May
Teacher Lifestyle
How to Improve Learning by Choosing the Right Furniture for Schools
When designing a new learning environment, like a classroom or school library, the furniture is a significant part of that. The more suited to each pupil’s needs your furniture is, the better you enable them to learn at school.
Today we’re talking about how our classrooms are designed and how we can improve learning by choosing the right furniture for schools.
What kinds of things should you look for when shopping for school furniture? You’ll need desks and chairs sturdy enough to support heavy books and computers but light enough to be moved around easily by students or teachers. You’ll also want to ensure they have plenty of storage space underneath them so that teachers don’t have to worry about clutter taking up valuable real estate on their desks.
Wow… This is actually becoming quite the list. Let’s break it down a little.
Restlessness, Comfort, and Ergonomics
We all know how children can get restless when sitting for too long, so school furniture must be comfortable yet ergonomically suited for young people. This can help to increase concentration and keep your kids engaged in classroom tasks and activities. Bean bag chairs are an excellent solution as they can be easily readjusted to suit the child’s posture.
In fact, a recent study reported that children tend to learn better when they’re in ergonomically suitable furniture as it reduces stress and anxiety caused by discomfort.
When choosing the right furniture, you need to think about the type of activities they’ll be doing and the children’s age group. If you’ve designed the room as a multi-purpose space, it’s best to keep things simple so that anyone can use them. If you’re looking to kit out a specialist room like a sensory den, soft seating would be a better option to fit in with the environment.
You may want to consider having some classroom tables and chairs because these are great for group work or collaborative projects where students need more space. In this instance, a single wooden school desk would allow students their own sense of freedom to develop and learn in the classroom.
Classroom Storage Space
Having enough storage space is also essential in any classroom, as you want it to be easy for pupils to find what they need while learning. Not only do they need enough room for their belongings, but there should be adequate space to store learning resources when not in use.
It’s equally important that the furniture is durable and sturdy to support the specified aged groups. This will ensure that the furniture for schools lasts longer than a few years, especially if you find your current furniture needs replacing regularly.
Classroom tray storage in schools is also helpful for organisation and keeping everything you need close by. This also means you don’t have to run around looking for things just before break time! Your classroom tray storage should be secure and fitted with high-quality trays designed for that unit. Storage units in schools are a must.
Communal Seating Areas and Group Work
You’ll want to make sure you have enough communal seating areas where students can work together on projects or extra activities. You’ll also want some places where they can read quietly or converse in small groups if they need that time out. Achieving that balance will allow you to fully maximise the learning potential within the classroom by varying kids’ learning.
There is a big emphasis on encouraging students to work together in their lessons or extra-curricular activities outside of them. As such, ensuring that you have enough communal seating areas can be really beneficial in promoting this team working mode of learning.
Communal soft seating is a beautiful up-and-coming range of furniture, sneakily making its way into schools for the last few years. Furniture like bean bags, soft benches, and foam shape seating are rising in popularity for their versatility in and outside the classroom.
You can even take our soft seating outdoors, which is excellent for early years lessons and switching up educational environments!
Top Tips on Choosing the Right Furniture for Schools
- Invest in good, quality school furniture. Solid wood and metal frames are usually a good sign!
- Don’t get caught out with seating! Make sure you have enough seats, so everyone is comfortable.
- Consider desk heights when choosing school furniture. Remember, children aren’t like us. They’re much shorter!
- Storage options are a must. Consider some quality cloakroom furniture, so children don’t have to carry around their belongings all day long.
Furniture for Schools and Beyond
It can sometimes be challenging to get the right balance. Still, we hope that these tips will have given you some great ideas for making your school environment more conducive to learning. We love seeing all of our furniture used to improve the learning experience for children and young adults alike, and we know how important it is to you.
You can make a significant impact on learning by choosing the right furniture for schools; while it doesn’t necessarily seem like something related directly at first glance, it really is one of those small details that can make all the difference!
School Library Design Service – Furniture for Schools
Are you looking for ways to improve the learning environment in your school? Our school library design service might be just what you need. Fill out a short form with details on size, colour scheme, budget, and specifications.
The form can be found here!
