Rehearsing a lock down?

[Ella1980]

My son is in Year 4 at primary school. We've been sent an email by the Head saying they will be rehearsing their lock-down procedure just in case a situation arose where they had to lock down and stay out of view.

Not sure how I feel about this? Anybody else had similar?

No problem, @Rcohle. We were fairly sarcastic when it first came up as something we had to do. But that meant we tore the original plan to shreds and eliminated some obvious oversights (like 'how is putting the receptionist in charge of a bloody great airhorn going to be a good idea for maintaining a calm atmosphere?') before we'd even started, so staff sarcasm and cynicism has its uses at times.

At the staff meeting in which our Lockdown Proceedure was introduced, we were given detailed and lengthy instructions by the site manager on how to barricade our classroom doors in an emergency.
Until a teacher gently pointed out that all our classroom doors open outwards...!!

Every school I have ever known does fire drills, yet I have known only one school where children have been evacuated because of a real ( very small smoulder as it turned out) fire. Does not mean that all schools should stop doing fire drills because the chance of a fire is very remote. Lockdown drills are the same, it's like insurance, you hope you never need to use them.

Like a previous poster, we are within the sound of the Broadmoor alarm, so my DD's primary have lockdown practice. They make it a fun exercise, though, I don't think they refer to escaped prisoners - I think it's more "big boisterous dog in the playground" type stuff.

They are essential and not scary, pupils often find them fun.

We've had at school school:

Dog running round
Parent shouting to take their DC when there was a dispute

Drunk person got on grounds and went to sleep in field

Armed police dealing with an incident down the road

A particular tannoy noise alerts the school,blinds get dropped and curtains closed and staff are responsible for maximum 2 doors each tomlock asap.

But, found it amazing while a lockdown is in place how many pupils were guessing what was happening!

All schools have to have an invacuation plan and practice it. It's a sad reality nowadays.

My daughters' secondary had a real one when a crook legged it across the school field with the police in pursuit. Not only were the kids pretty unphased, several of them managed to get surreptitious video footage from the science block windows .

wasabiaddiction I thought your post was very sad and worrying to read.

@MerryInthechelseahotel yeah it is. But true, unfortunately. I try not to overthink it, because that way madness lies, but in comparison the drill at my dds' (non-Jewish) primary is pretty benign. Trained guards and high walls outside the Jewish primary down the road however are par for the course.

You'd expect the school to carry out a fire drill, why not this.
If he knows what to do in an emergency he is safer.
Yes it''s a sad reflection on society, but the school is doing the right thing.
I would support the school as much as possible.

We had three real lockdown situations when I was at secondary school in the UK in the 90's - two due to Broadmoor escapes, and one due to an armed criminal hiding in the vicinity. By 'lockdown' I mean we needed to stay inside, we weren't hiding in cupboards. A friend who works in a local primary school which was one of the victims of the bomb hoaxes last year. A plain clothed police officer came into her (reception) classroom and told them they had to evacuate right then. Unfortunately such scenarios are real, and always have been.

All schools have an invacuation policy and like fire drills they have tp practice it.

Thanks all, it's useful to know this is now normal practice. The school will have our support and I am pleased the Head told us in advance. She will deal with it sensitively of that I am sure.
Speaking to a friend who has her son in another school (Year 2), she said he came home showing her to sit on a loo seat with your legs up?

Growing up we had bomb and riot practice (not UK). I just assumed this was a normal thing and never felt scared.

Schools have been doing this for ages.
Just the same as fire practices - incredibly rare / statistically unlikely for your dc to be inside a school that is on fire, but I presume you don't object to them practising what they would need to do in the extremely unlikely event happening ?

When I was at school in the 70s, and IRA bomb attacks were happening on the mainland, we used to have bomb practices. It's just the same scenario - responding to perceived threat at the time.
As others have said, it isn't just for American style shootings, it is also for scenarios like a loose, aggressive dog in the playground.

My dd's school had a drill this week, as it turns out - highlighting the fact that all the 6th formers who have been encouraged to work in all the little bays and study areas across the school, got locked out of the classrooms (and locked in to the corridors where any intruders would presumably be roaming.....) when they had their practice. Strikes me it was a good job this was discovered during a routine practice, rather than an actual situation.

A really interesting thread, unfortunately it's more necessary at the moment. The terror threat level is still at severe.

I teach secondary. Last term we had a real lockdown due to a threat made against the school. We were told to get under the tables and we were there 3 hours. Everything was fine in the end and the school dealt with it really well.

The kids had practised and I'm so glad they had - they were amazing.