Is anybody else worrying about potential terrorist attacks on primary schools?

[SunnyPearlFish]

Over the last week I've seen lots of videos/social media posts regarding potential terror attacks on primary/infant schools. Following on from them doing lockdown practice runs in school. It's got me so worried to the point where I'm considering home schooling my children (5 and 4). They absolutely love their school, it's a lovely small village school with brilliant teachers and they have a really close knit group of friends there.

I know it would break their hearts if I pulled them out of school but I can't stop thinking about something awful happening to my children.

On the other hand, I know I need to keep things in perspective and really consider the chances of something happening. I'm just so conflicted, I don't know how well I'd be able to home educate them, I don't really have the confidence to do it.

Just looking for some advice really and peoples opinions. TIA

Honestly life can be really scary if we think too much about it. There are risks to almost everything we do.

It sounds like you live in a nice village with your kids enjoying school. That's so good for them. Keep them where they are happy and thriving.
The more you look at these things online, the more the algorithm suggests them. It's so fear mongering and I'm not sure what good it does for us at all.

You're blowing it way out of proportion. I was actually in a school a few months ago when they did a lockdown drill, because I've been working in schools for a couple of years, and I was surprised as I'd never seen it before. I was convinced my own child had never participated in anything like this, he'd certainly never mentioned it. But I asked him when I got home and he said he had, a long time ago. It's definitely not new, there isn't a reason to suddenly become worried.

So Afghanistani isn’t the language Afghanistinians speak? You’ll be telling me they don’t speak Afghanistinianese next.

Sorry….. what…??!!!!!

Some weird things going on at MN in the dead of night - must be the witching hour… 🧙

Taking your children out of school because you've been wound up by fear mongering social media nonsense will isolate and frighten them and transmit your anxiety to them.

We do fire drills, we did boat evacuation drills on a cruise, we watch flight attendants running through safety procedures. Doesn't mean they're likely.

Maybe time to do something about getting support for your anxiety and fears.

Esperanto is clearly the way to go.
No. I’m not joking!
So many problems would disappear if we all spoke the same language.

Don't let fear ruin your children's opportunities and childhood. The chance of it being your child's school, class, and them individually is miniscule, I'd be more worried about them getting hit by a car walking to the park.

I home educate my DC and it was the best decision I ever made. It feels daunting making the decision but it's not as difficult as you might think, especially with younger children.

However, we have a huge home ed community in our area. And my DC are SEN (not capable of mainstream school). There is a wealth of activities constantly being organised for our home edders, and my DC get to socialise with their peers as well as learn. A fair number of our home educated children go back to college when they're 14 to do their GCSEs there. Some do their GCSEs at home and study for them by themselves. Others - like mine - never had the capacity to do them and wouldn't have sat them if they were in school, so go down a different route.

Home education has been a really positive experience for us and we love it. The DC are so happy. And yes, the fact that they're not exposed to the same level of risk (from various things) is a relief.

But I didn't make the decision based on fear.

My DC were at school until they were 10 years old. I actually wish I'd been brave enough to make the jump to home education sooner, but they did benefit in some ways from being at school for those years.

In your shoes, with a rural primary school, I wouldn't be worrying about the risk. If your children are thriving and doing well, it sounds as if they should stay in school especially as you probably don't have a home ed community around you. Without that, it's really not much fun.

I think it's OK to acknowledge there is a risk, but you should recognise that it's small. If I were in the US, I'd think very differently due to the availability of guns. But in the UK, I think our schools are pretty safe - whether they're up to the standard they should be (due to a lack of funding and a lack of teachers) is another matter - but safe? Yes.

Do you plan to keep them locked in the house till they are adults?

Because a terror attack can happen at any time, any where

You cant keep the children indoors because of your anxiety

No.
Stop watching online clickbait and read a newspaper instead.

I think the chances of them wending their way to your village school are miniscule to nothing.

Honestly, just stop mithering on these sites. As long as I've been alive - 50 years - there have been invisible threats absolutely everywhere. Now there are just far too many people wanting to make them visible. I personally think home schooling is an appalling idea unless your child/children are genuinely disadvantaged by being in school. This is not a disadvantage - this is a miniscule threat and, as your children love it, that would be a double disadvantage.

They may also grow up as fearful as you are, and I'm sure you'd prefer to avoid that. Tin hats are not a good thing to pass down.

I'd never heard of these in-vacuation drills outside of MN. From reading on here, it seems the main purpose of these drills is to keep people situated while they deal with a disregulated child rather than manage threat of a terrorist invading the school. I think SM is distorting the facts and playing on your fears.

Aren’t most lockdowns in America caused by current or past pupils known to the school? Any parent could go rouge and just avoid their own child’s class. That’s kind of the point. Everyone is a potent threat but very rarely is one. There is no 100% guarantee, we just have to understand it is incredibly rare and is more likely to never happen to us, or someone we know, than it is.

Where are you seeing this? I see nothing like this. Seriously, think about where you are getting from what you are looking at and think about whether you need these apps.

Actually the UK isn't on a 'very high alert' @Livelovebehappy - no need to add to the OP's and others anxiety.

Current UK threat level is 'substantial' which is the middle level in the current style and response is 'heightened'. It's pretty much the default state for UK and we've been at this level since Feb 2022: https://www.mi5.gov.uk/threats-and-advice/terrorism-threat-levels

No it isn’t. It’s mid-level, at substantial.

Change of shift? Didn’t get the memo?

I'm not suggesting you're doing it.

I'm suggesting you're falling for it.

I had a sleep on this OP. I don’t think you are being unreasonable in worrying. It’s what parents do.

What I would say is threat and likelihood aren’t the same. Maybe comfort yourself that the greater the threat the more precautions are put in place and so the likelihood stays the same or is even reduced.

FYI I asked my year 3/4 child about school fire drills (yes) and any other ‘safety drills’ or ‘hiding under a desk or in a cupboard’ (no) and they looked at me like I was mad and said ‘nooooo mama of course not’. So their faith school obviously didn’t get the memo 🙅‍♀️

Your main fears seem to be a) a mate (who happens to be a parent governor which is totally irrelevant) separated a group of people standing outside a school and they left in different directions, and b) schools have put fences up in the past 6 months.

A) they may well have been parents who dropped their kids off and then went in separate directions because they live / work in separate directions. How do you know they were migrants?

B) shame on those schools for not having fences round them in the first place. Every school should to keep any kind of unwanted visitors out and keep any kind of child at a flight risk in.

HTH.

Oops somehow I missed some pages. And the fact that the OP disappeared.

Another of those interesting first threads eh?

Just watched a new 'school outrage' vid on SM.

The SHOCKING development of cameras being installed in classrooms for 'training purposes'.

Yup, the same cameras that were common 20 years ago when I did teacher training. Literally NOT shocking in any way and, for those with a well developed rage twitch, NOT requiring parental recording permissions as the footage is not allowed to leave school premises.

These people are so paranoid, so stupid and so ANGRY that they will work to turn a teacher farting into chemical warfare.

Especially if they're brown 🙄

Not disappeared! Still here reading the comments 🙋‍♀️ although it does seem to have escalated and gone off topic from my original point in my post!

Welcome back. Please do read my first post. I hope you will see you're worrying unnecessarily.