How could your school use an SEN classroom?

With the population of school-age children increasing year on year, schools are often left struggling for the extra space needed to offer specialist attention to children with SEN or disabilities. By using otherwise unused school grounds to create a bright, flexible learning environment Learning Escapes have provided uplifting spaces for schools across the country.

Often detached from the main school body due to overcrowding, an SEN classroom can isolate the children that use it from the school community. Our bespoke outdoor classrooms are designed to be inclusive and offer a multipurpose base for high needs children that can also be used for group projects, or as a quiet common room to enable interaction with other students and maintain a strong link with the rest of the school.

Used by children of different ages and needs, the classroom needs to accommodate various learning methods in a welcoming, secure environment. Although every construction is specific to the needs of the school, a flexible open plan layout creates a variety of spaces and boundaries which aid the teaching of social, practical and intellectual skills. These partitions can be achieved through placement of furniture or, as Lawnside Lower School chose, an acoustic folding wall system that allows their ‘Learning Hub’ to be used as one large space or several small rooms, making it ideal for one-on-one or group work without activities intruding on each other.

As with all our eco-classrooms an SEN space is designed to minimise impact on both the school and natural environment, built with complete safety compliance and sustainable materials that are designed to last with little maintenance. A learning environment can have a significant impact on the development of children so the use of colour, light, sound and texture are all taken into consideration during the planning. Internally the design is tailored to your requests and so, like Hampton Infant School, you may opt for plain decoration that can create a calm atmosphere to prevent children being overexcited by bright colours. Or you might wish to involve your school in the decoration to produce a mural or painting that reflects your local community.

Whatever you require from an SEN learning centre, get in touch today to arrange your free consultation and let us design an environment that will meet the needs of your school. To find out more about SEN classrooms visit our SEN page.