St Joseph's School

Pandemic

At St Joseph's School, the board ensures that the school is a physically and emotionally safe place where risks to health and safety (both physical and mental) are eliminated or minimised (Health and Safety at Work Act 2015; Education and Training Act 2020). This includes having procedures to manage and respond to an infectious disease outbreak (pandemic). This information is part of our emergency management plan and kept with our printed emergency plans and procedures

Planning and preparing for a pandemic

We take steps to protect staff, students, and our school community from infectious diseases and encourage preventative actions (e.g. annual vaccinations) – see Infectious Diseases.

As part of our emergency management planning, we:

• have procedures for managing and responding to a pandemic (see below)
• develop a communication plan for staff, students, and our school community
• consider how teaching and learning will continue if students are required to stay home
• identify appropriate spaces at school that can be used as isolation areas, if needed
• have a supply of personal protective equipment.

We are guided by the Ministry of Education in planning our response to a pandemic. See Pandemic plan (Ministry of Education).

Response to a pandemic

When a pandemic has been advised or declared, we follow any directives from the Ministry of Education and/or the Ministry of Health (e.g. restrictions and safety measures). Our response includes:

• regularly checking updates from the Ministry of Education and/or the Ministry of Health
• implementing safe practices as needed (e.g. using posters, physical distancing, enhanced cleaning, isolating)
• communicating with our school community about required measures (e.g. wearing masks)
• contacting the local Medical Officer of Health for support and advice as needed.

We may need to close the school and learning may continue off site.

Related policies

• Infectious Diseases
• Distance Learning
• Managing Injuries and Illness

Legislation

• Education and Training Act 2020
• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015

Resources

• Ministry of Education | Te Tāhuhu o te Mātauranga:
  • Prepare for an emergency or traumatic incident
  • Respond at school to an emergency or traumatic incident

PPE, quarantine, sickness, covid, influenza, flu

Release history: Term 4 2025

The release history is a record of changes made to a SchoolDocs Core topic as the result of an internal or scheduled review. The date indicates when a change was made. If you have a customised topic, it may not have received the updates described. Release history links are kept for five years, then archived.