Bushfire Response Information

Code Red (Catastrophic) Days

Bendigo South East College (BSE) is committed to ensuring that our school community is as prepared as possible for the bushfire season. The safety of our students and staff is of the greatest importance.

School Closures

Bendigo South East College completed an audit requested by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development to determine if our school is at a high risk of fire danger. The audit assessed the BSE site as being low risk and has not been placed on the Bushfire At-Risk Register. As a result BSE will be open on Code Red (Catastrophic) days. We appreciate some students may be unable to attend school on these days. Where this occurs we require parents to contact the College before 9.00am to let us know of your child’s absence.

Off Site Activities

The safety of students and staff is paramount and off-site activities may be cancelled, postponed or relocated if faced with the threat of bushfire. Off-site activities include any activity undertaken by staff and children away from their normal school facility. This can include camps, field trips, sporting activities and raining or conferences for staff.

School Bus Services

The Department of Education will inform our College of transport arrangements. If our College is classified as an “Affected School” we will inform all parents/students of transport arrangements.

Communication

Where possible authorities will provide us with 3 days notice of a Code Red (catastrophic) day and this will be confirmed no later than midday the day before, after which the warning will not change. The following communication types will be utilised to inform the school community of school and bus service closures.

• School notice
  In circumstances where there is adequate time to notify families prior to an event, students will be issued with a notice to take home outlining arrangements for that day.
• Website
  The school’s website ( http://www.bse.vic.edu.au ) will carry relevant information for families.
• SMS Messaging
  The College will send an SMS Message to inform parents of current information. Please ensure parent contact details are correct and up to date.

Further Information

The DEECD has set up a website with comprehensive information and answers to frequently asked questions which can be found at: http://www.education.vic.gov.au/bushfires. We encourage all parents check the following for up to date warnings:

• CFA website ( http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au )
• Department of Sustainability & Environment’s website ( http://www.dse.vic.gov.au )
• Radio and television news bulletins