Children need an environment that helps them feel safe and secure, and childcare or kindergarten would always be their second homes. So, it is important to ensure childcare and kindergarten safety as well as keeping children away from household dangers. A kindergarten with high-quality environments can help reduce the risk of injuries. Today, I would like to share 5 ways to improve childcare and kindergarten safety!
5 ways to improve childcare and kindergarten safety
1. Provide sufficient space
In your childcare or kindergarten classroom, you will need to design spaces to accommodate children for group activities, study times, sleeping times, privacy, and storage. You may wonder why this has to do with kindergarten safety. When there is not enough space, children will not sit comfortably, slight bumps or touches might happen, teachers cannot conduct proper activities and there are so many more challenging kinds of stuff to arrange in a limited size classroom.
Numerous studies have explored child care space requirements that are necessary to:
- Provide an environment that is highly functional for program delivery and encourage strong, positive staff-to-child relationships
- Accommodate the recommended group size and staff-to-child ratio
- Efficiently use space and incorporates ease of supervision
- Recommendations from research studies range between forty-two to fifty-four square feet per child (1)
Image Credit: De51Gn
A key design requirement in the layout is kindergarten safety. One of the ways to improve that is to provide sufficient space to allow children the greatest possible variety of large muscle movement both indoors and out. The designed space should offer an invitation to move within safe and tolerable limits.
2. Safe Facilities
To keep children away from dangers, safe facilities are important including windows, door, shelves, and child-sized furniture. Talking about safety windows, there are a lot of ways childproof windows for kindergarten safety:
- Childproof Window Locks
- Window Guards
- Window Stoppers
- Window Blinds
- Window Screens
Image Credit: Modeld
Doors play a key role in ensuring kindergarten safety. Locking all doors from the outside and requiring staff to buzz parents into the school or centre should be compulsory. Installing child-sized bookshelves and lockers are also necessary safety facilities in a kindergarten. Child-sized furniture is always a must to ensure safety as well as foster independence and help them to move around.
3. Arranging the environment
The way you organize the space can make a huge impact on improving kindergarten safety. Plan your classroom layout, such as the workstations, reading area, playing area, storage area and even sleeping area. An ideal kindergarten classroom should have distinct areas for different subjects and activities so students can stay focus and organized.
The purpose of arranging the environment is for improving the social skills in children, increase their productivity levels, lead towards better collaboration and make them enjoy the visits to their kindergarten. Comfortable, welcomed, lively, fun and interactive spaces are super important things to take into considerations when it comes to kindergarten design.
It’s never easy to set up all these alone. That is why consulting a professional is crucial to know where and how to set up the furniture and facilities accordingly, separate learning and play areas, and organize the tools and toys for the children’s easy use.
4. Be sure all outdoor play areas are fenced in
Playground fencing is important to keep your childcare centre and kindergarten safe. A safe playground fencing prevents children from wandering away and keeps them safe from outsiders. The fencing should be tough, secure and safe to have on site.
Image Credit: Pentagonplay
Luke Banner worked with Bright Sparks Preschool to create a fantastic outdoor play area by installing a combination of our Playturf Artificial Grass and our colourful Wet Pour Surfacing. Children are safe to play on and the grass helps to avoid injuries.
Know the correct heights and distances to install the high-quality fencing and never forget the gate, the gate should always be self-closing and self-locking.
5. Watch the Floors
Children spend most of their time on the floor, which makes it a prior concern when comes to safety. Teachers should make sure the floors are clear of tools and toy that cause trips and fall, involve the children in the cleaning and tidying routine. Use carpet, rug or foam mat to improve the classroom safety, and add on carpet tape to prevent rugs and carpet from curling and check regularly for loose floorboards. Reduce the risk of accidents, “Prevent is better than cure”.
Image Credit: Behance
Add the elements of safety, as well as the rugs or carpets, are an effective way to help reduce background noise.
Looking for a good plan design for your kindergarten? Our experts are ready to assist you!
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