Catastrophe

Christchurch educators are working like heroes to restore student communities. Be prepared, they say – this could happen to you. Jane Blaikie reports

Mary PearsonLike many educators in Christchurch, Mary Pearson is determined to maintain her professional focus despite personal difficulties.
She’s living in her “broken” house, but the whole subdivision is likely to be “returned to the pūkeko. I’ll be heartbroken to leave,” says Mary, a senior teacher at Chisnallwood Intermediate, and local NZEI branch president. “The horror of it all is hard to really put on paper.”
Meantime, her efforts are centred on achieving some kind of normality for her students, who were able to return to class for an hour-and-a-half a day, after four weeks away.
“We had a mufti day, with cookies and milk – we were going to do a sausage sizzle but there was too much silt flying around and the kids could’ve gotten really sick. The students were so pleased to be back – and we were really glad to see their smiling faces.”
The school has taken a hit, with structural damage, but not as bad as the dozen or so schools and centres that may never reopen. Some 8000 students re-enrolled in schools outside of Christchurch after the quake. By late March, only 700 had returned. Many were still in the Canterbury region, but 885 ended up in Auckland and 415 in Wellington.
One of the few upsides of the first earthquake, and the thousands of subsequent aftershocks, has been that schools and centres were well prepared.
“It was an amazing feat to get 900 students and staff out safely with no injuries. We have a tremendous staff and everyone was just amazing,“ says Mary. Some staff stayed overnight after the quake with students whose parents could not collect them. One teacher spent a cold, cramped night in his car, keeping it running so the school could have lights.

Advice to educators
“It is vital for every school in New Zealand to have a practiced evacuation plan, and to have students aware of the necessary procedures.” She also advises educators to keep their petrol tanks topped up and cash in the wallet, “because EFTPOS goes down too”.
The earlier earthquake meant educators had been upskilled on dealing with trauma. “The important factor to remember is that students will react in different ways and probably when we least expect it. As teachers, we must remember that we need to be superb actors, even when we feel our world is coming apart.”
Routines provide security and reassurance for all members of school communities, as students look to educators for safety and support.
In turn, educators say they are being well supported by the Ministry of Education. According to NZEI’s Lance Win in Christchurch, “What we hear is that the ministry is going out of its way to help people. If people are not ready to go back to the class, and they need a reliever, they’ll provide it. If someone can teach for 4 hours, but not 5, they’ll get a reliever for the last hour.” The government has made an extra $20 million available to education in Christchurch.

Support staff
Part of this will go to ensuring support staff keep their jobs, something NZEI has fought for. “Schools need their support staff at the moment,” says Nicki Ball from Aranaui High School. “Young people are going through a lot of stuff, and it often comes out in the classroom. If the teacher is not getting support then they’re not getting kids on track with learning.”
Students at Aranui High, in the eastern suburbs, have been badly affected. “A lot of the media focus has been on the business district, and I don’t think people around the country are aware of what’s happening for people here.”
Nicki’s own house was “munted”. She estimates it’s taken 280 hours of work to get it back to liveable, starting with digging out the liquefaction. It may be six months before she gets an indoor toilet – that’s if the land is deemed to be “useable”.
Many students at Aranui, a decile one school, cannot afford to replace books, shoes and uniforms lost or damaged in the earthquake, and Nicki says the school is grateful for funds and goods received from around the country. “We’ve set up a welfare committee. “For some kids, even food is a problem. We’ve got the breakfast club back up and running twice a week, so they get a good hearty meal twice a week, and some days we make lunch too. People give us food.”

Early childhood
The Canterbury Westland Kindergarten Association has high praise for early childhood educators. “Staff have been absolutely amazing,” says Karyn Willets. “They coped so well on the day – parents told us they went to pick up their children, and they’re under the tables singing. It was parents who caused the most challenges on the day, panicking!
“Currently, we’re using displaced staff to fill in gaps. Staff are prepared to work where needed, no issues, which is amazing considering what they’re going through.”
Kindergarten teacher George Pearce says that being trained and being a professional was vital on the day. “Our focus was completely on the children. Even though we had our own families in our minds, we still put the care of the children who were here and their parents first. We got the children under the tables, drawing on paper, playing with train sets or small toys. Keeping them happy. It was all about making sure the people in our care were safe, the professional etiquette.”
George says NZEI must continue with its campaign for 100 percent qualified teachers, making any allowances for timing differences because of budgetary pressures. The situations that Christchurch educators are dealing with, in terms of reviewing practice, dealing with family trauma, and being reflective teachers only point out the need for qualified teachers more than ever. Funding cuts, too, are adding to the problems that centres are now facing, he says.

Resources for educators
Shelley Dean from the Ministry of Education’s Traumatic Incident Service and Welfare Response team says the effects of the quake are far reaching.
The team has been flat out for months, following the first earthquake and the Pike River tragedy. “We have never had any two, let alone three, disasters in New Zealand so close together of such impact.”
That said, Shelley says the amount of damage and loss of life caused by the second earthquake meant the team’s response has initially been one of welfare and immediate need, working alongside Red Cross, the Salvation Army and other agencies to provide information and support. A key message has been: Ko te oranga o te pakeke, te oranga o te tamaiti - when the adult is embraced with wellness, so too will be the child.
The service has 16 traumatic teams across the country, often educational psychologists available on standby, but in this case a lack of accommodation and safety issues, has seen mostly only local team members working on the ground.
The service offers an 0800 number (0800 848326), planning workshops, checklists and guidelines at http://tiny.cc/2h08u.
It has had good support from Australia, with staff hearing from colleagues in Australia who responded to the Victorian bush fires and the Queensland floods. An Australian website (http://tiny.cc/p4aux) offers important messages about wellbeing and learning environments .
And the makers of Sesame Street in the US have just produced some sound bites with Elmo for parents about fears children may have and the importance of listening and comforting. This will be played on C4.
But nothing beats being as prepared as you can, says Mary Pearson at Chisnallwood Intermediate. “Don’t shelve your emergency kit with your class lists, as shelves can come down and bury the kit. Hang it by the door and collect it on the way out.” Mary says the Japanese earthquake has “brought it all back for us, and our hearts are breaking for those poor Japanese people. I have a dear Japanese friend who I cannot locate.”


Schools and centres all around New Zealand have been holding fundraising events for Christchurch. Holy Family School (pictured above) in Porirua decided to help St Paul’s School Dallington, which had moved in with Cathedral College after the first earthquake. The second quake saw it homeless after the college was damaged. The decile 1 school held a mufti day and raised $380, which they sent with a card and this photo of the school’s 200 students and staff sitting in the shape of a cross.


Key points
Be prepared for an emergency at your school.
Have a plan to restore familiar routines and support communities after a crisis.
School communities will take years to recover from the Christchurch earthquakes.