Overview
St Nicholas School is a special educational needs school that caters for children with moderate learning difficulties, communication needs and autism. The school positively promotes learning together with daily learning experiences to enhance their lives and equip them with the skills to become healthy, active, resilient learners.
Client Brief
The school heard about our work from a neighbouring school in the same borough who had always used us due to the quality of service and systems installed. With an increased need to help the children to regulate their emotions in a safe environment, they asked us to provide a quote to complete two soft calming rooms for the school.
As with all schools, they had to complete due diligence and gain additional quotes but, with so few companies in the industry being able to offer the quality and assurance of guaranteed aftercare as we do, they knew from recommendations that we stood the test. For their children, it was so important that the system was right.
Design Process
The design started out very simply, with soft wall and floor padding to provide a protective environment for the children where they could safely regulate. To help the children to calm, they opted for the key features of mood lighting and music.
To maximise the space and enhance the calming aspect, the school added a media projector to bring relaxing visuals into the room. These would really help the children to deescalate, providing a focus whilst in the room. With an Apple TV connected, they could display anything from a meadow with the lovely sounds of birds tweeting to a train chuffing past; whatever they knew helped that child to relax and change their mind focus.
The school was very keen to use calming tones of the same colour to create that zen feel as soon as the children entered the room. They chose lilac and lavender for one room and aqua and ice blue for the second. These shades ensure the mood lighting is maximized as well, using the lighter shades on the wall.
Installation Process
Once the rooms had been constructed, the design engineer completed a full survey of the rooms as all padding is bespoke. We had asked the builders to ensure there were no sockets in the room due to the nature of the use. This ensures the best finish to the padding as well. We also provided the school with the details of the electrical requirements, so the contractors completed these during the first fix for a neat overall installation.
The controls for the sound and lighting systems were fitted within lockable cabinets on the outside of the rooms (as shown below) where the supervisors could select the best options on discussion with the children, or from what they knew helped the child using the space to calm down.
After having a difficult time with their selected contractor, the school were pleased to have our engineers on site to complete the two systems. Although working during school term, the engineers completed the installation in an efficient and diligent manner to cause as little disruption as possible.
Training Process
On completion of the project, the engineers provided the school with a complete run down of how to use each piece of equipment to maximise the system for the pupils. Any Apple device could be linked to the system to display a range of visuals through the media projector and the simplicity of the mood lighting controller made selecting a colour or mode quick and easy.
Conclusion
We enjoyed creating these important spaces for the school and ensuring that the final fitted system was as safe and secure as possible for the children. The additional elements of sound and visuals are an imperative part of a calming room, giving the children the means to help them regulate their emotions.
When we hear how quickly these installations help the children to regulate and move back into the classroom for meaningful lessons, it really does make us proud of the quality of systems we design, manufacture and install; knowing that the end result is so positive!
