Principal's Newsletter - Fire Alarm

Dear Parents and Caregivers, Fire Alarm activation Thursday 14 June

Yesterday at 2.45pm we had a fire alarm activation that originated from the hall. It was most unfortunate that this activation occurred simultaneously with the end of school bell. It was a most unusual situation. Of course and as normal, we had many parents/caregivers in the school at that time to collect their children after school.

Our teachers immediately went into our fire alarm response procedures and took their classes out onto the field to check children as per our plan. Once we engage in this procedure, we cannot release children until the ‘ALL CLEAR’ is given by the Fire Safety Officers. This is to protect the safety of children (and anyone else in the vicinity). We must be sure we are not releasing them into an unsafe situation.

Thanks to the great majority of parents/caregivers who understood the situation and cooperated fully with the staff. Staff did as they were trained to do under our emergency procedures. There were some parent/caregivers however who put pressure on staff to release their child(ren) early, that is, before the ALL CLEAR was given by the Fire Safety Officers. This became a difficult situation to manage for staff. I ask for your cooperation in this as we are only acting in what we believe is in the best interests of children. I appreciate that due to the critical time this occurred, it may have caused difficulties for parents/caregivers on limited time frames. However, I cannot stress more strongly that this was an emergency.

The fire alarm activation in the hall (back wall) can only have been caused by someone breaking the glass and pressing the alarm button. As far as I can ascertain, there were some pre-schoolers in the hall at this time. It appears they may have been unsupervised. It is highly likely a child activated the alarm. If any parent/caregiver waiting by the hall before the activation/end of school bell witnessed anything, I would be most appreciative if they let me know. I remind everyone that pre-school children must be supervised at all times in the school grounds when they are with parents/caregivers. This fire alarm activation may well come at a great cost to the school as a ‘false alarm’ fine of $1000.

Steve Ostermann Principal