HEALTH & SAFETY - EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT WORKSHOP

Health and Safety with in a school is a priority for any principal and their board.  It should be a focal point at every board meeting and point of discussion regularly at staff level and community level.  

At Nga Iwi School we have a health and safety officer, a staff member who acts as an overseer/monitor of H&S practices across the school.  Twice a term, the board H&S committee meet to review systems, policies and procedures.  During these meetings, we reflect on the 'Health and Safety at Work Act 2015' document.  This document is a great guide for boards and a great way to inform best practice in school.  The checklists, questions and recommended actions were helpful in guiding our committee to implementing strong H&S  policies and procedures.  

The recent Ministry of Education 'Emergency Management Workshop' which was facilitated by Harrison Tew was a great workshop for consolidating our current policies and procedures.  Harrison Tew is an Emergency Planning company that supports schools in developing emergency plans for a variety of situations - lockdown, fire, flood, weather event, earthquake and many more.  We have them facilitate at our school biannually to check our systems and procedures, facilitate a lockdown and give us training on our lockdown procedures while in action.  We also do our own lockdowns without facilitation to practice any given lockdown situation at any given time.

The main takeaways I received from this workshop were more big picture understanding.  These notes I have taken back to our H&S team for discussion and action:

1. The board are the PCBU (Persons conducting the business undertaking) and are responsible for the H&S of ALL persons on site at all times.
2. The MoE have an EMOG team (Emergency Management Operations Group who are available to offer support should a lockdown occur at our schools.
3. The police will not take over the management of a school lockdown.  This is the responsibility of the school, the police will support where they can (dependent on the issue/situation causing the lockdown).
4. The MoE have a trauma team to assist with media coverage should media approach the school for comment.

In terms of advice moving forward, there are a host of things H&S committees need to be monitoring and maintaining throughout the year:

1. Communication with whanau (families) - notify and share emergency response plans with whanau and students at least twice a year.
2. Create a 'risk awareness' profile for your school.
3. Check emergencies policies for frequency of drills.
4. Check school media and social media policies.
5. Keep a list of websites that can help keep you informed during, particularly, a weather event i.e Auckland council emergency management page - hazard viewer, google maps, Metservice, etc.

Whakawhanaungatanga - Getting our community involved.

At Nga Iwi School we initiated a new whānau engagement programme to reengage parents with the school following the COVID pandemic. From 2020 our attendance and enrolments dropped and face to face engagement with whānau became nonexistent due to covid restrictions. Once these were lifted our focus was turned on engagement with both students and whānau.

In 2021 we introduced Tāma Toa and Wāhine Toa breakfasts where whānau shared breakfast with their eldest or only child in the school. We started with our mums/grandmas/aunties (wāhine), followed by our fathers/grandads/uncles (tāma toa). The breakfasts were a hit and we have held these events now in term 2 for the last 3 years.

At each event, we share kai (breakfast) with staff sitting with whanau growing relationships, getting to know each other. In terms of relationship-based learning, this adds to positive outcomes for our children. After we have finished eating, we invite the children to head out to the playground to play, opening our whānau to consultation. 

In our first year, we focused on the foundations for our student graduate profile. We received great feedback and excellent data to inform our profile which is now a living document and revisited and updated as our community grows and changes. 

Last year we sought feedback and input into the new strategic direction for our 2023-2025 strategic cycle. This data was invaluable in establishing the plan. The consultation was received with great appreciation from whānau who genuinely felt that they were contributing to our school's direction and were not shy in letting us know that they were pleased to be involved and felt heard. 

That process led us to this year's focus which was reporting back. Our most recent breakfast event has been an opportunity to give whānau the overview of what our school direction will look like for the next 3 years.  We covered vision, goals, initiatives and outcomes.  We invited a few guest speakers in our community to give information to whānau about programmes and initiatives that available to our school and then we finished with further consultation.  This consultation included our PE/Health biannual survey and feedback relating to our strategic plan for 2023.

The implementation of our whānau breakfasts has been a game changer in terms of establishing a stronger community through whakawhanaungatanga.  We constantly refer to our community as whānau and through a Pacific lens it takes a village to raise a child.  I encourage all who participate to get to know those who are at their table, look around because 'these are whanau of children that your tamariki count as their friends'.

One of the pillars of our strategic plan is 'whānau' and the goal is that Whānau will be connected and actively engaged in the learning of their tamariki.  The outcome will be whānau who have an interdependent learning relationship with tamariki and our kura.

Becoming part of a school community takes time, has to be planned and incorporated into the strategic direction of the school.  It's important to have the school board on board, attending school events, promoting them and connecting with whānau/parents across the school.