In our webinar held in June, Kit M Mak, Group Principal of Shaws Preschool, shared what Shaws Preschool does to keep the children safe when they are at school.
Thorough cleaning and disinfection in all 5 schools
This includes the daily through disinfecting which happens throughout the day, In addition, Shaws also engaged the services of SUTL to professionally coat all our indoor surfaces with a high performance coating with antimicrobial (germ free) actives which kill viruses, bacteria and fungi. This coating is used in places such as Changi Airport, and is an added precaution to help keep our children safe
Covid Safe Measures
We have adopted Covid Safe measures which only allow children who are well to enter the school, and we limit the number of visitors. These measures are extensive to keep our children safe.
Safe Distancing for Children
While safe distancing is in place, children remain in their own
classrooms during the day while they are indoors. Outdoor time carries on, but are staggered for the different classes. Outdoor and sports are a big part of Shaws, and we ensure the children get this time, but safely. For classes with more than 10 children, we divide the children into 2 “bubble” – Red Bubble and Blue Bubble. Our children will wear colour wristbands as visual reminders of the bubble group they belong to and will stay in their bubbles, and there are colour coded flags to remind the children which area they should stay in.
We have also created for more space in most classrooms to accommodate the “bubbles” by changing the physical layout. We have re-arranged the furniture and the learning corners and have used markers to demarcate the room into 2 bubble spaces.
Teaching children covid-safe behaviour
Teaching and talking though children Covid Safe behaviour is important. This enables the children to understand why all these processes and procedures are in place. And we talk about it to the children all the time. Even the younger children. For example, when mask wearing was new, 2 weeks before schools reopened, we discussed with the children about Covid safe behaviour including mask wearing through our Home Based Learning programme – our teachers started centering their virtual lessons around wearing masks, safe-distancing and proper hand washing teachniques. We read stories together, we tried putting on masks together during our zoom sessions, the children even had their stuffed toys put on masks together with them – so that set the basis for everyone. Masks became our normal before schools were even reopened.
As what Liane had shared in her talk “Building Resilience in Children in Challenging Times”, our children are quickly learning to adapt to changes. By providing them with a positive environment to discuss, share and acknowledge concerns that they may have, have actually helped them overcome some of their worries. We continue to reinforce Covid Safe Behaviour like safe distancing in their “bubbles” in the classrooms and outdoors, keeping safe distance between friends in the same bubble groups and good hygiene practices like hand hygiene before and after outdoor activities, not touching face, eyes, nose and mouth and quening with safe distance when going to the toilet.
These are some of the things we do at Shaws to keep our children safe. If you would like to watch the webinar, contact Dana at dana@shaws.com.sg!
