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Eco classrooms can be used for a wide range of applications namely outdoor classrooms, extra classroom teaching areas, staff room, IT suite, library and resources centre, music/dance room, adult learning, nursery facility or even an office or meeting room.

Every facet of our eco classrooms has been manufactured with the environment in mind and therefore include such features as sedum roofs, low energy lighting, enhanced thermal efficiency, eco paints and renewable energy systems – these include wind turbine/solar panel systems and even special dynamo bikes which the children can pedal to create electricity.

Eco classrooms come in all shapes and sizes – namely octagonal, square and rectangular – and can either be open-sided or fully enclosed with insulation and glazing. Optional extras include solar panels, wind turbines, water butts and guttering systems for rainwater harvesting, lean to greenhouses, cold frames, nesting boxes and recycling bin centres.

“Sustainable development will not just be a subject in the classroom: it will be in its bricks and mortar and the way school uses, and even generates, its own power. Our students won’t just be told about sustainable development, they will see and work within it: a living, learning place in which to explore what a sustainable lifestyle means” Tony Blair 2006

What Exactly Are Eco Classrooms?

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The Green Room

These type of eco friendly buildings are becoming ever more popular in schools but what exactly are they? And why are they different from standard classroom buildings?

One could simply argue that any building is now eco friendly as current building methods and building regulations stipulate that they have to be thermally efficient on account of their insulation properties (indeed for larger buildings you have to submit SBEM  – simplified building energy model – calculations which essentially provide for an analysis of building energy consumption and Co2 emission rates). If they are timber clad, you would also need to ensure that the original source of the timber supply is either FSC or PEFC accredited or certified – basically this ensures that for every tree cut down, another one is planted.

But you can go a whole step further in the design of eco classrooms to ensure they are truly eco friendly:

*Sedum Living Roofs – these can usually only be applied to flat or shallow mono pitch roofs because they do not work with steep roof pitches. And they tend to be more expensive than other roof systems as the building has to be structurally  “beefed up” in order to take the extra weight of the sedum and its underlays. BUT they do naturally absorb CO2 from the atmosphere, sedum is a natural insulator and they attract all sorts of bio-diversity

*Renewable Energy – dependent upon the power load required for your classroom building, you can use solar panels and wind turbines to provide some if not all of the electricity. Usually however these type of systems provide for say 40% of the overall electricity pull with the rest coming directly from the grid. However you can also earn money from solar panel systems by feeding electricity back into the grid as well as benefitting from the lower energy bills. We have also worked on projects where some of the power is generated by children pedalling special dynamo bikes!

*Air source heat pumps – act both as a combined space heating and air conditioning unit but they produce less C02 than traditional systems because air is the main component being used which of course is a renewable resource

*Guttering and water butts – these can be used as rainwater harvesting systems

*LED lighting and sun pipes in the roof to allow in extra natural light

And of course the added benefit is that these type of eco classrooms teach the children about environmental issues and demonstrate how we can lead more of a sustainable life.

For more information, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or email simon@hideouthouse.com

or simply visit

The Hideout House Company Ltd

 

the eco centre

the eco classroom

How To Buy A School Classroom Building

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I think it is fair to say that we have had quite a lot of experience over the years in working with schools when they are looking for a new classroom building. And so we thought we would put together a very brief list of the sequential “steps” to help you facilitate what sometimes can be quite a daunting task.

Step One

Be very clear about what you want this new building to “do” and what you require within it – i.e. does it need internal WCs, how much actual classroom teaching space do you require, do you need to have extra storage space, is a kitchenette area with sink and microwave required? Is it just going to be used exclusively by the school or is there a wider community use for it perhaps (this can sometimes be quite important if you are looking for external funding). So have a clear project plan in place and establish any local need if so required.

Step Two

Once you have decided upon the above, you now need to get the initial buy-in from your Governors to proceed further. Without this, you are just going to be wasting your time and those of potential suppliers. I have been on many visits to schools where we have put together quite detailed plans and quotes and only to be later told that the Governors would rather spend the money on something else having not originally been consulted. It can be quite frustrating.

Most important – how are you going to pay for it?? Like above, I have been involved on some many projects where this has not really been addressed initially and it really needs to be. You therefore need to identify as to whether there is money in the school capital budget, can you lease the building perhaps, research if there are there grants available from the local education authority (we keep hearing so much about how the Government are pumping millions into the whole classroom shortage problem) and whether there are non Govt grants which might fund your project – especially if there is a wider community use for your building.

Step Three

At this stage you now need to start to look at potential suppliers for your school classroom building. Have a look at their websites, ask them for testimonials from previous schools they have supplied, see whether they will come out and do a free initial site visit. Ascertain what kind of overall service they can supply – e.g can they offer a complete turn-key system whereby they will undertake all of the associated project work such as applying for planning permission, filing building reg applications, install baseworks, connection of all necessary services etc If so, they will need to give you a comprehensive quote

Step Four

Once you have received in all of the quotes and undertaken as much as due diligence as possible, make your decision as to which company you wish to contract with. Now you need to file a planning permission application to your local authority as no building work can be done until you have this. In some instances a building regulation application can be filed at the same time to the building control officer in order to save time.

Step Five

If you are planning on siting this new classroom building onto an existing playing field area at the school, you will also need to check whether you have to file for Section 77 Approval and details on this can be found on the below link:

https://www.gov.uk/school-land-and-property-protection-transfer-and-disposal

If you do, you cannot start any work until you have authorisation.

Step Six

Once you have all of the above approved, agree a build schedule with the supplier/contractor and make sure that it is stuck to!

Step Seven

Move in!

If would like to discuss how we can help your school with your new classroom project, then please do contact us.

For further information, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or email simon@hideouthouse.com

or please visit school classroom buildings

 

 

Eco Classrooms

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The Off-Grid Eco Classrooms Project

We were thrown another interesting challenge recently from an independent Eco school who have a big forest school area within their grounds. As this woodland area is somewhat remote and distant from the main school buildings, they are wanting to have an enclosed outdoor classroom building which they can use for a whole host of applications and will be used for at least a couple of hours a day. In all seasons and in all weathers.  So they need some sort of power and heat plus they need to have a WC facility for staff and visitors.

As the site is nowhere near any service connections, there is no other option but to go “off-grid”. But we believe that we have cracked it.

The building itself will be 7m x 4m so easily enough room to cater for a class of 30 children and will have bi-fold doors to the front elevation so that the building can easily be opened up to allow for free-flow. It will be fully insulated to roof, walls and floor so that it is as thermally efficient as possible as well as being double glazed. The toilet is to be a modern environmentally friendly eco composting toilet so no water, no sewage, no harmful chemicals, no smell and no waste.

The lighting will be LED strip lights which in turn will be powered by an array of four ground mounted solar panels (capable of producing a Kw of electricity) and a mini wind turbine. The energy created by this system will be stored in two batteries and by way of an inverter will be converted to usable power so that the children and staff have two power sockets they can use for laptops, tablets etc. We are also investigating the possibility of this power supply being “topped up” by electric pedal bikes which the children have to pedal for a period of time – but to keep them interested we have developed a system with an LED display unit so that the faster they pedal, they can see how many more kws of power they are creating.

Heating of the building will be via an internal wood-burning stove and because this is a forest school, the children will be responsible for collecting the logs to burn.

Should be a very interesting project and truly an eco classroom in every sense. So if you are looking for something similar, then please contact us on info@hideouthouse.com or phone 01865 858982

or please visit eco classrooms

The Green Room

The New Pedal Powered Outdoor Classroom

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A year and a half ago we were approached by the head teacher of a primary school in South London with an interesting and challenging brief – after many discussions with their school council, they wanted to have an outdoor classroom in their school playground but not just any old outdoor classroom. The school wanted to be able to use this facility to promote eco awareness and sustainable thinking, they wanted to be able to have features in the building which they could tie into the curriculum (especially science), they wanted to hold dance and music sessions out there and last but not least, if it could encourage physical play, then all the better!

Partnering with Electric Pedals, the Hideout House Company finally installed the answer to their brief at the end of last year – this being a pedal powered outdoor classroom.

The outdoor classroom is a 5m octagonal buidling which is enclosed by solid infill wall panels on six sides and two roll-up-down canvas panels on the others. One of these side panels has an opening hatch for the “DJ” to stand behind the “mixing desk” and look out directly onto the playground dance area. Powered by two permanently fixed ‘X-Bikes’ with in-built dynamos, the classroom allows the children to generate their own power which is used to power a small PA system (with speakers which are fitted into both the walls and mixing desk), strip LED lighting

 

and a disco ball which is mounted to the underside of the roof. As they pedal, the children can see in real-time exactly how many watts are being generated by way of a watt-o-meter monitoring dial and using the wall-mounted information boards, compare this to the consumption of everyday household appliances. The pupils at the school can therefore now appreciate how much energy is required just to switch on a kettle for example.

Just to make it a bit more interesting and to keep the children incentivised to pedal, a bubble-machine has also been supplied which creates hundreds of bubbles once the children start pedalling!

The project has immediately been a great success and the school’s headteacher Vivien Luniak summed it up really well with the following statement: “We are absolutely delighted with our new outdoor classroom and the electric pedal equipment. It allows us to teach the children in a creative manner about renewable energy and we can incorporate some of the items into our science lessons. Plus we are getting the children to undertake physical activity by all the pedalling required to create the energy!”

To see the video of this project in action, please click on the below link or copy and paste into your web browser:

https://www.hideouthouse.com/video/

For more information, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982/07711 542589 or

e-mail: simon@hideouthouse.com

Web address: outdoor classrooms

 

The Eco Centre Octagonal 4m

outdoor classroom with pedal bikes

It’s All Good Radio Show

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Just before Christmas, the presenter and producer of “It’s All Good Radio Show” Debbie Hyde very kindly interviewed me for her radio show to talk about what we as the Hideout House Co are doing as a company and how we successfully work with schools in the UK to help develop their eco school strategies, activities and outdoor learning programmes.

This interview can be heard by clicking on the below link: (my interview segment is about 19 minutes into the show if you wanted to fast forward)

For further details on Brooklands Radio and this stimulating and informative show, their website can be found at:
http://itsallgoodradioshow.com/
For further details, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or email simon@hideouthouse.com
www.hideouthouse.com

 

How To Make Your School More Eco Friendly

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This article is not really to tell you how you make the actual school building(s) more eco friendly and energy efficient but more so to inform how you can creatively engage the children, staff and parents in promoting sustainability and fostering a keen knowledge of all things “green” within an educational environment. You need to be able to create the perfect outdoor classroom.

The key word here is engagement: “Tell me and I’ll forget. Show me and I may not remember. Involve me and I will understand”. There are numerous websites offering free downloadable resources on this subject matter but in order for children to meaningfully make the transgression to a low carbon economy in the future, they need to be able to fully comprehend the issues by actually being involved in them. And in a fun way.

So it would be best to tackle the big four eco schools issues – namely renewable energy, bio-diversity, re-cycling and growing/healthy living

Renewable Energy

Children need to understand how carbon neutral energy is created from the sun, wind and water – so an idea would be to have a mini wind turbine and solar panel packaged system installed within an outdoor classroom whose main purpose would be to serve as an educational tool rather than an alternative power source for the school and its everyday activities. This could then be connected to an energy monitoring board with power sockets so that the children can see how much power is being created from these items and thereby datalog this information for further course work. The power sockets can then be used to power up items such as laptops, visualisers, tablets etc so that children can actually appreciate using green energy created by the sun and wind as a power source for their outdoor learning exercises rather than just plugging straight into the grid.

Re-cycling

We all know that we should re-cycle household items but within an educational context, what about creating a den which is made entirely out of recycled items which children can bring into school – for example an “igloo den” made out of re-cycled plastic milk cartons. Or a water dam feature which demonstrates how water can be re-cycled time and time again and create hydro-electricity

Growing and Healthy Living

A lot of schools now have dedicated planting areas but if you wanted to extend this feature out, you could add in mini greenhouses and a school “shop” whereby the children can actually sell the product they have grown to the parents of the schools.

Bio Diversity

You can literally start with a simple bird, box and insect nest habitat but if you wanted to study Mother Nature in more detail, you can add in nature watch retreats made out of willow for example and mini ponds so that the children can go pond dipping and study the abundant pond life they find. Wild meadow gardens are also a nice, simple and cheap feature to add.

For more information, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or email: simon@hideouthouse.com

The Hideout House Company Ltd

https://www.hideouthouse.com/eco/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eco Zone Packages

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The Hideout House Company in partnership with Timotay Playscapes have created a unique product offering to promote eco awareness in schools.

With climate change and environmental concerns firmly back on the international agenda and featured regularly in the mainstream media, awareness about these important issues and embracing social responsibilities within our schools is now more important than ever.

To foster this process, the Hideout House Company have put together a range of unique and creative product packages which compliment the major eco schools themes – RENEWABLE ENERGY, BIO-DIVERSITY, SCHOOL GROUNDS, HEALTHY LIVING, RECYCLING AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP.

The company has therefore created four distinct “centres” or “zones”. The Renewable Energy Centre allows children to monitor, measure and use green energy from the sun, water, wind and pedal power. Via an energy-monitoring panel and power unit, students can then use this clean and carbon neutral electricity to power up their laptops, tablets, mobile phones, visualisers, cameras or even a radio station!

The Growing and Healthy Living Centre features products which encourage children to plant and grow their own food and complete the cycle by composting any waste which can then be used as fertiliser for the planter beds…to help grow more food.

Wild and natural outdoor spaces can sometimes be a rare site in our schools today so the Biodiversity Centre gives children the opportunity to learn about and observe at first hand animals, conservation and wild meadows.

The Recycling Centre features a very unique product which is the water re-cycling and power generating water mine. Via a hand pump set in a tower, children can pump water from a reservoir onto a water wheel which in turn transfers motion through a shaft to an interactive pulley that can run a windmill at a variable speed. The water drops from the wheel into the rill and can then be dammed both with a screw action sluice gate and removable plastic gates. The flow of water can also be changed with moveable textured “islands”.

Children can also construct their own “igloo” den made out of recycled plastic milk cartons.

And all of these specialist zones are spokes to the Eco Outdoor Classroom or Hub (complete with sedum roof) where children can conduct their studies outdoors and genuinely take learning outside of the classroom.

If schools are working towards their Eco Schools accreditation, are wanting to successfully take learning outside of the classroom, are wishing to develop innovative ways to deliver curriculum outcomes and involve the local community, then the Hideout House Company have come up with the ideal solution.

And we are helping to save the planet……..

For more information, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982/07711 542589 or

e-mail: simon@hideouthouse.com

Eco centre packages info: eco school activities

 Web address: www.hideouthouse.com

UN Report on Climate Change

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So you have now been officially warned! The recent published report from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provides overwhelming evidence that climate change is very much real and it is happening right now with devastating consequences across the globe. This report has been collated by 300 scientists from around the world and the over-riding conclusion is that the science is now speaking loud and clear.

Even the BBC gave 15 minutes to this news coverage on the 10 o’clock news!

Now the doubters could argue that this is all scare-mongering and media-inflated but I strongly believe that we cannot bury our heads in the sand any more and spend the next thirty years arguing about the supposed facts and scientific data.

We have no Planet B and therefore education is everything because if we are going to make any significant difference to help saving our planet, then awareness about environmental issues and embracing social responsibilities has to come as second nature to this generation of school children. They will not question climate change, they will simply accept it.

So to assist in this educational programme for eco schools, we have put together a range of unique and creative product packages which compliment the major eco schools topics: RENEWABLE ENERGY, BIO DIVERSITY, HEALTHY LIVING AND EATING; RE-CYCLING AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP.

Our whole ethos is to engage children in a challenging and fun way so that they will keep on wanting to engage within the sustainability knowledge process – time and time again.

For further details on these unique eco schools packages, please refer to our website www.hideouthouse.com or email: simon@hideouthouse.com for further details

 

 

 

This Is Not Just Any Old Outdoor Classroom – This Is An Eco Centre!

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We have just started to install our first Eco Centre outdoor classroom buildings at primary schools in the UK. Last month, we have sold five and without wishing to brag, all of these schools are absolutely delighted with them.

These buildings not only provide a practical role by providing an outdoor space where children can simply learn outdoors or appreciate natural habitats and bio-diversity but they also act as an educational resource as well. The school children have been busy monitoring the panel on the wind turbine and solar panel system and using the energy created to power up some LED lights and other low level appliances. The rainwater from the water butt has been harvested and used to water the school’s growing gardens, vegetable patches and planters and some classrooms have been undertaking studies on monitoring the wildlife and bio-diversity that has been attracted via the sedum roof, mini eco pond and insect nests.

With the Eco School programme becoming ever more popular in schools and coupled with the fact that this generation need to understand and be more sympathetic to the environment so that it becomes second nature to them, I think we are going down the right line!

For more information please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or email simon@hideouthouse.com

or please visit eco outdoor classrooms