Teach Secondary Issue 14.8

Weathering THE STORM Jody Cooksley offers her advice on the steps school leaders should take when preparing and planning their response in the event of an unforeseen crisis... I t’s impossible to know the nature of the next crisis that might hit your school, but certain types of incidents are certainly on the rise. The digital landscape has become increasingly harmful. Weather events have grown alarmingly severe. It’s likely not a question of if a crisis will occur at some point, but rather when . Schools now also face additional media scrutiny with regards to cases of misconduct, with the 24/7 news cycle meaning that journalists can be unforgiving at times of pressure, and quick to pounce on stressed, unprepared spokespeople working for stretched in-house teams. I’m aware of one recent crisis at a school that attracted more than 200 phone calls over a single weekend. It’s unmanageable. Added to that is the rapid amplification of social media misinformation. Anyone can now get involved in any story, and instantly share false information about it that gets picked up by platforms’ algorithms and disseminated virally at terrifying speed. What’s the plan? Every school will regularly review its safety practices and hold frequent fire and evacuation drills – and yet, emergency manuals will rarely cover how teams should communicate with internal and external audiences while a crisis is unfolding. And that’s a mistake. Effective communications at difficult times can strengthen your school’s reputation, regardless of what’s happened. Conversely, badly managed communications can cause years of reputational damage, even if the original incident was due to factors entirely outside of your control. The good news is that the steps to prepare well are straightforward, and can be applied to every school, regardless of how big your internal team is, or the extent of your in-house expertise. Follow the steps below internally, or with the help of experts, and you can ensure that your school can weather the worst of publicity storms. 1.Audit your profile Every school is unique, with its own different characteristics – so audit yours to find out what scenarios are most likely to occur and adjust your policies to match. How close are you to the nearest town? How old are your buildings? Do any public footpaths run through the grounds? Take this opportunity to identify all of your stakeholders (pupils, parents, local community, alumni, etc.) and the channels you typically use to communicate with them. 2. Establish the chain of command It’s important for your allocated spokesperson to be the headteacher, because at difficult times, families and pupils will look to leaders for stability. By their very nature, however, leadership roles in schools tend to be all-encompassing; rushing straight in to deal with the issue won’t work in a crisis, because while your communications do need to be timely, they must also be accurate and considered . It’s therefore important that responsibility for your crisis communications be assigned to a dedicated team of individuals who understand their roles ahead of time. Key specialisms will include communications, IT, HR, safeguarding and potentially legal representation. If your internal team is small or inexperienced, you’ll need to plan for adding ad-hoc specialists in the event of an incident. 3.Media train key staff During this initial process, ensure that your spokesperson is media trained by a trusted advisor. Journalists are adept at “Effective communications at difficult times can strengthen your school’s reputation, regardless ofwhat’s happened” 12 teachwire.net/secondary