Emergency and Critical Incident Management Planning

Conducting drills

All schools must conduct termly emergency drills. Bushfire At-Risk Register (BARR) schools must conduct evacuation drills (to shelter-in-place or off-site location) at least once per term during the October to April bushfire season. Drills provide an opportunity to test emergency response procedures and identify any gaps or issues in arrangements so they can be addresses before an emergency occurs.

Drills ensure that:

• staff and students are familiar with emergency response procedures, including how to perform their role
• emergency response procedures, evacuation locations and pathways are practical and workable
• problems that may arise are identified and schools can take steps to mitigate them including staff training.

Schools are strongly encouraged to consider the following when planning an emergency response drill:

• Match the school’s risk profile: Plan drills based on the types of hazards or threats at the school and the risks identified.
• Use a scenario: Create a simple situation to make the drill more realistic, such as a building fire for an evacuation drill.
• Use observers: Have people watch each drill and give feedback. This could include local emergency services, staff, parents, or visitors. If a staff member is observing, make sure someone else covers their role during the drill.
• Work with nearby facilities: If the school shares a site or is next to another facility, run drills together where possible. This helps make sure all plans work well together.

Schools may also consider desktop exercises. Desktop exercises do not replace physical drills however discussion-based activities can be used to consider situations that are hard to run as real drills. For example:

• how to manage an evacuation during bad weather like storms or extreme heat
• what to do if staff and students must stay at an off-site evacuation point for several hours without toilets, water, or shelter
• how to support students with complex needs who may not be able to take part in off-site drills.

The Chief Warden must conduct a debrief following every drill. This debrief should be conducted as soon as possible following the drill to identify any issues. The debrief report (drill observers and debrief template (DOCX) (staff login required)) should be provided to the Emergency Planning Committee to ensure that EMP is updated to address any identified issues.

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