A clean environment is the first step in making the students comfortable. How will students perform well if they don’t have a clean learning environment? But, keeping the entire school clean is not easy, especially with the regular staff.
You need to hire school cleaning services to achieve a flawlessly clean school. If you hire the right people, they will clean every corner of the school and disinfect every surface. This way, the students don’t fall sick due to infection or flu.
If you plan on hiring school hygiene services, this guide is essential. We will go through all the DOs and DONTs when choosing professional cleaning services.
Table of Contents
Why Keeping the School Clean is Important?
Before we go into how you can choose the best cleaning service, you must first know why you should do it. From a healthy learning environment to preventing sickness, here are the top reasons why school sanitation is crucial:
Impact on Your Student’s Overall Performance
It’s easy to understand that an unclean school will make the students uncomfortable. This will lead to poor performance. In this case, students should not be blamed.
A clean classroom will help the students focus more on learning. They will perform well academically since they don’t have to worry about the environment. This is why classroom cleaning is essential.
Keep the Infection Spread in Control
It is not an unknown fact that Australians face flu outbreaks quite often. In 2023, there were about 107,941 cases of flu infections recorded. More than 71 thousand cases were children from 5 to 15 years. School students are also included here.
Since schools are mass gathering places, viruses or germs can easily spread from one student to countless others. This is why school disinfection is incredibly necessary. Viruses can live up to 48 hours on various surfaces. So, immediate action is needed.
Reduce the High Number of Sick Off-Days
Let’s assume that one or multiple students catch the ongoing flu. What will happen? Obviously, they’ll take leave. Almost 1,185,000 students in Australia fall sick every year and miss attendance.
However, germs and viruses won’t only stop at students. They will also spread to the staff and the teachers. In that case, everyone who catches the flu must take sick leave.
With so many people taking leave, school productivity will have a massive impact. You might even have to call in replacement staff or teachers. Even the replacement staff can fall victim to the viruses. So, the only solution is to maintain school cleanliness standards.
Keeping your School Dust and Debris Free
Yes, viruses and germs are dangerous, but lots of people tend to forget about asthma patients. It doesn’t have to be huge; even a casual spark of dust can trigger asthma in patients.
A 2018 study confirms that almost 460,000 children have asthma or other breathing issues. We’re talking about long-term conditions.
Not keeping your classrooms, cafeterias, or campuses dust-free will make these kids have difficulty breathing. We’re talking about a basic body function.
No one, especially kids, should have issues because of an unclean environment. Health and safety in schools matter the most.
Improve the Parent-School Relationship
Since kids aged from 5 to 15 spend most of their time in school, if they catch the flu, the parents will point their fingers at your school. And that’s understandable. However, this parent-school clash won’t be beneficial for the school.
If you keep the school clean, the parents will be satisfied. This is another reason why janitorial services for schools are important.
How to Choose the Best School Cleaning Services
Now that you know why keeping the school is essential let’s find out how you can pick the best school maintenance services. Here are the top 7 things you should consider when choosing school cleaning services:
Conduct a Proper School Inspection
Before you go and call the professionals for educational facility maintenance, you must first inspect your school. By inspection, we mean assessing the places you want to clean. This is important because the price greatly depends on the size of the place.
For example, a classroom of 1200 square feet will cost more to clean than a classroom with 700 square feet of space. You must also list the places you want them to clean.
Classrooms, cafeterias, campus grounds, toilets, store rooms, and office rooms all need cleaning. Once you assess which areas you want to clean, move to the next point.
Evaluate the Overall Experience
Cleaning an entire school is a challenging task. This is why you should only trust companies with proven track records. Janitorial services for educational institutions with decades of experience will have a higher success rate. So, why bother with less-experienced cleaners?
Also, experienced cleaners will understand the assignment better. They will know how to handle each situation or complexity. Additionally, the cleaning company should have cleaning experience in both private and state schools.
Review the Cleaners Thoroughly
Once you inspect their experience, it’s time you go a bit deeper. It would be best to ask them about their cleaning process and the rules and regulations they abide by. The cleaning company should also follow Australian standards for health and safety.
Health and safety compliance means they are certified to handle your job. It also means no harm will come to the staff or the students while working. School health and safety should always be a top priority.
Don’t also forget to review what sort of products they use. It should be eco-friendly and sustainable. More on this in the next point.
Ensure They Use Green Products
Many children under 15 have critical health conditions. If cleaning companies use heavy-chemical-based cleaning products, it might cause irritation or allergic reactions. This is why eco-friendly school cleaning is mandatory.
Green products are made from natural ingredients extracted from various trees or plants. Since they have natural ingredients, the chances of irritation or allergic reaction are virtually zero.
Eco-friendly products don’t have VOC compounds. This means there won’t be any strong odor. This is a massive plus-point since cleaning products are known to trigger asthma.
Look for Solid References
Before hiring janitorial services for schools, ask them for references from their earlier work. If other schools say good things about them, they’re all good to go.
Everyone will praise their own cleaning company. But, if you talk to their clients, you’ll know more about their work from a personal level. If you hear complaints from their previous clients, that’s a big red flag.
Check If They Offer Flexible Scheduling
This one factor is often overlooked. Your school cleaning schedule shouldn’t have a conflict with the class times. This is why the cleaning company should have a flexible schedule. You should be able to customise the timing.
If the company offers customised timing, you can let them clean the school during weekends or holidays when no one is present.
The added benefit is that the cleaners will have empty spaces to work with. Cleaning a busy school is super difficult when students are running around.
Inspect Their Services Properly
This one’s a bit straightforward. It would be best to go for cleaners who provide disinfection and cleaning services. Only cleaning the dust from the surface isn’t enough. Viruses and germs need proper sanitisation.
Ask the cleaning company whether they disinfect surfaces because mopping over the surface will only remove the dust. But the germs will still be alive. This is why disinfection is necessary.
Types of School Cleaning Services
We can assume now you know all the factors one should consider before hiring cleaners. But what level of cleaning do you need?
Generally speaking, there are three kinds of educational facility cleaning services. These are regular cleaning, moderate cleaning, and deep cleaning.
- Regular cleaning
This one is done by your regular staff. It includes mopping the floor and wiping the surfaces. You don’t need professionals for this.
- Moderate cleaning
This one covers everything regular cleaning doesn’t cover. Like cleaning windows, boards, kitchen utensils, etc. You can hire professionals if you wish.
- Deep cleaning
This is what you call the PROs. Deep cleaning involves every corner of the school. It also includes surface disinfection.
Final Words
Many schools have bad experiences with cleaning services. It’s because the schools don’t follow any guide before hiring them. However, that shouldn’t be the case here. Now, you have the ultimate guide for school cleaning services.
It can still be a hectic process. If you need assistance, Holy Cross Cleaning is here for you. Founded in the late 80s, we have over 130 years of experience. We have everything from flexible schedules to green products to incredible track records. We also work quietly, so your class hours won’t be disturbed.