Ensuring safety in the classroom
The classroom is effectively a child’s second home. Assuming children attend school 5 days a week from 9-4, students spend around 21% of each week in the classroom. This is why it is vital that each classroom is as clean as possible. Cleanliness in the classroom doesn’t only create an aesthetic appearance it is the key to good safety and hygiene for students and ensures that the best learning environment is present for pupils to thrive in.
What can you do to ensure cleanliness?
1.Remove Clutter
Having as many toys and decorations as possible in a classroom is common as it can show how much the school offers for the children. Although a range of different toys and activities helps to stimulate learning and development for young children, having too much may actually be more harmful than beneficial. This is because decorations and toys that aren’t used frequently are the optimum environments for dust and bacteria to develop. This dust can lead to several health risks for young children- especially for those with conditions such as: asthma, allergies and respiratory conditions.
2. Use boards instead of walls
Adding blu-tack and tape directly to surfaces can leave a sticky residue that is difficult to remove. This causes the classroom to look unappealing and can make painting on those surfaces difficult as the surface will be uneven and paint will not dry on the sticky residue.
Instead of adding decorations directly to walls, we suggest that you install display boards or cork boards that allow you to hang up decorations using pins, without causing as much damage to the walls behind them. Boards can last for years too, so the cost of installing a board seems to be relatively cheap in the long term
3. Organise equipment efficiently
Organisation and cleanliness come as a pair. If you don’t remain organised, ensuring the environment is clean may be a difficult task. Avoid having the same items/ toys in more than one area and create a system to follow when organising items you use often. For example, create baskets with items needed for each table rather than having items around the classroom where children will need to move, take and return items to. Check out this blog for more tips on how to create a ‘clutter free classroom’.