We have updated our school
emergency evacuation procedures in the event of an earthquake.
Please find our updated
procedures and information for parents outlined below:
Procedures
●
In the event
of an earthquake requiring a ‘drop, cover, hold’ reaction, students will be
evacuated outside when it is assessed as safe to do so.
●
Standard
school evacuation procedures will be followed to ensure all students gather
outside and are all accounted for safely and quickly. Once all students are
accounted for, the whole school will gather and remain (if possible) in our
central evacuation location (on school netball courts).
●
Once we are
sure all students are accounted for, our school office will send out a bulk
text to all families to inform you of the evacuation and that all students are
safe. This process may take some time, especially if groups of students are
off-site, as we will need to confirm the situation of all students before
communicating with families.
●
In the case
of an emergency, parents must not phone the school or staff, because this will
only hold up the process of accounting for all children. See Communication
below.
●
In the bulk
text, parents and caregivers will be asked to pick students up from school,
where possible. Any students not able to be picked up will be kept with
teachers at school until picked up.
●
Parents or
emergency contacts arriving at school to pick up students will be directed by
designated teachers to a parent meeting point (generally by the scooter racks).
One teacher will briefly explain what is happening whilst another teacher
collects your child. Parents must not collect their children themselves, as
each child will need to be signed out by the whanau teacher. Once this is done,
students will then be brought to you.
●
We can only
release children to their parents or designated emergency contacts, even if the
people attempting to pick them up are known to the children. If you need to
change your designated emergency contacts please contact Gail Greenslade in the
office. If, on the day, your child needs to be released to someone else, please
text a message. See Communication below.
●
If the event
has caused disruption (such as the city centre being closed down or major
traffic disruptions), or there are ongoing aftershocks, we will require all
students to be picked up by a parent or designated emergency contact, to ensure
that students will be safe and supervised when they get home. Older students
who live very close to school and normally walk home alone will need to be
picked up from school. If you would still like your child to walk home please
text your child’s hub teachers once you have been informed of an evacuation and
let them know that your child/ren can walk home. If, given the information we
have, we still do not believe it is safe or advisable for your child to walk
home, we will continue to hold your child.
●
Please note:
in terms of the above bullet point, we will be take a “better safe than sorry”
approach. There may be occasions when we require children to stay at school and
it turns out it was not really necessary. We will make the best judgement call
we can based on whatever information we have.
Communication
●
In an
emergency evacuation, parents or caregivers must not ring the school office or
staff, as this can severely congest our school lines and impact our ability to
contact emergency services should it be necessary. It can also compromise the
safety of children by distracting staff who are carrying out essential
emergency procedures. The first priority of staff is to ensure the safety of
all students. In the event that teachers need to be contacted, only text or
email them. All school mobile numbers for hub staff are below but must not be
used for phoning in an emergency. Staff
have been directed not to answer phone calls but to check texts and
emails from parents only when all students are safe and accounted for.
●
Please be
aware that in the event of an earthquake communications can be disrupted. If you
do not hear from us, it may mean that we have been unable to text or email
families. In this event we will keep all students safely at school with
teachers until they can be picked up. We have supplies of food, water and
emergency items to enable us do this.
●
Communicating
with staff: again, only communicate with staff using text or email and only if
it is absolutely necessary to do so. We will not respond to communications
seeking information about a particular child unless there are medical or other
essential reasons to do so. Our focus needs to be on ensuring the safety of all
students and sending out bulk communication to families at the appropriate
time. Keep texts or emails as brief and concise as possible, making it easier
for us to read and digest in an emergency. We will try to acknowledge necessary
texts and emails, but replies will likely be extremely brief, due to time
constraints.
●
If you have
an essential message to communicate, we recommend that you text or email
several or all teachers in your child’s hub, as some teachers may not be able
to access their phones or may not be on site. We strongly recommend that all
parents set up a group text for the teachers in their child’s hub for quick
access in an emergency. At the very least, all school staff mobile numbers
should be entered into your contacts for easy access wherever you are.
●
Be patient:
It may take teachers some time to reply to texts or emails, as the main
priority of teachers will be to attend to the safety and needs of students.
Staff School Phone Numbers
Angela - 021865527
Demelza - 021865519
Mike - 0212337671
Lisa - 021865507
Urs - 021480526
Amaria - 0278997869
Andrea - 021848531
Matt - 0276975353
Fiona - 02102477748
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