01 March 2021
The announcement that schools will be opening in England on 8 March has brought the safety of students and staff in schools back into focus. Many schools have used the closure time to do a deep clean, ready to re-open when the time comes. And so it was that Acorn Commercials came in to do what we do best for our local Waddesdon Village Primary School.
We took this on like we do every other job, by focusing on cleaning and disinfecting the premises to ensure everyone’s safe return. We sent in one of our teams to deep clean all classrooms, staff rooms, offices and communal areas.
Our vans pulled up to the school gates first thing, ready for action. Our team, decked out in their white hazmat suits, got straight to work. They started out in the communal areas before moving on to the classrooms and offices.
This is how we tackled the challenge.
By their nature, primary schools are full of things – furniture, equipment and materials for both students and adults. Every corner is crammed with something useful. It could be a stand of lockers, a stack of bookshelves or tables with computers. There is little free wall space either. Most of it is taken up with whiteboards, maps and drawings – those that don't already have bookshelves, that is.
All these are touchpoints, ones that are frequently used by both staff and students. This is in addition to doors, desks and light switches, to name a few. These are the more commonly thought of touchpoints and ones that are used the most.
To overcome the challenge of disinfecting every surface and every space in between, we used our new electrostatic guns. Using a negative charge, they spray a fine disinfectant mist which will wrap around any surface. This means that it will find its way around handles, in between keyboard keys and spray evenly across flat surfaces.
Those doors handles and light switches we mentioned? We went over those one more time to be absolutely sure that they were clean and disinfected. This is part of our enhanced cleaning technique as we know that they are heavily used throughout the day.
Using a technique widely used in the healthcare sector, we swabbed key touchpoints to monitor how effective our deep clean was. While swabbing does not specifically check for Covid-19, it does pick up any bacteria or pathogens which may linger on surfaces. It works by using Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP bioluminescence levels (what carries energy in all living things) to determine the level of contamination on a surface.
Using relative light units (RLU) to measure bioluminescence, we operate a strict pass/fail system. An RLU measurement of 0–24 is a pass, and anything above 25 RLU is a fail. The surfaces swabbed at Waddesdon Village Primary School registered readings of zero. This indicates that they are clean and free from bacteria and pathogens.
With a team of three, we were able to clean and disinfect the school premises within a few hours. It is a job that is easily done after hours or over the weekend at any school where Covid-19 is a concern. It can also be part of a more regular deep clean routine.
Waddesdon Village Primary is now ready to welcome back its full complement of staff and students as soon as it can do so.
With teams spread across the country, Acorn Commercials can respond to any call-out in England and Wales within a couple of hours. We have a variety of disinfection tools in our arsenal, suitable for all types of premises, vehicles and industry sectors.
To find out more about how we can help your business stay open or get back to business after a Covid-19 case, call us on 0800 772 3424 or email us at info@acorn-commercials.co.uk.
