The teachers’ union Gibraltar NASUWT have issued a statement in reply to the Government regarding Westside's recent security breach. 

A statement from Gibraltar NASUWT follows below: 

Whilst Gibraltar NASUWT appreciates Government's recognition of our engagement on  safety and security matters relating to our schools and the positive working relationship  that we share, it is unfortunate that the Minister and Government are acting on erroneous  information regarding the incident at Westside School. 

It is clear that the Government has taken some positive steps in response to the incident,  but we believe that certain critical elements of a lack of preparedness are still not fully  understood or acknowledged, as communicated in its latest press release. Gibraltar  NASUWT remains committed to working collaboratively with the Government to ensure the  safety and wellbeing of both staff and students, but it is essential that the correct  information is acknowledged at the outset for meaningful progress to be made. 

Our immediate request for a meeting was prompted by a genuine desire to address  security concerns and share our perspective, based on the facts on the ground. It is  regrettable that the erroneous information provided in the Minister's latest reply and thus  our responsibility to publicly address it, is unnecessarily side-tracking what should have  been a seamless coordinated response. While we appreciate the Minister's swift reply on  27th March, and understand that this is the information that Minister Cortes had been  provided with, it is unfortunate that Minister Cortes has been proceeding under some false  pretenses. 

Emergency response preparedness 

- We can confirm an INSET was indeed delivered in the form of separate departmental  discussions about potential responses to a lockdown situation. The results of these  conversations however were, to our knowledge, not being used to inform a revised  emergency response policy, but rather to initiate the process of creating one. This was  also taking place in February 2024, 5 years after staff and students moved to the current  Westside school site. This is in itself an alarming fact. 

- Protocols and policies had not been presented to staff or uploaded to the Westside  School staff handbook, prior to the incident, as has been suggested. The fact remains that  an emergency response plan has been uploaded onto the revamped staff handbook  after the incident itself. Even if the former were true, whole-school staff have never been  notified of the existence of an emergency response policy via email or direct address.  Which begs the question, if such a robust policy truly existed, why would it not be officially  acknowledged or communicated to staff, precisely to ensure protocols were understood by  all for the benefit of student and staff safety? 

- We would like to correct the inaccurate and misleading statement provided that there  was a Whole School Fire Evacuation drill conducted on 19th March 2025, one week  before the incident at Westside school. On the 18th March (not the following day), as cited  in a direct communication from the headteacher to staff at Westside school, there was an "unscheduled fire evacuation" as the fire alarm was inadvertently set off. This was by no  means a scheduled whole school fire drill. This has been confirmed by Gibraltar NASUWT  in our previous press release and communicated directly to Minister Cortes and the  Department of Education. This can therefore not be used to evidence emergency  response preparedness, as this impromptu event also served to highlight a lack of  preparedness. On this occasion, the fire department attended, but registers were not  updated, coordinators absent and not all year groups were registered accordingly. The  absence of accurate registers being taken, meant there was no way to ensure ALL  students were accounted for, which is a serious safety concern. We have discussed this  matter with the Director of Education during our monthly executive meetings, and she  rightly confirmed that it is a requirement for the school to conduct drills on a termly basis. 

- A year 7 Evacuation fire drill on 5th February was in fact a familiarisation visit and  therefore also not a fire drill and cannot be used to support the concept of a robust  emergency response plan. All other key stages from years 8 through to year 13 would also  need to familiarise themselves with their new evacuation meeting points and this has yet  to happen. The fire drill meeting points change as students progress to different year  groups, and there has also been a turnover of staff and students. This necessitates  updates and school-wide familiarisations. 

- Gibraltar NASUWT does not contest that the school's leadership team has worked  closely with the Department of Education's Strategic Health lead. However, this never  materialised into a transparent communication of practical safeguarding arrangements  being shared with whole school staff at Westside School. Gibraltar NASUWT believes it is  unacceptable that 6 years into the relocation of Gibraltar's secondary schools, no concrete  emergency response plans or protocols have been officially presented, tested or  discussed with our members. 

We look forward to meeting with the Minister next week, where we can discuss these  matters in full, ensure that the accurate facts are on the table, and continue to work  towards solutions that prioritise the safety of all those involved.