Health at Hisar

A ‘Health Safety Committee’ was created at our School to ensure an effective protection and quick intervention during Coronavirus and suchlike epidemic process.

We kindly request you to provide information to epidemic@hisarschool.k12.tr address, which is created to follow up the process and support you, when necessary, in case of suspicious case description, quarantine, diagnosis and treatment processes related to your family or the people you are in touch with regarding Coronavirus.

Health Safety Commission Members

• Spec. Dr. Müge Kardaş, Hisar School Doctor
• Ezgi Çebi, Preschool Vice Principal
• Hüseyin Çelebi, Primary School Vice Principal
• Füsun Toparlak, Middle School Vice Principal
• Mustafa Bozkurt, High-School Vice Principal
• Özlem Ada Ülke, Human Resources Coordinator
• Sedat Çağlayan, Procurement and Supplier Management Representative
• Sinan Türkan, Occupational Health and Safety Expert

Our school introduced additional arrangements on top of the measures and practices in place as per the directives of the Turkish Ministry of National Education, Turkish Ministry of Health, and Hisar School Science Council in the new academic year of 2023-2024 that began on Monday, September 11. Cleaning processes and schedules in our school are monitored, evaluated, and where necessary, improved, on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis, as well as during the holidays, according to the OHS (Occupational Health and Safety) procedures.

During the TSI (Turkish Standards Institution) “My Clean School” Certificate renewal process, which is required by the Turkish Ministry of National Education for all private schools, our School was inspected once again by the TSI on October 15, 2022. We are delighted to announce that the inspection was successful and that our TSI “My Clean School” Certificate has been renewed.

The inspection proved once again our school’s compliance with the list of criteria consisting of 250 articles as part of the “Cooperation Protocol for Improvement of Hygiene Conditions and Prevention of Infections in Educational Institutions” which was executed by the Turkish Ministry of National Education to improve hygiene conditions and ensure consistent, valid, reliable and impartial implementation of the infection prevention and control processes. With this certificate, the Turkish Standards Institution confirmed that we guarantee health safety of our students, employees, and all individuals within the campus.

An application was made to the TSI to renew the “My Clean School Certificate” for the new school year.

2023-2024 Academic Year

Entry to the School Premises

• Within the campus and school entrance points, active thermal cameras continuously measure temperatures at 16 points in total.
• If a student or teacher has a temperature over 37 degrees, the alarm application detects it instantly.
• People who have a high fever are immediately directed to the infirmary, where their temperature is manually measured. In the case that the fever is above 37 degrees again in the second measurement to be made after 15 minutes, if the person with high fever is a student, their parents will be contacted as soon as possible. If the person is an employee, their transfer to a health institution will be planned to undergo the necessary examination and treatment procedures.

General Hygiene Measures

• Hand sanitizers are placed in school entry points, dining hall/cafeteria entrances, and in all lavatories. Regular checks are made to make sure that they are always full.
• School premises, especially classrooms and offices, are regularly cleaned, disinfected, and ventilated.
• Our school’s drinking water need is met through sensor-fitted water dispensers.
• Toilets and floors are disinfected with bleach (sodium hypochlorite) after each break.
• All door handles and shared areas touched frequently are disinfected with spray sanitizers every 3 hours.
• Different colored cleaning cloth is used for each surface. At the end of the day, washable cleaning clothes are disinfected with sodium hypochlorite or another disinfectant.
• During the day, the elevator buttons and panels are disinfected every 3 hours. Students can use the elevators only under the supervision of an adult or by obtaining permission due to medical reasons.
• Filters in air conditioning systems, fans in elevators, and air conditioning filters of shuttle vehicles regularly undergo maintenance.
• Used masks, visors, glasses, and gloves are disposed of in the “medical waste trash bins” placed at various points within the school.
• Documents shipped from outside the school such as institutional items, packages, envelopes, etc. are sterilized at the sterilization device available at the main entrance.
• The personnel at the cafeteria, shuttle, cleaning and security firm undergo regular training and audits to ensure that they adhere to the organization’s working and hygiene criteria.
• Training and warnings are issued to ensure that the cleaning personnel pays attention to their personal hygiene, use of masks and gloves, as well as to the frequency of replacing them.
• The contracted cleaning company at the school works holds the “Protocol-V-Safe” certification issued by an international certification company, which indicates their expertise in preventing exposure to viral pathogens, including measures against Covid-19.

Administrative Arrangements

• Visitor access to our school is not allowed due to health safety reasons, with the exception of mandatory cases, and pre-arranged and pre-announced parent-teacher meetings.
• The meetings that cannot be held online due to their subject and content can be held physically under control by taking the necessary precautions and making necessary preparations in the relevant place in advance.

Classroom Arrangements

• Classrooms are frequently ventilated.
• At the end of each day, the classrooms are cleaned and disinfected with appropriate cleaning materials and disinfectants.

Infirmary Arrangements

• Our main infirmary is divided into two sections: the “Student Infirmary” and the “Employee Infirmary.” Students and employees are separately examined and treated in their dedicated infirmary areas.
• Students or employees who do not need an intervention or treatment in the infirmary will not be admitted inside to mitigate the risk of transmission.
• Except for emergencies, patients will be examined with an appointment at the infirmary (with 15-minute intervals). The infirmary personnel is available at the phone number 212 or via email to revir@hisarschool.k12.tr for appointments.
• Our infirmary personnel admits and treats patients by always following the disinfecting rules and wearing masks.
• It is mandatory to use a hand sanitizer before and after access to the infirmary.
• The infirmary is frequently ventilated.
• Paper clothes on infirmary beds and stretchers are disposed of after each patient, and medical equipment goes through local disinfection.
• Floors and desks at the infirmary are cleaned with 10% sodium hypochlorite every 3 hours, while the frequently-touched surfaces and medical devices that are not suitable for use of sodium hypochlorite are disinfected every 2 hours or after each use with the appropriate disinfectants.
• Medical wastes are kept in special bags/containers in an isolated area on the school campus and delivered to the municipality at least once a week.
• Students and employees who have symptoms such as fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, conjunctivitis, sneezing, weakness, loss of taste and smell, and diarrhea must not come to school. They should instead visit a health institution the same day, and submit their diagnosis and rest report to the school physician and the relevant vice principal or email them to epidemic@hisarschool.k12.tr same day.

Cafeteria Arrangements

• Meal hours are arranged to ensure the implementation of the social distancing rule in the cafeteria among our students, teachers, and employees, along with a seating plan for the same purpose.
• High school students and employees eat at the High School Cafeteria. For high school students wishing to use school canteens, a total of two canteens are available, with one of them being in the High School Cafeteria, and one in the garden.
• Preschool students eat their lunch with their teachers in the B-Block Preschool Cafeteria.
• Primary and Middle School students and employees eat at the B-Block Cafeteria at the time allocated for them.
• High school students receiving cafeteria services have their breakfast and lunch at the High School Cafeteria.
• All cafeteria employees must strictly wear aprons, bonnets, visors, masks, and gloves.
• Tables after each use and food serving areas after each meal are cleaned and disinfected.
• Cafeterias and canteens are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected with bleach and sanitizers at the end of the day.
• All vegetables and fruits arriving in the cafeteria are washed with the appropriate systems, and packages of all packaged foods are cleaned.
• Water and food sample checks are regularly made.
• Food serving area is arranged in a way that leaves only enough space for the plate to pass through to minimize contact during service.
• Water is served at tables in water jugs. In addition, contactless water dispensers are available in several areas at A-Block, B-Block and the High School.
• Salads and yogurt are served at the open buffet.
• The catering company holds a TSI Covid-19 “Safe Production Certificate”.

Shuttle Arrangements

• Seating plan in the shuttles is the same in all commutes and may not be changed. It includes diagrams that indicate names and seats within the shuttle.
• Colognes/hand sanitizers are available in shuttles for the use of students and employees.
• Shuttles are disinfected on a daily/weekly/monthly/semester basis.
• The shuttle company holds a “Healthy Workplace” certificate as part of the Covid-19 and hygiene practices evaluation criteria.

Parents send the medications they want to be given to their children during the day to the infirmary, along with the medication use form, by writing the child’s name and surname on the medication. Medications are recorded in the infirmary log and monitored by infirmary nurses.

In addition, the nurses working in our infirmary are only allowed to administer medication to students upon the instructions of the school doctor or the approval of the family. “Medication Use Form” can be accessed via this link. It is vital that the use of antibiotics coincides with the hours when the student is at home, as the effect of the medication may decrease due to the temperature change it will be exposed to during transportation between school and home.

The list of medications and health supplies that must be stored in the infirmary is kept in accordance with the infirmary standards of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health. The list is displayed in the infirmaries. Medicines not included in the list are not administered. A medication and medical supplies warehouse has been established as required.

At our school, students are informed about oral and dental health by a volunteer dentist and are informed on how to maintain oral and dental health.Every year, during “Oral and Dental Health Week” from November 21 to 27, informational meetings are organized for students in classrooms.

For students who are required to follow a special diet for a long period or continuously, it is mandatory to obtain an official medical report regarding the disease and the diet from the relevant specialist whom the student is under constant follow-up with. Parents of students who have this report must fill out and sign the appropriate petition sent by the school student affairs and submit it to the school health unit along with the report. Following the approval of the school doctor, the nutrition items that the student must take during school hours are provided by his/her family, in accordance with the content of the report, and it is ensured that he/she eats in an environment deemed appropriate by the administrative unit. For students who wish to continue eating at the school cafeteria, the current menu is reviewed with the help of the food engineer and the appropriate foods are determined by the family and notified to the student.

School food samples are collected daily by the Food Engineer. They are placed in 180 gram ziplock sample bags and stored for 72 hours. In addition, the water used in main dishes, salads, side dishes, desserts, and other meals is analyzed once a month by the supplier company in its own laboratory and in a licensed Analysis Laboratory. The photocopies of the analysis results are provided to the infirmary and the Operations Manager by the food engineer. 

Drinking water is provided at the school through demijohns and purified dispensers. Water dispensers are maintained and disinfected through ozonation every six months.

Tap water, which is used in environments such as cafeterias, tea houses and toilets and comes into contact with hands, is obtained from our water tank, which is emptied, cleaned, disinfected and laboratory tested at the beginning of each semester. Our tap water, which comes into contact with hands, is purified by chlorination with a dose-adjusted pump and through ultraviolet, sediment, sand, salt and resin filters at the exit of the water tank.

The method used by our school against diseases that are easy to contaminate and spread is to ensure that students who show symptoms of the disease leave the school campus as soon as possible and go to the health institution where they are monitored. We kindly ask our parents not to send students to school in cases of illness or disease that show symptoms such as fever (above 37 degrees), runny nose, cough, and lice, or to have the student taken from school as soon as possible when called by the school infirmary regarding such a case. It is also of great importance for parents of students who are diagnosed with an infectious disease to deliver the doctor’s report to our school infirmary as soon as possible so that other parents are notified.

At the beginning of each academic term, in September and March, students are screened for pediculosis (lice). Screening may also be repeated at other times, based on complaint or suspicion. If any infectious or epidemic disease is diagnosed (lice, streptococcal angina, chickenpox, etc.), the parents are notified of the disease with an explanatory note issued by the school doctor. 

In order to protect the health of the school staff and students, the cafeteria staff are subjected to semi-annual porter examinations (blood, urine, stool, throat swab) and annual lung x-ray and physical examinations by the supplier company, in accordance with the health legislation of the Ministry of Health. Photocopies of the results are delivered to the infirmary by the food engineer working at the supplier company, checked by the School Doctor and kept in the file.