Brindleshaw Academy held its autumn fire drill twice on Wednesday after the first attempt produced no usable footage. The second drill was convened at lunchtime, once enough pupils had charged their phones.

The first evacuation, at half past nine, emptied the building in good order and without incident. It was later declared void after teachers on the playground observed that everyone had spent it shepherding classmates towards the exits and no one had held a camera still.

"Frankly it was a waste of a fire drill," said head teacher Mrs Deborah Fell-Rowntree. "An alarm, a siren, children running with their coats half on — and not a single vertical video between us. We can't have the school's defining moments going undocumented."

The second drill was announced over the tannoy as "an unstructured content opportunity". Pupils were asked to assemble at the usual points, but facing the light.

The smoke question

The local fire brigade attended both drills, at the school's invitation, and stood by while the second one was assessed. Crew manager Mr Alan Pretsch was asked whether the service could provide smoke that photographed better.

"We can put a machine in a stairwell that makes a corridor look quite dramatic," he said. "What we can't do is make it a real fire, which is the only thing that would improve on the machine."

Mrs Fell-Rowntree said the school had specifically requested smoke that reads on a small screen, as the first drill's atmosphere had been "frankly thin". The brigade has agreed to send more of it on the next occasion.

The drill's footage will be assessed by a panel of fourth-formers who meet on Thursdays to decide which clips represent the school. The panel's chair, a pupil who asked to be identified by his channel name, said the corridor material was "strong" but the assembly point was "a dead zone".

Parents and the school board

The parents' association has raised no objection to the second drill, having spent the first one filming the empty car park.

The school board met on Wednesday evening and minuted a proposal that future evacuations be scheduled around golden hour. The proposal was carried after a short discussion about whether January's drill could be moved indoors.

Mrs Fell-Rowntree confirmed that a third drill remains possible if the footage from the second is judged insufficient, and that the school has budgeted the alarm's batteries accordingly.

The brigade's Mr Pretsch declined to say whether his crew would attend again. He confirmed the smoke machine was theirs and that they would be wanting it back.