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Treehouse Outdoor Classroom

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treehouses for schools

Treehouse round a tree connecting to elevated treehouse

We have just completed a unique treehouse outdoor classroom for Marnel Infant School near Basingstoke. The school originally approached us looking for an outdoor classroom which they could use for their outdoor learning sessions. It had to be big enough to cater for a class of 30 and it had to be totally enclosed so that they could use it all year round. And it had to be interesting in order to fully engage the children!

The original discussions started off with us supplying one of our standard octagonal cedar clad outdoor classrooms which we were going to enclose with French doors and window upper panels and some additional eco options but it soon became obvious that the school had more adventurous plans.

By the main school entrance, there is an area which was suitable for what the school wanted to build – namely an enclosed outdoor classroom which is built around an existing tree in the middle which is then linked by a 10m long elevated walkway to a 5m treehouse elevated off the ground on stilts. This is also totally enclosed on all sides and has French doors to the front elevation so can easily be used all year round.

We have also supplied an additional “mud kitchen” for their forest schools activities which has opening and closing louvre panels on one side (which allows the building to easily adapt to the weather), barn doors to the front elevation and windows on the back to make use of the natural daylight and setting. Like the treehouse outdoor classroom, it is also manufactured out of premium grade cedar with a cedar shingle tile roof.

The school are already reporting that both the treehouse outdoor classroom and the mud kitchen are a great success with the children who love the fact that they can enjoy their outdoor learning in such a unique and special setting.

For further information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982, email info@hideouthouse.com

Rectangular outdoor classroom with polycarbonate windows and louvre panels

What Type of Classroom Building Do You Require for Your School?

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We have quite a few phone calls from schools requesting information on a classroom building and before I can even start to give any advice or indication on price, I have found that there are about half a dozen questions I need to ask back before I can do this!

It is quite a big subject matter (and therefore product range) so it is worth just trying to go through the various options in this blog post.

The first question of course is to ascertain what are you wanting to use the classroom building for. At one end of the scale if you like, schools are running out of classroom space and typically need to have a new classroom provision to cater for a class (or maybe two) in an independent building which has enough m2 teaching floor space (in line with Ofsted requirements) and usually also has a couple of WCs, a kitchenette facility, a lobby/cloakroom and a store room. These buildings can either come as a pre-manufactured mobile classroom unit where they are delivered to site on the back of a low loader truck and are then either winched or craned into final position. A pre-prepared base will already be down in this instance as will all the connection of services (water, electricity, foul drainage etc). The advantage of having a mobile classroom is that the time on site is minimal for the school – typically a week – so very little inconvenience for the school staff and children and their working term.

Or if access is a real issue (read problem!), then it is possible to erect these buildings on site. The building is exactly the same as the mobile version but the on-site times are a lot longer as the build programme starts from ground up as it were. Both type of buildings will conform fully to building regulations with the adequate insulation properties in place.

Moving down the scale, a school may want to use their classroom building just for occasional use per day (say a couple of hours) as an outdoor learning resource or maybe as a break-out “nurture” room for special one to one tuition with pupils who have special educational needs. These enclosed outdoor classrooms tend to be below 30m2, are fully enclosed with either solid infill panels and upper glazing panels (and if needs be can be insulated too) but they rarely have in WCs and internal partitioning to form any internal rooms. This is because space is somewhat limited and all the floor space tends to be used for the teaching/learning area. These buildings come in all shapes and sizes but the most popular are rectangular and octagonal.

And then there are the very popular open-sided, gazebo type outdoor classrooms which are used for outdoor classroom learning for short periods every day. Or they can be used as parent waiting shelters and as a shelter from the elements. Again, they are available in many shapes and sizes but certainly in this case, the octagonal version is the most common. The Hideout House Company offer a whole range of outdoor classrooms with some interesting options.

I should really mention that for all of the above, it is possible to add in an eco element to these classroom buildings. This can be done by having living sedum roofs (which attract bio-diversity, absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and have good natural insulating properties), water butt and roof guttering systems (for rainwater harvesting), educational mini wind turbine and solar panels to create renewable energy and even have lights which can be powered by pedal power on special dynamo bikes!

The good news is that we can offer all of the above to your school! And we can also offer advice on funding and leasing options

For further information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email info@hideouthouse.com

enclosed outdoor classroom

Hideout House Outdoor Classroom at Primary School

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We have just completed a new outdoor classroom building for a primary school in Rushden, Northamptonshire. Our initial brief on this project was quite an interesting one as the neighbouring school had a glass geodome outdoor classroom installed the previous year and so therefore the school was looking for something a bit different too.

They wanted to be able to cater for a class of thirty children, they wanted it to be something a bit unique and also something the children would want to be in time and time again. It was also very important that the building was enclosed (i.e. not like an open sided gazebo type outdoor classroom) and could therefore provide adequate shade and shelter from the elements. This was because the building could be used all year round as well….and therefore opened up opportunities for the wider local community to be able to use it as well. As it was being sited on a grass area with a gentle slope, we had to find a way of easily being able to site the classroom without too much expense being incurred for any groundworks.

As well as an outdoor learning facility for the school children, the school also intend to use it for nurture groups where smaller groups of children with either behavioural problems or learning difficulties can go for more focused one to one tutoring with the teachers and as a quiet respite area where they can escape from the general hub-bub of the average school day.

Last but not least, it had to be of a good quality and last for a long, long time at a price they could afford within their budget.

We always like a bit of challenge!

We therefore have supplied the school with one of our Hideout House outdoor classrooms which ticks a lot of the boxes in the school’s wish list. It is manufactured out of cedar which is a premium quality wood and which requires very little on-going maintenance and typically lasts a lot longer than traditionally used timbers. It also has an attractive cedar shingle tile roof with a special atrium feature in the top section to allow in lots of natural daylight to pour in from above. It is 5m in diameter with internal benching around each side which means that it can easily cater for a class of 30 children. It has an extra wide door to allow access for any children in wheelchairs and it is built up on a timber sub-frame base raised up on posts. This was done to avoid having to put down any sort of base or required any previous leveling of the designated siting area.

It also has quite a unique feel to it and one that the children immediately warmed to as it looks a little mystical shall we say!

Schools seem nowadays to be struggling for any extra space so the Hideout House company feel that this could be a very good way of resolving this particular problem. On-site times are also minimal compared to traditional builds for alternative kinds of school classroom buildings. This particular job was completed in just three days from start to finish.

For further information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email info@hideouthouse.com

outdoor classroom

 

 

The Ideal Solution to More Classroom Space in Schools

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The demands of pupils, students, parents and the curriculum are changing so much in UK schools that we now have a rising need for small spaces to work with in order to cater for the massive rise in special needs students and those with English as a second language (EAL). We have heard these described by school staff as break out rooms, contemplative rooms or nurture rooms – basically somewhere where teachers and students can go to outside of the main hurly burly of the average school day to get a bit of peace and quiet basically!

And herein lies the problem – where do they actually find this space? Schools are absolutely bursting to the seams as it is with every square inch of space being utilised to the full so it is therefore difficult to find somewhere to work. And school budgets are not exactly stretching to being able to afford a new classroom block or modular/mobile classroom.

But we have the solution and that is our enclosed outdoor classrooms because actually, all that is needed is an outdoor room capable of accommodating a class let’s say and can be used all year round. Our outdoor classrooms come in all shapes and sizes – octagonal, square and rectangular – and can be fully insulated & double glazed and we can even provide an attractive glass roof atrium to allow in lots of natural light from above. We can also provide a base for them to sit upon and internal benching if so required….and we can also make them eco friendly with solar panels and wind turbines for a bit of extra green power. We also deliver and install nationwide so no problem there either.

And our prices are affordable starting at just £9K ex VAT for an enclosed outdoor classroom. And of course these buildings can be used by the wider local community as well which opens up grant opportunities and other income generating possibilities (e.g. to rent out when not being used by the school).

We have a whole range of schools we have supplied with these type of buildings so if you needed any testimonials, then we would be happy to supply these too.

For more information, please visit our website below or call on 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com

www.hideouthouse.com

Enclosed octagonal and rectangular classrooms

Enclosed octagonal and rectangular classrooms

 

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