It’s a new school year, you’ve inherited a new classroom and have carte blanche (you are the teacher after all) on how to arrange, organise and present it.
So where do you start?
Optimising your classroom environment is a crucial step in planning and preparing for the academic year. Making the space as conducive to learning as possible will not only set your pupils up for success but also ensure that they feel safe, comfortable and respected in their learning environment.
First and foremost, assess how much natural light there is in your classroom and work out how you can maximise this. During my supply days, I saw plenty of classrooms that had children’s work, vocabulary cards and helpful posters stuck to the windows, which blocked out some of the light coming in and making the room gloomier than it needed to be. Keep windows free of clutter to maximise natural light and make sure that they are opened as much as possible so that fresh air can circulate. The increased oxygen from fresh air and the exposure to natural light will both help to boost concentration and increase serotonin levels.
Having a few plants in your classroom can also help to optimise the environment. Biophilia is the idea that humans are innately attracted to nature and that they thrive best in a natural environment. In an ideal world, children would do more of their learning outside but that’s just not realistic for most classrooms today. Instead, bring in some house plants to dot around your classroom. Not only will they help your children feel relaxed and enhance their learning, but they can also be a helpful way to teach children about how plants grow and how to care for them.
Whether you choose to have your classroom tables in rows, in horseshoes, in groups or individually spaced, you’ll need to make sure that wherever children are sitting, they can easily see the board. If children are constantly craning their necks to see what they need to see, they are automatically set up to not learn as efficiently as they could.
Equally, you need to ensure that all children can move to and from their seat safely, and that they don’t have to step over or around furniture (or other children) in order to get where they need to go.
If you’re teaching a younger year group, it’s also important to have a space on the carpet where you can have all children focussed and concentrating as you deliver your teaching input. Having individual circles, cushions or even small bean bags for children to sit on can help them understand where they should sit and make them as comfortable as possible. Most KS1 classrooms will have carpet space for the children to sit, and this can still be hugely beneficial into Year 3 and even Year 4.
Having clear areas within the room can also help to optimise your classroom environment. You might consider:
Having these spaces can help children shift into a different mindset depending on which ‘zone’ they are in.
It’s important that children understand how to behave appropriately within the classroom setting to ensure that everyone can learn safely, effectively and efficiently. As well as basic school rules, such as raising your hand to answer a question or keeping your desk tidy, it’s a good idea to establish rules around behaviour and interacting with others. These rules can be most effective when your class is involved in deciding what they should be in the first place.
Examples of rules that might be agreed upon are:
Once you have established your classroom rules, create a poster that’s clearly visible to refer back to frequently.
It’s also important to help children understand what the school day will look like. Visual timetables are perfect for helping children know what to expect and when from the school day. This can help them feel tethered and avoids the continual questioning of what they’re doing next.
Having a classroom environment where everyone feels included and valued is just as important as making sure that the physical layout is optimised, if not more so. Most basically, ensure that any particular needs of children are met. This could include, for example, making sure that all children can reach the books, equipment and resources they need, or considering what children with English as a second language will need in order to remove any barriers to learning. Equitable provision is crucial in creating an inclusive classroom.
You will also want to make sure that children feel supported, comfortable and appreciated in their classroom environment. Establishing strong pupil/teacher and pupil/pupil bonds in the early days of the school year will be paramount in securing a mentally healthy classroom. Regularly completing these ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’ cards can help foster good relationships in your classroom, as can these ‘Feelings Check-in Cards’.
Now that you have a classroom that is both physically and emotionally welcoming, it’s time to think about how you can optimise their learning. What do children need in order to succeed? How can you encourage your class to be creative, independent and flexible learners?
Classroom displays can be tricky to balance. On the one hand, you want the classroom walls to look engaging, colourful and helpful, but on the other hand spending too much time on elaborate displays can be a drain on a teacher’s time that could be better spent elsewhere. Children go blind to their surroundings quite quickly so the ancient Egyptian tomb on your display board that took you three days during the holidays to perfect might provide an initial ‘wow’ moment but soon just become another part of the furniture.
Choosing what to display on your classroom walls can also be hampered by school policies. I’ve taught in schools where children’s work wasn’t permitted to be displayed and most walls were covered in learning statements that the children couldn’t read, let alone relate to.
In general, I would recommend aiming for a balance between key vocabulary displays (perhaps relating to a topic, Science strand or Maths concept), examples of children’s work to provide a sense of pride and achievement, and displays that promote self-esteem and positivity, such as these ‘Affirmation Cards’.
Children in primary schools are expected to remember a vast amount of information every day. Providing them with key vocabulary cards, word banks and knowledge organisers on their tables is a good way ensuring that their progress isn’t obstructed by being unable to spell a word, or remember a key date or process.
As well as access to information, children need to be able to access the resources they need quickly and easily. Working out what to put on children’s tables (do you choose pen pots, stationery caddies, folders, baskets??), and how to organise the storage of exercise books, pencils, pens, whiteboards and pens, paints, pencil sharpeners and all the myriad other resources classrooms need to be stocked with can feel overwhelming. Classroom chair pockets are a really handy organisational tool that both helps keep tables uncluttered and encourage children to take care of their own things.
But however you set up your classroom storage, establishing processes for things like sticking worksheets into books or handing out whiteboard pens in the early days of the school year will save hours of complication further down the line. Where will your children leave books to be marked? Where do they put their completed homework when they bring it in from home? What is the baseline of classroom tidiness that the whole class should aim for at the end of each day? Establishing the answers to these questions will help children feel in control of their classroom environment.
Do you have any of your own tips for optimising your classroom environment? We’d love to hear them! Drop us a comment or message us on social media.
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