Emergency Closure / Lockdown
At Wyvern St Edmund’s, we take safeguarding and the safety of your child very seriously.
Emergency Closure
Whilst every attempt is made to ensure that the school remains open, parents and carers must be aware that in exceptional circumstances it may be necessary for Wyvern St Edmund's Academy to either close or to give early notice that the school will not open that day.
Reasons for closure may be that:
- we are unable to ensure the safety of our students on site, despite preventative measures such as gritting or air conditioning;
- extreme weather conditions are expected which will mean that students will have a treacherous journey to and/or from school;
- insufficient numbers of staff are able to get to school. This may be due to the distance or the safety of the roads they have to travel to school, or because they are parents of young children whose schools have closed;
- extreme heat prevents us from being able to keep students and staff safe from heat related illnesses (heatstroke, heat exhaustion, dehydration).
In the event of a school closure, the Headteacher will make a decision early each morning as to whether the school will remain open. If the decision is to close, parents will be informed via Class Charts. We will also publish updates via our website and social media platforms.
Emergency Lockdown
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?
We have an internal procedure that aims to minimise disruption and anxiety, ensuring the safety of all students and staff.
We conduct emergency lockdown drills at least annually.
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.
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.
