Schools and the Canterbury

Earthquakes

4 September 2010 – Present

10,215 quakes, and still

counting…

June 13th 2011 5.6 shake

Preparation and Practice• Practicing earthquake drills and evacuation

• Turtle

• Under the desk, arse to glass

• Triangle of Life debate

• Under the desk – not always possible

Confusions after Feb 2011• Huge difference between a drill and a real

earthquake

• Seated in lines or in groups for support

• When to send children home and when to stay

• Stay outside or go back inside?

• Stresses on children and staff

What we weren’t prepared for:

• The time taken for some parents to get to school

• Some parents may NEVER come to pick up their

children

• Loss of power – school info stored electronically e.g.

attendance registers

• Meticulous signing out of children from the site

• Staff too stressed to help – need support

What we weren’t prepared for:

• Evacuation Plans actually aren’t followed

• Insurance

• Family departures – immediate and ongoing

• Roll changes

• Ongoing psychological effects on children, staff

and communities

What we weren’t prepared for:

• Pike River tragedy – CPPA involved

• Earthquakes are ongoing – 18 months of earthquakes

What has changed for us!

Decisions after each shake

Decisions dependent on weather

Flight path to Re-opening

What has NOT changed…

• Practicing evacuation & earthquake drill

Earthquake kits

• water supplies

• tarpaulins

• first–aid resources

• phone – internet accessible

• solar powered radio

• hand sanitiser

• biscuits

• communication – twitter, text (SMS), email

• on-line resources – web site

What has changed for us!

Staff and student wellbeing:

•modifying professional development

•appraisal

•additional release

•secret staff week

•ERO backing off

Communications

• When disaster strikes it’s too late to

start thinking about improving or

setting up your communications

channels

• What are all the options?

Multiple Channels

• Texting

• Websites

• Phones

• Email tree

• Whiteboards

Multiple Channels

• Facebook

• Twitter

• Text Streams

• Semaphore?

• Smoke signals??

Texting

• Texting was the best form of comms

immediately after the earthquakes

• It was unreliable, but it continued to work

• It allowed staff to reassure themselves

about family and friends – and they were

then happy to stay supporting kids!

Information

• Information is currency

• Some schools were closed for weeks

• Explain the delays and the issues

• There were consequences for those

who didn’t!

Channels

• Align all messages across your

selected communications

• Use multiple channels

How do you do this?

Websites

• Can you access and update your site

from anywhere?

• Is it hosted in another city? Country?

Phones

• The school’s phone answer system or

“bulletin” were useful tools

• Update your voice message daily

• Copper landlines still worked

School Email

• Have you a school email list set up?

• Emailing bulletins EACH DAY was

satisfying – working out that progress

was being made, and clarifying next

steps

CPPA Email

• The CPPA’s listserver was used daily

• Got messages out that the Ministry

could not deliver

• Simplified messages and requests

• Advice was offered as well

Text Streams

• Clever

• Need phone numbers collected in

advance

• Expensive

• Used for principal to principal comms

• and parents

Facebook and Twitter

• By linking Facebook to Twitter you can

invite people to “follow” the school’s

Twitter feed, and get Facebook updates

onto any cellphone

• They pay for the messages!

• Text to 8987

• And Facebook is hosted elsewhere!

Whiteboard

School is jiggeredSee you in three years…

• Worst case scenario – put up a

noticeboard in a window…

Summary

• Huge positive feedback for those

who kept parents informed

• Huge negative feedback to those

schools which didn’t!

• Visible sign of leadership

Care of staff, students and Community

• Before returning to school

- Texting system - SMS, schoollinks MoE funded

- Use of website, phone

- Community events - games afternoons, cleanups

- builds connectedness and resiliency

Pastoral Care

• Save the Children to speak to staff and parents

• Coffee mornings for parents - give a forum for

concerns, support, bring in professionals to speak

• Info in newsletters and website giving ideas,

support and information

• Communities groups - salvation army - still

working in some schools, reaching out into the

community

Care of staff, students, and community

• Pastoral register on staff ,children and parents

• Surveys

• Programmes to support

• Other resources eg social workers in

schools

Pastoral Care

• Giving staff breaks/ timeout

• Staff surveys

• Coffee carts

• Think of ways to keep them topped up

Working with the Ministry• MoE were affected too

• Earthquake gang started working with the MoE within days of the 4 September earthquake

• Used our networks to communicate as it was less sanitised

• Challenging working with those situated in Wellington, giving us advice

…the Earthquake Gang• Developed a highly co-operative relationship that still exists

but shifts as political pressure put on them

• It’s been difficult working in the political environment and protecting Canterbury schools from the juggernaut which is the political will of the day eg charters, SAF’s

Supporting other schools

• MoE funded 1 FTTE principal to support

colleagues and school. It is a CPPA/ MOE role

• Role to advocate,access support for schools

• Working closely with the union

• Direct access to MoE staff

• Part of the Wellbeing strategy team

Engagement Strategy

Lessons from disaster research

• Post traumatic stress syndrome

• Three core elements are effective in giving

people the ability to cope

- mental resilience/ flexibility

- Shared experience/community/ mentors

- Ability to find meaning/ hope and purpose

Wellbeing

• www.wellbeing.tki.org

• Joint project of several agencies,

sector groups and disaster

researchers

Wellbeing

• www.wellbeing.tki.org

Wellbeing

• www.wellbeing.tki.org

Issues

• Many and varied and have changed over time

depending on what phase we are currently in

Issues

• Welfare issues

• 4500 students left Christchurch

• School closures

• Falling rolls

• Staffing issues

Long term

• Population depletion

• Population movement out of red zone

• School closures

…and right NOW

• Exhaustion

• Behaviour

• Anxiety

• Staff concerns

A new strategy is needed

Schools supporting Communities

• School has become the hub of many

communities, especially on the east

side

• A lot of resources were given to

schools who help distribute them to

the community

Implications for You• Do you have good communications systems

at your school?

• Does your association have comms channels

that they could use with members?

• Look after your people

• Review and strengthen risk management

procedures

• Establish emergency kits