Pandemic Policy as at Lockdown Level 2
16 September 2020
Lakewood Lodge values the health of its guests and staff highly. We have high standards for cleanliness in and around the Lodge and take every care to minimise illness amongst children, students, staff and visitors, by encouraging and promoting good hand washing, cough and sneeze etiquette in accordance with the Education Outdoors NZ and Ministry of Health regulations stipulated at Level 2. Specifically:
Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) and Outdoor Education (OE) are hugely valuable components of an authentic rich curriculum. It’s great that schools are able to offer students and staff opportunities to reconnect with each other, have rich learning experiences, and enjoy the benefits of being in nature now that the country is at Alert Level 2.
As staff and students reconnect with each other and schools settle into new routines at Alert Level 2, learning outside the classroom and school gates is possible. Units of work or programmes that involve time away from school or in the outdoors can continue if managed appropriately.
Your school already has a plan for managing health and safety, and in particular, the public health requirements for Alert Level 2. The guidance below helps highlight how these requirements relate to EOTC and OE.
The key controls for schools and all workplaces are:
- Ensure people with COVID-19 symptoms or feel generally unwell stay away from school
- Maintain physical distancing, especially with strangers. At Lakewood Lodge, contact tracing will be in place for all staff and adults on premises so they can work with the children. Wherever possible, they will limit contact to 1 metre and wear gloves and masks where necessary.
- There will be good hygiene practices in place
- Contact tracing for everyone on premises.
- Lakewood Lodge will implement a detailed contact tracing list so all staff will limit who they are in contact with to keep children safe
Key Principles
Those unwell stay home
School staff are to observe students before leaving on EOTC events, checking for symptoms and asking those presenting as unwell to go home. Have a robust plan in place for all those involved if a student reports they are feeling unwell during an event.
Physical Distancing
Students and staff should maintain a physical distance so that they are not breathing on or touching each other.
Where practicable 1 metre can be used as a guide.
There are situations where physical distancing is not possible, such as some team activities. In these situations, extra emphasis on hand washing and drying (or cleansing with hand sanitiser) before and after activities and regular cleaning of equipment is very important.
Physical distancing from members of the public should be maintained at 2m.
If physical distancing is not practical, then the emphasis should be placed on good hygiene practices.
Sleeping
Wherever practical, children will sleep 1m apart which is not a problem at Lakewood Lodge. If physical distancing is not practical, then the Ministry of Health emphasis is placed on good hygiene practices. Hand washing stations are at all locations around the lodge. Children will wash hands before bed.
Good Hygiene
- Coughing into their elbow
- Regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces
- Exercise caution with common touch points (e.g. gates or doors) and wash or sanitise hands after touching these surfaces. Ensure these touch points are regularly cleaned or consider if they can be minimised.
- Fresh hand washing water and soap will be brought up to survival for each day
- Children will line up to wash their hands for a minimum of 20 seconds under adult supervision before morning tea, lunch, afternoon and dinner (the same rules will be followed by all adults)
- Hand towels will be provided for the children to dry their hands. Hand towels are changed twice daily at 8.30am and 2 pm.
- Hand washing reminders are given in orientation talks and before every meal, to both children and adults.
- We ensure that we have an adequate supply of medical and hand hygiene products available as well as soap and water. Ministry of Health and reminder posters are displayed throughout the camp
Kids Touching their faces
- Instructors will actively be encouraging children to stop touching their own faces without washing their hands. Instructors will monitor this vigilantly
Contact Tracing
- Contact tracing registers will be in place that identify all children and when and who they have contact with during the day. This includes any changes during the activity. The register needs to keep record of people the staff come in physical contact with, as well as recording any volunteers involved or any staff working for an external provider.
- Lakewood Lodge will also include transport details in your contact tracing information.
Food serving
- The instructor or another adult will be solely responsible for serving all food to reduce any risk of transmission
- All children will line up for the buffet selection keeping a distance of 1m as mandated
- Tongs are used to reduce any risk of transmission
- Children doing Survival will continue to bring their own cutlery and plates to avoid transmission through any shared use
- Latex-free sanitary gloves will be worn by any adult who is serving food to the children.
Food preparation
- All Ministry of Health guidelines are followed at Lakewood Lodge
- All kitchen surfaces are cleaned with soap and hot water followed by sanitiser up to 8 times per day
- The Dishwasher Sanitiser machine is used for all plates, dishes and utensils
- All produce is washed prior to cooking and serving
- Al food is labelled with the correct date mark
- Lakewood Lodge adheres to strict food safety guidelines around food temperature control
- In the preparation of food with the chef wearing gloves at all times
Cooking & eating equipment
- All survival cooking equipment will continue to be cleaned and sanitised using the dishwasher each night in the main kitchen
- All dinner equipment will also be separately cleaned up at survival between each group’s use
Cleaning of the premises
The entire Lodge is cleaned before a group arrives. The communal areas are cleaned daily with particular emphasis on the toilets and bathrooms.
Equipment
- All of Lakewood Lodge grounds can be used, with an emphasis on hand washing and drying (or cleansing with hand sanitiser) before and after use.
- Shared supplies and equipment are able to be used if students and staff are undertaking regular hand washing and staying away if sick. Where practical, equipment will be cleaned after each group
- Children will NOT be sharing blindfolds, hats, any guards or protective covers over the face or nose
- For flying fox and horse games, as per the regulations, helmets will be treated with a non-contact spray sanitiser (particularly the touch points like the buckles and shell of the helmet) between groups and children will sanitise or wash hands after each activity
- For kayaking where we use waterproof jackets these will only be used by each student they are allocated to during the activity and sanitised between activities
- Life jackets and kayak paddles will not be swapped between students during the activity and will be disinfected between groups
- Everyone will wash and dry their hands or use hand sanitiser before and after using equipment or equipment/gear.
- When cleaning the equipment between groups is not practical, e.g. ropes, hand holds on climbing walls, particular emphasis will be placed on washing and drying hands or using hand sanitiser before and after the activity.
- All Lakewood Lodge activities are possible to use
Monitoring and Isolation
- Any child or adult who report feeling unwell, or who the Instructor and/or Teacher believe may be unwell will go to the Lakewood Lodge Isolation room provided. Ministry of Health guidelines are followed for treatment.
- Staff have personal protective equipment if someone were to become ill with flu, gastro bug, or COVID-19 so they can maintain contact safely
- The person in question will be given a mask to wear and will be isolated from the rest of the group immediately
Transport
- Lakewood Lodge will keep a record of each vehicle used, and the students and staff that travelled in it, to enable contact tracing.
- Buses will have hand sanitiser available for each student to use as they board the vehicle.
- Vehicles and surfaces will be sanitised after each journey.
- Groups may travel together in a bus provided the legal seating requirements of the vehicle are adhered to.
Staff Health
- All Lakewood lodge staff will wear hygienic protection when interacting with children
- Lakewood Lodge Management regularly monitors staff health and well-being.
- If there is any doubt, the staff member shall be isolated in a designated area and medical advice sought.