Emergency Status is Green

There are currently no emergency provisions in place at Dunstan High School Hostel

Mark Templeton
Boarding Manager

EMERGENCY EXERCISE ENDS

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Our emergency exercise - based on a snow emergency trapping students at a hostel without power or phone services - has now ended.

Although it was a "paper exercise" we were able to test our emergency contact systems and discovered one or two areas for improved planning by carrying out the exercise.  We were also able to confirm that our emergency planning procedures are operating effectively across most areas.

Thank you to all the parents who contacted us confirming receipt of text and email messages.  This helped us confirm our database is up-to-date.  A reminder to all parents, that in the event of a major emergency we will contact you by text or email in the first instance.  Our E-blog page on the hostelive site will also carry emergency messages as well as information and advice for parents in the event of an emergency.  That information and advice is also available for download from the hostelive site if you wish to keep a hard copy at home.

Once again thank you for your cooperation and we wish you a happy, emergency-free holiday with your children.

kind regards,

Mark Templeton

Boarding Manager

E:  hostel@dunstan.school.nz

W: www.dunstan.school.nz

      www.hostelive.net.nz

Tel.  03 4487506

Mob.  021 574441

Dunstan High School

99 Russell St, Alexandra, 9320.

New Zealand.

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Sit Rep - exercise only!

Exercise- testing only!!!

Dear Parents and caregivers,

An update by email on our snow emergency.  The situation....

We currently have 54 students and staff at the hostel.  43 boarders, 7 hostel staff, and 4 day students from school who were unable to make it home.

All students and staff are safe and well, and coping with the challenges we face positively and in good spirits.

The hostel is currently open and able to cater for students in our care, although we face difficult conditions.  We advise against collecting students at the hostel due to current road and weather conditions.  Any parents arriving at the hostel must sign in with our on duty supervisor and meet with our liason officer before transporting any students from the hostel.

The key Challenges we face are:

1. lack of heating and cooking facilities due to power outage.

2. poor communication channels with parents.

3. poor roading conditions affecting normal supply chain.

4. risk of injury due to ice and snow combined with stretched medical and emergency services.

We are working on these challenges by:

Using gas for heating and cooking.

Communal sleeping space

Envoking emergency supply agreements with existing suppliers

Keeping students inside and not involved in any high risk physical play etc.....

Attempting to source an emergency generator to power boiler and pumps...

Actions required by parents:

Parents are advised to follow all warnings from Transit and NZ police regarding road use.

Parents are asked to sign in with hostel staff if arriving on the hostel site, and must sign their student out.

Written permission is required for any parents collecting students from another family

We expect to have further updates on road conditions and utility services available in the morning.  Please check our emergency communication channels the morning.

Mark Templeton

Boarding Manager

+64 21 574441

Sent from my mobile

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EXERCISE ONLY! Emergency Message from DHS Hostel

****TESTING EMERGENCY CONTACT SYSTEM - FOR EXERCISE ONLY*****

****TESTING EMERGENCY CONTACT SYSTEM - FOR EXERCISE ONLY*****

****ALL PARENTS, Please reply to this e-mail with the words "got it" in the subject line.****

To:  All hostel Parents and Caregivers,

Central Otago has experienced extremely heavy snowfall over the past 12 hours and power supplies to the hostel and school has been disrupted. A local state of emergency is in place in Otago and Southland.  School is currently closed.  All hostel students are safe and well at the hostel.  However, the hostel is without power - and forecasts indicate the situation may not improve for a number of days.  Transit advise all state highways into Central Otago are now closed.

Services affected by the power outage are:

Main Heating System

Cooking Facilities

Telephone System

The hostel is open has initiated its emergency proceedures.  Staff are currently planning for the welfare of all hostel students for the next three days.  You are advised to monitor our emergency contact channels.  We will post any further information for as long as we can, and when it becomes available.

****Exercise Emergency Message Ends*****

Important message to parents regarding new emergency contact procedures for DHS hostel.

As you will be aware the DHS Hostel is testing it emergency procedures this week.  We will use all available methods to communicate with parents in the event of a major emergency.  We are adding some new features this year which may help some parents.

1.  E-mail and Text Message will remain our primary means of contacting and informing parents in a major emergency.

****ALL PARENTS, Please reply to this e-mail with the words "got it" in the subject line.****

2.  We have added a Emergency Message board to the hostelive website.  This message board will display all emails and text messages sent to parents during an emergency.

3.  We have added a twitter feed to display information from DHS hostel.  It also displays information feeds from NZ Civil Defence, Transit NZ, Metservice and Geonet.

We believe that the two new services provide efficient and effective information system in the event of an emergency.  However, parents wishing to use them should be familiar with how they operate prior to a real emergency and decide if they are appropriate services for them to use in an emergency.  Parents who wish to use the two new features should follow the steps below to become familiar with them. I encourage all parents to have a go at using these services - but stress that it is not essential - as parents will still be sent text and email messages, and telephoned when service levels and time permit.  The Emergency Message Board also contains a wide range of useful information for parents in the event of an emergency.

To Use the E-blog Message Board.  (Highly Recommended)

All parents should already be familiar with the hostelive website.  The E-Blog Emergency Message Board is accessed from the hostelive site.

SO... 

Step 1.  Follow your existing bookmark to hostelive, or type www.hostelive.net.nz into your web browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Chrome etc..).  you can also find it by "googling" hostelive.

Step 2.  "Bookmark" or "Favourite" the hostelive website if you haven't done this already.

Step 3.  You can find the link to the message board form the bottom of the home page, or from the newsletters page.  Click on the link to the E-Blog Emergency Message Board form either of those pages.  The instructions for using the message board, and the twitter feed will also be found on the message board.

If you visit the E-Blog Message Board please leave a comment this message when you foind it there.  That way we will know you have found your way to site and are familiar with how to use it.  Go ahead.  It's easy.

Contact me by telephone or email if you have any difficulty with any of the instructions, or any questions at all about our emergency contact procedure.

****ALL PARENTS, Please reply to this e-mail with the words "got it" in the subject line.****

Kind regards,

Mark Templeton

Boarding Manager

E:  hostel@dunstan.school.nz

W: www.dunstan.school.nz

      www.hostelive.net.nz

Tel.  03 4487506

Mob.  021 574441

Dunstan High School

99 Russell St, Alexandra, 9320.

New Zealand.

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This email has been scanned for viruses by Telecom SchoolZone,
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Follow us on Twitter

If you are a Twitter user you might like to add the Dunstan Hostel feed to the list of tweets you follow.  Our account is @dunstanhostel. 

If you would like to begin using twitter to gather short messages from a range of sources in one place you should visit www.twitter.com and follow the instructions on the site for setting up an account and following other twitter users.

Welcome to E-Blog Message Board

Congratulations!  You have successfully navigated to our new Emergency Message Board "E-Blog".

The blog has a number of features which may be useful in an emergency:

1.  It aggregates all messages sent to parents by text or email during the emergency.
HOW?  You will see the latest 5 email messages posted on this page.  A link to earlier message archives can be found in the links on the right hand side of the page.  SMS/text messages are recorded on the TWITTER feed on the right-hand side of this page.
WHY?  Useful if you are away from your regular computer, or it is not working, but you have the ability to visit this website. It is a useful back up in case of widespread e-mail server failure.  It also provides a quick and easy ready-reference-point for all emergency contact from us.

2.  It provides information and advice for parents on what to do in an emergency.
HOW?   By clicking on the relevant page link above.
WHY?  Ready access to this information in the event of an emergency. 

3.  It provides access to information feeds from emergency services during an emergency.
HOW?  By viewing information feeds from NZ Civil Defence and Transit NZ on the lower right hand side of the message board.
WHY?  Information that may be useful to parents during an emergency is readily available at a central site.

Testing system

Test 5#

Mark Templeton
Boarding Manager
+64 21 574441

Sent from my mobile
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Testing E Notification System

Test # 3

Mark Templeton
Boarding Manager
+64 21 574441

Sent from my mobile
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Emergency Status is Green

There are currently no emergency provisions in place for Dunstan High School Hostel.