They create a mess especially litter, chewing gum, graffiti in the toilets and vandalism. Daytime work includes window cleaning, litter picking, maintenance of food preparation and canteen facilities, washrooms, waste and materials removal from classrooms. In senior schools these include brick and cement dust, hair from the beauty class, cooking materials, building materials, wood shavings, metal, art materials, pottery clay and paint. Art, woodwork and pottery rooms are worst as fine dust blows and it sticks to anything.
Ground rules
Traditionally colleges and schools have the worst possible flooring for their needs - such as Terrazzo where the pores of the floor clog with food, grease etc Low grades of vinyl are used to save money and these quickly suffer from a thorough cleaning regime. Cheap wood floors can become ruined in one term, as they are often not sealed when installed. Motor workshops are a nightmare to clean with deep floor and wall scuffs; oil, grease and brake fluid spills and oily finger marks everywhere. Cleaners need extensive training on relevant cleaning agents, equipment and technique.
Colour is key
Colour coding wipers and equipment is as important when cleaning an educational establishment as any place. We use different colours for washrooms, baby areas in nurseries, food areas and general cleaning.
Trashing the toilets
Toilet graffiti is rife, blocking sinks with toilet paper is frequent as is streaming' toilet tissue onto the floor and breaking hot air dryers and toilet seats. Cleaners should develop good relationships with in-house maintenance teams and painters and builders must understand that they need to work with the cleaners so that cleaning is carried out after their work, not before. Cleaning teams must identify what must be done during and after disaster such as fires, floods or break-ins.
Out of hours work
Mobile supervisors must be available on call 24/7 and backed up with our help desk after hours, as vandalism and arson is usually at night or weekends. ‘Out of hours' or holiday period work includes deep kitchens cleans, cooker hoods, ducting and ovens; science labs and workshops and art areas like pottery, textile printing and oil painting. These require specialist chemicals and equipment including steam cleaners and pressure washers. Students have no respect for carpets and flooring, so at weekends and evenings we use extraction cleaning on the upholstery and carpets, and organise floor stripping and polishing. Toilet graffiti is constant - during terms it is controlled and the walls are repainted usually twice a year. Cleaners in the educational sector are no longer simply cleaners - they are diplomats for the contractor, intermediaries between other contractors, they require good interpersonal skills, need constant training and retraining to be up to speed with new equipment and techniques and particularly new regulations. Cleaners must be able to plan their workload in the time allocation and during the reduced time that areas are available for cleaning. Today cleaning offers a good career with development opportunities. They are assets to any organisation and I have immense respect for the service they provide.
01277 268899
