Captain Dean, local ARP head, called to examine and report on the shelter trenches and the school building. He approved of the trenches and discussed difficulties arrising from the fact that the massesof older children from the mixed school have to cross the path of the infants, thereby providing a very real danger. The actual school building he considers to be extremely dangerous, having only one exit from a bottlenecked room. He especially urged that strapping should be done to the windows immediately - as it is impossible to keep the children away from them. Should an air raid warning become necessary, Capt Dean promised to send the 'yellow'(stand by) signal, in order to give a little more time for evacuation to the trenches. There being no telephone in the school, Miss Pond at Everest was asked to take the message and transmit it to school if electric bells could be installed in each department.
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Children from both departments went to the trenches at a given signal - the time taken being about 3 minutes. Should enemy planes be in the neighbourhood, less than 5 minutes warning could be given, Capt dean stated.
The ARP were the Air Raid Patrol wardens. ARP wardens or air-raid wardens had to patrol the streets during blackout, to ensure that no light was visible to German bombers. Windows were 'strapped' to stop glass from shattering into the room.
Swanage First School's trenches were on the site of Queen's Mead, on the other side of Queen's Road.
