When people typically think of schools or education facilities, their mind most likely goes to classrooms or learning spaces. And while yes, these are an important part of these facilities, there is so much more to them beyond the classroom walls. From staff offices to meeting spaces and study spaces, each area in a school plays a vital part in the school’s operation.
Without students, there’s no one to teach, without teachers, there’s no one to teach the students, and without support staff, there’s no one to support the staff or students, so it’s important that they each have spaces that allow them to succeed. The furniture you choose for each space in your education facility is a key factor in this success. No matter what part of your education facility you’re fitting out, you need furniture that is functional, comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.
As a trusted supplier of education furniture and storage solutions to education facilities across Australia, the All Storage Systems team has the expertise to help you find solutions that can turn your education facility into a hub of success. Our years of experience helping these education facilities has allowed us to identify products that work well in certain areas of education facilities. Keep reading below to discover our top suggestions from primary classrooms, Tafe facilities and staff offices.
Primary classrooms
Nobody likes a dull space that is completely monotone and full of white, black and various shades of grey. These colourless environments don’t do much for productivity and can often induce boredom, and your classroom is no exception. This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t use these colours in your space, but especially with younger primary school students, a little bit of vibrant colour can help capture their attention. Colour can also play a role in the communication, productivity and emotions of students, with different colours evoking different aspects of their behaviour. Now, we’re not saying that you need to go and paint your whole classroom in a vibrant yellow or some other bright colour, but add pops of colour throughout your classroom through your furniture. The Acti range of chairs is a great way to add colour to your classroom. Not only are these chairs a comfortable and durable seating option that is suitable for students of all ages, but each chair comes in a wide variety of colours. With 12 shell colours ranging from vibrant green to orange and blues along with 6 upholstered colours for the seat pad and full upholstered options, upgrading your seating to something from the Acti range is a simple way to add colour to your space and grab your student’s attention. As a bonus, the Acti sled base and Acti 4 leg chairs are stackable, so if you ever need to create open space in your classroom, they can easily be packed up and stacked away.
Along with needing somewhere to sit in the classroom, your students need a solid working surface to complete their work. Young students can often be messy, sometimes on purpose, sometimes not on purpose, so when it comes to the working surface, not only does it need to be sturdy to cope with constant use, but it should also be easy to clean, allowing you to wipe any mess you students make in no time at all. The Steel frame table perfectly combines these two features into one table. The steel frame of the table is sturdy enough to withstand constant use and maybe sometimes abuse by your students, while the melamine top makes it easy to clean up any spills or other messes in an instant.
There are lots of little essential items in the classroom that can easily create clutter, and a cluttered classroom can lead to unwanted distractions. Mobile caddies provide the perfect storage solution for your classroom. If you need to store art supplies, books for quiet reading time, workbooks, building blocks or anything in between, mobile caddies provide plenty of space to store all this and more. They are also easy for your students to operate, meaning that your students can access what they need independently and being mobile when not in, use they can easily be stored away out of sight until they need to be used again.
Tafes
When it comes to higher education at facilities like Tafe’s, the different learning structure to that of, say high school, requires different kinds of spaces to support the learning. Unlike high school with Tafe students may not have classes all day long, and there may be breaks in between, sometimes long, sometimes short, so in between these classes, students need somewhere comfortable they can go to study, relax or work with other students.
As students may not always have the same Tafe schedule and may have small overlaps of time on their Tafe days that are perfect for collaborative study or working on group projects, having somewhere to work that will promote this collaboration is essential. Round surfaces provide the perfect collaboration space where everyone can feel like they are involved. The Round meeting table is the perfect collaboration table. Large enough to fit a whole group of people it provides plenty of space for everyone to work and share their contribution. It can’t be missed that it is called a meeting table, so if you do have any meeting spaces that require a large working surface, it will also work perfectly.
After long classes, sometimes students just need somewhere to relax for a while before diving into the next one or taking on some extra study. This is often done in eating areas when they have a break for lunch, so having a seating option in these spaces that is comfortable is a must. Elevated higher off the ground, the Acti bar stool is a comfortable, sturdy seating option that’s perfect for these spaces. They differ in the seating typically used in classrooms, mainly due to the height, which can help your students when taking a break by helping to make the spaces feel separate from each other. The Acti bar stools are also available in a range of vibrant colours, which liven up the space and make it more attractive.
Staff working spaces
When fitting out your education facility, you can’t forget about the teachers and support staff. After dealing with students all day, they need somewhere comfortable they can go to complete their making or other important non-classroom teaching tasks. Just like any other office space, be it an accounting firm, government agency, or large organisation, teachers and support staff need an ergonomically comfortable space to work. Ergonomics are an essential part of any office space and are integral to staff productivity. Two of the easiest ways to incorporate ergonomics in your staff offices is through the desks and chairs that they use.
Height adjustable desks are now becoming the new norm. They offer workers the option to switch between sitting and standing throughout the day, which promotes movement that reduces the risk of health issues that can be connected to sitting for prolonged periods.
While having a height adjustable desk that helps promote good health, what makes it even better is when it’s combined with an ergonomic office chair. An ergonomic office chair is designed to support you all day long while helping promote good posture. Two popular office chair options are the Berwick task chair and the Diablo manager chair.
The Berwick task chair is an AFRDI level 6 rated task chair, which means it meets most commercial standards and can withstand extremely severe conditions. In conjunction with the rating and the 3 lever mechanism, this chair is certainly a great candidate that will keep you comfortable all day long.
The Diablo manager chair is a fully ergonomic that features a four lever system to allow you to completely adjust the chair to suit your preferences. Being fully ergonomic, this chair can easily support you comfortably all day long without causing any undue stress on your body.
So, whatever your education facility may be, there are plenty of furniture options to help complete your fitout and create the perfect space that not only inspires but encourages productivity. For all your education facility fitout needs, contact our expert team today.
