Coronavirus

Nursery life during Coronavirus

We have been working hard to adapt to the changeable circumstances over the last year. Our passionate staff have worked tirelessly throughout these challenging times to ensure we can continue to provide an excellent service to all of our families.

These are some of the common questions that parents and careers have been asking

What are you doing to protect children and staff?

We are following Government guidance on how to ensure our ‘COVID-secure’ environments continue to protect the wellbeing and health of all our children and staff. We have updated our detailed Risk Assessments. Social distancing measures are implemented where possible, we have created ‘bubbles’ of children and have reduced the mixing of groups. We continue our emphasis on good hygiene and in particular on thorough and frequent handwashing. The nursery is cleaned daily. During our closures we carry out a deep clean and anti-viral fogging disinfectant.

 Will you be taking the temperatures of staff and children each day before they attend nursery?

No – as per Government guidance, there is no advice for us to take the temperatures of staff or children before they attend nursery. According to the Government advice, testing an individual’s temperature is not a reliable method for identifying Coronavirus. Where we have any suspicion about a child’s general wellness we will closely monitor them for any possible signs or symptoms of Coronavirus and where required we will send them home. In such cases we will ask that parents follow the standard national advice. If anyone in the household develops a fever or a new continuous cough they are advised to follow the COVID-19: guidance for households with possible coronavirus infection guidance (which states that the ill person should remain in isolation for 10 days and the rest of the household in isolation for 10 days).

What about PPE?

We are following Government advice on this subject and currently there is no requirement for nursery staff to wear additional PPE items whilst working in the nursery. We ask that parents wear face masks when dropping off and collecting their children. Staff are offered the option to wear a mask during handovers.

How are you implementing social distancing?

Whilst maintaining social distancing at nurseries is not realistically possible (as acknowledged in Government guidance), there are a number of other measures we will be implementing to prevent the spread of the virus in the nursery environment. These include creating ‘bubbles’ of children who, where possible, will be led by the same members of staff. These groups will be kept a safe distance from other groups.

We will be asking parents to adhere to social distancing measures at drop-off and collection times and all parents or carers are required to wear a mask at these times. Those who do not wear masks will be politely reminded of the need to do so. Parents will no longer be permitted to enter the nursery premises and although we understand this will be challenging, we will do our best to support you and your child at these times. It is vital that everyone plays their part in order to prevent the spread of Coronavirus.

Will you close again in the future?

We are closely monitoring the situation and if there are any changes to rules about nurseries remaining open then we will notify you as quickly as possible about what this means from a childcare perspective. We will also always make the decisions based on the wellbeing of our children, staff and everyone’s families. This might include a short-term temporary closure of the nursery or if we experience staff shortages due to illness or self-isolating requirements we may need to prioritise places for children of critical workers, vulnerable children and children with SEND.