It is preparation for a nightmare scenario that remains mercifully rare in our schools.
But recent terror attacks at home and aboard are prompting a growing number of schools in England to consider introducing lockdown procedures.
Heads are putting together plans to lock teachers and pupils in classrooms to keep them safe in the event of a terrorist incident. But they are having to do so without any help from central government.
Tes has established that the Department for Education does not have a policy on school lockdowns, offer any specific guidance on what can be a very sensitive issue, or have any idea how many schools are developing their own plans.
Meanwhile, the NAHT heads’ union says that the majority of local authorities also fail to offer advice on school lockdown procedures.
One headteacher had to turn to Twitter and look at what had been done in the US when designing a plan for her infant school.
Unions want the DfE to do more. “The government needs a coherent national strategy on lockdown procedures,” says Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union.
“The safety of children and staff in schools should be a key priority for the government. Their health and wellbeing cannot be left to ad hoc arrangements.”
Amanda Brown, assistant general secretary of the NUT teaching union, agrees. “Schools and employers will not all have expertise and so the DfE should provide a lead on this,” she says.
For Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, the tragic events over the course of this year have “changed everything”.
“Even schools that were in areas where they thought terrorism, knife crime, gun crime never happen, we all now realise that anything can happen anywhere”, he says.
“I think we are in completely new territory where every school in every context needs to think about all eventualities.”
Barton adds that while lockdown might not become something practised as regularly in schools as fire drills, “I think we owe it to parents to consider it”.
Professor Anthony Glees, who directs the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham, “absolutely” believes that the DfE should provide more specific advice for schools on options, including lockdown, that they can evaluate and adapt to their circumstances.
“I think there should be a toolkit and [lockdown] should be part of the toolkit,” he says. But he warns that “lockdown might not necessarily be the best advice at all times”, and he highlights alternative police advice to “run, hide, tell” during a weapons attack.
“It strikes me that that could be more appropriate if there were a gunman on the rampage in a school. If you were to tell everyone that it was school lockdown, you would in effect be preventing people from escaping, and taking away a chance they might have of surviving,” Glees explains.
‘Safer to run and hide’
That is a view echoed by Guy Dudley, a senior specialist adviser at the NAHT heads’ union. “Our overriding advice is the need for flexibility of moving pupils around the school and away from danger, which, ironically, a lockdown prevents, as children are generally confined to a locked classroom and become a target,” he says.
Some teachers’ leaders worry privately that discussing lockdown could lead to scaremongering, and exaggerating a threat they believe is much greater in the US.
The DfE says that all schools should have their own emergency plans, “which they can develop with the help of local police forces and their local authority”, and stresses that it provides guidance to help schools plan and respond effectively to emergencies.
The DfE online guidance for schools covers putting together a “generic” emergency plan and makes no mention of lockdown procedures.
There is a link to resources on “school emergencies” provided by Nottinghamshire County Council. After clicking through four separate web pages, a persistent user could eventually find a short half page appendix on “lockdown” provided by the council.
The DfE has no position on whether schools should have such a procedure in place. And Nottinghamshire is one of only a minority of local authorities that does offer lockdown advice. “The purpose of a lockdown is to prevent an intruder from causing harm to pupils and staff,” it says. “It is very unlikely that your school will ever need to implement a real lockdown but it is important to have arrangements in place.”
Earlier this year, North Somerset Council took steps to set out its own school guidance on lockdown, drawing on more general advice from the National Counter Terrorism Security Office on developing dynamic lockdown procedures.
The council’s safeguarding in education officer, Naomi Grace, says “a few” schools approached the authority following terrorist atrocities on the continent. It is an issue, she adds, that “always” comes up in questions at local authority school conferences.
But the council’s lockdown guidance goes beyond terrorist attacks. Aggressive parents, dangerous animals and a chemical incident are also mentioned in the guidance.
Lockdown drills need to be treated with sensitivity, to avoid upsetting young children or alarming parents, and in some schools they go by the gentler name of “sheltering drills”.
Grace’s advice to schools includes being honest with children about the purpose of the drills, but in a way that is appropriate for their age, and making sure parents are aware of what is happening.
She adds: “You can’t force [schools] to do it, but I think it’s something all schools should consider having in place because you never know when you might use it.
“It’s not just terrorism. You need to think we need to keep our children safe and anything could happen; that means we might need these procedures. It can be simple and adaptable for any school, and it needs to be practised.”
