Primary Plus Advice

Advice on furnishing teaching and play areas for children

When choosing furniture you will be influenced by your teaching or practice methods, the type of area you are planning and the functions you wish your furniture to perform. We hope that the following notes and reminders will help you to achieve this and make the selections most suited to your needs.

Learning and Soft Play areas:

Check the space available - have you enough room?
Try to provide a mix of sitting and standing workplaces using a variety of tables, and chairs.
Children enjoy working together in groups and role-play and soft play furniture enhances confidence -especially in the under 3 year age group.
Try to ensure there is a variety of seating, from chairs for use at tables, seat cubes, bench seats stools and child size sofas and easy chairs - all have multi purpose application.
Ensure tables, chairs and work areas are the correct height for the age group - better too low than too high! Let children sit comfortably to listen to your stories and readings.
Refer to Standing, Reaching and Sitting work height recommendations as charts below. These are provided as a guide. For practical and writing work, children's feet should be flat on the floor when seated, with forearms parallel to the tabletop - this is the best test.

Storage:

Will the teacher or leader require a workplace with or without storage, a cupboard or a locker?
Allow for general storage of toys and equipment. You may want a mix of static and mobile storage units, with and without trays. What level of security is required - doors or locks etc.
For Books consider Literacy units - static or mobile that offer both display to attract young children, and storage they can reach and access. Wall cupboards and shelves and specialised book trolleys can also be used.
For paints and practical work items storage trolleys with both deep and shallow plastic trays that are easily cleaned are ideal.
Both mobile and static tray storage units can be considered in steel frame or timbers.

Resource and Library:

Storage, shelving and library units are available in mobile, static and wall secured ranges.
Consider how much access you wish to allow to the children, their age group and height levels. Can they reach that shelf or tray? Do you want them to?
Consider the weight of books, and the necessity to wall secure units for stability.
Will you require to add on wall units or shelving at a later date?
Book covers need to be displayed to attract - ensure part of the library units provide for this.
Is the space available?

Colours:

Select colours carefully. Children and their work can provide colour as well as the furniture.
Horizontal working surfaces are better in pale colours and shades - particularly greens and beiges to reduce glare that bright primary colours can cause to young children's eyes.

Standards:

Your Local Education Authority can advise on material and product standards but particularly ensure that upholstery meets the required fire retardancy regulations and is marked as such.

Suggested 'comfortable' reaching, sitting, standing and working heights:

Age Group mixed	Reaching height	Sitting seat height	Sitting working Table height	Standing working Table height
Up to 3 years	600mm	200mm	400mm	500mm
3 - 4 years	700mm	240mm	450mm	550mm
4 - 6 years	850mm	280mm	500mm	600mm
5 - 7 years	1000mm	320mm	550mm	650mm
7 - 9 years	1150mm	355mm	600mm	700mm
9 - 11 years	1300mm	385mm	650mm	750mm
11- adult	1500mm	430mm	700mm	800mm