Hi, I’m after some opinions and expectations regarding a lock down in a public primary school. Ours recently went into lock down after an armed hold up resulting in the offender hiding in a house across the road from school. Kids were told by teachers that there was a bad man near by and they needed to get their belongings and stay in the room. They were reassured and well looked after for these few hours until police arrested him. My question is, would you expect some form of debrief with the kids on the next school day? What communication would you expect parents to receive, during, and/or after? Thanks.

We had a bomb scare in high school. Ended up being a year 11 trying to get out of exams. We had a debrief the next day.

Dawn You had a bomb scare. I swear we had one every couple of months. We were always lining up on the oval. It was always kids. Once they were caught in the public phone box outside the school gate 😆 In primary school, based on what you have said, I would expect a quick check in the next morning. I wouldn’t want a massive debrief unless it was clear some kids needed it.

Our school did a lockdown drill but as we are a rural school the teachers talked about this being what they’d do if the bull from next door got into the schoolyard! Even though it was a drill and a bull was the “bad guy” they had a debrief with the kids the next day to ensure they were all okay after the practice. I’d definitely expect communication home to parents same day and debrief the next with kids.

We’ve had a couple of similar incidents over the years. We always get an email. Can’t remember the kids ever having a proper debrief, though I’m sure the teachers would have settled the class afterwards. The only time I remember a proper debrief was when there was a legitimate incident; a tradie working on school grounds was stabbed, it was a targeted attack, they knew each other already. That was obviously treated with more care and attention than all the other lockdowns.

Thanks everyone. There was a Facebook post and email about 2 hours into lockdown alerting parents that the kids were in lock down due to a police operation not involving the school. They did say children could be collected from a different entrance. Then a post and email thanking everyone for their cooperation saying it was finished. I expected them to at least tell the children they were available if they were worried and needed to talk to someone or put a note in the newsletter saying that. I can see they may be doing it on a case by case basis if parents communicate a need though.

We usually get an email or app notification if such a lockdown occurs - drill or real. Generally my kids have not been worried and so nothing further has been required. The drill practices do help. I think there can be a risk of going too far with follow ups and having kids think it was a big deal when really they probably weren’t at that much risk. That said a worried reaction from some kids is normal and if your child does need more support I wouldn’t hesitate to let the school know.

My kids had a similar one except it was a shoplifter from the supermarket across the road and then the security guards chased him into the primary school! Fortunately it was during afternoon lessons and not at lunchtime when there would have been 800 kids in the playground. He was hiding in the school grounds so there were police everywhere looking. Kids thought it was very exciting. We had a notification from the school because they were still in lockdown at pickup time. I’m pretty sure they had a debrief the next day, mostly to dispel all the stories made up by the more imaginative kids, that he had a gun, was a murderer etc.

Back in the 80s at our high school there were a number of scares and trips to stand around on the oval - a couple of bomb/fire scares but mostly “somebody’s brought guns/bullets to school again”. Never any debrief the next day. Sometimes in Assembly there was a “Quit bloody doing that”. We all rolled our eyes and were completely meh about it. If there’d been any actual explosions or shooting we’d have been sitting ducks because we’d never have believed it was really happening this time. These days I’d for sure expect an email home at least.

We get a text message whenever they’ve done a lockdown drill at school. There’s only been one actual incident that I can remember, which was when an armed person was holed out in a house (actually just around the corner from our house; the kids were safer being at school than I was at home). I couldn’t go and pick them up because my street’s one exit was blocked off, so they were kept at school until around 4pm. I definitely got a text message while that was in progress, and then an emailed letter the following day explaining the situation. It was all over the news anyway (it was resolved peacefully) so the kids just thought it was a bit of excitement.

School Lockdown Policy