Download - John Bangma, Phil Harding, Denise Torrey presentation, CPPA, WRPPA keynote, 29 March 2012
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
• 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