Schools in London train terror attack 'lockdown' keep details from children
Schools in Fulham, England are protecting younger students by discreetly going into "lockdown" but not telling them about the London train terror attack.
A junior school and a nursery school inside the cordon had to be evacuated under armed guard, while many others in the area have decided to keep students inside for the day.
Zebedee Nursery School was evacuated under armed guards on Friday morning.
Principal Su Gahan posted on Facebook at around 9.30am: "Everyone safe at Zebedee, thank you to those asking.
"A lot of action with police outside the gates. We have two armed guards outside the gates."
Two hours later she posted: "We are fine. We were guarded by two armed police and then evacuated."
Children at Kensington Prep School were also evacuated at around 11.15am.
Students at Lady Margaret School, a secondary girls' school, were told to stay inside their building on Parsons Green - within the cordon - in the aftermath of the attack, a source said.
No one from the school was available for comment.
Many of the schools in the area have gone into lockdown in response to attack, even if they are outside the police cordon, a spokeswoman for a local nursery school said.
A spokeswoman for Parsons Green Nursery, which has around 50 pupils, said: "We haven't been evacuated but we are on lockdown.
"Most of the schools in Fulham are on lockdown as a precaution.
"We don't want to take the children outside today, it's the same for most of the schools even the big [secondary] schools.
"We haven't told the children we're on lockdown, we don't want to worry them. They are not aware of it."
She said the school had been liaising with police, but that it was the school that had decided to go into lockdown and not police instructions.
"We had a lot of calls from the parents and we decided that this was best.
"When parents come at the end of the day there will be a member of staff at the gate and they can just collect their child and then go."
A spokeswoman for Hammersmith and Fulham Council said they were advising schools, but that head teachers were making decisions on how best to keep students safe.
She said: "We are supporting schools at the moment, both in terms of what they should be saying to pupils and what they should be doing.
"We are advising them on how best to make sure students get home at the end of the day and we are working on that now. We are in contact with police."
She urged anyone affected by the attack, including those evacuated from their homes, to go to the respite centre in the community hall on the Lancaster Court Estate where staff from the council were on hand to give advice and support.
Lady Margaret School was not evacuated until shortly before 3pm, while a nursery and a primary school inside the cordon were evacuated before midday.
Armed officers were stationed outside Lady Margaret almost immediately after the explosion, but students were told to stay inside.
The girls were evacuated in small groups on to Parsons Green by teachers before being collected by their parents.
They were offered a free slice of pizza on the way out of the cordon by local chef Teo Citino, who said he wanted to help those affected by the attack.
