ARRIVALS & COLLECTIONS DURING COVID 19

 

Play Together Creche is committed to ensure the safety and care of children upon arriving and leaving our service. All Parents/employees must follow the collections and arrivals policy and procedures.  Arrangements for dropping off and picking up children from childcare will be organised to maintain distance between parents/guardians and the childcare workers. 

 

Two pods

During Covid-19 we will divide the children into two groups between playroom 1a+b and playroom 2.  The list of children in each room will be provided one week before reopening. From the first day we will organise daily activities separately in two pods (rooms) with a strict rule of not sharing space and toys. Also, outdoor activities will be organised at a different time for the children from different pods to minimize the risk of spreading the infection.

The movement of floating /relief staff members  from group to group will be essential but this will be limited as much as possible. 

 

Two entrances

There will be two separated entrances to Play Together for children from the different pods. Younger children from playroom 1a+b will enter the building through the side door directly to their room. Children from playroom 2 will use the main entrance to the building and go to their own room through the cloak room as usual. The bell will not be used during the pod system operation. Please knock on the window instead.  

 

Attendance 

 During Covid-19 we are obliged to fill in a log book to be able to track people (children, parents/guardians and staff) in each pod every day to facilitate Contact Tracing in the event of an episode of infection. Everyday we will record the child’s time in and out, but additionally we will make a note of who had dropped off and collected the child. It would be recommended to limit the number of people dropping off/collecting the child to a minimum. 

 

Additional measures: 

Every morning we will check the temperature of all our staff and children and if they present with a fever of 38 C (or above), they will not be permitted to enter the building. They will be asked to contact their GP for further advise. (see the procedure of dealing with a suspected case of Covid-19 under Infection Control Policy)

 

Arrivals

For the first week (or two), we will organise a schedule of dropping children off to eliminate a queue and to give the children a proper time to enter their classroom. During Covid-19 parents are not allowed to enter the building and we are absolutely aware of the fact, that it might be very difficult for some children after a few months to come into the creche without their Parents. For your child's well-being we would like to avoid a situation of seeing another child in a queue who might be upset. We are asking you for your assistance in adjusting your child into creche life again. Maybe you could look at some creche pictures on Facebook, or perhaps you could organise a walk around the creche, or even sing some familiar preschool  songs with your child.  Let’s do it together, let's do anything what might help your child to restart their creche life without major stress. We will organise music, balloons and bubble machine to make the place more welcoming for your kids, but your co-operation, your smile and a short bye-bye during the first week will be the KEY to our success.

 

Collections

You will collect your child from the same entrance where you had dropped your child off. Because the parents cannot enter the building during Covid-19 we have made some changes in the collection procedure to make it smoother and more efficient.

Collection from "pod 1a+b"

When you will park your car near the creche, or you have just arrived to the estate, please stay in the car or a small distance from the building if you had walked. Please do not look through the window from a short distance – it might make the children upset). When you are in the creche parking, please give us a ring 091458167. We will tell you from where you should collect your child, as some days the children might be outside at the collection time and then you will be asked to collect your child at the garden gate. We will organise your child to be collected as soon as possible, then we will open the door or the garden gate and you can collect your child from us. We do not escort kids to their cars, so please just watch out after calling us, when the door or gate is open. As we are still obliged to keep social distance between adults, we will make sure that the collection time is as smooth as possible. We will not give you a long verbal report, we will send you a message during the day if some important information need to be shared with you. 

Collection from "pod 2"

Please knock on  the playroom window. If there is nobody in the classroom, you should knock on the garden gate. Please keep the social distance outside of the creche building. If there is another parent in front of the door, please wait until his/her child will be collected. 

 

Some changes which might save our time and let us organise creche life better during Covid-19 restrictions:

  • No changing shoes during the Summer – please send your child to creche in the comfortable shoes, no wellies, no boots. Your child will spend all day wearing them, we will wipe the bottom of shoes if really needed during wet weather.
  • Replacing spare clothes: please prepare a new set of spare clothes for your child including:
  • t-shirt or vest x 2
  • long sleeves top x 2
  • shorts x 1
  • sweatpants x 2
  • underwear x 4
  • socks x 2

Please do not bring more clothes due to limited storage space 

 

  • The old spare clothes and slippers will be returned during the first week. We will keep the wellies unless they are too small. 
  • Strictly NO TOYS from home, please. Only one comfort toy is permitted for younger children, but please do not send it in if your child doesn’t need it. Also, please reduce to a minimum unnecessary accessories such as: necklaces, watches, bandanas, blankets, costumes’ elements, dress up etc. 
  • The LABEL with child’s name on each item please – this is a crucial for us to be able to separate children belongings. We will not be able to identify any none labelled items and due to our new collection policy, we will not let you in to find it. All unlabelled items will be placed in a special box with a lid and left outside of the building every Friday.
  • Do not use our bell – knock on the window instead
  • Please drop off your child at the agreed time (in the first week or two). Message with details will be send to you shortly
  • No drop off or collections from the pod 1a+b between 1.15 pm – 4pm, PLEASE.  This is a nap time, the children sleep in the room, and we will not be able to open the door without disturbing their nap.  

 

Policy created by Iwona Sawicka on 16/06/2020

reviewed March 2021 by Iwona Sawicka

reviewed March 2022 by Sawicka