Strategy to stop germs spreading in the schoolyard

Teaching kids how to stay healthy using good respitory hygiene is the aim of a new programme, reports Genevieve Helliwell.

Your head is pounding, your body aches and your throat is on fire. Your nose is dripping, there's a tickle at the back of your throat and you feel a sneeze coming on. You don't have a tissue - what do you do? Ahh ... ahh ... ahh ... choo! Too late - millions of particles expel from your mouth at tremendous speed and spread across the room.
Each year thousands of students across the country battle the nasties brought along by the cold, wet winter. The school environment is a breeding ground for germs and unless preventative action is taken, cold and flu viruses spread like wildfire.
However, schools are keeping students healthy this winter through good respiratory hygiene. They've adopted the Kleenex SneezeSafe programme that will teach children how to be hygienic and prevent the spread of germs.
Brookfield Primary School in Tauranga is one of the five schools that have signed up to the programme and health and nutrition teacher Nanette Miller is excited about using the new teaching kit that will help reinforce the message to her students.
"I feel it's really important to talk about how we can stop the spread of germs, because at schools germs can spread very easily," she says.
"Cold and flu and other germs can spread very easily but school sores is probably the worst because the kids can't help but pick at them and, similar to mosquitoes, they scratch and itch them and when they're sitting on the matt these germs can easily spread to other children."
Miller says students at Brookfield are "pretty good" with their hygiene and the majority of students knew what action to take to keep healthy. However, she says, sickness as a whole is always an issue in schools and children always need reminding of healthy habits.
Last year, hundreds of students in the Western Bay of Plenty were forced to take time off school because of influenza. In July 2010, principal of Tauranga's Gate Pa School Richard Inder said the school had 130 students absent with the flu, out of a roll of 350. Teachers, too, had felt the wrath of the flu and many had been "just lasting" in the days leading up to the July holidays, using the break to get well, he said.
Miller does not want this to happen this year at Brookfield Primary School and says preventative action is better than reactive action, which is one of the reasons why she is taking on the SneezeSafe programme.
The programme is accepted by the national health curriculum and the SneezeSafe messaging is supported by the Ministry of Health. It will be offered in Miller's class but she hopes to introduce the teaching to the rest of Brookfield Primary School. The programme includes resources for teachers that will aid them in health-related lessons. SneezeSafe schools will also receive a teaching kit that includes a sneeze machine (a squirt bottle), silly spray and glitter.
"These items are novel ways to show the students how far germs can travel and how easily they can be transferred from person to person," Miller says.
"You put the glitter in the palm of your hand and shake hands with another person and you'll see how easily germs can spread. It's visual cues like this that will help get the message across."
Staff will also receive lesson plans with games and activities for students, plus stickers and posters.
Virologist Dr Lance Jennings says children are both extremely vulnerable to flu and the most prolific spreaders of flu.
He says schools that were taking steps to help protect their students from the flu with respiratory hygiene education were indirectly keeping children learning.
"So there's an education upside and also a community upside.
"Children who grasp good respiratory hygiene at a young age will begin a positive flow-on effect in their families and communities and throughout their lives," he says.
Jason Biggs from Kimberly-Clark New Zealand, the company that developed the SneezeSafe programme, says schools are one of the main environments for the transfer of cold and flu viruses and as a way to help, the company has made the SneezeSafe teaching resource available and free to download.
The SneezeSafe lesson plan, poster and video are available at www.sneezesafe.co.nz
The facts:
How to stop the spread of germs
* If you are going to sneeze or cough, cover your mouth with a tissue or handkerchief.
* If you don't have a tissue or handkerchief, sneeze or cough into your inner elbow.
* Wash your hands after sneezing or coughing.
* Use anti-bacterial hand sanitisers.
* Wash your hands before touching food.
* Try to keep your hands away from your face, especially your eyes, mouth and nose.
What's in the sneeze-safe teaching kit
* A sneeze machine - to show how far germs can travel.
* Glitter - to show how easily germs can be transferred.
* Silly spray - to show how far germs can spread.
* Lesson plans that remind students to be sneeze-safe.