28 May 2020
Dear Parents,
COVID-Safe ABCs - Back to School with Our New ABCs
Let’s Stay Safe Together
On 19 May 2020, the Multi-Ministry Taskforce outlined plans
to exit the Circuit Breaker measures. It was then announced that preschools and Early Intervention centres will start to reopen in phases from 2 June 2020, to
allow young children to continue learning and to support parents as they return to
work. A key priority is to ensure that we reopen in a safe manner that minimises the
risk of transmission for children and staff in preschools.
Phased Reopening of Preschools from 2 June 2020
2. From 2 June 2020, preschools will begin to resume general
services in the following phases, to support parents who are ready to send
their children back to preschools.
• From 2 June: Kindergarten 1 and Kindergarten 2 children
• From 8 June: Nursery 1 and Nursery 2 children
• From 10 June: Infant Care and Playgroup children
3. The phased reopening within early June is to ensure that
staff, children and parents follow the enhanced safe management measures which
we refer to as “COVID-Safe ABCs”. It will also ease the transition for the
children. Thus, we seek your cooperation to follow the schedule for your child’s
return to the preschool.
4. We recognise that some parents may have to return to work
before their child’s level is reopened and cannot find alternative care. In such
instance, parents may discuss with the preschool to arrange for their child to
return earlier as an exception. For children who are currently on the Limited Service, they
would be allowed to continue from 2 June 2020.
5. To minimise the risk of transmission across centres, supplementary programmes such as enrichment and early intervention
services where providers may move across different centres and classes remain suspended.
We are closely monitoring the situation and will advise when it is safe to
resume these activities.
COVID-Safe ABCs for Safer Preschools
6. Since late January 2020, we have progressively stepped up
precautionary measures to mitigate the risk of COVID-19 transmission in preschools.
As we move out of the Circuit Breaker, all preschools will be required
to adhere to enhanced safe management measures (referred to as “COVID-Safe ABCs”) to
safeguard the wellbeing of preschool children and staff:
a. COVID-Safe Access is about restricting entry of
individuals who may pose a higher risk of transmission to safeguard the wellbeing of
children and staff in preschools (e.g. restriction of visitors, steped-up
health checks).
b. COVID-Safe Behaviours is about cultivating the right norms
and habits among staff, children and parents to reduce the risk of
transmission (e.g. wearing of masks or face shields, carrying out activities in
small groups within each class, increased cleaning of premises and
equipment, good personal hygiene).
c. COVID-Safe Classrooms is about adopting classroom
management strategies to minimise interaction between different classes
to reduce the risk of widespread transmission within a preschool (e.g. no
cross deployment of staff, keeping staff and children within their
own areas, staggering drop-off and pick-ups).
7. To instill COVID-Safe ABCs into the daily routines of
staff and children, we have called for preschools and EI centres to dedicate at least
the first two weeks of reopening to strengthen public health awareness and build a
culture of COVID-Safe habits among staff and children. This will be prioritised
over resumption of the normal curriculum. We seek your understanding that there
will be adjustments to timetables during the initial weeks.
Support from Parents for COVID-Safe ABCs
8. All of us play an important part in keeping our preschool
community safe. It is important that all staff, children and parents adopt
COVID-Safe habits and norms to reduce the risk of transmission when preschools reopen. We
seek the support of parents to work together with your child’s preschool in the
implementation of the following safety measures:
a. COVID-Safe Access
☑ Tighter health checks and temperature screening
• Health checks and temperature screening will be conducted
for all children and staff on entry and several times a day. The
health checks will look for general signs of children feeling
unwell, beyond fever, cough, runny nose, sore throat, and shortness of
breath.1
• Any child or staff who is unwell will not be allowed into
the preschool. Those who become unwell during the course of the
day will be immediately isolated and asked to leave.
• Parents are advised to seek medical attention promptly if
their child is unwell and avoid clinic hopping. Children should stay at
home to rest and return to the preschool only when fully recovered.
• Children/Staff with adult household members who have fever
and/or flu-like symptoms such as cough, runny nose, sore throat, shortness of breath are encouraged to stay home, if
possible.
☑ Restriction of staff and child in preschools – Quarantine
Order / Leave of Absence / Stay-Home Notice
• Staff and children on Quarantine Order (QO), Leave of
Absence (LOA) and Stay-Home Notices (SHN) will not be allowed to
enter the preschool.
☑ Restriction of visitors in preschools
• Parents and visitors are not allowed into the preschool
premises. Parent –teacher meetings are to be carried out via
teleconferences or online engagements (e.g. video conferencing).
b. COVID-Safe Behaviours
☑ Wearing of masks or face shields
• All staff and children aged 2 years and older should wear
masks2 or face shields. This is not required for children below the
age of 2 years for safety reasons.
• We understand that some children may have difficulties
wearing a mask, for example, children with special needs and younger
children. Face shields may be used as an alternative.
• Preschools have been advised to exercise flexibility when
working with children to wear masks.
• There may be times during the day where it may not be
practical or safe for children to wear masks or face shields such as
meals and nap time.
• Parents should ensure that children bring and wear their
masks/face shields to preschool, and work with the preschool to teach
childrenthe proper use, cleaning, handling and disposal of masks/face shields.
☑ Practise good personal hygiene
• Teach children to cover their mouth and nose with a tissue
when sneezing or coughing, and to throw away the tissue
immediately into a bin;
• Teach children to avoid touching their eyes, nose and
mouth;
• Wash hands frequently with soap, especially before eating
or handling food, after toilet visits, or when hands are
dirtied by respiratory secretions after coughing or sneezing; and
• Avoid sharing of food/drinks, utensils,
toothbrushes/towels and other equipment/materials as far as possible.
c. COVID-Safe Classrooms
☑ Safe distancing at drop-off and pick-up
• Stagger drop-off and pick-up time to reduce interactions
among people during arrival and dismissal. We encourage parents
who are working from home to drop off and pick up your child during
non-peak hours.
• Parents are to keep a safe distance, and to not mingle
with other parents.
• Parents should also avoid long conversations with
preschool staff at the drop-off/pick-up points. Parents can dialogue with staff
via phone/email.
☑ Safe distancing outside of school
• We encourage parents to avoid social gathering for
children across different classes outside of the preschool to reduce the
risk of widespread transmission.
Back to School with Our New ABCs: Public Education
Initiative
9. ECDA understands that instilling these COVID-Safe ABCs
into the daily routines and habits of children, staff and parents is a
major effort. We will support preschools and parents in this effort by embarking on a
COVID-Safe ABCs: Back to School with Our New ABCs public education initiative. As
part of this initiative, we will do the following:
• Back to School with Our New ABCs infographics. A set of
infographics has been produced to make the COVID-Safe ABC
measures easy to understand and remember. One infographic is tailored
for adults and another for children. The infographics can now be downloaded
from go.gov.sg/BackToSchoolABCs.
• Back to School ABCs jingle. A jingle will be released from
2 June 2020 so that preschools can engage children in sing-along to better
recall the key COVID-Safe ABC measures. Parents and preschools can download
the music video and sing-along versions to have a fun singing
session with your child at home from go.gov.sg/BackToSchoolABCs.
• COVID-Safe #15dayABC Challenge. ECDA will call for
preschools to encourage children to participate in #15dayABC Challenge for
kids upon their return to preschool, so that they actively practise
the COVID-Safe ABC measures daily and translate them into habits.
10. In addition to the above activities, preschools have
been encouraged to also design programmes and activities during the first two weeks
of reopening to focus on inculcating and familiarising the staff, children
and their parents on the COVID-Safe ABCs safe measures.
Keeping COVID-Safe Together
11. We seek parents’ understanding if some of these
COVID-Safe ABCs measures cause inconvenience. They are necessary safety precautions
during these exceptional times, and we thank everyone for their cooperation. We also
seek parents’ help to reinforce safe habits with children at home, so that
children practise these habits consistently.
12. With increased community and work interactions after
Circuit Breaker, we must expect some new COVID-19 cases despite our COVID-Safe ABCs
measures and preschools’ best efforts. Our priority is to be able to
detect and contain any confirmed cases quickly, and prevent new clusters from forming. We
seek parents’ understanding and support if we need to implement any
measure that may affect your preschool or child’s class as a result.
13. I would like to take this opportunity to thank community
partners such as Temasek Foundation for supporting our effort to keep
preschools safe. Temasek Foundation has donated face shields, oximeters and
sanitisers to some 30,000 staff and 180,000 children in preschools and early intervention
centres. Staff and children would receive these progressively over the next 2 weeks. We
hope that staff and children will make good use of these resources to keep
themselves and others safe. A letter from Temasek Foundation explaining more about their
donation can be found in Annex B.
14. Everyone plays a part to keep our preschools safe. Let’s
stay safe together by inculcating the COVID-Safe ABCs as a new way of life.
Jamie Ang
Chief Executive
Early Childhood Development Agency
Click here for updates on COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019).
1 There have been some reported cases overseas of children being affected by Kawasaki-like disease with possible link to COVID-19. MOH has advised doctors to look out for these symptoms when children seek medical treatment. Accordingly, preschools have been advised to look out for general signs of children who are unwell, beyond typical COVID-19 symptoms.
2 From 26 May to 14 June, residents with a valid identification card with barcode can collect one reusable mask each. There are two types available – a kid size mask for those aged 12 years and below, and an adult size mask.