Acoustics in Schools
Over the past 4 years there have been some major changes to how we must now design and construct schools in the UK. Building Bulletin 93 (BB93) is a direct replacement for Part A of the DfES Building Bulletin 87. All school buildings are now subject to detailed design checks and on-site inspections by building control officers.
Building Bulletin 93 aims to:
- Provide a regulatory framework for the acoustic design of schools in support of the Building Regulations
- Give supporting advice and recommendations for planning and design of schools
- Provide a comprehensive guide for architects, building control officers, building services engineers, clients and others involved in the design of new school buildings
The implications of this change are far reaching, as now what was a guidance document has become mandatory, being part of the Approved process whereby all new school works must be designed and constructed.
The implications do not stop with BB93 being mandatory. Many items of research have shown that acoustic conditions within schools can have a profound impact on pupil's learning and staff performance. In turn, the requirements for BB93 are more onerous than in BB87, to assist in the integration of those pupils with Special Educational Needs into mainstream schools, and to generally improve standards.
To assist Schools and the education establishment, Black Cat Acoustics can design, supply and install high performance acoustic equipment as a total package or find economic solutions to individual problem areas within new or existing school buildings. We also have a full understanding of the meaning and requirements of the BB93 section of the Building Regulations.
Classroom Acoustics and the effect on learning
Despite their best efforts to listen, students can be distracted by noises from inside or outside the classroom that can affect concentration and as a result, learning suffers. One solution to this problem is to reduce the noise by treating classroom walls and ceilings with acoustic materials – a simple, economic solution that allows learning, not noise, to take over.
For children and teenagers, the classroom is a place to focus on social, intellectual and communication skills in a controlled environment and provide the stimuli needed to help a child realise his or her full potential.
When it comes to language learning, an instinctive grasp of phonetic structure and grammatical rules comes about only through repeated exposure to clear, unambiguous auditory interaction and too often such interaction is corrupted or inhibited by the acoustical environment in which it takes place. Whilst adults have the ability to guess missing words, children find it much harder to fill in the gaps and their educational development can suffer.
Too many children accept noise as the natural background to their activities at home, at school or in public places. The harmful effect of noise on young children has been well documented and a noisy environment can dull a child's listening skills. Children can lose the ability to distinguish some of the subtle speech components, essential to the mastery of language.
Two important characteristics of an acoustically optimised classroom are a low background noise level and a low reverberation time. The background noise may be from a heating/ventilation unit, activity in an adjacent classroom or corridor, traffic or aircraft noise, student activity within the classroom, or any combination of these. Reverberation is the multiple reflections of sounds within a room that can prolong and distort the original sound components. Communication over a high background noise can be assisted with a voice amplification (sound field) system. A reverberant room, however, cannot be improved electronically and a "live" room must be treated with sound absorbing materials over the reflecting surfaces. Sound absorption also helps to reduce background noise levels and, by improving speech intelligibility, reduces the need for raised voices.
Many older schools built with high, concrete ceilings and equipped with individual room heating/ventilation units will not meet the recommended standards without modification. The first step should be an noise survey to measure background levels, noise isolation and the reverberation characteristics of the room. Corrective action may require the installation of noise absorption panels to the walls and ceilings. Seals on doors and windows can reduce noise from outside.
Contact www.blackcatacoustics.co.uk/contact.htm to find out more about BB93 and the solutions we offer.
