Skip to main content
Ministry of Education New Zealand

Call emergency services

  1. Call emergency services on 111 when you need Police, fire or ambulance.

  2. Put your school emergency plan into action. The checklist below can help with your response.

    Traumatic incidents checklist for schools
    DownloadPDF775KB
  3. Contact our traumatic incident team. Traumatic incident teams are based in all our regional offices. You can contact them at any time.

    Freephone (NZ only): 0800 TI TEAM (0800 848 326)

What our traumatic incident teams do

After a sudden and disruptive event, our traumatic incident teams work alongside your school's leadership team.

They will help you put processes in place for the safety and wellbeing of students and staff. That includes returning your school or kura to normal operations as much as possible. This is so students can be supported by the people they know and trust in the immediate aftermath of a significant event.

More information

This guide has information about supporting staff and students after a traumatic incident.

Traumatic incidents - school guidelines for wellbeing
DownloadPDF769KB

Responding after the sudden, unexpected death of a student can be distressing and challenging. A lot needs to happen within the first few days to support a safe, respectful response to meet your community's needs.

This is particularly important if the death is a suspected suicide. We have resources to help schools respond to a suspected suicide.

Preventing and responding to suicide
DownloadPDF11MB
Talking with students about suicide
DownloadPDF361KB
YEAR LEVEL
  • Primary (years 0-8)
  • Secondary (years 9+)
SCHOOL TYPE
  • Private
  • State
  • State Integrated
  • Te reo Māori pathways