School Cleaning Guide by Commercial Cleaning Company Sydney

Schools and educational institutions are among the worst affected entities by the pandemic. Not only do the students have to bear the loss of their studies but also there’s a glooming risk of the virus and the diseases it can spread. To be honest, schools have always been the place with the highest risk of diseases, which is why we at CLEANA Commercial Cleaning Company Sydney help Sydney schools remain safe and protected against common viruses and infection-borne diseases through our state-of-the-art school cleaning and infection control services.

Whether you are doing it yourself or hiring professional school cleaners, Clean Group Commercial Cleaning Company Sydney here has put together a detailed guide to keeping your school clean and protected from infectious diseases.

Guide to School Cleaning & Disinfecting

The process of ensuring your school is clean, germ-free and well-maintained at all times can be done in the following three parts:

  1. Maintaining proper ventilation
  2. School cleaning
  3. Touchpoint disinfection

Ventilation to keep school air clean & hygienic

Ventilation refers to the introduction of outdoor air into a place with the intention to improve indoor air quality, let bad smells out and keep pollutants away.

Maintaining proper ventilation inside your school and classrooms is a great way to reduce the risk of spreading infections, most of which can be carried or transported by air. By allowing your indoor air to regularly circulate and be replaced by fresh outdoor air, you can prevent infections from staying in the air long enough to do any serious harm. Moreover, the constant flow of fresh oxygen inside the classroom can help enhance learning, as some studies suggest.

The best way to ensure proper and adequate ventilation within your school classrooms is to use an HVAC system and routinely maintain it for the best performance. You want to make sure that the HVAC system is set for high and will keep circulating/changing air within classrooms throughout the day. In addition, you want to make sure that the vents are routinely cleaned of debris and dust to maintain a proper flow of air. The air system should start working at least a couple of hours before the school starts and should not be off until the school is closed. Keep your HVAC filters clean and replace them as and when needed with the best quality products.

Other top ways to maintain proper ventilation inside the school include opening classroom windows more often to allow the cross-flow of air, adding a box fan or exhaust fan in the windows to push bad or contaminated air out, and using an air purifier in the classroom.

School Cleaning Guide with best cleaning & hygiene practices

Keeping your school clean at all times is something you cannot afford to not do. Kids and children are more prone to infection-borne diseases. On top of that, they will touch anything they can get their hands on and will not hesitate to spread germs and infections everywhere they go. Cleaning becomes even more challenging but important if you are running or managing a play school because infants and toddlers will just touch but might try to eat any item they come across with. These can be toys, books, food that has fallen on the floor, and much more. So, it’s your duty to keep your schools clean and hygienic to keep your students safe.

General cleaning involving the cleaning of floors and hard surfaces, toilets, kitchens, etc. is a good way to start, but it’s not enough. You should be able to identify and clean areas that are generally missed in routine cleaning. Moreover, you must disinfect all touchpoints and frequently used places and objects multiple times throughout the day. If you are not up for it, do consider hiring a specialist school cleaning company like Clean Group.

Here’s an easy-to-follow school cleaning checklist with useful tips for everyone”

School & Classroom Cleaning Checklist:

  • Perform general cleaning of all the areas, floors, desks, tables, chairs, windows, doors, vents, ceilings, walls, computers, keyboards, electronics, toilets, meeting rooms, auditorium, and corridors.
  • Empty and clean garbage bins
  • Clean and disinfect toilets, including the bowls, urinals, hand basins, water taps, dispensers, etc.
  • Keep the kitchens and pantry areas properly cleaned and hygienic. Make sure the dining area is cleaned immediately after the lunch break.
  • Clean, scrub and mop the floors and hard surfaces and vacuum all carpets, door mats and upholstery every day.
  • To remove stubborn stains or grime from the floors, apply a mix of white vinegar and water to the affected areas and scrub rigorously.
  • For disinfecting, fully saturate the surface with disinfectant solution and let it sit for a few minutes or as instructed on the product label. Clean using a wet wipe or let it fade automatically.
  • Instruct your teachers to keep their respective classrooms clean and hygienic. If possible, train them in basic school hygiene practices.
  • Vacuum all surfaces, carpets, mats, fixtures, furniture and upholstery using a vacuum cleaner with HEPA filters.
  • In classrooms & offices,
    • clean and disinfect all desks and shared spaces
    • wipe clean cabinets, cupboards & bookshelves
    • vacuum carpets and floor mats
    • sweep and mop all hard floors
    • Empty and clean trash cans
    • Wipe down and disinfect doorknobs, handles and other touchpoints
    • Do not miss hard-to-reach places such as cabinet tops and the backs and bottoms of furniture
  • If there are computer labs in your school, chances are that students could be sharing keyboards. And with keyboards containing more bacteria than an average toilet seat, you cannot afford to not routinely clean and disinfect all your school keyboards and other shared equipment.
  • Besides the school premises, you must also routinely clean other things including school buses, playgrounds, basketball courts, etc. as well as disinfect all touchpoints. Try to keep bus windows open as and when possible.

Your school carpets might have been accumulating a lot of dirt and germs, especially if they have not been cleaned in a long time. Routine vacuuming once a day or week will help keep your carpets clean and extend their lives while ensuring the safety of your students from germs and allergies.

School Disinfection & Sanitising

Disinfect all high-touch places and objects, including door handles & knobs, lift buttons, railings, desks, benches, tables, chairs, phones, switchboards, stationery, water dispensers, kitchen appliances, water taps, toys, utensils, kitchen counter, dining areas, floors and hard surfaces multiple times during the day.

All electronic equipment and appliances, especially the shared ones like computer keyboards and phones, should be wiped down using microfibre cloths and disinfected properly.

Make sure to buy and use disinfectants that are certified safe for children. Get the cleaners to use proper protective equipment, masks, and gloves when cleaning and disinfecting your schools.

Place hand sanitiser stations at all entry points and in bathrooms, toilets and classrooms and encourage your students and staff to wash their hands thoroughly and multiple times a day, especially after using toilets and before eating. Make a no-eating-in-classroom policy to reduce the possibility of contamination by food and keep the classrooms clean and hygienic.

Toilets and bathrooms must be cleaned and disinfected multiple times during the day depending on the use frequency and traffic.

Things to keep in mind when cleaning a school or college:

  • Make sure to only hire and use professional cleaners with experience in school cleaning;
  • Make sure that the cleaners follow cross-contamination practices, which involve the use of colour-coded mops, towels and buckets to avoid transferring germs from one area to another.
  • To mop the floors, use a water-detergent solution or mix water with a non-toxic floor cleaner.
  • Be sure to buy and use only TGA-approved disinfectants and use cleaning products that are safe for children and the environment.
  • Cleaning should be ideally done at least one hour before students start arriving at the school as some cleaning products and disinfectants might need a few minutes to take effect. Additionally, cleaning during school hours might affect students’ attention and creativity.
  • Instruct your students to avoid sharing their study materials, tiffins, bottles and other supplies unless absolutely necessary.
  • Make sure the exhaust fans in classrooms, washrooms and other closed spaces are running constantly.
  • Hold group activities such as prayer and gym outdoors or in a wide open space.
  • Avoid using harsh or toxic cleaners for school cleaning and disinfection for obvious reasons.
  • If a disinfectant solution is not immediately accessible, you can alternatively use disinfectant wipes to disinfect doorknobs, handles, switches and other touchpoints.

Hiring A Top School Commercial Cleaning Company in Sydney

Cleaning a school can be quite overwhelming and, not to forget, time-consuming. Moreover, there is no guarantee of results unless you have really good knowledge of and experience in school cleaning. But, don’t worry. This is what professional cleaners are for. If you feel you need help keeping your school or college clean, contact us to hire our world-class school cleaning services by a professional team of trained and police-verified school cleaners.

We offer cleaning services to many schools, colleges & universities all over Sydney. Our school cleaners are highly experienced and qualified and the perfect choice for your cleaning needs. We have always maintained the highest standards of quality and safety in our cleaning services and you can expect to receive nothing less from our staff. With over 20 years of experience cleaning schools, we are committed to putting your health and safety first with the use of the most advanced cleaning products such as HEPA filters, TGA-approved disinfectants, colour-coded supplies, and eco-friendly cleaning products. On top of that, our services are accompanied by routine inspection and supervision to ensure high quality. We are a family-owned business. Our cleaners wear company uniforms and have their identity cards for verification. They have all been police-verified before hiring and provided with exceptional training in world-class cleaning methods and equipment. Our commercial cleaning services can be customised to meet your needs and budget. All cleaning supplies and machines are complimentary with our services. Need to know more? Contact us today to talk to an expert about your cleaning needs.