How schools make the most of notice boards to promote hygiene
- 7 Apr 2020
How schools can make the most of their notice boards to promote hygiene
Notice boards are a vital feature within schools, and play a significant role in ensuring that everyone is being kept up to date with the latest information. Not only do they display vital information, they can also be a useful learning tool and aid classroom activities. As one of the leading notice board vendors in the country, headmasters regularly ask the Red17 team how to use them to their full potential.
Notice boards are perfect for advertising events, keeping everyone on the same page, and promote hygiene within the school, such as how to wash your hands correctly. Hygiene advice can be placed in many different locations around a school, such as in classrooms, corridors, dining halls, and in the playground.
How can your school harness the power of notice boards to ensure that everyone is staying safe and healthy?
Choosing the best type of notice board
If you are trying to promote hygiene around your school, use your notice boards for the biggest impact. You can place educational posters on multiple boards around your campus. When you’re deciding on where to place your boards, you should also consider the different boards available to ensure they are as useful as possible. Notice boards come in many different kinds of material, from felt, to pin boards, and those designed to be used with dry wipe markers.
Furthermore, some notice boards come with an outer plastic lockable case, which restricts people from changing or removing the items pinned on display. We would recommend that you use lockable boards on the outside of the building and in the playground. This will prevent your notices from blowing away or being destroyed by the weather, and also ensures that vandals can’t interfere with the display.
Placing a clear message promoting hygiene ensures that your messaging will be visible to both students and parents, and hopefully get the news out to lots of people. The size of the notice board is also worth considering. Notice boards vary from small boards to those that cover the entire wall. Try to use the space as best you can - if the board is larger, try and create larger promotional material so that it stands out more.
How to make the most from a notice board
As notice boards are commonplace within schools, many students almost become ‘blind’ to them. They end up walking past the boards multiple times a day, and often they will not really ‘take in’ the important information placed upon them. There are a few crucial tips schools can follow to ensure they are making the most of these spaces and making them attractive and eye-catching.
- Colourful Borders
These are important, as will highlight the outside of the board and create a neat edge around the display. Ideally, the border should be a different colour to the main display in order to help the information stand out. The border can be different shapes and patterns to make it stand out from the wall behind - Bold text and plenty of images
One of the key ways to attract children (particularly younger children) is through using images. Use colourful pictures that children can relate to and are interested in. If you are trying to promote hygiene on your notice board, try and use diagrams to portray the message, along with bold and attractive text. - 3D displays
Adding another dimension to the board can help attract the student’s attention and make them stop to have a look. There are lots of different materials you can use to help create a 3D display, such as balloons, bubble wrap, pipe cleaners, and plastic structures.
Making the most of notice boards inside the school
Notice boards inside the school are mainly for the benefit of the students and other members of staff. They can be used for lots of different reasons, and to display a wide variety of information. If your school has decided to focus on using your notice boards to promote hygiene, you should try and place the information in the right locations around the school. The key locations to make the most of the boards are:
- School hall/dining hall
This space is an area where all the children and teachers will visit at least once a day, to eat and enjoy their lunch. Therefore, you can reach the majority of people in your institution by targeting your dining hall. Try to use the notice boards to portray the most critical hygiene messages that you are trying to get across.
For example, include the steps and images on how to best wash your hands, as will hopefully remind and encourage everyone to take these steps before and after eating their lunch. Moreover, notice boards in and around the hall can also be used to display school canteen menus, and any upcoming assemblies and school shows that may take place in that area. - Corridors
School corridors can be a busy place, with lots of people rushing to get to their classroom or head outside for break time. For this reason, the information on these notice boards may get missed. The best way to use the notice boards in these areas is to try and make them attractive so that the information on them stands out, ensuring that students and staff alike don’t overcrowd the boards. - School toilets and changing rooms
These areas are particularly important places in which to promote hygiene. Even if the boards in and around these areas are smaller, try to post clear reminders on these notice boards, such as the simple ‘wash and dry your hands’ and ‘please use soap.’ - Classrooms
Classroom space is a prime place to display the children’s work. If hygiene is your key focus, ask them to create posters and displays on the key points you want to reinforce. Then, create a bright display using their work as a focal point. A good exercise for this is to ask the children to draw and cut around their hand shape and decorate them with messages such as ‘wash me with soap before eating! You can then place all the children’s hands on the wall.
Making the most of notice boards outside the school
Notice boards outside the school can be a great way to communicate with the parents and community. It is important to think about how these can be used most effectively to portray the most vital messages. The most effective key locations include:
- Playground
The notice board in the playground can be used to remind students of essential messages in the times before school, during lunchtime, and after school when they are on their way home. These messages can include reminders be to wash their hands after playing, and wipe their feet on their way back into the school. Moreover, they can include information about coughing and sneezing into a tissue, and then throwing it away. - School railings / outside the buildings
The notice boards pinned on the outside of the building and school railings are the primary locations on which to communicate to parents about parent’s evenings, upcoming school plays, non-school uniform days, and sports days.
Conclusion
If used effectively, notice boards within schools provide you with a great space to put up displays and promote important information. This includes information regarding hygiene around the school, as well as other vital notices that keep everyone on the same page.
Try and strategically place the news in the places where it will have the most impact, such as outside for parents, or in the dining halls for students. Make sure that you include the students, and ask them to help to create bright and attractive displays. If they feel included and proud of their work, they are more likely to take note of the important messages that the notice board is displaying, enabling you to make the most of the space.
Read more: How to get kids engaged with school notice boards