Have your children experienced lockdown at there schools?

[ironman]

My friend called me tonight, apparently at her daughters school they had a lockdown drill. The classroom doors were locked, and children had to turn the tables on there sides to protect themselves. Apparently this has been ordered by the government. From my look on the internet it also happened in a school in the North of England.

If there is a terrorist threat to schools, shouldn't the government let the public know? I find it absolutely terrifying! Any other schools been in 'lockdown'?

I am in the US so unfortunately our kids do them on a regular basis. Here I would say it actually makes the kids feel safer that they know what to do in case of an "incident"

I know in years gone past local schools used to practise some sort of drill which involved closing the windows, lying on the floor and covering your mouth and nose with a hanky. Something to do with the risk of poisonousness fumes from the local steel works, I understand...

Having read the thread properly I'm sure my DS's school would not have a different procedure to follow if it was a terrorist attack or a lone gunman and definitely wouldn't change it depending on the religious affiliations of the potential attackers.

Iloveonionrings. If you google 'Lockdown in British schools' it comes up
on the 9th heading, under I think Lockdown procedures. I couldn't get a link to it.

Every other poster apart from the op has posited non terrorism related situations why this is a sensible procedure but ironman seems to have an 'end of times, the terrorists are coming agenda'

Whoa. I've worked in inner city comps for the last 12 years and we've never done that. We've gun crime about 5m from the school gates and never practiced anything like approaching a 'lock down'. I guess it's for high school shootings though not the average gang war with knives/guns that goes on regularly here.

I'm in the US, it's a regular thing here sadly. DS had one last week, and didn't even mention it.

www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/Images/151113%20CBC%20lockdown%20guidance%20Nov%202013%20FINAL_tcm6-49585.pdf

The Bedodshire link OP refers to.

Though it does not say it is for terrosits threats only. It refers to threats from internal and external sources, such as:

A reported incident / civil disturbance in the local community (with the potential to
pose a risk to staff and pupils in the school)
? An intruder on the school site (with the potential to pose a risk to staff and pupils)
? A warning being received regarding a risk locally, of air pollution (smoke plume, gas
cloud etc)
? A major fire in the vicinity of the school
? The close proximity of a dangerous dog roaming loose

just asked dd about hers - the alarm goes off (different one to the fire alarm) & the teacher locks the door/closes windows/blinds while the children sit under their tables taking selfies. 5 minutes later the all clear sounds & the day continues as normal. Don't think any of them are even remotely bothered by it.

(it's a medium sized rural comp in an affluent area for comparison)

I've worked in secondary schools for ten years and have never come across this before. Despite one school having a CCF contingent, and therefore guns on site, and the other being close to quite a large military base.

A drill has never happened at any school I know of.

However; a local rural independent school had to lock down for real a couple of years ago. It had received threats and there was a lone man with mental health issues making threats from their grounds. It passed off peacefully.

Did a v quick google for other counties but nothing coming up yet.

Their

Thanks for the links

I've just googled dd's LA & they do them in all the secondaries (not sure about primaries) - critical incidents including firearms, hostage situations, chemical spills, severe weather events ... and

"“emergency” may often be used interchangeably with that of “incident” or “disaster”. For the purposes of this guidance, a critical incident is one that is likely (or has potential) to cause an occurrence that is beyond the capacity of the school operating under normal conditions to respond to independently. Such as:

Threat to safety and welfare of pupils and/or staff; or
Immediate or delayed emotional reactions in large numbers of staff, pupils or parents, surpassing their normal coping mechanisms; or
Serious disruption to the running of the school; or
Significant public/news media attention on the school."

I was in a real one as a student teacher in an inner London primary. Years ago. This school was used to them, the classroom doors could be locked from the office, which is what happened.

It was for abusive parents/ custody issues on that occasion, although I obviously didn't get too many details. Kids were monumentally unbothered.

When I was at school (in Germany) we had practice for a nuclear attack. Mainly seemed to be designed to give you something to do while you waited to die. Cheery.

the school also have spot checks for pupil's behaviour travelling to & from school & wearing seatbelts on the buses. They get a sniffer dog in a couple of times a term (last term dd came home with tales of a boy being put in isolation because he had .... shock .... calpol(!) and the dog coming onto the astro during hockey and making off with the ball!).

Just remembering that we had to have an unprepared lockdown at my place of work when bees swarmed near the building.

we had a lockdown about 4 yrs ago now. The police had reports of a man carrying a gun in the local area to the school. It was about an hour before the end of the school day and they didn't want a 1000 school kids getting in the way of the search.

They cordoned off the area which they could do quite easily given the geography and told the school to lockdown until further notice.

The school was fab, got the word to teachers who just extended lessons, put on videos etc. The students were told that there was an incident and that they had been advised to stay indoors. Parents got texted and asked not to tell the students what was happening in order to avoid any panic and not to post on social media. Teachers were also told not to let the kids to use their phones.

They caught the man, who did have a gun but he wasn't making for the school, just a house close by. He was caught about 30 mins after the end of the school day.

TBH the way the school and Police handled this was great. They managed a situation with common sense and attended to the practicalities. They also have a lot of SEN students and managed their anxieties whilst all of this was going on.

Oh, I never knew about the lockdowns for abusive parents. When I was 14, my dad tried to get me (I was in care from 7) but all that happened was that we went into the school hall, were told that there was a minor incident occurring, watched a film, and it was only when he was restrained that I was informed of what had happened.

Gosh, I've never heard of this before! I'm not sure how well it would go in our school. It's a pretty tough London Borough school, with some very challenging students. Interesting thought though.

We have a new Health & Safety officer, who is hell bent on putting new things in place at the moment, so I hope he doesn't get wind of this too soon.

We live close enough to a secure place that we have an alarm that is tested every week. All schools have a procedure in process if the alarm goes off for real (hasn't in the 14 years we've been here though).
They've never, to my knowledge practiced it though.

I have just looked at this document from Central Beds and they are living in cloud cuckoo land.
If a school are in full lock down mode they will contact parents by email / parentmail to tell them this!!!! Sorry but that will simply cause total panic and have loads of parents heading for the school. To me that is exactly what must be avoided if god forbid there ever was a need for such a situation.

I haven't come across it - 2 kids I'm different secondaries. My niece in Tokyo has them though as well as earthquake drill.