School drills and the threat of terror

'Lockdown' practise became as regular as a fire drill - once a term - in my school in the last few years, just part and parcel of everyday life in an infant school.
I was glad that we all knew what to do when we had to 'lockdown' for real when someone ran away from the police and chose our playground as a good place to hide.

Also, my class wrote to children in Japan for a while. We were fascinated by their weekly earthquake drill - again everyone under desks.
Seems we put a lot of faith in the protective power of a school desk all over the world.

It’s always been a scary place for children, just not our children, in the 50s, 60s and 70s.

So we think of it as a time of security. But it wasn’t if you were in Vietnam or India or many other places in the world.

Pupils have always done fire drills. I remember on the 70s bomb scare drills. And one very elderly teacher spoke at her retirement of drills for herding pupils into the bomb shelter. Bomb shelters that the local authority said pupils were not to play on in case they fell through!
Btw at one school I taught in (E Midlands), we did have a gunman scare, locked all the outside doors, kept away from windows, couldn't go outside until the police gave the all-clear. Nothing came of it, presumably a local thought they saw a man with a gun, in the alley behind the school, that was a false alarm.

i think drills are a good idea.
one of my colleagues used to occasionally blow a whistle in the middle of the night and time his children's exit from the house via the stairs window, across the garage roof and down.
he gave them no assistance but observed with a stop watch and later gave critical feedback.
the youngest was about 7.
he did inform his wife in advance so that she could be waiting outside, but no warning for the children.

I agree they are a good idea and I suppose the gunmen in American schools are one of the reasons for it. So far we haven’t had a situation like that here, not in schools anyway and I sincerely hope it never happens. I was interested in the codes, quite sophisticated,but I imagine they would have to change them from time to time. Their school is a Lutheran school so perhaps that might be more vulnerable, I don’t know.

all the jewish schools here have had security guards on the gate, and no name board, for about 30 years.
they have to raise the extra money for this.
also at the synagogues.
not sure if they have emergency drills too,

This has been a regular feature at my daughters' secondary school right the way through (youngest in sixth form now) - they do explain that it could also be due to things like a chemical leak or a dangerous animal as well though. They also do it at our local primary - very much focused on "if a dog got into the playground", so as not to alarm. I feel better for them having a process in place.

**nanna8
So far we haven’t had a situation like that here, not in schools anyway and I sincerely hope it never happens

Sadly we have had that happen here and I m very vividly remembering Dunblane Primary School

Yes, the world is a scary place and it always has been.

But any teacher knows that drills whether fire drills or any other kind are only scary for children, if the grown-ups make them scary.

Teaching the youngest classes we used to say that the fire drill is held so that we all know what to do and how to get outside quickly IF the school should ever catch fire. We pointed out that this was VERY UNLIKELY EVER TO HAPPEN.

We then practised the part of the drill that could be done in the classroom - closing the windows and lining up quickly and quietly at the door in pairs.

It was done seriously, also when the actual drill was held, but in a light-hearted kind of way.

From my own school days I remember our glee when the fire bell went at the start of a maths class, and the unfortunate occasion when the headmistress was so dissatisfied with the time it had taken us to get outside, that se sent us in again to repeat the drill.

The really unfortunate thing was that my class was having a gym lesson, attired as per usual in the 1960s in aertex t-shirts with short sleeves, our regulation green school uniform pants, ankle socks and gym shoes and we complied with the rule that no-one wasted time dressing or fetching a coat. It was the second week of December and quite literally freezing.

The headmistress took pity upon us to the extent of allowing us to fetch our coats on the way back inside before the second fire drill started!

I have never either as a child or an adult met any child who was scared by these drills, not was I ever frightened when my parents started the sea crossing from Scotland to Denmark by marching my sister and I off to find the life-boat designated for the occupants of our cabin.

To me it has always made sense to know exactly what one is supposed to do in an emergency.

I remember practising the 3 minute warning in the 50s with the nuclear threat at that time. A wooden school desk or kitchen table were the staple defence from radiation!

Two of my DGC at school in Canada regularly have safety and security drills, right from the very youngest children up to school leavers. Always good to know exactly what to do in the case of emergency. I was at boarding school in the early 60's and every term we had "fire practice" during the night. We all woke up, trooped outside to an arranged meeting point for roll call. Some of the dormitories had fire escapes from which we had regular practice to know how to use them

Drills of all kinds in schools are a necessity! Without evacuation plans or shelter-in-place plans there would be utter chaos.

Hospitals, companies/corporations already have evacuation and mass incident plans drawn up and part of protocol. Any and all businesses regardless of size should have all employees educated about what to do, how and where to go.
USA Gundy

My grandchildren in New Zealand have regular earthquakes drills in school.

Seems like a good idea to me, age appropriate of course.

4allweknow

I remember practising the 3 minute warning in the 50s with the nuclear threat at that time. A wooden school desk or kitchen table were the staple defence from radiation!

I too remember drills at my secondary school n the early fifties. The teacher counted us out as we left the classroom and checked each of us off on the register once we reached "safety" This was dank tunnels - long and U-shaped, with an entrance at each end - behind the school. If you were the first class to enter, you stood in the half-dark in the furthest depths.
The teachers, incidentally, were all women, middle-aged or older bluestockings, who had taught when young and returned to teaching when all the men had been called up and sent to the front. So many men had not returned to their posts, some by choice, that the teaching workforce was still predominantly female.

Makes sense to be prepared.

When my son was in 6th form they had a lockdown drill while he was in the hall preparing for a show. He hid under the stage not knowing if it was a drill or for real! When nobody gave him the all clear he phoned me asking what to do. It was the first time I had heard of lockdown drills!

My blind daughter used to love filing out in the middle of the night in her dressing gown at her boarding school's fire drills.

Fallout drills in the 60’s every day for a long Cuban missile crisis!!! None of us took it seriously!! Kids today won’t either …surely you remember as a teenager you just KNOW you’re gonna live forever. It is what it is!

Not a school drill, but our workplace used to have drills for fire and bomb threats (1970's). I returned to my office one lunchtime via the back door as usual after working in a different building and found the building strangely empty, looked out of the front to see all the staff gathered outside, so I joined them assuming it to be a practice drill, only to find it was a real evacuation due to a bomb threat!

I can remember bomb drills in the 70's when I was in senior school. It was during the IRA attacks and we'd regularly have to troop outside and gather on the tennis courts. My brother was an RMP in the army and gave a fair few safety talks to the school during that period. Consequently, part of the drill was having to lay face down, feet pointing towards the building, hands over head. The premise being that should there be an explosion, we were smaller targets for flying glass and debris than if we were standing up. I can only recall 2 real bomb threats, which both turned out to be hoaxes, but it was scary times. I can't imagine being a school pupil in this day and age and worry about my GC. I guess we're lucky in that we don't have too many threats in the UK, but I'd hate to be in the States now. I would definitely be home educating my kids if that were the case!