Cleaners and janitorial staff have a very important role in any place of learning. A clean and healthy school environment is a key contributor to the productivity and success of students.
You might be wondering how the cleaning experience compares between different types of schools. Is it preferable to clean up after older or younger students? In this article we take a look at the importance of a clean school, and how the cleaning experience differs between kindergartens and high schools.
Whether it’s pre-school, high school, or tertiary education; unpleasant and unhygienic surroundings can hinder the learning experience at any level. An unclean school can impact students in several ways:
- Wellbeing – schools are often dealing with outbreaks of various viruses. These bugs spread easily through heavily utilised common spaces in schools, which is why keeping bathrooms, surfaces, and food preparation or eating areas clean is very important.
- Attendance – attendance is inevitably impacted if a school is constantly battling with outbreaks of illness. Students cannot do well at school if they are constantly at home sick.
- Focus and performance – if students are working in an uncomfortable space, they will be less focused and less productive. A well-cleaned and well-maintained learning environment is truly essential for helping kids get the most out of school.
Cleaning kindergartens
Pre-schools, kindergartens, and early childcare centres are full of activity, fun, and imagination. Days are filled with creative learning activities like arts and crafts, water-based play, or time in the sand box or garden. This means that kindergartens can get dirty quite easily, and it can be hard to keep them clean and tidy.
There are also lots of different toys and utensils at kindergartens that get shared between the children. Sanitisation is very important to reduce the risk of germs being transferred from one place to another.
It’s important to remember that early childhood aged children are at greater risk of catching viruses and illnesses. Their immune systems are not as robust as adults. While most kindergarten children will be vaccinated, there’s also a possibility that there will be younger siblings or babies at home who are not fully vaccinated yet. Keeping their learning environment healthy helps to protect other children at home, too.
So with this in mind, cleaning kindergartens is likely to focus on:
- Sanitisation of tables, chairs, and surfaces – being particularly vigilant in disinfecting areas like bathrooms and kitchens.
- Young children are especially susceptible to allergies and asthma, so it important to keep dust, pollen, and other airborne allergens at bay as much as possible.
- Windows and glass doors. Little grubby handprints are a familiar feature in any kindergarten. Regular glass cleaning is a must to keep everything looking nice and fresh.
- Vacuuming and mopping. Floors are very easily dirtied at an early childcare centre and young children or babies spend a lot of playtime on the floors. The occasional carpet cleaning service is necessary to get it to its best condition.
Cleaning high schools
Cleaning up after older children can be quite a different endeavour. Anyone who has spent even the smallest amount of time at a high school will know that certain areas can get quite messy and unpleasant.
The first thing that comes to mind is the bathrooms. An unattended high school bathroom will tend to get untidy – used paper towels that haven’t made it to the bin, water splashed on basins and floors, or hand soap/sanitiser over the sinks. You can read our tips for better school bathrooms here.
High schools also have less direct supervision than kindergartens. Kindergarten staff are constantly with the children and will pick up and clean up after them. High school teachers don’t have the same function, so messes in bathrooms or homerooms are more likely to get left for the cleaners. You are also more likely to encounter general rubbish, leftover food or discarded trash at a high school.
This means that high school cleaning will largely consist of:
- Tidying and sanitising bathrooms, and mopping floors to prevent slips and injuries.
- Removing rubbish or food that has been left behind in classrooms and homerooms.
- Sanitising tables in canteens or inside eating areas.
- Depending on what classes are available at the school, there might be particular areas that get messier and require extra attention. This might include woodwork, textile or food tech rooms.
Whether these things are pros or cons depends on what you do and don’t mind doing! If attention-to-detail is your thing, you might be quite suited to cleaning kindergartens as they require an extra level of scrupulousness. However if you are more adept at general cleaning (and aren’t afraid of a bit of extra mess), high school cleaning might be more your style.
Whatever the needs of your school or education centre, Crewcare is here to help. We understand that there will often be mess left behind on a school day, and we are happy to take care of it for you. Security in schools is important, which is why all of our cleaners are security vetted. Contact us today!