Hollie Hindle: Setting up the classroom

My obsession with classroom environments began when I first visited St John’s C of E Primary School. From the moment I walked in I was struck by the calm atmosphere and serenity it brought to their children. My colleague and I whispered to each other is disbelief “it’s just so calm”. Upon walking back into my own classroom I was smacked in the face with bright colours and loud noises! Everything felt over stimulating and busy by comparison; as if there were balls of high energy bouncing around the walls! From then onwards I was hooked into finding ways of calming my classroom and moulding the environment to generate the same serene feeling I’d experienced at St John’s.

I began with the lights! First of all, I wanted to reduce the lighting, I’m lucky to have two large windows and a half glass door within my room; meaning that most days there is sufficient natural light filling the space. So I borrowed a set of ladders and set about reducing the fluorescent lighting. All of my ceiling lights turn on with two switches. Now I didn’t want to leave them permanently off, as I do have one dark corner (don’t we all!). Plus the overhead lights are often necessary in the winter. So I set about reducing the number of lights, simply by unscrewing the lightbulbs inside the light fittings. Unscrewing the bulbs slightly causes the whole light fitting to switch off; so you can flip the switch but not all of the fittings will light up, just as if the bulbs had gone! The following day I realised that my room felt much calmer. Interestingly I noticed that I had previously been walking around with a headache from the fluorescent lights every day without even realising! The children were a little quieter during the day, but we definitely weren’t there yet.

Next came the fairy lights. I attached one continuous sweeping string of fairy lights across my ceiling. Using mini bull dog clips to attach them to the trimming between the roof tiles. They are mains powered so the wire has been secured to piping above the plug socket. On my curved wall, I have a large curved display board. Around it I attached another string of mains powered fairy lights, using a staple gun to carefully staple the wires to the wall without piercing them. Battery powered fairy lights were used to decorate the exterior of our reading tepee. I also salvaged a few lamps from a family members. They gave a lovely warm glow but I was quickly running out of plug sockets! So the lamps were dotted around my room with the aid of a few extension cables. With the reduced overhead lighting, twinkly fairy lights and softly lit lamps the classroom transformed from a cold appearance to warm.

Then my attention turned to displays. Board backings were neutralised one at a time. A couple of the boards were already hessian (winner!), but other boards featured a dull grey board underneath and a particularly terrible one was just a wooden border fixed to the wall with layers of peeling paint behind it!! So I left my hessian boards bare (why did I ever feel the need to back them in the first place?!), the grey boards were left primarily bare (with some layers of sugar paper to add some texture), then I covered my ugly board with brown parcel paper! Finally I changed all of the borders to be black to tie the theme together. I cannot quite emphasise enough, the difference neutralising the displays made to the room. Before embarking upon this journey, I didn’t have any particularly strong feelings about neutral displays. I could see that they were attractive, but I also love colour. So I was completely taken aback at the difference it made. It was like my room had taken a deep breath, your eyes could rest rather than darting from one overpowering display to the next! Plus I found that the neutral backgrounds allowed the children’s work and photographs of their activities to grab your attention, which is surely the primary aim of a display?

Onto the soft furnishings! I think I could have quite easily stopped at changing the lighting and displays, the shift felt radical enough. But I didn’t just want a ‘pretty’ classroom. I wanted it be a comfortable, inviting & inspiring space to nurture these young children. Replacing tables with floor spaces covered in textured rugs and adding pastel coloured cushions into the reading area and home corner got us off to a comfortable start. The noise levels suddenly dropped as the children stopped shouting across tables to one another and self-contained their activities to the rugs. Drapes and paper lanterns were then used as soft dividers between areas and provided the room with a ‘snug’ feeling. A small leather armchair was also salvaged from a family member and introduced as a snack chair; a space for children to come together to eat and socialise just like grown-ups do!

Finally, the serene environment I had been striving for had been achieved! My classroom is not a typical classroom nor is it a ‘home’. It’s some sort of hybrid of the two. Changing the atmosphere of the room has had a positive effect on the children’s productivity whilst accessing provision. I no longer chase after children encouraging them to settle into activities (most of the time anyway!) as they are calmer and therefore ready to be absorbed into their chosen activities. Softening the feel of the room has also made it a more appealing space to work in, which surely can only be beneficial for both myself and the children?

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