Loreto principal reflects on the aftermath of horror Bacchus Marsh bus crash

For Loreto College principal Michelle Brodrick, the call that woke her just after 3.30am on September 21 and the emotion of the hours and days that followed will never leave her.

It was initially a teacher's husband on line telling her there had been a horrific bus crash involving 27 students and four staff on their way to Melbourne Airport for a "trip of a lifetime" to NASA Space Camp in the US.

The conversations that followed, from teachers on the scene, then worried parents at the crash site, or a little later in hospitals spread from Melbourne to Ballarat in Victoria's Central Highlands, are impossible to forget.

It is a little over a month since the awful crash and while school has resumed for term four, the recovery is far from over not just for those directly involved in the accident but the whole school community.

Physically the injuries are healing but their lingering impacts and the mental scars will take much longer.

The most seriously injured student, who suffered a severe leg injury, has already been through three surgeries at the Royal Children's Hospital with more to come.

This week the school had experts from the Australian Child and Adolescent Trauma, Loss and Grief Network working with parents whose daughters were in the accident to help them understand the strategies they can use when dealing with trauma and what their daughters are going through.

They will also talk to staff, and others who may need a better understanding dealing with trauma.

Since news broke of the accident and the horrific scenes of the mangled wreckage down an embankment off the side of the Western Highway near Bacchus Marsh, north west of Melbourne, were beamed across the world, Ms Brodrick has been overwhelmed with support from the Ballarat community and more broadly.

"There is just a real sense of having arms wrapped around us," she said.

Gratitude is a word she uses often.

Gratitude for the "miraculous" survival of all on board the bus, for the actions and support of emergency services, for the hundreds of phone calls and prayers offered in the aftermath, and so much more.

There's also a sense of gratitude in being able to be together as a whole school community.

"Term four is always a busy term with final preparations and celebrations with year 12s so the first few days back of term did involve working with our staff and students, and that included police and counsellors coming in and speaking with everyone, but generally we have been able to hold our events and I feel there's been a greater sense of gratitude and purpose around what we have been doing," she said.

Two year 12 students involved in the accident have been able to return to be part of those days.

Ms Brodrick said everyone involved in the crash had been back to school for at least a visit, but not all had been able to return to class.

None of the four teachers have returned to their roles.

"We haven't got our staff back yet for various reasons. One is just starting back but the others won't be returning for some time but they have all come in and we will continue to work with them on developing the best way for them to come back to school," she said.

Physical accommodations have also been made at school to allow injured students to return.

"We have had to make a number of practical changes to the school, changing timetables and those sort of things ... as we understand the really practical elements of each individual student's needs," she said.

"We've been meeting with families and relying on medical advice but in the case of an accident where there's trauma and possible concussion it's not always clear what the needs are immediately."

Those practical changes include new portable classrooms on the school oval because several students are unable to use stairs, break-out spaces and places where there is less noise, low lighting and other elements that help those recovering from concussion and trauma, timetable changes, specialised furniture and more.

And existing plans to install a lift to allow access to the school's upper levels have taken on more urgency.

"We are 147 years old and the building, the original abbey building has a lot of different levels so we had identified that as a need and plans are in the final stage with the architect. It was very much in the works but this highlights the need for it to happen as soon as possible," she said.

Alongside the physical changes, the school is aiming to have a group of staff who will work closely with impacted students over the longer term.

But it is not just those directly involved who are affected.

"The accident obviously is a huge shock to everybody and there's that immediate concern for peers and teachers but trauma like that can be a trigger for anyone," Ms Brodrick said.

"So we have had to engage other additional counselling staff and provide guidance for staff working with students who have been impacted. It is something you do anyway but has become more of a priority."

Department of Education, Catholic Education Ballarat and Loreto Ministries all provided the services the school needed, including counsellors, to help deal with the aftermath of the crash.

"It was a miraculous result in terms of not losing any life and the strong message from police around wearing seatbelts is something I feel really strongly about. We were very lucky that those students and staff were wearing seatbelts," she said.

On the morning of the accident Ms Brodrick was acutely aware of the need to get information to the entire school community to help ease some of the fears they would be feeling.

"We had 910 students who would be thinking about those other students and we wanted for them not to worry even though they would naturally do that, but to try to provide as much information as we could."

The school's crisis incident team swung in to action in the early hours that morning minutes after Ms Brodrick was alerted to the crash.

"Initially they didn't have many phones, they couldn't find phones in the wreckage, so one of the staff members contacted her husband who was able to get on to me," she said.

"Then I did get a phone call from two of the teachers on the bus who were able to give me enough information to understand the seriousness of the accident so I worked with other members of the (school's) leadership team to quickly contact parents," she said.

Some already knew, having received phone calls from their daughters, and had gone to the crash site.

"We were able to set up and critical incident team back at the school and I knew by the time I got in the car that there were some students on their way back to Ballarat Base Hospital."

The hospital set up a room for parents to gather, helped locate which other hospitals students had been sent to, and provided social workers and other support "to assure them we were going to get through this".

"I certainly won't forget those few hours and the care shown. It wasn't just the hospital it was police and emergency services and families. Everyone was thinking about everyone else."

Ms Brodrick went to Ballarat Base Hospital with families as senior staff were working at school.

"You are never quite sure in a crisis what is needed because every circumstance is different but there was a logical process we needed to follow putting students and staff as first priority. Knowing they were in the best of care and their families knew, once we understood that it was then working through a more logical process of what needed to happen.

"Before I was about to hop in the car I remember thinking that this is going to be on the news and I needed to email staff. I knew at that stage that all the students were alive, told them what we knew and would communicate further as soon as we knew more."

Almost immediately the broader community sprung in to action.

Ms Brodrick received calls from other schools and people who had lived through similar experiences wanting to share their wisdom and experiences on what the school could do to support the victims, and to help her understand the complexities of the situation.

Ballarat's secondary colleges also contacted her to see what help was needed.

"We had people providing food, flowers, offers of help of all kinds, care packages from lots of local businesses and offers of dinner, books from different stores and the NASA Space Centre has sent packs to all the students," she said.

"Local businesses have supported us in such an incredible way.

"I think it's a real sign of who we are as a Ballarat community, as a local community and beyond.

"I still have pages of records of people who have reached out with offers to help that I haven't had a chance to look at yet. We are really grateful and sometimes there's not anything that people need to provide, it's the thoughts and prayers they have for you that you feel and it gives you the strength to deal with everything."