Shuttleworth College Burnley Road Padiham BB12 8ST
Headteacher Mrs R England BA Hons NPQH
tel 01282 682300 fax 01282 682312
web
27th April 2018
Dear Parent/Carer
We are currently reviewing our emergency procedures and have a number of plans in place for response to emergency situations. It is our duty to keep your child safe and take proactive steps toward this aim, even for very unlikely situations and scenarios. This has therefore led us to develop a lockdown procedure.
A lockdown procedure is a standard health and safety procedure very similar to a fire drill but involves remaining in the school building as opposed to evacuating. The school site and interior rooms will be locked and made secure; this will involve staff and students remaining locked within classrooms and offices until the site is deemed safe.
The situations which may lead to a lockdown include but are not limited to; a reported incidence or civil disturbance in the local community, an intruder on the school site, a warning being received regarding a nearby air pollution risk or a dangerous animal roaming loose near or on the school grounds.
In order to ensure the safety of the school community in this type of event we will run a ‘drill’ of our lockdown procedure within the coming weeks. Putting emergency procedures into practice allows students to feel more confident, less anxious, and better equipped to cope in emergency situations.
We do appreciate that to put into practice an event of this type may be distressing for some students. We will therefore, in preparation for this drill ensure assemblies are delivered to all students and time will be allocated in form groups to answer any questions they may have and alleviate any anxieties that this type of drill may cause. We will communicate to parents via text message on the day that a lockdown drill takes place to advise that this has occurred.
In the event of a genuine lockdown parents will initially be informed via text message that the school has had to initiate lockdown proceedings. Further updates would then be provided as the situation allowed. In the instance of this occurring parents would be advised not to visit the school site as they would be unable to gain access and could potentially be endangering themselves.
Should you have any concerns at all regarding this please do not hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely
R England
Headteacher
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Deputy Headteachers: Deborah Allen●Sally Sagar