02/09/2026
At Gumnut Gardens we take illness prevention seriously, because healthy children learn better and families can keep their work and home routines more stable.
We reflected today on the level of illness throughout the winter months. And we achieved what we set out to do back in March.
We combine thorough hygiene practices with a clear understanding of how infections actually spread. In early childhood settings, germs travel through hands, shared surfaces, droplets and airborne particles. That is why our daily practice is aligned with the National Health and Medical Research Councilâs Staying Healthy guidelines and ACECQA Quality Area 2: consistent hand hygiene, cleaning of frequently touched surfaces, exclusion of unwell children and staff, and strong ventilation.
In winter we lean on natural ventilation and our indoor/outdoor room. NHMRC guidance is explicit: bringing fresh outdoor air into indoor spaces dilutes airborne particles and reduces the risk of diseases that spread through the air. Research in classrooms has also found that higher ventilation rates are linked with fewer illness-related absences. Outdoors, viruses disperse more quickly, and transmission is generally much lower than in crowded indoor rooms.
That is why we take curriculum and structured preschool lessons into the outdoor room when conditions allow. Children still receive planned, intentional learning, literacy, numeracy, play-based investigation and school readiness, while spending more time in fresh air and moving their bodies. Higher physical activity in the preschool years is associated with fewer upper respiratory infections, and time in greener, outdoor environments has been linked with stronger immune markers in young children.
We know this approach supports families because we have seen minimal winter illness across the service while still delivering the program children need. We do not treat this as a one-off idea. We reflect on what is working, embed it in everyday practice, and keep adapting so children stay well, learning continues, and families can remain at work with greater confidence.
We have the stats to prove it!
