Dear Parents and Carers,

I wanted to issue an additional Parent & Carer letter this month to make you aware that we will be talking to students during Assemblies next week about fire drills and lockdown procedures.

The safety of staff and pupils is always going to be the most important consideration in any place of education, which is why fire drills are so common. The school needs to ensure that everyone knows exactly what to do in the event of a fire and fire drills & evacuations from the building prepares them for that.

In addition, lockdown drills are strongly recommended by the Department for Education (DfE) as best practice for safeguarding. Under new legislation (Martyn's Law) passed in 2025, schools must have emergency plans, including lockdowns, with full compliance required by April 2027. Lockdown drills prepare staff and students for situations where intruders or threats require hiding in the building, rather than evacuating.

It would be great if you could have discussions with your children to reassure them that this is a normal procedure. We will do a lockdown drill in the future, and when we do one, we'll text all families to say that it's happening and not to be worried.

Thank you for your continued support.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs Innes

Principal
Callerton Academy