My son's secondary school here in Scotland was effectively in a community park sharing the local leisure centre facilities for physical education and close to the shops where kids would go to get lunch if they wanted. No fences, no locked doors, just a receptionist to speak to at the main entrance.

His current school, different bit of Scotland, is in its own ground with a fence, but gates are open during the day. The main reception does have an entrance you need to buzz too speak to the receptionist and they'll send for your child, but I'm sure there are easy enough ways in if you wanted.

These are both pretty rural areas, I'm sure some city schools are more secure, but thankfully we don't really have the same worries as you might in the USA. There have been knife crime incidents in some places in the UK, but they're a rare enough event that they're a big thing in the media when they happen.

Yeah, especially when there was an active police chase in the area of a man known to be armed and dangerous. WTF is going on that the f'n doors weren't locked.

Going to school in Sydney in the '70s and early '80s, the schools were only enclosed by a waist-high fence. It's possible the three schools I attended remain so to this day.

The most disruptive security breaches I recall were when a couple of dogs jumped the fence and started humping on the school oval. The classroom would instantly descend into mayhem with cheering and laughing kids hanging out the windows trying to get the best view, while the teacher would try to quell the chaotic hilarity by sacrificing their credibility trying to convince us all that there was "nothing to see" and that learning long division was way more interesting.

Way better memories than active shooter drills.

Even minimum standards are somewhat challenging to maintain. Short staffed on a particular day can the school still operate the buzzer system? Such a pita. Parents get so pissed when they have to wait. Short staffed seems to be the norm in many workplaces these days. It is epidemic in healthcare. Regular lockdown drills are time consuming and easy to skip, "just this one time". Don't let anyone in an exit door or don't block it open (a common strategy for students heading out for a few minutes) hard to get consistent buy in.

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They constantly try to escape from the darkness outside and within
Dreaming of systems so perfect that no one will need to be good T.S. Eliot

UK and France you need to be buzzed in. No open door policy.

I did a lecture circuit for my local high schools. You're right, there's a huge disparity. Some of the "rougher" urban schools had prison-like metal gates, metal detectors, multiple patrol cars parked in the lot.

Some of the affluent suburban schools were like open Ivy League campuses, sprawling grounds with no central access point at all.

Though we know from U.S. history that college-like campuses certainly aren't immune from school shootings.