Emergency preparedness: Keeping calm and carrying on

When Education Gazette was halfway through a phone interview with Jenny Washington, principal, and Lara Hyland, associate principal, at Te Ara Maurea Roydvale School, a fire alarm went off. Unfazed, they said “We’ve got to go” and on the last afternoon of term 2, the 300-pupil school was evacuated.

They’re well practised at ‘keeping calm and carrying on’. Te Ara Maurea Roydvale School went into lockdown during the Mosque shootings in 2019.

On May 6 this year, an armed man reported in the suburb of Burnside sparked a large armed police response. Jenny and deputy principal Emily Keenan were off site visiting senior students at school camp on Banks Peninsula.

Lara Hyland took the call from the Police just after midday. They informed her that the school was to ‘Shelter in place’ due to the close proximity of the gunman. Fortunately, Lara and Jenny had attended a combined Ministry of Education and New Zealand Police workshop about updated emergency preparedness guidelines at the end of March.

Shelter in place

‘Shelter in place’ means children and staff must stay inside, doors are locked and curtains are pulled down, but the normal school programme can continue.

“I wasn’t quite prepared for it, but luckily I had been on that course, so it was quite fresh in my mind. I knew exactly what ‘Shelter in place’ meant – that it wasn’t lockdown. But I guess it was frightening to know that it was a firearm incident,” says Lara.

“It was a bit of a panic when we first got the call, but we made some really big decisions in those first couple of minutes. We got our caretaker over to support us – we like having him close to us. We locked down the office. We had a teacher on release who could go through the internal classes and get them locked down.

“We probably couldn’t have got through it if we didn’t have Jenny and Emily on the phone. I was in the office on March 15, 2019 (Mosque shootings), so I did know what to do, but you’re thinking 45 minutes ahead each time and it’s good to discuss this with someone else, even though I was confident in my decisions. I was definitely very well supported,” says Lara.

Lockdowns practised

The school practises lockdowns and reverse lockdowns each year and children know what to do if they are outside and what happens once they are inside.

The Police provided a direct dial phone number to Lara, and with Jenny and Emily providing support and advice on the phone, Lara and the team at school swung into action to ensure children and staff stayed calm and were kept safe.

Processes and planning

The collaboration between the Ministry and the Police was quite significant, says Jenny.

“The reason we felt it could be well managed was because we were well informed. We went to the emergency preparedness session to ensure our emergency plans were updated and prepared and ready in the case of an emergency.”

Jenny Washington says good communication with staff and whānau is key to planning for emergencies.

Jenny says it’s essential to have very good systems and processes in place in a school, and also to know your people and how they react in different situations. Regular practising for various scenarios is also very important, she says.

“When you’re in an emergency situation, it makes you realise how important it is to talk through what you’re going to do and what your possible options are beforehand.

“We’re very careful about communications and providing enough information for families to feel that their children are safe and that it’s under control and that we are connecting with the Police. We’ve learned that along the way – you don’t want to have a whole lot of information, but it needs to be factual, succinct and we always put ourselves in other people’s positions, thinking ‘what would I want to know?’” says Jenny.

Multiple things to do

“What people don’t realise is that there are multiple things you have to attend to when you’re leading a ‘Shelter in place’ or lockdown,” says Jenny.

Children were not told what was happening, although they were aware that something was different. Teachers were kept up to date via emails or phone calls. Lara announced over the tannoy system that there was going to be a picnic and lunch inside. As the afternoon unfolded, teachers were advised to play games, get the dress-ups out, and use screens.

“They generally carried on as normal. We did start getting ready to open our emergency boxes in case people were getting hungry because we weren’t sure when it was going to end,” says Lara.

Planning for 3pm

By 2.30pm, it looked like the usual three o’clock pick-up was unlikely. The school team worked out what the eventual pick-up would look like to ensure children and parents stayed calm.

“Close to 3pm, Lara had to get ready for thinking the children would be staying in after 3pm and we didn’t want multiple parents coming on site,” says Jenny.

With the ‘Shelter in place’ lifted at around 3.30pm, Lara and Jenny’s PA waited for Jenny and Emily to return and had a debrief about what had happened. Lara also appreciated a visit from the community constable the next day, who reassured her that what had been done was okay.

“It was pretty exhausting. You thought about it all the time and I still think about it and that it could happen any day, or any time,” she says.

There was a full debrief with all of the staff as well.

“The debrief is really crucial,” adds Jenny. “It’s about multiple things – making any changes that you need to in your plan. Everyone’s got a story and the debriefing is really vital because it brings you together and helps you process it.”

Severe flooding saw communities isolated and the Ashburton-Timaru region put into a state of emergency in May. Photo credit: George Heard.

Ashburton floods

Planning, practice and communication are essential to riding out emergencies says Peter Livingstone, principal of Tinwald School, just south of Ashburton.

And he should know – he has managed his school through the Christchurch earthquake, a lockdown during a fatal shooting at WINZ in Ashburton in 2014, and a lockdown during the Mosque shooting in 2019 – with a mosque two blocks from Tinwald School potentially in the shooter’s sights after Christchurch.

“One of my main messages to principals is, do not ever sit there thinking ‘this won’t happen in our situation’,” he says.

On Sunday 30 May this year, a ‘one-in-100-year’ flood saw roads washed out, farms flooded with water, silt and debris and the SH1 bridge between Ashburton and Tinwald slump, so that it eventually had to be closed to traffic. The region was put into a state of emergency.

Impact unfolds

“From the Sunday, the school was a base for St Johns – we’re also a Civil Defence outpost. They were there in case the bridge closed, because it’s quite a way inland to get into town without the bridge. Emergency staff were based on both sides of the river; some of the St John vehicles came from as far as Wanaka.

“Because of the declared state of emergency for the town, a decision was made not to have the schools open on the Monday. On the Tuesday, the principals that could, met in town as the extent of the flooding became apparent,” he says.

Most of Ashburton’s town schools were in a projected flood zone, but by Tuesday, Peter was planning to be the only school in the area to open the next day and communicated accordingly with parents.

“Wednesday morning at 6.45 am – we have a text alert system with our District Council – and I got a notice that the bridge was closed. It had slumped between the Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. I sent out a text saying the bridge is closed, so school is closed.

“About 90 per cent of my students are on the south side of the river and could have got to school, but 80 per cent of my staff, including me, couldn’t get there. I didn’t have a senior management person or a first aider there, or enough staffing ratio to manage what easily could have been a very fast-changing situation.”

Making decisions

Ministry of Education advisors in Christchurch provided Peter with excellent support and the principals worked together to come up with strategies, he says.

Planning, practice and communication are essential to riding out emergencies, says Peter Livingstone.

“As schools with Boards of Trustees, we’re self-governing and an entity into ourselves and the decision whether or not to operate a school, comes down to your Board of Trustees and your principal.

“Over time, I’ve made up my own mind that I have thought through the processes and the reasons why decisions have been made. I wouldn’t wait for another agency- I would ensure that my thinking is in place and ready for the types of scenarios that can happen.”

A good decision-making flow chart would be a helpful addition to the emergency-preparedness guidelines, he suggests.

“Having a decision-making process mapped out keeps it consistent and an outsider can see what our decision-making process is. We have talked with the Ministry about the development of something like that which can be used for any situation and would enhance the guidelines,” says Peter. 

Weather watch 

Having worked in schools around New Zealand, Peter says that no matter where you are located, weather – snow, wind, rain, hail – can become issues schools have to deal with.  

“As a principal, you're placed in a position where you have to make a decision that can impact hundreds of people. For example, I’ve already mapped out snow closure. I communicate our plan to our parents beforehand, so that if it looks like we’ve got a snow prediction, they know the reasons why I would make a decision to operate a school, or not.  

“We practice the drills for lockdown, fire, earthquake. I’ve got levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 planning in place for Covid. The key thing to keep in mind is: can I operate this school safely?” 

Communication essential 

Parents can put a lot of pressure on schools in emergencies and Peter has found it’s important to clearly explain the reasons behind his decision-making. 

“In your thinking you have little scenarios: ‘If this scenario is in place, then this is our planning’. I send a text/email which outlines our decision-making. 

“What’s critical is identifying who you need to talk with and who you need to communicate your decisions to. We use a paid text-out system and it works. It’s critical to ensure that your contacts list is consistently updated. With the text-out system, I get a report that says who a message was delivered to and if it wasn’t delivered to a particular phone number, then I’ll try another way to get to them,” explains Peter. 

Tried and true strategies 

• Make sure you have very good relationships and connections and know who your key people are: staff, parents, Ministry advisor, Board of Trustees and fellow principals.  
• Run regular drills for a range of on-site situations so children and staff are prepared and clear decisions can be communicated to whānau. 
• Practice prior planning for decision-making. Go through decisions in your head, bounce them off people and have them for a range of things. Be ‘absolutely rock solid’ about why you’re having your school open or closed.  
• Having a range of scenario decisions ready to go is helpful. Tinwald School has developed those decisions over time. 
• During the floods, Tinwald School activated its Covid learning plans because they didn’t know how long the school would be closed for.  
•  Debrief and do a SWOT analysis at the end with staff and Board of Trustees. 

Visit education.govt.nz(external link) for check lists, planning templates and information about preparing for emergencies and traumatic incidents.