Rebecca Marley recalls the Australian bush fires of February this year.  She sends a message of solidarity to the earthquake schools of Padang.

Rebecca Marley teaches at a primary school in Healesville, and lives outside the town.  They had just started the new school year when soaring temperatures put the area at risk of bush fires.  

Ms Marley started preparing the children for the possibility of bush fire discussing safety procedures at home and in school.  

On the Friday, teachers sought to reassure the children: "We just wanted them to know that we would be thinking of them and we wanted them to be safe that weekend."

Rebecca Marley shares her story with BBC World Class: 

We were aware of the extreme heat.  It was 47-48 degrees that day.  I opened the door at eight o'clock in the morning and it was like an oven.

We had friends over.  We were fairly unaware of what was developing.  We didn't have the news on.

I think it was about four o'clock when we could finally go outside because this lovely cool change came through.  

We were all thinking that's terrific.  Maybe the worst is passed.   Maybe its all going to be OK.

We didn't realise that it was actually that cool change which swung the wind around and cost a lot of people their lives.

The following day - Sunday 8^th of February - I woke fairly early and again it was extremely hot. 

My husband was sitting on the couch with our friend.  I walked in and I immediately knew from the looks on their faces that something was not right.

They started to fill me in on what they had been seeing on the news reports.  At that stage everything was very sketchy and no one was getting in to the places where the fires were burning. 

Immediately I became very concerned for the Healesville community and the communities around there.

My main concern was getting in touch with people and obviously it was difficult.  

It was extremely stressful.  As soon as you couldn't get in touch with someone you started to wonder why and what was happening.

I heard fairly early in the day that one of my own students had lost their home.   But at that stage I was more concerned about the students that I hadn't heard about.

I knew there was a particular family - one of the girls that was in my grade the previous year - that was unaccounted for.  I was extremely concerned for her well being and no one could tell me anything.

I spent most of that day on the phone with staff at the school.  Throughout the day we got bits and pieces but it wasn't until the Monday that I found out this student was ok.

They had had a really close call and she has had a lot of trauma from what happened but she was ok.  It was a huge relief.

A lot of the time on Sunday I was waiting to see what was going to happen with school because the fires were still burning quite actively in the area.

It was a really difficult time.  I have my own family and they did not want me to go to work.  But there was very much a sense of wanting to be there for the kids.  If the school was going to be open then I certainly wanted to be there.

It was a very difficult situation.  At no time did I feel comfortable either way.

Over the next couple of weeks we were closed on and off.  It was extremely unsettling.  The kids were very on edge and the staff were very on edge. 

Some of the kids just wanted to get back into school and then we'd have to close again.  It was extremely difficult.

But what helped us was we still had our school and we knew that a lot of our close by communities had lost their schools.
For me as a teacher, the bonding that I have had with my class this year has been on a completely different level.

I would say to the schools in Padang, Sumatra that the thing that helped us was to know that people cared. [I want] them to know that we care.

An earthquake and a bush fire are completely different experiences, but it is that sense of loss and that sense of is this going to happen to us again?

We'd all like to wish them the best in their process of recovering from this disaster and to know that we are thinking of them and hoping that everything is going really well for them.
                                            

How did they do this?

Becky Marley works with Intuitive Media's online schools site SuperClubsPlus and is taking part in the Book of Light Project.

Find out more about the Bush Fires in Austrailia and the Sumatra Earthquake on the  BBC News website. 
Read Amy's story from Healesville.
Read more from Padang schools affected by the earthquake. 

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