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After an Emergency

At Paparoa Street School, the poari matua ensures that the kura is a physically and emotionally safe place where risks to health and safety (both physical and mental) are eliminated or minimised (Health and Safety at Work Act 2015; Education and Training Act 2020). This includes having procedures to follow after an emergency to keep our kura community safe, resume normal operations, and provide appropriate and culturally responsive support.

Communication

We communicate with our kura community and external groups (e.g. police, Oranga Tamariki, Ministry of Education) as needed.

• Our communication after an emergency aims to inform and reassure our kura community, and minimise any speculation or misinformation.
• We debrief kaimahi as appropriate and determine what information can be released to ākonga and their parents/caregivers (this may be done in consultation with emergency services, the Ministry of Education, an affected whānau, a lawyer, and/or others). We consider the nature of the event, privacy and confidentiality, the wishes of those involved, and cultural factors.
• If there is media interest after an event, we follow our media policy – see Media and Publicity.

Support

We monitor the wellbeing of ākonga and kaimahi in the aftermath of an event, and provide culturally responsive support (and links to support networks) as needed.

• We provide appropriate support to those affected by the event. See Supporting Ākonga Wellbeing and Kaimahi Wellbeing.
• We may activate our response to traumatic incidents, including contacting the Ministry of Education regional office for support (e.g. Traumatic Incident team). See Managing Traumatic Incidents.
• We work with relevant health care services and community groups, as appropriate, and provide opportunities for the kura community to come together (e.g. assembly).

Property

We follow the Ministry of Education's guidance for checking kura property after an event to ensure it is safe – see Checking your property after a major incident (Ministry of Education).

This may involve:

• visually checking buildings and grounds and isolating unsafe buildings and grounds
• contacting external utilities providers to assure safety of water, electricity, gas, etc.
• organising urgent and non-urgent repairs and engaging an engineer (if needed)
• making an insurance claim (if needed).

If kura property has been affected by an emergency or disaster, we contact our local emergency response coordinator (ERC), who will work with the kura and the Ministry to coordinate the response effort with the relevant emergency services, get the kura site safe, and get the kura operating again.

If we need to make an insurance claim, we contact our Ministry property advisor for advice before making any repairs, and are guided by Ministry requirements. See School building insurance funding programme (Ministry of Education).

Recording, reporting, and reviewing

We document and report any emergency event in accordance with regulatory requirements and our own processes. This may include reporting to the police and WorkSafe about any notifiable injury or illness, notifiable incident, or death. See Recording and Reporting Injuries and Illness.

We debrief and evaluate our response and consider ways to strengthen and improve our processes. This may involve:

• seeking feedback from our community
• restocking emergency supplies
• scheduling emergency drills.

Related policies

• Media and Publicity
• Property Management
• Emergency Closure

Resources

• Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga:
  • Respond at school to an emergency or traumatic incident
  • Checking your property after a major incident
  • Emergency response coordinator contacts
  • School building insurance funding programme

Release history: Term 4 2025, Term 2 2022

Topic Number: 44427	Last Modified Date: 22/01/2026 16:32:31
Topic Version: 1	Published Date: 30/01/2026