We have remained open during the whole time of this pandemic and except for 2 weeks of Covid imposed closure in January and February this year, we have managed to keep our school environment Covid free.

The health and safety of your children and our staff is our main priority and we have put in place many carefully thought-through measures to ensure everyone is as safe as possible.
This includes:

• We do not allow any child or member of staff with temperature, new and persistent cough or fever to attend the nursery.
• Parents drop off and collect children without entering the premises.
• We do not allow anyone into the building without a prior appointment and actual entry will be subject to a health question and a normal IR thermometer reading. Visitors will be required to wear a mask and shoe coverings and adhere to the 2m social distancing rule.
• Staff members on break in the Staff Room are allowed to wear face covering, if they choose so; yet we don’t wear masks when working with children.
• Hand washing will happen often for everyone. Your child will be supported to wash their hands on arrival (and/or use sanitizer), before and after eating, before and after playing outside and before going home – lots of hand washing, so we will use sensitive soap to protect children’s skin.

Children will be supported, as much as possible, in following the guidance on good respiratory practice – catching any coughs or sneezes in a tissue and putting it straight in the bin, then washing hands (again!)

Some resources such as sand will not be used, there will be no play in water; and most of soft toys and furnishings have been removed from the rooms, so that we are able to keep things as clean as possible. Sleep sheets and blankets are washed after every use, which is our usual practice anyway.

Cleaning will be much more rigorous, especially in high use/traffic areas. Everything will be cleaned thoroughly between sessions with antibacterial spray, and again at the end of each day. Staff will use antibacterial wipes to clean toilets, tables, chairs and materials often throughout the day.

We do not allow children to bring toys from home generally, but under the current restrictions we will reinforce this even more vigorously.

Majority of our teachers and practitioners have completed both Covid-19 and Infection Prevention Trainings, to help them deal with everyday challenges of virus control at our school. As we have been provided by DofE with Covid Lateral Flow tests for home use, our staff members are asked to take them twice a week and report results, to avoid any asymptomatic person spreading the virus without their knowledge.

There is a lot to think about and should you require more information, the following provide access to the Government guidance:

Implementing protective measures in education and childcare settings

Opening schools and educational settings to more pupils from 1st June – guidance for parents and carers

Also – if you have specific questions that you would like to ask us, please email us on: manager@alphabethousedaynursery.co.uk

As always, the foregoing is subject to Government Guidelines, which as we know can change on a daily basis.