A fresh idea for learning environments

From early nights to breakfast cereals, we’re constantly searching for new ways to sustain alertness and concentration of children throughout the school day. Yet, as a teacher recently mentioned to one of our design team, the ‘2pm slump’ can affect children’s behaviour, achievement and understanding – and doesn’t help staff either!

There can be a variety of reasons for this soporific response, but the quality of air-flow within the learning environment is often overlooked. We assume that the air within our classroom is clean and pure, but recent studies have discovered that VOCs, the pollutants responsible for causing headaches, nausea and allergies, are naturally emitted into the air by people, furniture and cleaning products.

As well as the health risks invisible pollutants carry in the air, a study by the University of Denmark has discovered that poor indoor environmental quality can affect the performance of children’s schoolwork. Their experiments revealed that doubling the rate of outdoor air supply within a classroom improved the average performance of children by 15%, and encouraged greater concentration and behaviour.

The plasterboard used for a Learning Escape uses ACTIVair technology to make a clean and healthy indoor space for your school. ACTIVair is designed to decompose VOC emissions and its effectiveness has been proven by the Eurofins laboratory, whose tests discovered it decomposed up to 70% of the air pollutants. Maintaining our commitment to the high quality of our builds, ACTIVair works through a paint finish and has no impact on the ceiling’s performance regarding fire, acoustics or durability.

To learn more about our use of ACTIVair technology, or how we can create a learning environment to suit your school’s needs please contact us to arrange your no-obligation consultation.