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New Products
Cleaning colleges and schools
Bob Vincent, Executive Chairman of LCC Support Services looks behind the scenes
W
hat could be easier than cleaning a as they are often not sealed when installed. ‘Out of hours’ or holiday period work includes
school or college? At the end of the day Motor workshops are a nightmare to clean with deep kitchens cleans, cooker hoods, ducting and
everyone goes home and the cleaners can get deep floor and wall scuffs; oil, grease and brake ovens; science labs and workshops and art areas
on with their job. Wrong! fluid spills and oily finger marks everywhere. like pottery, textile printing and oil painting. These
When there are students/pupils in a building Cleaners need extensive training on relevant require specialist chemicals and equipment
there is a mess and anyone living with children, cleaning agents, equipment and technique. including steam cleaners and pressure washers.
especially teenagers will confirm this. You can Students have no respect for carpets and
never get a building spotless during term time but Colour is key flooring, so at weekends and evenings we use
with good time management and work scheduling Colour coding wipers and equipment is as extraction cleaning on the upholstery and carpets,
you can achieve a high standard most of the time. important when cleaning an educational and organise floor stripping and polishing.
We clean a many schools and colleges, state and establishment as any place. We use different Toilet graffiti is constant - during terms it is
independent, for all age groups. No two are the colours for washrooms, baby areas in nurseries, controlled and the walls are repainted usually twice
same but all have one common problem – pupils. food areas and general cleaning. a year.
They create a mess especially litter, chewing gum, Cleaners in the educational sector are no longer
graffiti in the toilets and vandalism. Trashing the toilets simply cleaners – they are diplomats for the
Daytime work includes window cleaning, litter Toilet graffiti is rife, blocking sinks with toilet paper contractor, intermediaries between other
picking, maintenance of food preparation and is frequent as is streaming’ toilet tissue onto the contractors, they require good interpersonal skills,
canteen facilities, washrooms, waste and materials floor and breaking hot air dryers and toilet seats. need constant training and retraining to be up to
removal from classrooms. In senior schools these Cleaners should develop good relationships with speed with new equipment and techniques and
include brick and cement dust, hair from the beauty in-house maintenance teams and painters and particularly new regulations. Cleaners must be able
class, cooking materials, building materials, wood builders must understand that they need to work to plan their workload in the time allocation and
shavings, metal, art materials, pottery clay and with the cleaners so that cleaning is carried out after during the reduced time that areas are available for
paint. Art, woodwork and pottery rooms are worst their work, not before. cleaning.
as fine dust blows and it sticks to anything. Cleaning teams must identify what must be done Today cleaning offers a good career with
during and after disaster such as fires, floods or development opportunities. They are assets to any
Ground rules break-ins. organisation and I have immense respect for the
Traditionally colleges and schools have the worst service they provide.
possible flooring for their needs - such as Terrazzo Out of hours work
where the pores of the floor clog with food, grease Mobile supervisors must be available on call 24/7
etc Low grades of vinyl are used to save money and and backed up with our help desk after hours, as uInfo@lccss.co.uk
these quickly suffer from a thorough cleaning regime. vandalism and arson is usually at night or u01277 268899
Cheap wood floors can become ruined in one term, weekends. uwww.lccss.co.uk
November 2009 www.education-today.co.uk
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