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FREE SCHOOL CLEANING TOOL · BASED ON BICSc GUIDANCE

School Cleaning Specification & Schedule Builder

Your school's cleaning schedule in about 5 minutes. Then, if you want it, a full specification with hours, zones, staffing and job cards.

Office, warehouse, retail or other commercial building? Use our Commercial Cleaning Specification Builder

Free·Saves as you go·Works on phones and tablets·Built by ICS Cleaning
ICS Cleaning30+ years' cleaning experienceEducation cleaning specialistsISO 9001ISO 14001Yorkshire & Lincolnshire

Developed by ICS Cleaning from over 30 years of running cleaning contracts. Free guidance to support your decisions; it does not replace a site survey.

How the Cleaning Specification Builder works

Step 1

Find your school

Enter your postcode. We find your school's type, pupil numbers and floor area from official records and ask before using them.

Step 2

Tick your areas

Classrooms, labs, toilets, corridors, halls, dining, sports and offices. We pre-tick what most schools of your type have.

Step 3

Get your schedule

In about 5 minutes: every task, how often, on which days, holiday deep cleans and indicative hours. Change any frequency.

Step 4

Go further, if you want

Add your real rooms for a full specification and a complete School Cleaning Plan with zones, staffing and job cards.

What you get

Everything comes from the same information, so the specification, schedule, hours and job cards always match.

Cleaning specification

Areas, tasks, frequencies and the standard expected, in BICSc element order.

Frequency schedule

Which tasks happen daily, on rotation, weekly or monthly, and on which days.

Holiday deep clean programme

Floor care, carpets, high-level and washroom deep cleans by holiday.

Indicative hours

Daily and weekly cleaning hours, room by room, with the productivity rates shown.

Complete School Cleaning Plan

One PDF: zone plan, staffing, shift times, work schedules, job cards and holiday programme, ready to share.

Zone job cards and audit form

A card for every zone listing its rooms, tasks and days, plus a quality audit form.

Cleaning specification or cleaning schedule?

Cleaning specification

What is cleaned, where, how often and to what standard. The basis for a tender, a contract or an in-house service.

Cleaning schedule

When the work happens: which tasks on which days, and which deep cleans in which holidays.

You don't need to choose. Start with the 5-minute schedule; it is built from the same specification data, so you can carry on to the full specification at any time without starting again.

What a school cleaning specification should cover

Every school is different, so the builder works from the areas your school actually has. A good school specification usually covers:

  • Classrooms and teaching rooms
  • Science labs, workshops and food technology
  • Toilets, changing rooms and showers
  • Corridors, stairs and entrances
  • Halls, dining and sports areas
  • Offices and staff rooms
  • Holiday deep cleaning and floor care
  • Standards, colour coding and quality checks

Term-time and holiday cleaning are different in nature, so the builder covers both. For background, read how school cleaning schedules are built or our guide to what a cleaning specification should contain.

How cleaning hours and staffing are worked out

Each room's floor area is divided by a recommended productivity rate for its type: corridors and halls clean faster per square metre than toilets, labs or workshops. Frequencies then adjust the time: a task done three times a week takes less time across a week than one done daily.

Those hours are split into cleaning zones of a practical shift length, with time protected for chargehand checks, a supervisor and a floater for absence cover. Rates follow BICSc guidance and our experience of running school cleaning contracts; they are planning figures, not a quotation.

Smart Cleaning: hygiene-critical tasks (toilets, entrances, occupied classroom floors, dining) stay daily, and lower-risk detail work runs on an agreed rotation, so effort follows risk and use.

Just need a quick hours figure? Try the Cleaning Hours Estimator.

Who uses it

School business managers and bursars

Set out what you need before a tender or contract review.

Academy trusts

Describe every school in the same way, ready for a trust-wide tender.

Site and estates teams

Plan an in-house cleaning team with zones, rotas and job cards.

Cleaning specification FAQs

What is a cleaning specification?▾
A cleaning specification sets out which areas are cleaned, the tasks in each area, how often each task is done and the standard expected. It is the basis for planning, pricing, delivering and checking a cleaning service.
What is the difference between a cleaning specification and a cleaning schedule?▾
The specification is the what and how often: areas, tasks, frequencies and standards. The schedule is the when: which tasks happen on which days and in which holidays. The ICS builder produces both from the same information, so they always match.
How long does it take?▾
About 5 minutes for a cleaning schedule: find your school, tick the areas it has and the schedule is built from a typical room mix for your floor area. Adding your real rooms for a full specification takes about 10 to 15 minutes more, or less if you upload a room list.
Do I need to know my school's floor area?▾
It helps. Enter your postcode and the builder looks up your school on the Department for Education register and your buildings' Display Energy Certificates, which record the gross floor area. We ask before filling anything in, and you can always type your own figure.
Is the Specification Builder free?▾
Yes. The schedule, specification and indicative hours are free to build on screen. The full set of documents is free in exchange for your email address: a complete School Cleaning Plan PDF (zone plan, staffing model, staff schedule, frequency and work schedules, a job card for every zone and the holiday programme), plus the specification and audit form as separate files.
Can I check an existing specification?▾
Yes. Use our free Specification Health Check. Upload your current specification or tender document (PDF or Word) and it checks it against the 23 areas a school cleaning contract needs, shows what is missing or too vague to enforce, and suggests wording for every gap. Your document is read in your browser and is not uploaded. You can then build an updated specification here.
How are cleaning hours calculated?▾
Each room's floor area is divided by a recommended productivity rate for its area type (classrooms, toilets, corridors, halls and so on), adjusted for how often each task is done. Rates follow BICSc guidance and ICS's experience of running school cleaning contracts. The result is a planning figure, not a quotation.
Can it work out how many cleaners we need?▾
Yes. Once your rooms are in, the builder splits the hours into cleaning zones of a practical shift length and suggests a team: zone cleaners, chargehands, a supervisor and a floater for absence cover, with a job card for every zone.
Does it cover holiday deep cleaning?▾
Yes. The specification includes a periodic programme (floor care, carpet extraction, high-level dusting, washroom descaling and more) showing which tasks run in which school holidays.
Is it suitable for academies and multi-academy trusts?▾
Yes. It works for primary, secondary and special schools, nurseries, colleges and academies. Trusts can build one specification per school so every site is described in the same way.
What is Smart Cleaning?▾
Smart Cleaning means hygiene-critical tasks such as toilets, entrances and occupied classroom floors stay daily, while lower-risk detail work runs on an agreed rotation. Cleaning effort follows risk and use rather than one fixed frequency for every room.
We're not a school. Can we use it?▾
This builder is designed around schools. For offices, shops, warehouses, factories and food sites, use the free ICS Commercial Cleaning Specification Builder, which produces the hours, team, indicative annual cost, schedules, job cards and an audit template for those buildings.

Start free

Your school's cleaning schedule in about 5 minutes, free, with no obligation.

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