anxiety and fear.

There is nothing you can say to children to explain why adults want them to prepare for this without causing anxiety.

We used to have drills on what to do in case of bomb threats. I grew up near this

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deal_barracks_bombing

Why would children be terrified of a lockdown drill more than a fire drill?
Often schools call them 'evacuation drills' (need to get everyone out of the building) and 'invacuation drills' (need to get everyone in to the building).

It's much more likely to be necessary due to a chemical incident, loose animal on the playground or an enraged parent/custody dispute situation than terrorism.

Schools actually use the 'lockdown procedure' in real incidents far more than an actual evacuation due to a fire. Of course these things go more smoothly when they are practised.

I have definite thoughts about the OP calling it a 'terrorist drill' in their thread title though, particularly given the previous threads this week on this topic.

Hiding from something creates fear.

Even telling kids a ‘dog’ is going to go into the building so they need to hide is terrifying.

Running away from something also creates fear though. What could be more terrifying than fleeing a burning building??

Irrelevant. Point is, parents need to not freak out about things like this around their kids. It’s good practice. The holiday club would be damned if they didn’t practice a lockdown procedure. I would be pleased they had shown my child what to do just in case.

I have never heard of it happening either.

Maybe it’s areas where something happened previously or areas deemed high risk.

It absolutely isn’t a nationwide occurrence thankfully.