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Furniture & Storage Solutions
The seat of
learning
Education has undergone an
ICT revolution and the BSF
programme has overhauled
the design of the UK’s
learning spaces. Now,
furniture is expected to be
flexible enough to keep up
with a number of new
demands.
S
chools face a number of unique
challenges: insufficient budgets, teacher
shortages, student performance
assessments and technology-driven lessons
are just a few. A solution to these problems
could be simpler than you ever thought.
Amazingly, it could come down to the right
kind of furniture!
This is the belief of Jonathan Hindle, Group
Managing Director at KI. “Furniture is a crucial
component in creating a quality learning
environment,” he says. “Seating should be
comfortable and durable and work surfaces
ought to be able to accommodate specific tasks
including note-taking, laptop computer use and
conducting experiments. Beyond these
functional aspects, the image portrayed
correlates to student perception of teachers’
performance expectations - an attractive, highly
functional, quality environment tells them you
expect excellence.”
School furniture has never been renowned for
its comfort – or its attractiveness. It is only in uncomfortable, due to poor posture caused from Innomensa Ltd. “Squeezing 30 students
recent years, that the importance of through incorrect seat heights and the plus 30 PCs, monitors and desks into a
ergonomically designed tables and chairs has relationship between the height of the seat and traditional size classroom is hard work. Schools
been realized. the desk or table.” have widely varying requirements so providing a
“If the children are not sitting comfortably Education has undergone an ICT revolution one-size-fits-all product is impractical.
then they will fidget and disrupt the class,” says and the BSF programme has overhauled the “But, low volumes tend to mean expensive
Hayley Watson of Morleys. “The chairs and design of the UK’s learning spaces. Now, products, which forces some companies to cut
tables/desks that are in the classroom need to furniture is expected to be flexible enough to corners on quality to meet the price points. We
allow the children to move around, as this keep up with a number of new demands. produce a range of furniture with a high degree
increases blood circulation and so improves “The major challenges in producing furniture of modularity so that we can customise a basic
learning. You also need furniture that does not for schools are cost, durability and size - design to tailor it to the needs of each individual
cause children to fidget because they are particularly in the ICT arena,” says Jeremy Mills school while staying within the budget
30
www.education-today.co.uk November 2009
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