Impacts of the School Environment on Children’s Health and Wellbeing

1. SchoolsCapitalDesign Team Impacts of the School Environment on Children’s Health and Wellbeing Richard Daniels December 2005

2. Some children seem to be getting unhealthier despite our more affluent lifestyle; but why? • Obesity increasing – more sedentary lifestyle, TV, video games • Schools failing to provide enough exercise activities • Children not eating well • Increasing asthma and allergic reactions – role of pollutants; use of anti-biotics? • Drugs and alcohol • Sexual problems Can the school environment affect these health issues?

3. Some suggestions • Health facilities co-located with schools • Extended schools providing sports clubs • Use of outdoor environment as a learning resource • Design of catering to provide healthy locally grown food • Exercise promoted by transport policy • Comfortable internal environment for all pupils – good lighting, ventilation and acoustics. • Linking up with Personal and Social Health Education and Citizenship curriculum, Education for Sustainable Schools, Growing Schools and Healthy Schools programmes.

4. The school environment can affect social issues such as: • friendship – by providing a range of social facilities • behaviour – by secure design with good supervision by staff, the school and wider community • personal safety – by careful design

5. Does the environment promote health • Healthy Food – what type of food can be provided • Good Drinking Water provision – how and where is it provided. Is it more prominent than drinks machines? • Hygienic toilets designed for ease of maintenance, to eliminate bullying and attractively designed

6. Transport Issues - Health benefits of walking or cycling to school have been demonstrated, eg better performance in sports, less obesity. • Traffic pollution • Separation of pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicles • Prevention of accidents around schools by design • Safe routes to schools • School Travel Plans

7. Indoor Environment - Lighting • Daylighting has been shown to significantly improve pupil performance • glare is a common problem • How do we design for electronic whiteboard and VDT use • Views out allow occupants to refocus their eyes from close work and so reduce the risk of eyestrain • High Frequency Ballasts reduce health risks related to mains frequency fluorescent lighting • Lighting should be designed in line with best practice for suitability and visual comfort • Appropriate lighting controls should be provided to aid use and energy conservation

8. Indoor Environment - Noise and acoustics - issues covered by Building Bulletin 93 • Indoor ambient noise levels • Sound insulation between rooms • Sound insulation between rooms and corridors • Impact sound insulation • Reverberation times of main spaces • Absorption in corridors, entrance halls and stairwells • Rain noise • Playground noise

9. Indoor Environment - Thermal Comfort • Thermal Zoning • Thermal Comfort and effects of cold drafts • Prevention of summertime overheating which can produce heat stress

10. Air temperature & humidity What are the optimum conditions of air temperature and humidity for school environments Comfort vs air quality and pupil performance • Reducing the air temperature from 23-24 0C to 18-190C generally improves the perceived air quality by a factor of 2 to 3. • Reducing the air humidity also improves the perceived air quality.

11. Summertime overheating criteria • The current performance standard is that the space air temperature should not exceed 280C for more than 80 occupied hours. • ClassCool and ClassVent tools are being produced.

12. Limitations of 28oC for 80 hours • Does this deal adequately with peak summertime occurrences. • The criteria is not easily measurable. • Could there be a better summertime overheating criteria for peak summertime temperatures, eg, when the external temperature exceeds 30oC.

13. Ventilation Rate • What is the effect of different ventilation rates on carbon dioxide concentration • Is there an effect on pupil performance of low ventilation rates and hence high carbon dioxide concentrations. Early research suggests there is some effect on reaction time and mood. • What other pollutants critically effect ventilation rate if any. Recent work by BRE suggests that only VOCs and bacteria may be generally a problem.

14. Factors to consider in defining what is adequate ventilation • air flow rates • CO2 concentrations • indoor air quality • indoor ambient noise levels as required by BB93

15. Indoor air quality depends on: • External Air Quality- Air Quality Action Zones • Air temperature and humidity • Sensory pollution load, eg, VOCs, dust, particles, pollen, etc • Effect of cleaning, eg, of the air, ductwork, carpets and shelving • Maintenance of filters, etc • Efficiency of ventilation

16. Management issues and efficiency of cleaning affects the indoor air quality • Use of high efficiency particle filters on vacuum cleaners • Cleaning regimes • Outside/inside shoes to reduce spread of dog/cat allergens • Electrostatic air filters • Curtains to filter out particles? • Airing of classrooms between lessons

17. Materials and equipment substitution with low pollution loads Is there a benefit from specifying materials and equipment with lower pollution loads such as: • TFT screens in place of CRT screens • Linoleum instead of carpet • Water based low toxicity paints

18. Ventilation strategies to avoid indoor ambient noise problems • Ventilation before occupancy is recommended to dilute VOCs which have off-gassed overnight. • Can purge ventilation be used in breaks or parts of lessons when a higher background noise level can be tolerated.

19. Further considerations • Introduction of six term year and effect on overheating criteria. • Requirements of particular spaces eg science laboratories and swimming pools. • Effect of climate change on future needs for cooling. Should we leave space for cooling to be added later.