It was back to business and a normal Friday for Dunstan High School, following yesterday’s bomb threat phone call received by the school office.

Dunstan High School deputy principal Todd Adams said the school office staff received one phone call that there was a bomb at the school, around the middle of the day (Thursday July 28).

“We immediately phoned the police on 111 for advice… [and] evacuated to the field, our marshalling area,” Todd said.

“We’re really grateful to local police…They were on site as we were evacuating. 

“Staff were awesome.. Kids were good and calm and waiting while we completed a sweep of the school.”

Todd said the school debriefed staff and students as soon as they could and got messages to parents.

The students missed around 45 minutes of learning but went back to class at about 1pm.

“The kids know what’s going on from their smartphones…”

Todd said the Whakatipu threat occurred prior to that at Dunstan so local police were plugged into what was going on. 

RNZ reported that bomb threats were made to at least 14 schools this week, and the Principals' Federation said the bomb threats originated from an overseas cyberbot.

Todd said if the incident did bring up anything for students, now was the time to keep “looking after each other and reach out if you need support”.

The school began the week with good student attendance after a winter of prevalent illness. 

“15 percent of students were off… with staff we’ve had a few more cases of Covid.”

Todd said mask use was great amongst staff with staff “masking up” but student mask wearing had waned through the week. Teachers were encouraging it where possible. 

“We've got a good supply of masks in every class,” Todd said.

The school community was looking forward to the formal in a few weeks time and tournament week also coming up.