The core of the kit is a series of statements that can be read out by young people or staff, as best suits the school situation. The words provided can be adapted or omitted according to your aims and the group involved. We hope that schools will find it useful to help students think through some of the practical and emotional issues and to give a focus for discussion.

The ideas in this kit are essentially practical. They cover what to do, and what not to do, when discussing a terror attack or in the thankfully rare event of one happening. There are some educational reasons why you might consider approaching this subject:

• To help students appreciate that there are some practical steps they can take to in response to what can seem a frightening threat of terrorism.
  
• To help students understand what the priorities are for the emergency services during a major incident and why they do what they do.
  
• To help children and young people understand the part they can play as active citizens in being alert to risks and in responding to an emergency.
  
• To give students an insight into how other people might behave during an emergency and to recognise the humanitarian role they themselves can play.
  

The script here can be copied and given to staff or students, with parts allocated for reading out in an assembly or other educational session. It starts with a narrator, and is followed by ten short contributions, alternating between positive advice and things to be avoided. They have been indicated as "helpful" or "not helpful" and numbered sequentially for convenience. You might introduce the helpful or not helpful from different sides of the stage or room, or find another way to distinguish them.

Narrator
The blasts in London on 7 July 2005 were the first co-ordinated terror attacks in the UK for some years. But the scenes of that day are familiar from elsewhere. Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, the USA, Japan, Russia, Spain, and Indonesia have all recently suffered attacks that have led to major loss of life.

We may have many responses to this - anger and fear, perhaps, mixing with sympathy and sadness for those caught up in the explosions, and their families and friends. Sometimes we might feel powerless, that there is nothing we can do to protect ourselves against the threat of terror. Although this feeling is understandable, it’s not really true. There are things we can do, as individuals and together, that will make our communities safer. We can all help reduce the suffering and injury caused by such terrible events.

Here is some of the best advice, drawn from those who have studied past emergencies, and from those who are planning what we can do in future emergencies. From this side [indicate as necessary], you will hear positive advice about what to do. From the other side [indicating], you will hear things to avoid….

1. Helpful: Get quick and simple phone messages to your families if you are away from them, to check that they are unhurt and to let them know that you are safe. Use a mobile if you can, but accept that at certain times the networks may not be able to cope. Spend some time now listing the phone numbers you need and make sure you carry them with you. Mid- emergency is not a good time to realise you don't have critical phone numbers.

2. Not helpful: Never phone 999 to ask about the safety of relatives or friends. This is a number reserved for genuine emergencies. During a major incident like a bomb blast, 999 should only be dialled for a life-threatening emergency. Wait until the authorities give out a telephone number for people concerned about missing family and friends to call.

3. Helpful: Listen to all official announcements and warnings. If you are caught up in the events themselves, follow any instructions that come from the emergency services. If you are further away, but think you may be affected, go inside and listen to local radio and television for advice from the authorities. Remember the sequence: Go in, stay in and tune in.

4. Not helpful:  Do not take any notice of rumours or speculation spread by people who are not in a position to know. Never pass on information unless you are sure it is a fact that has come from a reliable source. Spreading uncertainties and wrong information can cause alarm, and may lead people to make poor choices about what to do. This does not help anyone.

5. Helpful: At all times, be alert and support the services responsible for our security. Look out for people behaving suspiciously, and report suspect vehicles, packages or bags - though do not approach them. Keep your own bags with you at all times. Unattended bags can become a security incident.

6. Not helpful: Never, ever joke about having a bomb in your bag. People are sometimes tempted to do this. They perhaps feel nervous and tense at a security checkpoint and think a joke will relax people. It will not. No one accepts jokes about bombs, and people who make them have faced serious criminal charges. They can also create a lot of trouble for other people.

7. Helpful: Learn first aid. You never know when you might be present at an incident where someone needs help. If you can help stop bleeding or help someone who isn't breathing, you could save a life. But even being able to reassure a frightened person by your calm approach can do a lot of good.

8. Not helpful:  Don't travel to see what is happening, even if you think you might be able to help in some way. The emergency services and voluntary groups such as the British Red Cross have carefully worked-out plans. More people in the area adds to their workload. Even trained emergency response personnel do not simply turn up at an area to see if they can help. They wait for instructions from planners about where they can be most useful.

9. Helpful: Act normally, be calm and friendly and look after other people. If others seem worried, help them get things in proportion - though without arguing or getting cross with them. Adults get stressed, sometimes more than children. One useful thing is to let them talk, sometimes it helps to just off-load their worries. Or encourage them to take up a task so that they feel useful and it takes their minds off things. Use your judgement and knowledge of the person to decide what will be best for them.

10. Not helpful: Never go back to an area that you have been evacuated from to get something you have left behind. The security services will be checking the area for other devices and making sure people have not been left behind. They will make an announcement when it is safe and clear to return. If you go back before then, you will put yourself at risk and hamper the efforts of rescue or other workers.

That is the end of the scripts. The following ideas are suggestions for additional activities, or ways to enhance the assembly itself.

Music can also be a way to bring people together, and can be an important addition to any assembly kit performance. Talk to young people about what kind of music might suit the assembly. Do they know of songs whose words they could adapt? Talk about what mood of music would suit how people feel. Would it be solemn and sad? Or strong and resolute?

Picture add-on
Consider using topical pictures from magazines, newspapers or the internet to discuss the issue. If you have the technology, you could scan them in and project them as a backdrop to the assembly. A montage or selection could be an effective beginning or ending to the session.

Young people might create their own posters or montages as a way of articulating and sharing their feelings.

Preparedness add-on
Switch the focus from how to respond to an incident to preparing for one. The government suggests some practical things that households can do to make life easier following an emergency. It points out that in any type of emergency, people could lose access to power, water, telephones, and roads. Therefore, it is a good idea to plan in advance. Have on hand such items as:

• batteries
• a battery-powered torch
• a battery-powered or wind-up radio
• ready-to-eat food, e.g. tinned food
• a few bottles of water
• blankets or duvets

Have the phone numbers of your local police, council, utility companies and family members handy in one place.

Make sure you know where the main switches for electricity, water and gas are located in your home, as you may need to turn them off in an emergency.

This and other useful information is taken from the government's official terrorism site prepared by the home office at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/terrorism/protect/athome/index.html

See also the resilience website at www.ukresilience.info/home.htm

You could follow up an assembly or other session with further activities. After a suitable period, check how much of the advice students can remember. One way of doing this is to look at the events of the day and the immediate aftermath, and ask why did that happen. Keep the timelines printed in newspapers or visit websites such as http://news.bbc.co.uk/

You can then analyse and question why certain things happened. Why were all trains and buses halted? Why did the police advise those with minor injuries to use ordinary healthcare services such as pharmacist, walk-in centres or to ring NHS Direct?

Talk about what it must have been like to be waiting on a tube train until help came. What would young people have done to keep calm and help others?

Discuss with students whether they have heard hostility, threats and acts of violence against Islamic communities. Is it rational or fair to blame entire groups of law-abiding people for the presumed actions of a few individuals? How can this be reduced? What effect does media speculation about "Islamic terrorism" have? What else might help people realise that Muslim people in the UK have the same revulsion and opposition to terror acts as any other section of the community?

The school's regular evacuation procedures will provide a good focus for testing that systems work. Explain that during an emergency is not a good time to think through what to do for the best. It is much better to have well-rehearsed and understood procedures - which is what the emergency services did so well on the day of the London blasts. Use the example to stress how important drills and practice evacuations are.
 
You can also pick up on students' interests. Do they want to learn first aid? How do they feel about their role in an emergency? Would they be able to reassure others, and take steps to prevent further injuries? If they are doubtful, work through some scenarios and practise what they could do. Building people's capacity to cope is one of the best responses to such attacks.

See the website www.redcross.org.uk/firstaid