EDUCATION & STUDENT FACILITIES


HOW CAN CHILDREN BE PERSUADED TO WASH THEIR HANDS?


Can hand hygiene be taught in schools? And if so, how can washroom providers help to support teachers’ efforts? Stuart Hands from Tork manufacturer Essity considers the issue.


A new world record for the largest hand hygiene lesson ever to be held was set in the UK in October 2024.


Professors at Leicester’s De Montfort University staged the lesson which was attended virtually by 4,492 participants throughout the UK.


The aim of the event was to instill an understanding into young children of the profound effect that hand washing can have on health and well-being. More than 100 schools took part in the challenge which incorporated a hand hygiene story, demonstrations, songs and a UV light box that was used to highlight germs on children’s hands.


The event, which was staged to mark Global Handwashing Day, was just one of a series of ingenious attempts to impart the hand hygiene message to children in the post- COVID era.


When schools reopened after the various lockdowns, teachers all over the world came up with lesson plans designed to highlight how quickly the hands can become covered with germs – and how difficult it can be to remove them.


For example, one teacher in Missouri had the idea of ink-stamping the hands of her primary school class each morning, promising a prize to anyone who had successfully managed to wash off all the ink by the end of the day.


A classroom experiment in Idaho then went viral when teachers demonstrated the effects of dirt on bread slices. Members of staff asked pupils to touch bread with their unwashed hands before sealing the slices in ziplock bags. Untouched bread slices were then also sealed.


At the end of the three-week experiment, a thick green mould had grown on the bread slices that had been handled by children whereas the untouched bread remained mould-free.


Other hand hygiene lessons focused instead on the time it takes to cleanse the hands thoroughly of dirt. Children were advised to sing happy birthday twice while washing their hands to ensure that they carried out the practice for long enough to remove all the dirt, for example.


One primary school teacher in Farnborough, Hampshire, instigated a post-COVID hand-washing relay system to prolong the hand-washing process among her class of 30 pupils. She asked them all to line up at the sink and take it in turns to lather their hands. Once they had done so they


40 | TOMORROW’S FM


were then told to go to the back of the queue, rubbing their soapy hands together on the way. By the time they had reached the front of the queue to rinse their hands, each child had spent at least 20 seconds washing them.


Cartoon characters and robots were also used to engage children in hand hygiene practices during the COVID era. For example, the Department of Education in Northern Ireland teamed up with a company called Safefood to create a character named Rufus the Handwashing Hero. ‘Rufus’ was a furry cartoon creature who encouraged children to follow the five key steps to handwashing - wetting, adding soap, rubbing for 20 seconds, rinsing and drying.


We at Essity also took this ‘fun’ approach to hand hygiene training when we set up our own Ella hand washing app. Ella’s Hand Washing Adventure uses cartoon characters and simple messages to educate children about those occasions when hand washing is necessary, such as after playing outside and before eating. We also made available a series of tools to support good handwashing techniques in schools and nurseries via our Education Toolkit.


Hand hygiene training in schools seems to be gathering a new momentum. In 2023, Worcestershire County Council came up with a list of ideas for teachers designed to engage primary school children to carry out good hand hygiene practices. Its handwashing strategy was devised following a severe winter outbreak of norovirus and incorporates various fun activities such as making rainbow soaps using glycerine coloured with food dyes and perfumed with essential oils.


The council’s toolkit also includes hand-washing activities involving glitter and suggests an adaptation to the ‘singing Happy Birthday twice’ advice, encouraging children to choose a 20-second snippet of a trending song to help them to become more engaged with the process.


However, carrying out an effective hand wash at school usually involves a trip to the washroom. And this practice has become more problematical in recent years.


According to research by children’s bowel and bladder charity ERIC, many children today consider the washrooms at their schools to be dirty and intimidating. Around 24% are scared to use these facilities either because of loud noises, unpleasant smells or a generally threatening environment. And around a third claim to refrain from drinking water during the school day to avoid them having to use the washroom.


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