Covid – 19 Information Page

Covid 19 Risk Assessment

Harrison College System of Controls: Protective Measures

On Monday 21 February, the Prime Minister set out the next phase of the government’s COVID-19 response ‘Living with COVID-19’. COVID-19 continues to be a virus that we learn to live with and the imperative to reduce the disruption to children and young people’s education remains.

For the education and childcare sectors, the main changes announced include:

• changes to self-isolation and daily testing of close contacts
• changes to testing in education and childcare settings and children’s social care services

From Monday 21 February, the Government is removing the guidance for staff and students in most education and childcare settings to undertake twice-weekly asymptomatic testing.

Staff and secondary-aged students in SEND settings, alternative provision settings, and SEND units within mainstream settings, or equivalent in further education colleges, are advised to continue regular twice-weekly testing.

From Thursday 24 February, the Government will remove the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive test. Adults and children who test positive will continue to be advised to stay at home and avoid contact with other people for at least 5 full days, and then continue to follow the guidance until they have received 2 negative test results on consecutive days. In addition, the Government will:

• No longer ask fully vaccinated close contacts and those aged under 18 to test daily for 7 days, and remove the legal requirement for close contacts who are not fully vaccinated to self-isolate.
• End routine contact tracing. Contacts will no longer be required to self-isolate or advised to take daily tests. Staff, children and young people should attend their education settings as usual. This includes staff who have been in close contact within their household, unless they are able to work from home.
• End the legal obligation for individuals to tell their employers when they are required to self-isolate.

Home Test Kits LFD

  • Covid Safe Procedures (daily routine):
    • Sanitise on arrival
    • Temperature check and write your temperature on the signing in sheet
    • If you have done an LFD test  at home, then inform College by putting a green dot, next to your signature on the signing in sheet
    • Sanitise hands again
    • Face coverings can be worn if a student or staff members wishes to.
    • Frequent increased hand washing routines to sanitise hands at the beginning of the day, when changing areas, before and after lunch and at the end of the day,
    • Cleaning of workstations, tables, equipment including laptops and workstations etc. in-between and before/after each session
    • Maintain social distancing where possible from students and other adults – also during breakfast club and lunch
    • If a student develops any of the 3 highlighted COVID-19 symptoms; high temperature, new continuous cough and loss of taste/sense of smell, they will immediately be sent home and are advised to work at home for a further 5 days or until symptoms have gone.

Should a student have to self isolate or feel that they cannot attend College they should contact College and also continue to use all the virtual learning platforms that are used in College which can be found here: Students

Harrison College System of Controls: Protective Measures

Harrison College has been de-contaminated and sanitised by Harrison Facilities Management. This was carried out and a certificate of completion can be viewed on request.

PREVENTION

Minimise contact with individuals who are unwell by ensuring that those who have coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms do not attend College

  • All staff and students are advised to take LFD tests twice weekly
  • All staff, students and visitors will have a temperature check when entering the building.

Clean hands thoroughly more often than usual

Ensure that all adults and young people:

  • frequently wash their hands with soap and water for 20 seconds and dry thoroughly. Review the guidance on hand cleaning
  • Clean their hands on arrival at the setting, before and after eating, and after sneezing or coughing
  • Are encouraged not to touch their mouth, eyes and nose
  • Use a tissue or elbow to cough or sneeze and use bins for tissue waste (‘catch it, bin it, kill it’)
  • Ensure that bins for tissues are emptied throughout the day
  • Where possible, all spaces should be well ventilated using natural ventilation (opening windows) or ventilation units
  • Prop doors open, where safe to do so (bearing in mind fire safety and safeguarding), to limit use of door handles and aid ventilation
  • All students will be issued with their own bottle of hand sanitiser

Ensure good respiratory hygiene by promoting the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ approach

Introduce enhanced cleaning, including cleaning frequently touched surfaces often using standard products, such as detergents and bleach

  • Toilets will be allocated to students and staff to minimise cross contamination. Signage is posted around the college and also disinfectant wipes and provided in each toilet and instructions are available to  explain how to clean the taps, sink, toilet handle and seat and dispose in the bin
  • All teacher workstations and reception are provided with spray on and leave disinfectant which will be done 3 times per day, on top of the usual cleaning routine, targeting heavy use areas such as door handles, desks and chairs
  • The learning environment will be sanitised weekly using an aerosol; Sanigone. Sanigone is a highly effective sanitiser and disinfectant product which kills 99.99% of ALL enveloped coronaviruses in an enclosed space and can last for up to 7 days. SANIGONE is certified with three British Standards of testing and authentication:    BS EN 14476, BS EN 1276 and BS EN 1650.

Minimise contact between individuals and maintain social distancing wherever possible

Other Considerations

Reduce the use of shared resources:

  • By limiting the amount of shared resources that are taken home and limit exchange of take-home resources between young people and staff. Students will use their allocated laptops and this will be labelled with their name along with the battery charger. Laptops will be cleaned at the start of each day in College.
  • By seeking to prevent the sharing of stationery and other equipment where possible. Shared materials and surfaces should be cleaned and disinfected more frequently
  • Students will sit at an allocated desk, keeping groups to a maximum of 12. Folders and stationery will be allocated to each student and cleaned at the end of each day and will only be used by the same student each day.

Coronavirus Information

We are following the guidance from Pubic Health England and the Department for Education and further advice and guidance can be found on their website by clicking the link below:

Actions for FE colleges and providers during the coronavirus pandemic – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Special schools and other specialist settings: coronavirus (COVID-19) – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

COVID-19 Response: Living with COVID-19 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)