An emergency procedure may be activated in response to any number of situations including:

• Reported incident/civil disturbance in the local community
• An intruder on the school site with potential to cause harm to staff or students
• A warning being received regarding risk locally of air pollution such as a smoke plume, gas cloud, biological, chemical or radiological hazards
• A major fire within the vicinity of the school
• A dangerous animal roaming loose near the school
• Extreme weather events.

Our school procedures aim to minimise disruption to the school learning environment, whilst ensuring everyone’s safety. Staff will be sharing this procedure with their classes, so everyone is prepared. We will prepare them for the ringing of the bell in emergencies, and will practice using special locks which we now have in place to isolate specific classrooms and corridors. We feel it is important that we use sensitive language at school to prepare our pupils for the drill. Studies in this area suggest that if pupils are well prepared and know what to do, and what to look out for, then they feel more confident in an emergency. 

Parents can prepare their children by being straightforward, matter of fact, and letting them know that you are fully aware of the drill and supportive of it. Please emphasise that it is a good idea to be prepared, as we are for a fire drill, and that all schools have these procedures now. It does not mean we are expecting a problem - so please avoid language, tone or vocabulary which might convey that we expect an intruder or an emergency. Once the drill is complete, each class will have the opportunity to talk about it with their teacher. 

For Lower School classes we will be using wording similar to the following and would be grateful if you could reinforce this at home:

"We are going to learn how to do a security drill, which is a little bit like our school fire drill. We're having this special security drill for a number of reasons. This might be if there is a naughty dog that needs to be collected, or a fire in the area (so we might need to close the windows), or an incident such as an oil spillage. Whenever we have a security drill your job is to be very quiet and listen to what your teacher tells you to do. This might be different each time, but the important thing is that we listen and obey straight away."

Procedure in case of a real emergency situation, ie. not a drill
If we were ever to have a real intruder in school or any other emergency situation, we will follow the following steps. Please read carefully:

• The Office will put a message on the School App that there is a security alert at school. This will also be communicated via WhatsApp
• Parents should not contact the school or come to the school, even at the end of the day, until they have received a further message to say that they can. It is very important for parents to wait for the all-clear message from school before contacting or coming to school
• Parents should not contact pupils, staff or volunteers by text, messaging apps or social media, or by calling their mobiles - this could place everyone in school in more danger if an intruder was in the building.