Your first thought when you heard that pupils at Rickmansworth School had been asked to hide under their desks during a police incident might well have been that it must have been terrifying.

The school was put into lockdown as officers searched nearby buildings, including an area of the school site, following a reported abduction.

It may well have been dramatic and even frightening, but fortunately the incident was not related to the school and only lasted around ten minutes.

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But perhaps the most important thing was that the school had a plan in place as part of a lockdown policy.

When police contacted the school, it put a drill that had been rehearsed with staff into operation and staff immediately did what they could to keep children safe.

Afterwards, the school confirmed what had happened in an email to parents, and added that it is likely to hold more such drills in case of future incidents.

Most of us grumble when there is a fire drill at work, but no parent would grumble about schools holding drills to keep their children safe.

This turned out to be a minor incident, but the system worked. That's not terrifying, that's reassuring.