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Lock Down Policy


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Good morning.

I have only one experience of being locked-down, when a report was received that someone had been seen in adjoining woodland with a gun. It turned out to be someone walking a dog with a stick, but in the mean time, everyone was asked to remain in the building, away from windows while the Police were called.

My setting is on domestic premises and I have simply included as section in my Safeguarding policy, sitting next to my emergency evacuation procedures, that outlines that doors will be locked and children will be kept safe on-premises until we are confident that any danger has been mitigated (usually after arrival of emergency services and following their instructions). Emergency contact lists are maintained and parents/carers will be notified immediately of any situation.

The Pre-school Learning Alliance provide some useful guidance: https://www.pre-school.org.uk/responding-emergencies

Tim :-)

 

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2 hours ago, Tim said:

Good morning.

I have only one experience of being locked-down, when a report was received that someone had been seen in adjoining woodland with a gun. It turned out to be someone walking a dog with a stick, but in the mean time, everyone was asked to remain in the building, away from windows while the Police were called.

My setting is on domestic premises and I have simply included as section in my Safeguarding policy, sitting next to my emergency evacuation procedures, that outlines that doors will be locked and children will be kept safe on-premises until we are confident that any danger has been mitigated (usually after arrival of emergency services and following their instructions). Emergency contact lists are maintained and parents/carers will be notified immediately of any situation.

The Pre-school Learning Alliance provide some useful guidance: https://www.pre-school.org.uk/responding-emergencies

Tim :-)

 

Many thanks Tim - very useful

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2 hours ago, Tim said:

 

Good morning.

I have only one experience of being locked-down, when a report was received that someone had been seen in adjoining woodland with a gun. It turned out to be someone walking a dog with a stick, but in the mean time, everyone was asked to remain in the building, away from windows while the Police were called.

My setting is on domestic premises and I have simply included as section in my Safeguarding policy, sitting next to my emergency evacuation procedures, that outlines that doors will be locked and children will be kept safe on-premises until we are confident that any danger has been mitigated (usually after arrival of emergency services and following their instructions). Em

 

Thanks Tim.

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1 hour ago, zigzag said:

😱going to pretend I haven’t seen this, haven’t got this policy, never heard of it and never been asked for it.  I wonder if this is just in your part of the country or will be all over?

To be honest it sounds worse than it actually is. :)

We had to do a 'lock down'. simply because of a domestic situation in our town.  We are in the  corner of a park so an excellent place for the offender to run and hide near our outside area. No actual Danger to us.  Basically we just had to close off our outdoor area and go inside for an hour or so.

That said we do now discuss with the children what to do if they hear the fire bell (a hand rung thingy). Where as previously we would say 'look for an adult and they will tell you which door', we now say 'an adult will tell you what to do, we may need to sit quietly, or we may need to leave the hall'. We do practice sitting quietly.

What I do find incredibly sad is - a few weeks ago we had a stall at the town show. We had a little helper about 8/9 years old,( a town councillors daughter). On our stall where a few helium balloons - one burst due to the heat...... the poor child went absolutely white, almost crying in panic saying 'what do we do, what do we do', she actually thought it was gunfire :(   So sad that this is now how a young child's mind works.

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we have a lock down procedure and also a bomb procedure (not a policy but I seem to think they are mentioned ...will check!) this is because of the area we are in as we have a grade 'A' site and a 'B' site next to us for terrorist threats! we do practise lock downs but not bomb threats as this is virtually the same as fire (except you take your stuff with you!!) and stand well away from buildings and flying glass. The lock down requires you to work out where the safest area in your building is and how you might handle intruders ...there would be no point in giving you mine because it has to be suitable for your setting.Ours involves getting everyone in one place and locking all external doors until we are given the all clear. If needed we have a further area that we can go to which has no direct view from the outside we have chains on the doors so that we can open part way to talk to strangers if needed.! we also have a flood procedure and 'safe areas for files etc! because we live next to a river.

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Thought you might like to picture the scene.

We are on a school site, tucked nicely into a corner of the staff  car park.  We are a wooden building, the temporary classroom of the sixities type.  Standing inside up to my waist height is wood/something else panel and above to ceiling is window.  It makes a nice light environment for the children.

To get to my office (yes I have an office) one walks out the front door, down a gentle sloping ramp about metre and a half and then turn right and walk back on self but not up the ramp and probably nearer 3 metre walk to my office door.

So on the days I get office time I am in there and I have responsibility for answering the phone.  So the school calls to tell me that they are having a lock down practice.  I have to leave my office, walk that 3 metres plus to the nursery facing whatever threat there is out there (squirrels usually) to alert the team that there is something we need to hide from.

Having got into the nursery I then attempt to get my little treasures to keep their heads down below window level whilst trying to reach for roller blind cord (which are shortened to prevent little treasures from strangling themselves) in order to lower the blinds to make us invisible.

And then we can breathe because it is all a practise after all.

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7 hours ago, louby loo said:

 

What I do find incredibly sad is - a few weeks ago we had a stall at the town show. We had a little helper about 8/9 years old,( a town councillors daughter). On our stall where a few helium balloons - one burst due to the heat...... the poor child went absolutely white, almost crying in panic saying 'what do we do, what do we do', she actually thought it was gunfire :(   So sad that this is now how a young child's mind works.

It’s sad isn’t it?  I know we probably have to prepare children, just in case but they shouldn’t be worrying about things like that at their age.

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