Emergency and Critical Incident Management Planning

Communication

Communication is essential during emergencies. Schools must have plans in place to communicate within their school and with the school community before, during and after an emergency. Refer to the Emergency and critical incident management planning guide for government schools (PDF) for further guidance on informing the school community about the school EMP. Communication templates are available in the Resources tab of this policy.

Schools need to consider response communication arrangements in their EMP. This includes:

• communication within the ECO
• activation of different response procedures
• communicating with parents/ guardians and school community
• communicating with other site users or co-located services.

Some schools may have communication equipment or alarms which may need to be considered as part of planning the school’s communication arrangements. Refer to the Buildings and Grounds Maintenance and Compliance policy.

Communication actions must be detailed in the school's response procedures. The school’s communication tree diagram needs to depict these communication arrangements.

Communicating the activation of response procedures

Schools are encouraged to use plain language when communicating the activation of response procedures within the school. This ensures that all staff and visitors can understand what actions are required and immediately act to protect the safety of students, other staff and themselves.

Due to their individual context or being co-located with other facilities, some schools may have specific communication requirements.

The following provides guidance if the school is considering alarms or using colour codes:

• If using alarms to signal different emergencies, it is important that all staff can recognise each alarm, understand what it means, and know what actions they are required to take when the alarm is activated.
• If schools choose to use a ‘colour code’ system, schools must use the colours in Australian Standard 3745-2010 to minimise confusion for staff moving between schools.

For detailed guidance on communication activities in the online EMP, refer to the Emergency and critical incident management planning guide for government schools (PDF).