We’ve had visits from junior schools at church but today was the first time in… well, the first time in so long that I can’t honestly remember that I’ve been into a junior school. It was as part of a church team to run a session called “Experience Easter”. We normally host it but are having an issue with the toilet drains at the moment so, for 2024, the team is going out to the schools instead.

I don’t remember schools being so fortified in the past. I’m not talking lava-filled moats and 50′ walls but there are substantial fences and gates operated by switches inside what could best be described as “the compound”. Signing in wasn’t just a matter of putting my name in a visitors book but filling in details on a touch screen and, at the end of the process, being photographed and having a bespoke badge printed for the day.

Does it really make a worthwhile contribution? I don’t know but I imagine that it is expensive. What happens when part of the system goes down? Does the school shut or temporarily relax the rules? It is commendable that schools are making an effort to keep their pupils and staff safe but I hope they are going the whole hog and also having professional groups test those defences. Too many stories in history and legend, including but not limited to the “Trojan horse”, show how a little bit of cunning can often subvert what were imagined to be comprehensive defences.

All of that has nothing to do with what our team brought to the children who took part in the “Experience” but, as someone who used to work at the information end of the security market, I’m interested to think about what I experienced and its strengths and possible weaknesses.