Daily cleaning of classrooms, common areas, administrative offices and school grounds is non-negotiable when it comes to maintaining a safe and welcoming learning environment. But it’s restricted to fitting within teaching schedules, extra-curricular activities, school events and parent-teacher interviews.
Those pressures fall away during the school holidays, giving cleaning teams the perfect opportunity for a thorough deep clean that goes beyond surface-level maintenance. Deep cleaning helps create healthier learning spaces, extends the life of facilities and assets, and ensures schools are ready to welcome students and staff back for the new term.
Daily cleaning vs Deep cleaning – what’s the difference?
Both types of cleaning are essential, but they serve different purposes.
Daily cleaning
Daily cleaning mainly focuses on keeping school facilities clean throughout the school day, and includes activities such as:
- Emptying rubbish bins
- Mopping and vacuuming floors
- Wiping desks and benches
- Cleaning toilets and bathrooms / change rooms
- Restocking consumables (soap, toilet paper etc)
- Spot cleaning marks and spills
- Disinfecting high-touch surfaces (handrails, door handles etc)
Daily cleaning keeps the school clean and hygienic for everyday use during the school term.
Deep cleaning
Deep cleans happen less frequently, but are more intense, and focus on restoring and sanitising the entire campus, including areas that are not typically addressed during daily cleans.
Deep cleaning can include the following activities
- Carpet cleaning
- Stripping, sealing and polishing floors
- Detailed bathroom descaling
- High-level dust removal
- Cleaning behind and underneath furniture
- Air vent and duct cleaning
- Internal and external window cleaning
- Comprehensive disinfection programs
In contrast to daily cleaning, deep cleaning often requires specialised equipment, advanced cleaning products, and additional time to complete – making school holidays the perfect time to get this done!
Why is deep cleaning important?
1. Creating a healthier learning environment
Schools are very busy, high foot traffic and high touch environments where hundreds or even thousands of students and staff share the same spaces every day. Lots of hands touching lots of surfaces means that dirt, germs and viruses are spread easily, while dust and allergens circulate and accumulate.
Deep cleaning can help to remove contaminants that daily cleaning might not get to. It creates a healthier environment for students and staff, and can also lower absenteeism due to reducing the exposure to germs and allergens.
2. Improving indoor air quality
Dust and airborne particles can gather in carpets, ventilation systems, soft furnishings and ceiling spaces. As they accumulate they can contribute to poorer air quality and health conditions such as asthma, allergies and respiratory discomfort.
Deep cleaning those surfaces during the school holidays allows cleaning teams to remove the built-up dust, improving the indoor air quality and contributing to improved wellbeing of students and staff.
3. Extending the life of school assets
School assets represent a significant investment – furniture, hard floors, carpets, learning spaces and sporting equipment have to endure a lot of wear and tear, so it’s important they are maintained to protect them from damage and deterioration over time.
Regularly stripping and sealing floors, carpet extractions and detailed cleaning can extend the lifespan of those assets, reducing long-term repair or replacement costs.
4. Maintaining a good impression
Whether it’s the first day of school, the first day of term or a Monday, a good impression matters. Parents, students, staff and visitors will – consciously or subconsciously – form an opinion on the cleanliness of the school, which has a direct impact on its reputation.
Sparkling clean floors, fresh classrooms and well-maintained facilities show a genuine commitment to the school community, and to health, safety and professionalism. Daily cleans help to maintain this impression throughout the term, but deep cleans during the holidays ensure that the campus shows itself in the best light possible when students return for a new term or a new year.
5. Supporting compliance and safety standards
Maintaining high cleanliness standards is essential to support student welfare and to comply with strict health and safety regulations.
A deep clean is a great opportunity to identify any safety concerns, maintenance issues or sanitary risks before they become larger problems. While everyone is offsite it’s also the best time to ensure that shared spaces such as bathrooms, teachers’ rooms, kitchens and sporting facilities are safe and hygienic spaces for everyone to return to.
Why deep clean during school holidays?
There’s minimal disruption of teaching and learning activities during the school holidays.
Without students and staff on-site, cleaning teams have the time and opportunity to:
- Full access to all classrooms, staff rooms and facilities
- Move furniture around freely
- Use specialised cleaning equipment and products safely
- Perform larger maintenance tasks efficiently
- Allow flooring and surfaces enough drying time
This level of cleaning simply isn’t possible during normal school operations during the term.
Investing in a cleaner future
A well-planned school holiday deep clean is an investment in people and property. It supports student wellbeing and staff health, it maintains good impressions and elevates the overall educational experience, and it protects the school’s assets long-term.
Combining thorough daily cleans with detailed deep cleaning during the school holidays puts educational institutions in the best position to provide a welcoming, safe and hygienic learning environment. It highlights the school’s commitment to its community, to health and well-being and to operational excellence all year round.
