School Maintenance Checklist: Preparing your school for autumn

With the autumn months drawing in and winter just around the corner, it’s time to get out your school maintenance checklist.

Having worked with many learning facilities throughout the years, we know that it isn’t always easy to get funding for large repairs. Taking care of your site now will help you avoid running into more serious issues that require applying for schemes such as CIF. Should you need to do this, however, our team here at Munday + Cramer are experts when it comes to bid writing. Having helped hundreds of schools achieve this kind of funding, it’s safe to say that we know how to jump through the right hoops. What’s more, enlisting our help will certainly save you a lot of stress too.

Prepping your academy for these colder months will also help you to stay compliant with health and safety regulations. If keeping your students safe is your top priority, then it’s important that you start getting things ticked off your school maintenance checklist for autumn.

Where to start with your school maintenance checklist

Not sure where to start? This is often one of the hardest hurdles to overcome when beginning any task. To help you on your way, below, our team have listed some of the most important tasks to add to your autumn school maintenance checklist.

Guttering

Although this one may seem trivial to mention, checking your guttering should be an integral part of everyone’s school maintenance checklist. The colder months encourage trees and shrubs to begin shedding, and leaves are the number one cause for damaged and blocked drainage systems. With the warm weather seemingly starting earlier this year, many plants have already begun discarding dead foliage. With this in mind, it’s high time to check your guttering. Failure to do so could lead to water ingress, damp, and flooding.

Exterior repairs and filling gaps

Take a walk around the school grounds and take note of any exterior damage. This could be to the walls, paths, or even to the roofing. Sloping or cracked pavement slabs, water pooling and ingress, and cracks in brickwork are all potential hazards and need to be fixed. What’s more, as part of your school maintenance checklist, it can also be beneficial to seal any small gaps. As the colder months draw closer, animals will begin looking for places to keep warm and dry, and your school could become their new home! Ignoring the signs could lead to all manner of issues.

Anti-slip surfaces

It really does pay to have anti-slip surfaces around both the home and within schools. If this is something you are lacking however, it’s important you are putting in the work to protect your staff and students from potential hazards. Raking leaves and salting your pavements when it’s icy will help you to minimise accidents. Long term, however, you should consider replacing any slippery surfaces with materials that have a better grip.

Who we are

Here at Munday + Cramer, we are experts when it comes to project and facilities management. As an organisation that is experienced with working within schools, we understand your needs and wants better than most. With this in mind, you can be confident in our delivery of a tailored, top-quality service.

We can also help with:

• Architecture
• Surveying
• Applying for funding (bid writing)
• Procurement

Contact us

Spotted a larger issue whilst carrying out your school maintenance checklist? In need of further support to fix it? Get in touch with our team today!

Munday + Cramer are well versed in helping schools prepare for autumn. Contact a member of our team today on 01245 326 200 or reach us by email on info@mcessex.co.uk.