Does your School have Lockdown drills?

[fiza]

The school my wife works at just had a lockdown drill but we have never had one here.

Just wondered if other schools do this kind of drill?

[rich_tech]

Fire is only one I am aware of where I work at present, though reading news on BBC that could change in new year for schools.

[Boredguy]

We looked at implementing additional kit to our lesson change, partly to facilitate a "lockdown" procedure, but nothing ever came of it.

 

Heck getting fire drills "scheduled" is hard enough without disrupting exams, controlled assessments and cooking practical's, never mind if we had to practice a lockdown as well I guess =/

[aleach2]

We have a procedure for Broadmoor. If the siren sounds for an escaped patient etc. I wouldn't go as far and call it a lock down procedure. I know other London/inner city schools have something similar.

[Pyroman]

We have a school bell for lesson changes. If it gets rung a certain number of times it means get in a safe place and lock the doors.

[localzuk]

We've never had one here, I believe it was decided not to so as not to scare the kids!

[Pyroman]

We've never had one here, I believe it was decided not to so as not to scare the kids!

 

Yeah, we've never actually done a drill, staff got told at a meeting.

[LeMarchand]

A school I no longer support had a couple while I was there. IIRC it was because it was felt that a violent relative might try to force their way in to remove a child.

[unixman_again]

We have fire drills and we do have a written procedure for if a gunman appears on campus. Basically it says lock all the doors, stay away from the doors and windows and call the police. I thought is was a joke until it was mentioned in staff briefing some time ago.

[GeekyPete]

Yes, Bell rings, all doors are locked, including the corridors, every one goes to a designated safe area, Usually a blacked out store room and keeps quiet. No one is to more unless told it's safe by the head or either of the two deputies who are the only ones allowed to move in a locked. Staff are not to come out even if someone claims to be the police. I wasn't too popular when I asked what happens if the head and deputies get shot or if the intruder starts a fire...

[dhicks]

Just wondered if other schools do this kind of drill?

 

We (hopefully) have a pretty secure school - we're a primary school, children don't go out of the building unaccompanied and at the end of the day we hand children over one by one to parents or nannies. There no entrance to the building other than through the locked front door, monitored by the front desk staff. Every visitor should be signed in and wear a badge at all times, and if you see someone without a badge on you're meant to stop them and ask them who they are - and it's something that the mock inspector always checks, too, taking his badge off and wandering around until someone challenges him. There is a process set out for informing the staff of an unwanted person in the building. At one point we did have a couple of bodyguards on the front door, and there's been a couple of prospective parents who have requested security staff for their children, but the school felt that was a bit over the top - having a couple of ex-Gurkhas wandering around outside the front door all day makes the place stand out more, if anything. A few of the parents have their own bodyguards / drivers, but they generally stay discretly out of the way over the road at drop off / pick up times - when it rains, we get bodyguard jams as they all try to look inconspicuous in the same small doorway to the church opposite.

[forkies]

We do have a lockdown procedure signalled by the fire bell ringing a number of times. Although we don't do drills regularly. During the drill I have to stop all access to doors using our access control system and deny key cards from being used. Our SLT have radios to communicate and call for doors to be released. We also man CCTV during this. Our reception has shutters that are locked down too.

 

However as most schools using access control know it needs to release in the event of a fire so if fire alarm is activated all the doors open anyway. Also the emergency release break glass overrides it. At least no one can get it, only out using break glass emergency release on doors.

 

I think it is becoming more common with recent events and common threats of violence.

[MatthewL]

Should this not be behind the red door?

 

I see it more and more in schools, small notes with what to do in places.

 

Any tests should not be announced i.e. fire alarm, events like this are not planned so why warn staff when testing it all out!

[clockend25]

We discussed it at one point, but it's very hard to come up with a coherent plan of action given the scope of what you could be facing. A lot of the discussions descended into farce as the 'what ifs' got more crazy. There was one particular H&S meeting that I remember in which it was brought up that we should train certain members of staff to tackle armed intruders.

[LeMarchand]

There was one particular H&S meeting that I remember in which it was brought up that we should train certain members of staff to tackle armed intruders.

 

So, either a cunning way for certain members of staff to get a pay increment for doing naff all, or: SCHOOL NINJAS!

[hardtailstar]

We looked at implementing additional kit to our lesson change, partly to facilitate a "lockdown" procedure, but nothing ever came of it.

 

Heck getting fire drills "scheduled" is hard enough without disrupting exams, controlled assessments and cooking practical's, never mind if we had to practice a lockdown as well I guess =/

 

shouldnt drills be done to replicate real situations. not schedule and let everyone know.

 

One school I work at says which week of the term itll be in but the Head does not give away any more detail.

 

The other one sends a list of what each teacher needs, sends the registers just before and details what day to the second itll be!

[Edu-IT]

We (hopefully) have a pretty secure school - we're a primary school, children don't go out of the building unaccompanied and at the end of the day we hand children over one by one to parents or nannies. There no entrance to the building other than through the locked front door, monitored by the front desk staff. Every visitor should be signed in and wear a badge at all times, and if you see someone without a badge on you're meant to stop them and ask them who they are - and it's something that the mock inspector always checks, too, taking his badge off and wandering around until someone challenges him. There is a process set out for informing the staff of an unwanted person in the building. At one point we did have a couple of bodyguards on the front door, and there's been a couple of prospective parents who have requested security staff for their children, but the school felt that was a bit over the top - having a couple of ex-Gurkhas wandering around outside the front door all day makes the place stand out more, if anything. A few of the parents have their own bodyguards / drivers, but they generally stay discretly out of the way over the road at drop off / pick up times - when it rains, we get bodyguard jams as they all try to look inconspicuous in the same small doorway to the church opposite.

Sounds like a very affluent school.

[Oaktech]

We've never drilled it, but it's written in policy.