Halloween

05/11/2020
After School Care

Hope you’re all enjoying Halloween crafts and celebrations. 

With Halloween approaching this weekend, we wanted to share with our families some safety tips for Halloween 2020 for children-safety as well as COVID-19 safety.

Child Safety:

  • Parents join in the fun, dress up and supervise your children at all times during trick or treating if under the age of 12.
  • Hold a parent or adults hand when crossing roads, always look both ways.
  • The brighter the better, encourage children to wear fun, bright costumes that stand out.
  • Have a plan, talk to your children about stranger danger, or what to do if you get lost.
  • Safety pin your contact details to your children – if they get seperated from the group they will be able to contact you.
  • Stick to streets you know, have a plan and walk along roads that have footpaths.
  • Only knock on doors easily viewed by the street, don’t go down driveways. Parents should stand with their children wherever possible.
  • Inspect your treats, check they are properly wrapped before handing back to your child.
  • Turn your front lights on, or put an orange balloon on your house, that way trick or treaters know you’re home.

COVID-safe tips if you plan to hand out treats

NSW Health recommends:

  • If you have any symptoms of COVID-19 over Halloween, stay home, don’t receive Halloween visitors and get tested immediately
  • If you are self-isolating, don’t answer the door to trick-or-treaters
  • Make it a front-yard event, not at the front-door of your house. Keep your celebrations outdoors and get creative in decorating the front yard
  • Only hand out individually wrapped treats
  • Don’t use communal lolly bowls. Consider other ways of distributing treats such as hanging them individually on your fence, front gate or up your driveway
  • Offer hand sanitiser at your front gate or fence
  • You may wish to avoid people knocking on your door by putting up a sign that says “We are home but due to COVID-19, we are distancing. Please take one, Happy Halloween”
  • Remember, you can only have 20 people on your property at one time.
  • Wear a face mask if unable to socially distance, and gloves if handing out wrapped treats.

COVID-safe tips if you plan to trick-or-treat

NSW Health recommends:

  • If you have any symptoms of COVID-19 this Halloween, stay home and give trick-or-treating a miss this year. Get tested immediately
  • Keep it local by staying in your suburb rather than going to well-known “treat streets” that attract crowds
  • Celebrate outside, don’t go to people’s front door
  • Stay in small household groups (for example a supervising adult and children from the same household) rather than groups of young people together. Remember, no more than 30 people can gather outside in a public place
  • Stay 1.5 meters away from people you don’t live with
  • Only take treats that are individually wrapped
  • Use a disposable bag to collect your treats, and dispose of it appropriately afterwards
  • Don’t share your treats with others from different households
  • Don’t share costumes or costume face masks
  • Carry hand sanitiser with you and use it often, especially after touching common surfaces.
  • Wear a face mask if unable to socially distance, and gloves if possible.

Enjoy this video by NSW Health for fun COVID-19 related tips.  https://vimeo.com/468808502/4d966190a1