How to maximise space in a small Primary classroom
Small classrooms: a rite of passage and a teaching experience we’re all likely to come up against at one point or another! Just like a small home, bedroom or living room, working with less square footage can sometimes feel restrictive and perhaps a little frustrating. Yet, as with your home, optimising your classroom space can dramatically improve how it’s used and how you and your learners experience it.
Regardless of the size of the learning space you work with, there are huge possibilities for improving learning outcomes by adapting the learning environment. In this article, we’ll be sharing advice for making the most of a small classroom space - not only benefitting your pupils but also you as a teacher!
Plan your classroom layout
You wouldn’t start day one with your class by setting targets before you have made assessments. The same goes for your classroom. Before you can decide how to optimise the space you have, you need to break down what you’re working with. So, start with an assessment!
Begin by drawing out a blank room plan on a piece of physical paper to really get to grips with the empty space, and make rough measurements of the walls (those metre sticks come in handy!).
Next, draw in non-moveable objects or spaces such as windows and doors, radiators and built-in displays, and built-in cupboards and draw or shade these in red.
Now, make a list of the furniture and useful items you already have in your class that you want (or have) to keep. Create simple cutouts of these items on a separate piece of paper. If you’re short on time, you could also do this with post-it notes - just try to make them roughly size equivalent (depending on the items) to help you visualise what is in your room.
Now, as you think about the needs of your class, you can move around the mock-ups and adjust the room before committing to the physical hard work of doing it!
With your plan ready, make a list of what you think your class specifically needs. If you have been with them for a while, you should have a gauge of the kind of learners you have. If not, speak to their previous teachers or practitioners and read through handover documents to assess things.
Consider the following questions:
Do your class need to keep moving with lots of physical learning?
Do they really value a designated reading area?
Is technology a big focus in your class?
Having an idea of what your focus is will help you with decision-making. Now, you can use this plan to help visualise what changes will look like before you make them. Here are our three tips for delivering those goals!
Multi-purpose learning areas
As with a small room in your home, a small classroom needs to maximise every inch of space while remaining minimal on clutter (more on that later when we talk storage!). With this in mind, we advocate for making all learning areas as multi-purpose as possible to make use of your footprint.
A flexible reading corner
A classroom corner has the potential to be transformed into a reading corner, but this area needn’t be limited to the sole activity of reading.
A ‘literacy corner’ instantly opens up the concept of writing as well as reading. By placing floor cushions, bean bags or bean bag chairs, clipboards or lap mats and writing tools in this zone, pupils can work here independently or in small groups on any aspect of learning in English lessons.
Soft seating aids sustained concentration and supports learning in various activities. For example, pupils can comfortably engage in device-based learning using laptops or tablets while utilising bean bag seating.
Create an inspiration station
By creating a learning zone with a more generic name, an area of the classroom can be used in multiple ways at different times. An ‘Inspiration Station’ could house:
Research equipment, such as non-fiction texts, computers, laptops and tablets.
Scientific equipment relevant to the current topic.
Design and technology materials for problem-solving and creative thinking.
Art resources, such as images or artists’ work, prompts to inspire pupil responses and a selection of paper and drawing implements.
As with your ‘literacy corner’, your ‘inspiration station’ can benefit from flexible seating so pupils can use it in different ways and comfortably immerse themselves in learning activities for sustained periods of time.
Making use of classroom furniture, windows and doors
Consider opportunities to make use of the elements of your classroom that can’t be moved or removed.
Awkward, non-moveable items like ground-level storage may be able to house learning resources that pupils can access if doors are removed.
Cupboard doors and the sides or even the back of units can become places to display learning aids and prompts or pupils’ work.
Turn the tops of cupboards into interactive, hands-on displays or learning areas.
Maximise door and window spaces by adding neutral, calm displays overlaid on top. Be careful not to block all the natural light though.
Doors can be used for storage solutions with simple door hangers. Pockets can be filled with stationery items or learning resources, such as keyword cards or maths resources.
Try drawing these in on your plan or using sticky notes. What looks good? What makes sense with your learners in mind?
Classroom displays
Displays are another challenging aspect for the teacher with limited space. If wall space is at a premium, you may consider whether it’s under-utilised, with displays that focus merely on work examples instead of dynamic learning spaces.
Classroom wall displays
Ensure each display you have has a ‘working wall’ section with regularly changing materials. These teaching aids and prompts, such as key terminology or picture prompts, should be relevant to the topics being covered in class. Using velcro strips is a quick and easy way to change what’s up on display and means resources can be reused when revisiting a topic.
Interactive tabletop displays
If you have a countertop space beneath a wall display, create a learning ‘zone’ underneath each subject display, attaching learning resources and materials to the display itself or the wall below. If your displays don’t quite work in this way, as Veronica Lopez put it, ‘don’t let a small classroom be your kryptonite’. Lopez highlights that learning zones can pop up anywhere - ‘in a bookcase, on top of a storage unit, a shelf, or on a table’ (1).
Hanging classroom displays
When you’ve run out of wall space, it’s time to explore the space overhead. Make use of the classroom ceiling and find ways to display learning aids or pupils’ work on mobiles or washing lines.
Flexible classroom seating
Next up, think flexibility. When space is limited, the best furniture you can get is multi-purpose furniture which adapts to the needs of learners. Don’t take our word for it, though - plenty of research says just that. Barrett et al.’s research confirmed Higgins et al.’s 2005 argument that:
‘the most successful design elements in classrooms are likely to be elements of flexibility that can adapt to new curriculum demands and new challenges’ (2). Terada and Merrill (3) point out that some evidence stipulates that the best seating arrangements ‘should match the learning task’.
Flexible seating can take a variety of forms. For some, this might mean low-level tables and bean bags that can move around the room, especially for use in more informal areas like reading corners.
Switching out traditional tables and using tuff trays in EYFS settings will make for a much more easily adjustable learning space depending on the provision of the day. Equally, if you have some available floor space, either in the classroom or outside, tuff trays can be placed on the ground, and pupils can utilise carry cushions or ‘grab & go’ cushions to learn while seated on the floor comfortably.
Opting for furniture that can easily move really allows you to maximise your classroom space, making it work for you rather than you around it. As before, try moving around mock-ups of moveable furniture on your classroom plan to see how it might work for you.
Clever classroom storage solutions
A teacher’s marmite: storage! Some love getting things organised, others can’t bear it - but getting your storage right is vital when you have a smaller space to work with.
As we’ve mentioned above, if some of your storage is non-moveable and takes up space, try to maximise it by utilising cupboard doors as displays or adding learning resources or zones on top of low-level cupboards. This will help ease the pain that comes with unattractive cupboards!
Next, think about creative solutions to maximise storage.
Could you add crates under tuff trays to store resources when they are not in use?
Could you add stationary storage underneath chairs or tables?
Could the backs of cupboard doors have added storage?
Could you use wall space to store important items without them becoming cluttered, perhaps using shelving or hooks?
With these optimisations in place, think about how you keep these areas organised. Clutter stands out even more in a small room, so consider adding visual reminders for your class on how to keep things organised, such as labelling where specific resources go, as well as spending teaching time explaining how different areas should be kept tidy.
Learning spaces outside the classroom
If your classroom’s feeling cramped but there is available space nearby, it’s worth considering how this could be effectively utilised. A cloakroom space, a corridor, a hall, the library, a conservatory or a covered outside area can all become exciting places for pupils to learn.
Armed with handy ‘grab & go’ cushions or portable carry cushions, pupils can comfortably carry out group discussions or reading activities almost anywhere, while floor mats can be put out in temporary learning spaces and then neatly tucked away after use.
Think positive!
We know it’s easy to feel frustrated when you are dealt a small classroom. However, we like to see this as a challenge and a point of personal development - maximising learning spaces is a fantastic skill to have as a teacher, and your learners will benefit, too! Stay positive and have fun maximising your learning space!
References:
(1) https://www.edutopia.org/blog/7-learning-zones-classroom-veronica-lopez
(2) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0013916516648735
(3) https://www.edutopia.org/article/the-science-of-classroom-design/
Eden Learning Spaces offers a wide range of soft furnishings to support all learning environments- no matter what size! To see the full range, or reach out to the team to discuss a bespoke solution that will work for your space, click the buttons below.
