Emergency Lockdown
Emergency Lock Down Procedure
At Wyvern St Edmund’s, we take safeguarding and the safety of your child very seriously.
As you may be aware, all schools must have a lockdown procedure in place in case of emergency.
It is important that we put procedures in place and plan even for those events that are very unlikely to occur. As part of this, we have a safety procedure called “emergency lockdown.”
What is an emergency lockdown and when would it happen?
A security lockdown procedure is a standard health and safety procedure, like a fire drill. Lockdown procedures are important and would be used in response to an internal or external incident.
Our security lockdown procedure would be used when there is a threat to the safety of our students, staff, and others in the school, and when it is safer for everyone to remain in school rather than evacuate. The aim is to keep people safe by confining them to a secure place of safety.
Situations where our emergency lockdown procedure may be used include:
- A potentially dangerous person or animal on the school site
- A disturbance or dangerous situation in the local community that could affect the school
- A nearby chemical incident or other risk of air pollution
- An incident related to terrorism
What is our school’s security lockdown procedure?
Our procedure aims to minimise disruption and anxiety, ensuring the safety of all students and staff.
- The Headteacher (or deputy in their absence) will make the decision about the level of response: Level 1- close teaching spaces, classrooms, offices, or Level 2 which includes all external doors.
- In the event of the school needing to initiate an emergency lockdown, staff will be notified via software on PCs and the instruction to start lockdown procedures will be displayed on all screens.
- If this happens during lesson time students will remain in the classroom/office, they are in with the member of staff they are with at the time. Doors will be secured, and students instructed to remain quiet and away from doors or windows.
- If this happens during social time, in addition to the PC alert, all duty staff will be alerted via radios they carry using a code word. Students and staff will go to the nearest room or space.
- The emergency services will be called immediately. Our neighbouring schools will be contacted immediately.
- Students will be registered by staff as soon as it is possible to ensure they are all accounted for.
A message will be sent to parents/carers as soon as is practically possible via Class Charts. It will be titled ‘School is in lockdown – this is not a drill.’
Instructions for parents/carers in the event of a security lockdown
Parents/carers
- Should be reassured that the school will do everything possible to ensure your child’s safety.
- Will be updated via Class Charts as and when it is possible/necessary.
- Should not phone the school, this will tie up the switchboard and could hinder communications with emergency services.
- Should not contact their child on their mobile phone, they will not have access to their phones.
- Should not attend school as this could interfere with the emergency services access to the school and you may put yourself in danger.
- Should wait for the school to contact them about when it is safe to collect their children.
Students will not be released to parents during a lockdown. We sincerely hope that we will never have a situation where we would need to use lockdown but we will all feel reassured knowing that there is a procedure in place and that all staff, parents, and students know what to do if it were to happen.
We conduct emergency lock down drills at least annually.
You can support the school in safeguarding your child by talking about this at home and reassuring them it is unlikely we will have to do an emergency lockdown for real, but the drill is to reassure them that if we ever do, we all know what to do. We expect students to respond maturely ro ensure their saftey and the safety of others if this situation were to arise.
On the day we conduct a drill, we will inform parents and carers via Class Charts that it took place.
