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Responding to natural disasters

Natural disasters

Principals Australia (KidsMatter, MindMatters, Dare to Lead, Career Education Lighthouse Schools and Leaders Lead Project Managers and staff) join other education-based organisations around Australia in extending their condolences to those affected in the Victorian bushfires and the Queensland and New South Wales floods. Principals Australia has human and school-based resources and will be working behind the scenes to assist and support where needed.

We encourage school leaders and other personnel to seek more information from the education departments, offices and associations listed below.

Victoria

• The Catholic Education Office has daily updates.

• The Dept of Education and Early Childhood Development has daily updates.
• The Association of Independent Schools, Victoria has established Helping Out, a Victorian bush fire relief coordination service for the Independent schools sector. It can be accessed by Member Schools affected by the bushfires. They are invited to email Helping Out with requests for any equipment, goods and services that they need as a result of the bushfire disaster.

Queensland

• Queensland Catholic Education Commission
• The Department of Education, Training and the Arts
• Independent Schools Queensland

New South Wales

• Association of Independent Schools of NSW
• Catholic Education Commission NSW
• NSW Department of Education and Training

Additional resources

We also recommend the information resources that can be found through the following websites.

• Australian Child & Adolescent Trauma, Loss & Grief Network (ACATLGN) 
• National Association for Loss And Grief (NSW) Inc.
• The Principals Australia website directs school leaders to professional association sites for their states where information has been posted.

Teachers and leadership interested in additional resources on loss and grief can access the websites below.

• KidsMatter has resource sheets on anxiety and fear prepared by the Australian Psychological Society.
• The MindMatters 2000 resource kit booklet, Loss and Grief.

To support schools across a range of issues in the longer term, Principals Australia will be placing more material on the Principals Australia website and the MindMatters website in partnership with the Australian Child & Adolescent Trauma, Loss & Grief Network (ACATLGN).