School lockdown

[iphammer]

I have just seen a video on social media from the bbc with a classroom of primary school children going through the process of a lockdown in an event of a terrorist attack. The school has an alert system “we are in lockdown” sounds when something bad is happening.

WTF is going on are we heading for a terrorist attract ?

I have a 7 year old and a 1.5 year old. My 7 year old is starting year 3 in just over a weeks time I’m starting to worry thinking what do the schools / government know that we as parents don't.

starting to think about taking him out of school and homeschooling him instead.

There was a thread very similar to this a few weeks ago, did you start that one too? The gist is, this has been done in many schools for years, it’s not a new thing, the media just likes talking about it now.

Oh for goodness sake.
Many schools have done lockdown drills for years, it really isn’t anything new.
The terrorism threat level has not been raised.

It will be just drills, all schools have been doing them for ages. Like fire practices.

This has been common in schools for over ten years.

i’ve been a teacher for twenty years and we’ve been doing it for well over a decade in every school I’ve been in.

the usual explanation in primary is that we are practising in case a dog gets into school and runs around (did actually happen at one primary I worked at and the drill came in useful! We all watched the HT trying to catch it on the field).

This is a normal practise - fire alarms practise getting out of the building, lockdowns practise staying in.

You could need to stay inside for lots of reasons: angry parent, out of control animal, chemical leak.

The same way as you don’t expect a fire but you still prepare in case it happens.

Its a procedure schools have for many reasons, not just terrorists. Unknown people spotted on premises, angry parent at reception, fight, lion escaped from the zoo... (there are three schools within a mike of our nearest zoo, including one right next door to it!)...

The kids see it as no different to a fire drill if treated properly.

My DDs were educated abroad for a bit, they had earthquake drills, actual terrorist drills to go with the armed guards outside... and they all thought it was normal and not scary.

Completely normal practice, nothing to panic about.

Fire drills happen regularly - it doesn't mean that a fire is predicted.

It's been ongoing for years.

Not just for terrorist attacks. There areloads of reasons a school would need to go into lockdown.

For example, about 10 years ago my sons school was put into a lockdown because a pupil had a knife and was self harming and refusing to give the knife up. No other pupil was being threatened or was really in harms way, but they had to lockdown regardless.

I know someone who's children's school went into lockdown because of an incident with a fire nearby, the school locked down for the safety of the pupils so they wouldn't go near the fire and put themselves in harms way.

You're being manipulated by the press into thinking this way, step away from the news if its going to affect you so much that you'll impact your children's education.

I've been a teacher from for many many years. This has been in place for over a decade. It's not for terrorist attacks, it's for gas leaks , Intruders, dog loose on premises etc

My children went through lockdown procedures in real situations three times.
once a man escaped from a police car and ran across the school playground into the woods past past daughters PE lesson. Police helicopter went up and school was locked down.
second time a man was running round outside the gates with a knife - lockdown.
third time a suspicious person was on the school field.

i live in what would be described as a nice area, low crime rate so all these were unlucky but I’m glad lockdowns were rehearsed tbh

Hi @iphammer
As you have a school age kiddo, you will know how challenging it can be to get into school so try not to get into a panic.

Gates locked. Doors locked and need staff lanyard to unlock etc.

This drill has been going on for years. Staff are experienced and explain in an age appropriate way that it is a drill. Better to drill and it be a waste of time than to be unprepared?

Angry parent? I know it's missing the point but surely angry parent is normal and doesn't warrant panic stations!

Depends how violent that angry parent could be and whether they have a weapon.

Lockdown gets the kids out of corridors etc. Especially if for Primary, you just want them away from thar.

However when I was teaching, "angry parents" did attack children they believed had wronged theirs if they could find them.

We once had to "lockdown" the hall in assembly and prevent the kids from going home because a parent brought a knife into the playground to intimate another parent. Primary school! So it's basically far, far more likely to be an out of control parent.

But yes we've done them almost whole of my teaching career. It's literally locking the door of the classroom and closing a blind on the door if you have one.
There seem to be a lot of these scaremongering threads at the moment banging on about "what have we come to" and "the government" 🙄🙄. If you are a genuine poster OP please stop looking at random conspiracy stuff online.

Sandy Hook happened when I'd just started teaching however. Thank God we don't live in the US.

Our school obviously doesn't make a big deal out of it because I only found out after asking my son recently (going into year 2 in September) if they have fire drills and such. Apparently here, they practice how to hide silently in a corner behind their teacher if a naughty herring gull gets into the school (this is area appropriate). I like this method tbh, my son isn't afraid or aware of threats other than fire and gulls after his lunch, but they're used to the process...

Lol TikTok has so much to answer for.

I was a primary school governor 12 years ago and we had an invacuation procedure like many schools did.

Right wing propaganda to spread hate & fear just like every other thread on here tonight!
If you’re genuinely worried OP do a thread search because there have been loads of these threads over the passed couple of weeks!

This is exactly the sort of material that Tommy Robinson has been posting, including the stuff about 'what do schools know that we don't?' (Like the government tell schools anything in advance - we found out about exams being cancelled from the news with everyone else). And the suggestion of homeschooling, him and his lot are banging on about that too. I would bet a very large sum of money that he won't be homeschooling his own kids.

It's all bollocks. Do you know that you are repeating Tommy Robinson disinformation OP?

It’s been done for years. It’s usually a lathe dog inlay ground.

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

Why are you trying to spread fear? Schools have been doing this for years, as you would know if you had a year 3 child.

My con's secondary school went into actual lockdown recently, some car thieves were involved in a chase and legged it into the school to try and escape into the woods, the police came in and fished them out. The sixth formers were hanging out of the windows laughing at the car thieves as they got pulled out of the bushes, they thought it was hilarious.

The school I taught in went into semi lockdown (nobody allowed outside) when a herd of cows got into the playground..

This isn’t anything new and sounds sensible. The greatest threat isn’t a terrorist attack. It’s some little shit who brought a knife to school because mum and dad are too coked up and running around to parent, or because there has been some drunken fight in front of the school (we recently had some local nutcase go on a drunken rampage with a machete). Just ordinary British people behaving badly. If there is a situation, I’m glad the school has a plan for how to deal with it.