Quick Guide to Implementing New Health and Hygiene Guidelines
Continuing our deep dive into safely operating, today we’re looking at the education industry. Read on to see our recommended products and procedures schools need to safely get back to class.
According to government guidelines nurseries, childminders, schools and colleges are to put in place a range of protective measures to help reduce the risks and create safer environments for students and children.
Actions for nurseries, childminders, schools and colleges
The following guidelines have been outlined for nurseries, childminders, schools and colleges to:
- Manage confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the school or college, in line with current public health guidance – this means your child may be asked to self-isolate for 14 days by their nursery, childminder, school or college (based on advice from their local health protection teams) if they have been in close, face to face contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus.
- Ensure that everyone cleans their hands more often than usual, including when they arrive, when they return from breaks, and before and after eating – this should be done for 20 seconds with soap and running water or hand sanitiser. We recommend PedalPro hand sanitiser station which can be placed in the reception or other areas of high traffic. We like that the station is operated by a foot pedal reducing transfer of bacteria by hand.
- Door handles are one of the largest touch points in public areas. P-Wave Stericore handle and plate door furniture is antimicrobial for the life of the product and will help reduce the spread of bacteria and viruses.
- Promote the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach, to ensure good respiratory hygiene. Reinforce the message using Post-it Instant Dry Erase Whiteboard or Post-it Big Notes strategically placed where children and students have their lunch.
- Enhance cleaning, including cleaning frequently touched surfaces more often.
Nurseries and childminders should also minimise contact between individuals where they can. This could mean using different rooms for different age groups and keeping those groups apart.
Schools and colleges will minimise contact and encourage maintaining distance as far as possible. They will decide how best to do this because it will be different for each school or college.
This will involve asking children and young people to:
- Stay within specified separate groups (or bubbles)
- Maintain distance between individuals
Younger children may not be able to maintain social distancing. It is likely that for younger children the emphasis will be on separating groups, and for older children, it will be on distancing.
Schools can take extra precautions to make a safe environment for their students by providing:
- Temperature checks upon arrival. New technology, such as OneScreen GoSafe, is also emerging that offers stationary body temperature and facial recognition scanners to enhance health and safety measures. These more robust systems can provide integration with attendance tracking for students. And the facial recognition scanners allow for easy visual detection to determine compliance with mask wearing protocols.
- Air filters in AC units and air purifiers may need to be changed more regularly. The longer a filter is in place, the more dirt, dust and allergens are trapped clogging the filter and decreasing their efficiency. Ideal offers a robust air purifier system removes 99.9% of pathogen viruses, bacteria, mould spores, and air pollutants.
Additional details and resources can be found in the full Safe X Secure White paper.
If you would like more information about any of our recommended products, email us at [email protected]. Include your name, business name, location(s) and contact information and a Highlands representative will be in touch with you.
