Handy hygiene tips to get your classroom ready with Dettol
Dettol is a Sydney Opera House Global Goals Partner. Our Global Goals Partners support our commitment to the Goals and enable us to inspire positive change.
At Dettol, we protect the ones we love and strongly believe that every little bit of school is worth protecting. We’re here to provide some handy tips for a hygienic return to the classroom to help protect yourself and your students, so they can get back to what they do best, which is learning.
1. Learn. Play. Dettol.
Commonly touched items in the classroom can be the source of cross-contamination, so it is important to keep them clean and disinfected to avoid the spread of germs from student to student. Some of these commonly touched areas are:
- Desks
- Chairs
- Pencil Sharpener
- Tote Trays
- Door handles
Since these areas have high student traffic, try using our Dettol disinfectant wipes for easy cleaning on the go!
2. Become a Handwashing Hero
Hand washing is an important behaviour to learn early. A recent study from Dettol discovered that 47% of students still don’t wash their hands with soap1. Establishing good hand washing habits is vital to help prevent germs spreading in the classroom. For Global Handwashing Day on the 15th of October, you can teach your students how to wash their hands properly by showing the shapes with your hands and getting them to copy you. It is important to catch a habit, so you can show your students our fun jingle on how to do so here.
1 Hygiene Behaviour Change: Embedding behaviour change at the heart of RB’s purpose strategy”, Report by Global Hygiene Council and Ipsos
3. Enlist Students in the Fight Against Germs
Children are always keen to learn. We can instil good hygiene habits early on to help them thrive, not the germs. To do so, we suggest teaching your students how to properly cough and sneeze inside the classroom and sanitising their hands afterwards.
Good hygiene includes covering your mouth and nose with a tissue when you sneeze or cough and throwing the tissue in the bin straight away.
Another option is to sneeze or cough into your elbow – this can be a helpful strategy to teach children who struggle with blowing their nose or don’t always have tissues around. Good hygiene also involves washing your hands after sneezing or coughing, or after being in close contact with someone who has been sneezing or coughing.
As students love receiving gold stars, we suggest for you to create a reward chart for your students to learn how to catch a habit and protect themselves in the fight against germs.
4. Maintain a tidy classroom
Having a tidy classroom isn’t just about making your room look good – minimising clutter reduces the number of items that may gather dust, allergens and germs. Having a hygienic classroom means you can teach soundly knowing you are keeping the germs at bay. By creating a protected and clean space to teach, you’re also helping to keep your students healthy.
Click here for more hygiene tips
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