As a school we conduct regular evacuation drills and this weekend there is a community Tsunami siren test...

Our students and teaching team are well versed in drills and understand how to react in adverse situations.  The recent lockdown certainly was one of those.  Our students and staff were fantastic and we adapted on the day to ensure our families were safe and the subsequent support we have had has been overwhelming.  

Unfortunately not all schools had this experience and there is a major review of the lockdown process led by the Ministry of Education.  Below is a message from the Ministry of Education: 

"We are working together with Christchurch Principal Associations, representatives of the Early Childhood Sector and the NZ Police to look at the whole of our system’s emergency response. We will be looking at our existing guidelines, physical logistics any processes that could improve lockdown practices, communications and procedures required for multiple lockdowns.

This is an opportunity to learn from the event to ensure the ongoing safety and wellbeing of children, staff and parents. We encourage anyone that wants to provide feedback including parents, staff and students to talk with their school, kura and early learning services or email feedback.Canterbury@education.govt.nz"

For our community there is a Tsunami siren test this weekend.  In the event that a warning is triggered in school time we will remain on site and wait for parents to uplift their children.  This is on the advice of Civil Defence as we are out of the "splash zone" and there is greater risk to our students being on the busy roads with the increased traffic.  

The sirens were triggered in an evening in 2017 and as they continued for many hours we decided to close our school the following day.  Please talk to your child/children about the siren test, as they certainly are unsettling and ensure you have planned as a family if you are in the possible splash zone.  

As with the lockdown, every scenario is different and communication and support for one another is absolutely paramount.

Have a lovely weekend whanau, one week to go until the holidays. 😜