Lockdown drills in Wales

[ThanksForYourHelp]

My husband and I are U.S. citizens, and we are fleeing the gun culture here. He has just accepted a position at Swansea University, and I’m attempting to wrap my head around the secondary school options in Wales. Our daughter is fourteen years old, and she’ll start school in Swansea next fall. I have a vague impression that the state secondary schools in Swansea are oversubscribed, so I haven’t been looking at them very hard; I’ve been putting more effort into what independent secondary schools have to offer us.

However, I was just trying to compile a list of state schools (so I don’t miss anything), and I saw that the Welsh government has recently issued directives for schools to implement lockdown drills—which is the chief manifestation of U.S. gun culture we’re trying to get away from.

My questions: Are all state schools in Swansea implementing lockdown drills? Are independent schools implementing them as well? If you live in Swansea and have personal experience with what’s really happening in this regard, I appreciate that you’re taking the time to reply. Thank you.

I'm not in Wales but lock down drills have been introduced in my kids' primary school this year. It's done in a very 'not scary' way and it is I think a good thing. There's definitely no armed security in fact the only security is the caretaker and the fact the gate is locked as soon as the kids are in.

It did strike me how open the school campuses are in the US when we were looking at schools with my step sister.

My kids school in England had a lockdown drill practice before Xmas. The kids were told this was to deal with the unlikely situations like extreme weather and chemical spillage.

Forgot to say that there is a prison about 1 mile away so I suppose that's a remote possibility too. The school said that it was basically a logical extension of having fire drills.

I did some exam invigilation in Edinburgh a few years back. It was a VERY rough school and the police were in and out but that's the most that will ever happen, I think.

You might have a bit of culture shock!

The roughest school in our city apparently has metal detectors but our school doesn't.

We call them "invacuation", and both the primary and secondary I work in have plans. The older high school children understand that an "active shooter" is a slim possibility because they see the news from the US, but that it's almost certainly something else here. For primary we sell it as "dog in the playground", and I myself have a story to tell them about a chemical leak from a factory near my school when I was a child (what a mess that day was, nothing like as well handled as we do it now!).

As staff we've talked about using this protocol for "unauthorised person in the building" scenarios - to my mind it's part and parcel of safeguarding. And I'm glad we've had a few run-through as it identified a couple of weak spots, not least an unlockable door into the room where I work!

What other people have said - Lockdown drills are precautionary. In 20+ years I've seen it used once, and that was after a report of something near to the school with no direct threat. The vast majority of UK schools have no additional security staff, and even if they did they would not be armed. although some days on car park duty a dart gun for tyres would be welcome

In the meantime, thanks for reassuring me that we're moving to a saner country.

I'm not sure I'd go that far. Presumably you've been following the Brexit palava...

I'm in Essex, England. My DD's are at secondary school and two Ds's at college. Both have lockdown procedures but neither practice them.
Here they are mainly for a terrorist incident rather than a shooting.
I have explained to my children what to do in the event of a terrorist attack but not a shooting as they don't happen here like they do in America.

Wales is beautiful, lovely choice.

I would expect state schools to have a list of their policies on their website so that you can see them. At my daughter's school - not Swansea - it is in their Critical incident policy and procedures document. So you ought to be able to see something similar on local school websites.

They have a lock down drill once a year - but this involves sitting in classrooms, keeping away from doors and windows.

Never say never but guns are uncommon in the UK and the chances of such an attack are small.

Incidentally, if you are looking at state schools you can enquire of the individual schools about the chances of having places next September for your daughter to join the school.

This is completely irrelevant (no you won’t get a school shooting in Swansea. The Dunblane massacre in 1996 is, in fact, our only school shooting), but have you looked at Atlantic College? I don’t know how old your kids are but i’d Love to send mine there.

We are In wales and both my primary aged children have lock down practise every half term, they have to hide under tables or on clock rooms ( and hide from the head ) they are not aware of the real reason they practise.

Yeah, British police don’t routinely carry guns. They have to be specifically trained and are only used in extreme situations, or specific places like airports in times of high alert as another poster said.

No security guards in our school. The leadership are always on call and will rush to any emergency but zero weapons.

As others have said, lockdown drills are increasingly routine but gun crime is very much not. We have lockdown in case of deer incursion on the fields!

I would be more concerned about getting a suitable school place for your DD, who is likely to be going into year 10 in Sept (assuming she turned 14 after Sept 1), or year 11 (if before). Both are difficult years to start a UK education because of GCSE timings, and if she's due to start Year 11 it will be exceptionally hard (and worth trying to get her into the year below TBH).

My dc has a lockdown situation recently because a burglar being chased by the police jumped over the rear fence into the school fields. He wasn’t targeting the school just trying to get away.

Guns are very tightly regulated in the UK. My father used to have a shotgun for sport (game) shooting and had to be vetted and licenced by his local police, including a medical report from his GP. A condition of his licence was a lockable, secure gun safe in his house and that he kept his shotgun securely. The local police visited him at home to check he was compliant with the terms of his licence. It is a completely different situation to the US here in the UK.

Frankly, when I’ve visited the US its always on my mind that you have so many guns in circulation. I do not feel remotely safe in the US, for all the touted merits of everyone being armed to the back teeth.

Yes, PatriciaHolm, I'm focused on finding my daughter a good place, and I've been assuming that Year 10 is sensible. PiefacedClique, I'd love to ask questions privately, but I'm new to the site and for the life of me can't figure out how!

If you click the three little dots at the bottom of this post it should say PM next to an envelope. Feel free to ask away xxx

se here and school call it 'invacuation'

ThanksForYourHelp you might want to start a separate thread asking specifically about state and private schools in and around Swansea - I'm sure you'd get useful advice.

You may also find that you can get a place going into year 10 even in schools that are oversubscribed for year 7 entry - it's always worth trying as pupils do move & spaces come up.

Lockdown drills and directives are happening in most schools.
If your kid's school hasn't done a drill it won't mean there isn't a lockdown procedure in place. Staff will have been trained. If they haven't, I'd be more concerned as it's been a policy recommendation for some time. Ofsted asked to read our policy earlier this year and quizzed members of staff as to their knowledge of policy.

All schools do them. They are primarily precautionary, a just in case. In my experience schools are safe. When I was a child in London we used to practice for floods that never happened.

I work in an infant school. We do have a major incidents policy that staff are aware of, but we don't have drills. The major incidents range and our actions vary depending on the incident - some involve staying in the classroom though not all our classroom doors lock and some rooms have almost full walls of glass, so it's not overly useful unless they can actually move to a suitable room. Our school doors are all locked from the outside though as are the gates. Other incidents involve a whole school evacuation to another building a fair walk away.

We have fire drills only.

Dd's secondary also had a major incidents policy. As they were older they were told more about it and what to do. There was a different siren to listen out for compared to the fire alarms. Not sure what her sixth form school has but assume there is a policy in place.

The U.K. really doesn't have the same gun culture.

I don't know if any local school with armed guards or security guards in place. We don't have metal detectors and such procedures either.