Students learn best in safe, clean and engaging environments. Here we take a look at why a clean classroom is essential to children’s learning and offer ways to achieve it.
Health and Safety
Spread of Germs
One of the most obvious and important things a clean classroom affects is the health and safety of students.
Germs and bacteria are a part of life. Especially when discussing kids.
Children are curious creatures that have their hands in everything, so during the excitement of play and discovery, basic health practices are often overlooked.
These include washing of hands, sneezing into a tissue and covering mouths when coughing. Without basic cleanliness, a classroom turns into a playground for bacteria.
Germs are transmitted in 3 basic ways — direct contact, indirect contact or in the air.
Direct transmission happens through person-to-person contact. When children are working or playing close together, it’s easy for germs to transfer from one body to another.
Indirect contact occurs when germs are spread to an object and then picked up by someone else touching the same object. Imagine you have a cold, cough into your hand, and then open the classroom door. The next person to enter the room and touch the doorknob may inadvertently infect themselves with the germs you left behind.
Airborne transmission occurs when germs travel from person to person without direct or indirect physical contact.
How a Cleaning Service Can Help
Just because teachers can’t follow students around with a can of disinfectant spray and tissue boxes, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a clean classroom.
The use of a professional cleaning service in schools helps cut down on the presence and spread of germs. Employees are trained in what products and equipment to use, as well as what areas of the classroom need the most attention.
A lower prevalence of germs means lower chances of students and teachers getting sick students and teachers getting sick.
Absence Matters
When children miss multiple days of school due to illness, the learning process is interrupted, and their overall success is affected.
Poor attendance in Kindergarten and first grade can negatively affect a child’s ability to read. By 6th grade, chronic absences are actually an indicator that a student will drop out of high school.
Those are alarming facts! And ‘chronic absence’ is considered as few as 2 absences a month.
Keeping the classroom setting clean and free of germs will help ensure children stay healthy and in school.
And students aren’t the only ones who can get sick due to unclean surroundings – teachers are susceptible to the same illnesses. When teachers are absent for an extended period of time or their presence is inconsistent, the student’s learning is negatively impacted.
A Clean Classroom Means Fewer Distractions
There are numerous reasons why students become distracted in the classroom. These can range from lack of sleep to preoccupation with their phones or even dehydration!
Working in a cluttered, disorganised, and dirty classroom can add another element of distraction to a student’s day. It’s very difficult for students, and teachers, to succeed if the classroom environment is chaotic and unproductive.
Teachers need respect from the students in the room in order to educate their class properly. Children are very observant and if they see the teacher doesn’t care about the cleanliness of the classroom, they will lose respect for the room as well as the instructor.
A Better Learning Experience
Children learn in many different ways and at very different speeds. Teachers need to recognise and provide multiple avenues for learning. This means having numerous materials available.
Whether the setting is a day care or primary school, the children will need certain materials for learning and exploration. These range from crayons and paints to blocks, puzzles, and computers.
In order for children to find what they need and use it properly, the classroom must remain clean and organised. Consistency and routine are instrumental in a child’s development.
They need to know exactly where to find a certain item and be able to put it back correctly. This also fosters independence and confidence in learning.
Children also need to know that if they want to use that same item the next day, that they can find it in the same spot as the day before. This organisation will allow for a more productive and efficiently run classroom.
Teachers Can Focus on Students
A teacher’s role is to enrich, educate and encourage students to succeed. Their focus should be on the needs of the children and the curriculum, not on tidying the classroom.
A clean classroom means the carpets have been vacuumed, the bins have been emptied, the desks and chairs are wiped down, and surfaces are free of dirt and dust. A teacher should not be forced to stop a lesson to take out the garbage or pick up pieces of paper and other debris from the floor.
Each moment an educator is taken away from the task of teaching is a moment of lost education for students.
Creates Good Habits
Children are creatures of habit and routine. They often like to know what’s coming next and respond well to structure.
If their everyday surroundings at school are messy and disorganized, it will affect their ability to focus and learn. They will also carry those bad habits of sloppiness elsewhere in their lives.
If they don’t have a clean classroom at school, why should their bedrooms at home be clean?
By creating healthy habits at school, you are helping students carry those habits with them through life.
Leave it to the Professionals
Teachers are professional educators. Their job is to help students achieve their full potential. Their job is not to perform the basic cleaning duties of their classroom.
Let us be the ones to create a clean, working atmosphere at your school. With a long history in the cleaning industry, we have what it takes to provide a safe, healthy environment for learning.
Contact us today and learn more about our available services.
