Providing attractive school interiors for students is becoming ever higher on the priority list. The UK is renowned for its great education system and it’s our schools that are becoming thought-leaders for schools all around the globe.
So we’ve put together a handy guide to creating attractive interiors within any school. We are passionate about maintaining the UK’s great reputation for education, through innovative interiors and furniture. We believe that making your learning environments more inspirational will help you to enhance results, attract talented students and staff, and increase wellbeing at your school. But this doesn’t have to be restricted to the schools with unlimited budgets.
Today’s learning environments need to be up-to-date for the modern student. Gone (or fast going) are the days of text books, ICT suites and classrooms with a fixed layout. We are living in the age of the tablet, of wi-fi and cloud-based homework portals. How much have your school’s learning environments changed to suit your teaching methods?
We understand how much your budget could hold you back from making changes in the learning space, so we’ve suggested some ways that you can upgrade your school interiors without huge expenditure:
It is (nearly) all in the finishing touches
Small things can make a big difference to a space. Wall graphics, display features and clever use of colours are all ways to make sure that school interiors are inspirational without the expenditure of a full refurbishment. Freshening up a classroom with a new coat of paint, or installing some inspirational wall graphics can help to motivate students for a relatively low cost. You can also speak with your art department to find out if they can help you with some creative wall-decals.
Furniture that can change
For today’s learner, flexibility is key. So it’s important that you invest in furniture that can be moved around or reconfigured should the need arise. Although this type of furniture may be more expensive first-off, it will give you a wider range of environments and help to make your interiors future-proof.
Negotiate better deals
Work with suppliers that will offer special school interiors deals, and that offer you a more personal and supportive relationship.
Is it guaranteed?
Choose furniture that has guarantees for a better long-term value. All of our furniture is guaranteed for 5 years as standard, so if there’s a problem then we’ll fix it. Try a Pilot-schemeIf you are considering implementing flexible learning areas, you could roll it out within one subject or department to see how it works for your school. Choose a forward thinking teacher with adaptable teaching methods, and set it up in one classroom to see how it goes.
Change one thingWhen school interiors become tired, and are in need of a refurbishment, changing just one aspect of the space can make a world of difference. Try a new carpet, or new chairs –this will help to make your space feel refreshed, even if you don’t have the budget for a full refurbishment.
Actively encourage students to carePromote and reward respect for the facilities. Help students to take ownership of their school. In our experience, a really great way to help students to respect their facilities is to let them have a say in choosing the design of the space.Take a step backLook at your objectives and make sure that everything you do or purchase is in line with these. If there are things that are being purchased unnecessarily, or as part of a tradition, make sure that you analyse your spending to clarify where you can save. A great exercise help you to do this is to imagine that you had an unlimited budget for redesigning your school interiors.
Then ask yourself what, under imaginary no-limit circumstances, would you purchase, and what would you stop purchasing?. Then analyse your answers. If there’s anything that you would stop purchasing, then is there a way you can simply just stop purchasing it? Likewise, with something that you would implement or procure, is this a ‘need’ rather than a ‘want’ that could make a positive difference to your school if it was allowed for? Make choices based on what you want to achieve, rather than what you feel you should be doing.Creating attractive school interiors is an ongoing challenge for all schools.
Maintenance and upkeep of a learning establishment consumes a lot of the yearly budget. It’s important to make sure that the choices you make are going to give you the best long-term return on investment.
Speak to our teamabout how you can improve your interiors cost-effectively. We are savvy about budgets and think creatively about how we can help you to get more return from your school interiors, your budget –and more satisfaction from your job role
