Recognise the potential impact of critical incidents
Critical incidents can impact everyone’s mental health, whether they've occurred in your learning community or externally. They can be once-off incidents, or people can be impacted through a cumulation of negative experiences.
Learning communities that prepare and inform themselves about the potential negative effects of critical incidents will be better equipped to respond effectively if they occur.
By recognising the impacts of critical incidents, you can plan your response as a whole learning community. This involves identifying the key people involved in the response and understanding how individual educators can contribute to this plan. Effective planning will also help your learning community support the recovery process for all involved.
Who is this module for?
This module is for educators wanting to understand what critical incidents are and prepare for them appropriately. It explores the factors that affect an individual's experience of a critical incident and how to recognise the potential impact of critical incidents. It also introduces key principles of effective critical incident management.
Other areas of the Responding Together domain also provide information and strategies for responding to critical incidents and supporting the recovery process.
Professional development
This module contributes to the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) and ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) accredited professional development hours, addressing the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
In the ACT, completing Recognise will contribute 90 minutes of ACT Teacher Quality Institute (TQI) accredited professional learning addressing standard 4.4.2 Maintain student safety of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers.
In NSW, completing the Recognise module will contribute to 90 minutes of NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) accredited professional development in the priority area of Student/child Mental health addressing standard descriptor 4.4.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW. Educators can complete modules individually and receive accredited hours.
In line with NESA’s changes to professional development requirements, this module will be accredited by NESA until 29 November 2025.
All registered teachers in every state and territory must ensure they have added their teacher registration number and state/territory to the My Profile page.
Please see FAQs for more details on the Be You Professional Learning upload process and time frames in which participants can expect their learning to be recorded with their relevant organisation.
See National standards on the Be You website to find out more about how the Be You Professional Learning aligns with other national frameworks and standards.
Learning outcomes
After completing this module, you will be able to:
- appreciate the importance of recognising the potential impacts of critical incidents
- understand critical incidents and their impact on the mental health and wellbeing of children
- recognise what you need to do as an educator to prepare for critical incidents
- take steps to prepare yourself and your learning community to respond to the impacts of critical incidents.
Using the Notepad
If you’re a PC or Mac user, there’s a notepad feature for you to record notes, actions or discussion points for each topic. If you’re sharing a computer with your team, your notes will be available for everyone to view. If you wish to keep your notes private, please save and delete your notes each time you finish your session. There’s more information in the Notepad user guide on the right.
Using this module
The Be You Professional Learning modules are designed to be used flexibly in the way best suited for you and your learning community.
Consider one section at a time within the modules. At the end of each page, you will be prompted to explore additional resources within Be You that relate to the content. It is suggested that you complete one module at a time and use these prompts to identify future opportunities for learning.
You will be prompted to take breaks throughout; this can aid your learning and retention of the content.
You can further your learning by using the reflection questions provided throughout the module. Use these questions in ways that suit your learning community’s ways of working and broader professional development. There are also resources, such as the Be You Action Plan and Be You Actions Catalogue, that can be used to further facilitate these discussions.