Covid-19 occupational health and safety measures
Dear families,
This page intends to answer your questions regarding the school’s measures in dealing with Covid-19. Please note our Covid risk assessment is a live document that will be updated to reflect the latest guidelines. We will continue to rework our daily routine in order to follow the latest guidelines and make sure we can receive both your children and our staff in the safest possible way.
The Government has recently removed some legal requirement about Covid self isolation but the guidance remains that anyone with Covid symptoms should take a test, and they should self-isolate if the result is positive.
We have consulted our parents and we can confirm we will continue to follow Government guidance on Covid.
In addition to the government guidelines summarised above, we have put in place measures on an on-going basis to protect the nurseries:
1. Air filtration and virus-killer
At Mars Montessori and at Les Trois Oursons, we put in each classroom Swiss-made state-of-the-art air filtration, made by IQAIR. Their HyperHEPA filtration is tested and certified by an independent third-party lab to effectively filter 99.5% of harmful ultrafine pollution particles down to 0.003 microns in size. This is 100 times smaller than what is achieved with ordinary air filtration technology and 10 times smaller than a virus.
We also installed Radic 8 virus killer air sterilisers & purifiers in both nurseries, 2 at Mars Montessori and 7 at Les Trois Oursons. These machines are used in medical facilities and dentist surgeries in South Korea and are becoming increasingly popular here too. They work by using powerful UV lights (8 UVC lamps internally per machine), which kills any viruses – hence their “Virus Killer” title.
2. Regular cleaning of settings
It is important to maintain high hygiene standards. We deep clean the nurseries every single evening to minimise the chance of transmission.
Staff and children are asked to wear indoor shoes. We can send you a link of possible places to buy these for your children
3. Social distancing
- Outside play
We take the children out to the playground for Mars Montessori, and to the park for Les Trois Oursons, in separate bubble groups. We take them outside as much as possible, as the outside air is great for them and reduces the chance of infection.
- Snack, Lunch and Tea
Children will be served food and water by the adult at their table. The lions classroom children will continue to serve themselves (each child serves their own food and put their plate, cutleries and glass on the table themselves).
All our staff are qualified in food hygiene and as before they will carry on applying safe procedures when serving the children.
Birthday cake from home won’t be accepted.
4. Avoiding contact with anyone with symptoms
We will isolate a child with a temperature or any symptoms of Covid 19. At Mars Montessori, we will isolate them in an allocated area in the corridor. At Les Trois Oursons, we isolate them at the entrance in the corner where we have a sofa. The manager or when possible a member of staff from that group will stay with the child until parents/carers can arrive. The member of staff will wear PPE whilst waiting for the parents.
Parents are requested to arrive as quickly as possible to help reduce the risk of contamination. Government guidance on testing should be followed.
After symptoms have subsided and before returning to nursery, please follow government guidelines on testing requirements. Please ask the manager about the latest guidelines.
5. Frequent hand cleaning and good respiratory hygiene practices
Public Health England (PHE) is clear that if early years settings, and crucially if they are also applying regular hand cleaning, hygiene and cleaning measures and handling potential cases of the virus as per the advice, then the risk of transmission will be lowered.
As before, we will ensure regular hand washing. Each child will wash their hands together on arrival.
The children and staff will wash their hands regularly throughout the day.
At Les trois oursons, we will open windows to ensure clean air throughout the day . We are looking at ways to keep external doors open (whilst keeping the premises safe and secure) to maximise clean air-flow.
All our staff have done an Infection prevention training.
