Schools have been working over the last few weeks to start admitting children back into the school setting. Some Primary Schools have already had some children welcomed back into school. After speaking with some of the schools, our Health and Safety specialists Stallard and Kane, have put together some key points to help make the transition back into school less daunting. To help schools and academies welcome more children back in the forthcoming months, they have also put together a guide to assist you with your health and safety considerations. Click here to download. We have uploaded our Covid-19 Health and Safety webinar click here to access the webinar recording.
Risk Assessments
- Review all current risk assessments regularly, taking into account any new government guidelines that have been introduced.
- Ensure all areas of the school are taken into consideration, this includes jobs carried out by the caretaker, reception staff and dinner ladies. Some of these job roles may need individual assessments.
- Include members of teaching/non-teaching staff when reviewing assessments as they may have some useful information that may need to be considered moving forward. Not all people carrying out the risk assessments may be aware of all tasks and some hazards may be overlooked.
- Ensure all final versions of the assessment are communicated to all staff and acknowledgement received to ensure all staff are aware of procedures being implemented, and that they will play their part in ensuring they are followed.
Social Distancing
- Remember to include all personnel in the control measures for the social distancing. Focus will primarily be on the children, but non-teaching roles need to be included.
- You can use teaching tools for demonstrating 2m as children won’t always recognise how big the distance is. Hula hoops and rulers have been used along with the PVC mats used for games (apparently the PVC mats are 2m wide).
- Ensure children are kept in the same social ‘bubble’ of no more then 15 children. Bubbles can work together, play together, have dinner together but they must not mix with any other bubble or share apparatus. The changing of children in bubbles should also be avoided.
- Staggering drop off and pick up times has reduced the numbers on the school site, along with asking families to try and adhere to one parent per family.
- Make sure all new measures are communicated to parents and carers, this can be done in a variety of ways.e.g. school website, letters home and text messages.
- Cones and chalk or spray paint can be used to highlight the distance between parents when collecting children from school on the paths.
- Use technology encourage parents to ring, text or email the school instead of popping into the office when dropping off or collecting children.
Cleaning and Personal Hygiene
- Ensure all cleaning procedures are documented, if increased cleaning regimes are adopted then make sure it is clear to everyone who is cleaning where and when. This may need to be documented in a separate cleaning risk assessment.
- If new cleaning products are to be introduced, then ensure they all have COSHH assessments and are communicated out to all the relevant personnel.
- Have you got a cleaning procedure in place for if someone starts to show signs of infection? How will the room or area be quarantined, cleaned and taken out of use? And by who?
- Ensure all classrooms and equipment are given a deep clean at the end of each week, some schools have closed earlier on a Friday afternoon to allow this to be carried out.
- Keep up to date with the government guidance for information which may be added for products found to kill the virus better than others.
- Have sufficient signs to encourage the frequent washing of hands and try to keep the information age appropriate where possible. Year 6 children are more likely to be able to identify 20 seconds than nursery children. The singing of a nursery rhyme has proven to be useful in the case of younger children. (This has shown to create a lovely sound coming from the toilets)
- Increase the number of times a day children are encouraged to go wash their hands, stress the importance of cleaning hands thoroughly during class discussions.
Teaching Groups and Pupil Wellbeing
- Staff availability needs to be constantly monitored, this will encompass whether any employees fall into the vulnerable category or whether they live with anyone who falls into this category. This will also monitor anyone who may start to display symptoms of the Covid-19 virus.
- The government does state that if you audit your workforce and do not have a head or deputy head, at least one person with paediatric first aid training, at least one person with designated safeguarding lead training, do not have an special educational needs coordinator available or caretaking / cleaning staff – you should contact your local authority or trust who could potentially help with temporary measures where possible.
- Keep staffing arrangements consistent daily, keep the same teaching staff with each ‘bubble’ all the time and move around the school together.
- It is at the moment probably too early to state whether the current situation has had any significant changes to children’s behaviour.
- Schools should have the provision in place to be able to deal with any children or staff who are displaying signs of health or mental health problems.
- Some children or staff may have experienced bereavement or loss due to the pandemic and may show signs of anxiety. This could lead to children making safeguarding disclosures. Provision should be made to give the individuals the opportunity to speak about this in a safe environment.
As more information is gathered and found out about the Virus the guidelines will continue to change. For all up-to-date information about the re-opening of schools visit the GOV.UK website. If you need any help with risk assessments, health and safety advice or training please get in touch with one of the team. We are working remotely and are able to continue offering these services. We have experienced Occupational Health Physicians who can provide you with an assessment of risk (in their medical opinion). It could help you to establish which category people fall into and also who can return to the work environment with extra protective measures, known as social distancing plus. To find out more about Vulnerable People Risk Assessments call 01924 827869 or contact us.
