School lockdown: Event to raise awareness of how emergency services respond to a major incident in a school

Hundreds of school staff from across Swindon and Wiltshire joined together this week for an event about planning for a major incident in a school.

The Emergency Preparedness training event held on Tuesday, February 25, at the Corn Exchange, Devizes, jointly planned and facilitated by Wiltshire Council’s Education Safeguarding Effectiveness team, was held to raise awareness of the actions emergency services will take in response to a major incident within an educational setting.

School representatives heard testimonies from officers and students involved in the stabbing at Tewkesbury Academy in July 2023 to outline the emergency response.

Although lockdown events are very uncommon and schools are fundamentally safe places, we have a collective responsibility to make sure we are as prepared as possible to keep our children and young people are safe.

Schools were encouraged to look at their own lockdown procedure and practice so that they would know what they would do if an incident should happen on their school property. Lockdown is when children and staff need to be locked within buildings for their own safety, e.g., in an emergency such as a hostile intruder, terrorist, or other criminal activity. Or it could be a case such as in 1980 when two lions escaped from a circus and entered school grounds in Devizes.

Chief Inspector Carly Nesbitt said, "This event is an opportunity for schools and colleges across Wiltshire to come together with members of the council and members of Wiltshire Police, both neighbourhood police and armed officers, to see what the response would be to an emergency incident within a school environment.

"It is also a chance for them to check and test their plans in response to such an incident.

"Unfortunately, there have been a number of incidents recently, such as a stabbing of a teacher in Tewkesbury and the tragic stabbing of a youth in Sheffield, that highlight that, although these incidents are very rare and schools are fundamentally safe places, they do happen, and the onus is on us—schools, police, and our partners—to make sure we are as prepared as possible to make sure that our children are safe."

Inspector Dan Lane, of Wiltshire Police's Specialist Operations, said, "We've been joined by senior leaders from schools across Wiltshire to talk about what would happen if there's a bad day at the school and they need to have a lockdown. I am one of the Tactical Firearms Commanders at Wiltshire Police, and I am talking to schools about what to expect if firearms officers turn up, as well as the general way that we would police an incident like that.

"This event is not being put on because there is an additional threat to school settings, but unfortunately we live in times when this has happened more than once, and I think it is wise to be prepared."