Taking control

How should a school effectively manage a crisis? Robert Bell reports

All schools, from time to time, will have an emergency. This could range from a small incident affecting only the school itself, for example a minor gas leak or the death of a pupil, which could become a major media event that grabs national and international headlines.

Even though the scale, duration and impact of an emergency can be different, a school emergency can still be defined as an unexpected event which is distressing to the school community and is on a scale that is beyond the normal coping capacity of the school. Preparation and training will help the school to be better prepared to manage events as and when they happen.

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Safety first

All schools take risk and emergency management seriously but many find ensuring school safety a daunting challenge. Dr John Twigg provides a conceptual framework to help your school prepare for unforeseen eventualities

Schools need to acquire a range of technical skills. They are faced with a multiplicity of guidelines and official regulations, and as society becomes more risk-averse they are under pressure to minimise risks to their pupils and staff. It is easy for school leaders to feel overwhelmed by all of this.

With risk and emergency management becoming more complex, it is essential to keep a keen overview of school safety and adopt a coherent approach that links different areas of activity. A helpful starting point is to use a simple conceptual framework to look at school safety in the round (see diagram for an example).

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