Modern Life - Lockdown Drills at School

[Mito Man]

Back in my day we didn’t have terrorism drills but had a health and safety type one annually. It involved knowing which fire extinguishers to use in what situations, firing off some of the expired ones and first aid. Not exactly a bad thing to be taught about just in case.

[ste]

All schools now have to do this.

No they don’t. At best, it’s considered “advisory”.

It's mandatory in numerous counties already, dictated by local gov and local ed authority. The government are about to issue national guidance that will become mandatory to implement nationwide. If you live somewhere backwards that hasn't been doing what other places have been doing for 3 or 4 years then yes, your school may not yet be doing it.

[Jezh]

My children have it here at their secondary in Eastbourne. The 'system' went off accidentally a week ago, alarms, messages flashing up on computer screens, teachers flapping. To say they shat themselves would be an understatement!

[Swervin_Mervin]

Weirdly, colleague has just had a text from their kids' school to say they completed their lockdown drill.

I'm torn - on the one hand there's nothing wrong with planning. On the other it just seems absurd.

[JLv3.0]

If you live somewhere backwards that hasn't been doing what other places have been doing for 3 or 4 years then yes, your school may not yet be doing it.

Surely you're not going to let him get away with that Dave

[NotoriousREV]

All schools now have to do this.

No they don’t. At best, it’s considered “advisory”.

It's mandatory in numerous counties already, dictated by local gov and local ed authority. The government are about to issue national guidance that will become mandatory to implement nationwide. If you live somewhere backwards that hasn't been doing what other places have been doing for 3 or 4 years then yes, your school may not yet be doing it.

Right, so like I said: not all schools have to do it, then? I’m going off the experience of 4 different LEAs: my kids are in 2 schools and have never done lock down drills. My wife has been an SEN TA for 7 years and has never done a lock down drill. One of my sisters is a head at a large primary school and she tells me there’s no current requirement in her authority but it’s encouraged.

Maybe if you live in Beirut you need these things?

[240PP]

Ste, your rebuttal please..

[Barry]

Until recently our (rare) fire drills required us to walk down the access road to the RV point. The same access road fire engines would be using to attend a fire in the building. Not the best thought out plan it must be said.

[Nefarious]

I was at boarding school in central London in the 90s. We had two fairly sizable bombs go off very close (one close enough to blow my bedroom window in) during school hours and a third a little further away on a Sunday when I happened to be there.
Because of the positioning of my boarding house (next door to CoE central), on several occasions we were rounded up in the middle of the night and taken to the half-basement pool room of the neighbouring house. Coded warnings were pretty regular.

Now I think about it, some sort of official drill or procedure may have been a good idea...

[John]

All we had to worry about was the Tufty Club

[tim]

All we had to worry about was the Tufty Club

Same.

Well that and the peado vicar.

[nuttinnew]

...nuclear attack... get under your desk etc...

We had evacuation drills and, in later years, fire extinguisher training. That and first aid are imo basic things everyone should know.
Mind you , in my day we didn't need security gates and fences surrounding schools. We didn't worry about anything, including the asbestos in the school buildings and the heating never working so it was colder inside than out.

[dinny_g]

Those Nuclear films of the 80’s scared the shite out if my when I was a kid...

I remember the day I found out that all the talk in the TV was not about threatening to build one. It was about threatening to USE one. I didn’t know they existed. Then I found out the Russians had 10,000 of them. I was about 5 at the time and I didn’t sleep for a month...

[DeskJockey]

Our school runs one exercise a year. Was rather confusing as they didn't tell us in advance and the class parents' WhatsApp group became full of parents trying to make sense of what their (then reception) children were saying. Took some deciphering.

[duncs500]

Safest time to be alive...

I never like it when he's correct, just doesn't sit right.

[V8Granite]

I give my kids shanks so they can fight back, that’s sound parenting.

Dave!

[evostick]

None of my three have ever had to do this crazyness.

[Gwaredd]

Ours do it at their secondary school, but never at primary or infant. I think it's no bad thing to practice. It is sad that we need to impliment things like this, but no different to when I was at school really, as we'd have a bomb scare from a disgruntled pupil putting on a bad Irish accent every other week.

[ste]

No they don’t. At best, it’s considered “advisory”.

It's mandatory in numerous counties already, dictated by local gov and local ed authority. The government are about to issue national guidance that will become mandatory to implement nationwide. If you live somewhere backwards that hasn't been doing what other places have been doing for 3 or 4 years then yes, your school may not yet be doing it.

Right, so like I said: not all schools have to do it, then? I’m going off the experience of 4 different LEAs: my kids are in 2 schools and have never done lock down drills. My wife has been an SEN TA for 7 years and has never done a lock down drill. One of my sisters is a head at a large primary school and she tells me there’s no current requirement in her authority but it’s encouraged.

Maybe if you live in Beirut you need these things?

Someone who helps special-needs kids and a head of a primary school. That's that buttoned up then, glad we got straight to the experts.

As your sister says, at a minimum it's encouraged. It's about to become mandatory. I thought everywhere was already doing it as it's good practice. I forget that some areas are slow to adopt stuff as they're incompetent and lazy and need something to be mandated before they act. So I've learnt something, thank you.

[NotoriousREV]

It's mandatory in numerous counties already, dictated by local gov and local ed authority. The government are about to issue national guidance that will become mandatory to implement nationwide. If you live somewhere backwards that hasn't been doing what other places have been doing for 3 or 4 years then yes, your school may not yet be doing it.

Right, so like I said: not all schools have to do it, then? I’m going off the experience of 4 different LEAs: my kids are in 2 schools and have never done lock down drills. My wife has been an SEN TA for 7 years and has never done a lock down drill. One of my sisters is a head at a large primary school and she tells me there’s no current requirement in her authority but it’s encouraged.

Maybe if you live in Beirut you need these things?

Someone who helps special-needs kids and a head of a primary school. That's that buttoned up then, glad we got straight to the experts.

As your sister says, at a minimum it's encouraged. It's about to become mandatory. I thought everywhere was already doing it as it's good practice. I forget that some areas are slow to adopt stuff as they're incompetent and lazy and need something to be mandated before they act. So I've learnt something, thank you.

The words you’re looking for are “I was wrong, but my ego is so fragile I have to lash out at others because I’m a pathetic manchild”