Billesley Primary School's Eco Classroom
We revisited Billesley Primary School in Birmingham to see their eco classroom in action and find out from both the staff and students how this extra space has benefitted them. The school opted for a bespoke 7.5m x 4m Redwood cladded Eco Classroom. They have extended their biophillic environment from their main school building into their cabin, considering biophillic design principles to create the ultimate safe, calm space for their pupils. This helps the children to feel more at ease and open to communication!
Click here to watch our case study story with Billesley Primary School
How do you use your eco classroom?
'One of the main reasons that we invested in an eco classroom and utilise it is for our LAC students (looked after children). Our eco classroom is specially designed to be a nice, small, comforting room with a nurturing feel and so we use it as an opportunity for our social workers to have their own set time and designated space with the children. We also use it as a nurture space where students have a familiar place within the school to come to and regulate their emotions or to have positive, nurturing conversations with their social workers. We can bring groups of 10-15 children into a safe space where they can have all of the resources they need. We also bring smaller groups into our eco classroom to cater to the children identified as benefitting from learning in smaller groups sizes.'
What other support groups do you run in your eco classroom?
'We run our Lego therapy sessions in our eco classroom. The reason we do Lego therapy is that it's good for children who have ASD or speech and language or communication difficulties. It helps to promote social interaction and build children's social skills. We also have our open theatre. The initial goal for open theatre is to expose children to interactions which can be non-verbal. This can help them to read facial cues, body language and it can also be a way for them to understand humour too. Essentially, it allows the children to work together as a group without using their words.'
How does having this additional space help?
'For schools, space really is of a premium. We're always looking for additional spaces beyond just the nooks and alcoves in the school in order to provide children with a purposeful, safe, quiet, private space in which to partake in these support activities. Last year, we were using our resource base which is quite small. With other classes going on around it, it could be a bit too noisy for the children. Here in our eco classroom, we now have our own space! It's really nice and bright - it doesn't have a clinical or corporate feel. It's great for us to have an environment which we can actually adapt and change to meet the needs of our students.'
Inspired by Billesley Primary School's Eco Classroom? Want to upgrade your school support provisions? Contact our team today!
