The school had been holding a bonding day for 84 year 9 pupils at Canoe Beach when the incident happened, leaving 12 girls needing treatment by emergency services for water inhalation and mild hypothermia.
In an email sent to parents last week, Columba College board of trustees chairwoman Dr Margot Skinner said expert advice would now be sought before any outdoor water activity, in order to assess the level of risk and the level and type of expert supervision required. One of the priorities for activities in coastal areas would be to make sure there was good accessibility to the area for emergency services, she said.
As a result of the March 2 incident, the board had decided to move its annual year 9 coastal orientation outing from Purakaunui to Warrington Beach, which is more easily accessible by emergency services vehicles.
''The event will be redefined as a beach education day, where life-saving and beach safety instruction from trained professionals will be the primary focus.
''A biennial beach education day for all year levels in the junior school will be reinstated. The life education day will be held on alternate years.''
To ensure effective emergency communication in all locations, Dr Skinner said, the college would buy a satellite phone, a GPS locator and an EPIRB emergency beacon.
''These devices will be part of the standard equipment required for all EOTC [education outside the classroom] outings where it is anticipated that the group may be beyond cellular/mobile phone coverage.''
The school's EOTC policies would need to be adhered to and paperwork completed two days before any event.
''I would like to reiterate that the review process has demonstrated that staff, students and rescue services acted decisively under the circumstances to effectively manage the crisis.
''Their collective actions are truly commendable.
''Critical incidents such as this bring a community together and we were greatly heartened by the care that everyone had for one another and the strength of your support.''
Principal Elizabeth Wilson said it was important to conduct the review, and it had been a very constructive process.
She said there had been constructive feedback from the school community as part of the review, and she believed the changes were ''straightforward and very sensible''.
