Making Contact in an Emergency

Contacting You

In the event of an emergency we will contact you in the first instance via text message. We will send follow up emails with further informaiton.

Contacting Us

If possible, do not phone the school as lines may be needed for emergency communication.

Event Cancellation

Depending on the situation, we may contact you by text message and/or email.

School Closure

School will be closed when we believe there is a risk to student and staff health and safety either within the school or in getting to and from school. This includes an outbreak of a contagious disease or illness.

Where possible, we will notify parents prior to the beginning of the school day. In the first instance notification will be via text message and/or email (depending on how much notice we have).

Closure is generally due to extreme weather or the threat of extreme weather, if the school environment is dangerous to students, or we have no essential services for an extended length of time.

If we close during the school day, when time allows and it is safe to travel, students in Years 11-13 who have a means of transport may be released to return home. Senior students will not be released independently if we believe it is unsafe for them to travel or they will be safer at school.

Students in Years 7-10 are kept at school until collected by you or an adult nominated by you.

Emergency Situation During the School Day

In the case of a civil defence or local emergency at whatever level, your daughter will be kept at school in our care until you can be contacted and can arrange to have her transported home safely. In the first instance you will be notified by text message and then contacted directly by telephone.

Should an emergency or disaster situation arise at school while students are on site, we want you to be aware that our first priority is to keep our school community safe and at school until they can be released safely. We have regular practice drills to ensure everyone is aware of emergency procedures and will respond quickly and effectively.

Release of Your Daughter in an Emergency Situation

Decisions regarding the release of students will be made by the school, dependent on the level of risk to student safety, their year level, proximity to home and their access to safe transport. If there is any foreseeable risk, students will be cared for at school until collected by you or a person identified by you as being able to collect her on your behalf.

In the event of a local or regional civil defence emergency, for example earthquake or flooding, when school is the safest place, all students will be kept at school until collected. Please impress upon your daughter the need for them to follow the directions of any staff in times of an emergency and not to leave the school grounds until officially signed out.

In some situations it may be difficult to communicate and we may not be able to release students to persons other than those you have identified on the school emergency contact information (filled out by parents at the beginning of every school year and updated at your request). Please advise the School Office if both primary contacts (parents, Christchurch guardians) for your daughter are out of town and whom we should contact in your absence in an emergency.

During an extreme emergency, students will be released from a designated collection point. This is the Dining Room at the Boarding House. If the Dining Room is damaged the collection point will be the Gymnasium.

When the incident is over the all-clear will be advised.

Responsibilities of Parents Keeping Us Informed

If you are aware of a situation that relates to the safety of the students or staff at Rangi Ruru please contact the School Office or your child’s Dean. They will then advise appropriate people within the school.

In cases of injury or death of a member of our school community, the school’s first responsibility is to check the accuracy of information. We will then advise relevant members of the school community as appropriate.

For information relating to your child’s physical or mental wellbeing, contact the School Office, your daughter’s Dean or School Psychologist as appropriate. Boarder parents should advise the Boarding House.

Helping Us to Keep Our Community Safe and Well

Cases of illness and contagious or infectious illness occur from time to time in schools. Their importance depends on several factors:

• The severity of the illness

• The number of students and staff affected

• The mode of transmission

• The amount of fear they generate

• Whether any specific action is necessary to stop further cases (eg. immunisation, improving food-handling practices).

Please consider the other members of our school community when deciding whether your daughter should be attending school and do not send your child to school if they have a contagious illness.

For example, students should not return to school until 24 hours after their last bout of sickness or diarrhoea. Where there are three or more cases in the school, this is considered an outbreak and those students affected must not return to school until 48 hours after their last bout of sickness or diarrhoea.

We will notify you by email in the event of an outbreak of a contagious or infection illness that may affect your child.

Pandemic or Contagious Disease

There will always be the threat of pandemic on a local, national or global scale. In the early stages of any threat to student safety we will communicate the risks and school procedures to you. These will range from hygiene and sickness strategies to school closure.

If there is an outbreak of a contagious disease in or around a country or region your daughter of family members have visited, we ask that parents consider the other members of our school community in determining whether their daughters should have a time of isolation from others at school.

If there is a high perceived risk to New Zealanders of a contagious disease we will follow the recommendations of health professionals and government agencies.

Parents travelling or living overseas should ensure they have personal plans for the care of their daughter should there be a need to close the New Zealand border and/or the school.

Mental and Physical Wellbeing

Please ensure that the school is kept up to date with any medical or personal issues or treatments that may affect your daughter’s mental or physical wellbeing. Notify us immediately of any changes to your contact details, emergency contacts and your daughter’s health information, and advise us if you are uncontactable for more than a week during the school term.

In the case of personal injury to your daughter, the school will contact the appropriate people and contact you immediately.

If a student becomes very unwell and parents cannot be contacted, the school will arrange for the student to be seen by the school nurse, or to be taken to the local accident and emergency department. The cost of such a visit is met by the family.

Family Emergency

In the event of a family emergency during the school day, the best way to get in touch with your daughter is to contact the School Office.

Daily Operation

Attendance Procedures

Students are expected to attend all sessions when school is open (including Prize Giving and Church Services) except in the case of illness.

If your daughter is unwell, it is the responsibility of a parent to phone or email the school by 9.00am.

All other absences need to be advised by a parent either via The Hub, phone, or email. The reasons for the absence and the period away from school must be stated. Notification of absence should go to the office and the students tutor.

The school may contact you if a student is absent without explanation. It is therefore important that contact phone numbers are up to date in the school records.

We urge that all non-urgent appointments, for example driving lessons and driver’s license tests are set up for times after school. Dental and medical appointments should also be made outside school times unless it is absolutely unavoidable.

Lateness

Punctuality is actively encouraged. Students who are late for school should have a note from home explaining the reason. Alternatively parents may phone the School Office. Students must sign in at the School Office to collect a late pass.

Frequent latecomers will be given a School Duty and may be put on a punctuality card which has to be signed each day. Students will be required to make up their lost class time. Repeated lateness to Whānau Time or class can result in the accumulated time owing being made up at the end of term.

Special Leave

When a student has a significant reason to be absent from school for a period of more than one day, they will need to apply for Special Leave. Application forms are available from the School Office, the Boarding House, and on The Hub.

Teaching programmes, learning and assessment issues are all factors to be taken into account before the leave can be granted. NCEA assessment is sometimes difficult to accommodate at another time if a student is absent on the designated date. In addition, issues of equity for other students in the same course must be considered.

Reasons for Special Leave usually involve events like a special family occasion in another part of New Zealand or a chance to travel overseas for a short time. A family holiday during term time is not grounds for the granting of compensatory time to complete an assessment. We strongly discourage holidays out of the 15 weeks already available except under very special circumstances. Being out of school can cause extra stress, especially for senior students.

Special Leave must be applied for well in advance of the required date. The application form is completed and signed by you and your daughter and is returned to the Dean and Assistant Principal-Curriculum for approval.

Students Waiting After School

Students are able to wait after school in either the Gibson Centre (until 4.45pm) or the Boarding House foyer, rather than on the street.