School lockdown procedures - is this happening everywhere?

[HappyMum123456]

We've received information from DDs school about lockdown procedures and upcoming practise drills. She's in year 6. Is this happening everywhere? I would have lost the plot when I was her age but thankfully she's way more resilient. I've spoken to her and given the example of a dog sneaking into the school grounds (so as not to cause her any alarm) but she's come home today talking about intruders and guns which I'm assuming has come from other kids rather than the teachers.

@LaerealSilverhand why does being rural make a difference. A local farmer had a bit of a vendetta against a number of villagers, thought they were all against him. Got his shotgun out and had a bit of a rampage round the fields and then turned the gun on himself 😔

School goes into lockdown in that scenario. Obviously only a danger to himself but school not going to take any chances.

My ds is 20 now and did these when he was at school.

It's the norm.

Mine are year 8 and year 6 and they've had them since they were in nursery.

In Jewish schools this has always been a thing. They have security in place at all Jewish schools specifically for this reason.

During the Gulf War we were having constant hoax calls and being evacuated. I think I spent most of my GCSE year stood in the field opposite.

They should. In the UK.

Uk government guidance on emergency planning. Lockdown is part of it.

As posted earlier in the thread.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/emergency-planning-and-response-for-education-childcare-and-childrens-social-care-settings

Reading this made me realise we had this in the 90s in my rural primary school in the 90s. We were told though it was in case a bull escaped and came into the school from a nearby farm. I haven't ever questioned that until today so I definitely didn't realise when I was little. I remember thinking it was all very exciting when we did them.
We were about 10 minutes away from Hungerford though, where there was a spree shooting in the late 80s I think, where the shooter entered a school, it was on the weekend, so no children were there, but the area may have been particularly sensitive as a result.

I bet they do. They may not realise it but any school would be irresponsible not to practice lockdown procedures.

When they had to implement a real lockdown at my son's primary, from the kids' perspective it just meant the external classroom doors were closed and locked and the blinds pulled down.

Year 6 were in the local church rehearsing their leavers service at the time and the doors were similarly locked (as the incident was local, not targeted at the school itself).

Every single time my kids have had a lockdown drill at school (primary or secondary) they've mentioned it in passing, if they mentioned it at all. It's that routine to them. The schools have generally let parents know it happened and went well.

I’m quite alarmed by the numbers saying their school don’t practice and the kids don’t know. If that’s. The case you’re not doing it properly. For a full intruder on the site drill they should have to lock the door and draw blinds, then move away from windows, to an area with no direct line of sight through the door window, and remain absolutely silent.

At my youngest’s school they would have to evacuate into the internal corridors for an external intruder, but stay in classrooms if the building is accessed. Anyone who doesn’t practice is going to get this very wrong.

The school probably do it, but call it something else not to cause alarm, like big dog drill.

Children are at lower risk from a whole host of factors in rural settings.

Pretty much every risk to children in this country comes from other people (we don't have many environmental hazards like extreme weather), so if there are far fewer people around, the risk is commensurately much lower. Someone will always come up with anecdotes about a loose bull or a farmer with a shotgun, but they are just that, anecdotes, not an actual risk analysis.

We don't have fences and gates (there are public footpaths across the school grounds so couldn't even if we wanted to), and allow children to make their own way to and from school from year 4 with parental permission - DS has been cycling 3 miles to school and back on bridleways since year 5.

When I read some of the things about schools in cities on here it makes them sound more like prison camps frankly.

We do, as already stated schools are supposed to now. We actually have to implement the stay in place protocols once a year or so because of deer on the field, and we have also had a bomb scare.

You do lockdown because of deer on the playing fields? That's madness! What's next - boisterous rabbits, an intimidating fox?

My son is 18 and he did them when he was in year 5. (That was the first time that he mentioned it so possibly even younger)

Yes, DD's primary they tell them it's practicing for something like an out of control dog in the playground, but year 6 probably guess the real reason, especially if they have older siblings. At DS's secondary they know it's in case of intruders.

@LaerealSilverhand it's as much for the Deer's protection as the kids! It's a primary school and deers can easily hurt themselves if spooked. They can also be aggressive. It's on the advice of the local wildlife team that keep an eye on the deer.

Our kids school had a real lock down, in Manchester after bomb scares.

It's important to practice.

There is a problem where if asked in those terms, some schools would have to admit

No locks on doors on the inside & No bolts because kids would lock themselves in and staff out
Staff don't have keys because they're expensive to get cut
No blinds or curtains since they fell apart /were pulled off the wall and into pieces around 2008

But how would you know? There are issues with announcing it over the tannoy

The buzzers are different. And also if someone is in the building you announce it. It’s not going to be worse if you do - and people move faster if you just tell them.

But the person causing the danger will hear too! (Obviously different is it ever actually was a dog related incident!)

When my son did this in Reception they had to get under the tables, but they hadn't got enough tables out so they practised putting out some extra tables and then getting under them... not sure that would work in a real emergency!

I was at primary school within earshot of the Broadmoor sirens so we had "prison escape" drill. (We were always a bit disappointed it wasn't a drill to teach us how to escape the school...)

The worst was when we had full evacuation drill at secondary school while my class had swimming so we all had to stand on the school field in our swimsuits with only a towel and an emergency foil blanket until they let us back in.

If they are already there, it doesn’t matter if they hear. It won’t change anything and they already know they themselves are the danger.

Lockdown announcements are there for everyone else to take action. The ‘bad guy’ doesn’t need to have it kept secret that you are onto them - the announcement is to give everyone else time to lock up and hide.

if the bad guy can’t find you, statistically he won’t hurt you. In the US no locked classroom has apparently ever been breached. People have been shot through the window of the door (hence the need to hide out of sight) but they’ve never gone to the trouble of breaking down the door.

So what? They already know there’s an intruder in the school because they are the intruder, why does it matter if they hear everyone else being told?