Furnishing a classroom can be a challenge for any number of reasons. You need to visualise the space, choose the correct layout to suit both your students and your subject, and often work within a designated budget. But the comfort and health of your students should always be a priority when it comes to furnishing a school classroom.
A study by the University of Lisbon found that almost two-thirds of the students that took part in the research suffered from back pain and that large differences between desk height and elbow height was associated with a greater likelihood of these adolescents being in pain. For this and many other reasons, it’s essential to talk about choosing the right height for your school chairs and classroom tables.
What is the EN1729 certification and what does it mean?
The EN1729 certification was drawn up by the Technical Committee for Europe and designates an ideal height for both tables and chairs that adapts depending on the children’s age. It stipulates school chair heights from 260mm-460mm and classroom table heights from 460mm-760mm - these dimensions cover children from age 3 upwards to 18+. The EN1729 certification also covers the design of classroom furniture, such as ergonomic inclusions for chairs to discourage slouching and help children to sit comfortably with correct posture.
Why is choosing the right classroom furniture so important?
15,000 hours. That’s the average amount of time a child spends sitting on school chairs during their education. That’s 900,000 minutes sitting in the same exact position. According to an article in The Guardian, ‘around a fifth of children suffer back pain and three in every classroom will see a doctor before their 16th birthday’ - little wonder, if they’re spending 54,000,000 seconds in uncomfortable chairs with little or no thought, put into their design.
When you have a classroom full of children - particularly young children - keeping their attention focused on you for the duration of the school day (or even a single lesson) is difficult enough without adding discomfort to the mix. Children forced to remain on uncomfortable seats are going to be far more concerned with counting down the minutes until they can get off them than with listening to their teacher or with taking in important developmental lessons. That’s why it’s vitally important that classroom chairs are designed to support growing children. All of our school chairs have been ergonomically designed to provide children with the correct postural support and comfort they need throughout the school day.
However, choosing the right classroom furniture isn’t just about style and shape - it’s also about size. There is no ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to school chairs and tables. Classrooms must be furnished correctly for the age and height of the students who will be taught there. This offers a particular challenge to junior schools, where the needs of youngsters evolve rapidly.
Crush Bent Stacking School Desks
ST Classroom Chairs
What table and chair heights do you need for different age groups?
The EN1729 certification stipulates exact dimensions (specifically, chair seat height and classroom desk height) broken down by age group. These are designed so that children can sit comfortably at the right height to use the desk in front of them without straining or hurting themselves. This certification has been conceived specifically for school purposes, as children spend a lot of time working at a desk and are often either forced to raise their arms too high to reach a higher table, or to bend over unnecessarily to accommodate a table that is too low. The certification dimensions are as follows:
You will see from the chart that the gap between the chair seat height and the desk height gets larger as you go up through the age categories; this is to allow for the child’s growth.
How helpful is adjustable height classroom furniture?
Height-adjustable classroom furniture offers a flexible and adaptable solution for junior or primary schools. These adjustable desks can be set at heights anywhere from 400mm to 640mm, making them suitable for ages 2-10 years. This way, a classroom can be furnished once with height-adjustable desks, and these desks can be adjusted year on year to adapt to growing students (although new chairs will be required for each shift). While height-adjustable desks are a more expensive initial purchase, over time they will save you both time and money as you won’t need to buy new desks as your students progress through the school.
Why not have one classroom for each year group, we hear you ask. Well, a lot of schools don’t have the floor space to have a single designated classroom for each age group. Instead, classroom spaces are often shared by children of different ages, for a range of different lessons. Height-adjustable desks are a great help under these circumstances, as they can be altered between lessons to suit a new group of students. Used in combination with stackable chairs of the correct height (perhaps colour-coded for ease) these tables are a perfect learning tool for students of all ages.
For more information on our Classroom Furniture, you can get in touch with our team via our Contact Us page or by calling 01733 511121.
Permalink:
https://www.earlylearningfurniture.co.uk/blog/choosing-the-right-classroom-table-and-chair-height.aspx