Modern, versatile classroom furnishings instills pleasure and helps enhance scholar outcomes at Sarah A. Reed Children’s Center
Equipping school rooms and different college areas with snug and versatile furnishings doesn’t simply open up new potentialities for instruction. It can even enhance the engagement and morale of each college students and workers.
With the assistance of grant funding, the St. Ann’s School campus of Sarah A. Reed Children’s Center (SRCC) in Erie, Pennsylvania, furnished 9 school rooms, a school lounge, a board room, a number of places of work, and a library house. Modern new furnishings was supplied by School Specialty® for the scholars in its sanctuary-based studying applications, a lot of whom have skilled some type of trauma of their lives.
“These are kids who are going through some pretty big challenges,” says Gary Bukowski, CRFE, affiliate vp of growth for the middle. “They’re used to having hand-me-down belongings.”
The new furnishings contains ergonomically designed and age-appropriate desks and chairs that may be moved across the room simply to help varied studying actions, in addition to interactive whiteboards, corkboards, and tables with markerboard tops that college students can write on.
The transformation of the middle’s studying areas has enabled academics to grow to be extra inventive with their instruction by supporting extra energetic and fascinating studying methods. It has additionally raised the morale of scholars by instilling a robust sense of pleasure.
“Having this furniture has added a dimension of respect among students and has helped them to feel good about themselves,” Bukowski says. “The students know we’re serious about trying to make a difference in their lives.”
Transforming Classrooms
Sarah A. Reed Children’s Center operates two full-time instructional applications for the Erie City School District.
SELF, which stands for Sanctuary Education for Learning Fundamentals, is a program for college students in grades 3-8 who battle of their typical college setting and who profit from smaller class sizes in a therapeutic, supportive studying setting. SBLP, or Sanctuary Based Learning Program, is for particular schooling college students in grades Ok-12.
Students in these applications study core curriculum content material, in addition to social-emotional studying and coping abilities—they usually have entry to remedy providers as properly. In most circumstances, college students are referred to those applications by the varsity district, and the length of their placement varies. In addition to completely licensed academics, this system contains medical workers educated in Ukeru and Safe Crisis Management practices.
Prior to the transformation of its studying areas, the middle was utilizing previous furnishings recycled from school rooms on the district’s different colleges. This meant that many college students weren’t utilizing age-appropriate desks and chairs.
During the 2022-23 college 12 months, the middle secured grant funding from varied sources—together with the Henry A. and Mary J. MacDonald Family Foundation— to refurnish its St. Ann’s School campus.
School Specialty supplied the brand new furnishings in spring 2023. Bukowski positioned the order in March, and the furnishings was put in and able to use by the top of April. “School Specialty has been great to work with,” Bukowski notes.
Supporting Better Learning Outcomes
The new furnishings makes the middle’s school rooms extra versatile, which helps educators train far more successfully.
“The classrooms in the Sanctuary Based Learning Program house students of varying grades and academic abilities,” says Clinical Instructor Elizabeth Brown. “Because of this, my classroom needs to be able to flex and change to fit the environment at any given moment.”
With the brand new furnishings, Brown is ready to reconfigure her classroom on the fly in ways in which make sense for her college students. As a end result, “I can have my students interact with their learning in ways they weren’t able to do (before),” she observes.
Teachers can simply arrange their school rooms in numerous methods to help several types of studying actions, corresponding to entire class instruction or small group work. The tables with writeable surfaces encourage creativity by permitting college students to sketch or jot down notes any time.
“When you have the right tools, it makes a big difference,” Bukowski says.
Versatility isn’t the one profit. The academics have seen that college students are extra snug, higher behaved, and extra totally engaged in studying. Because they take pleasure within the new furnishings, they wish to hold it trying good.
“The students often stated that they felt the (old) desks were ugly and inappropriate for their age. Receiving the new desks and chairs has been a game changer in the classroom,” Brown says. Adds SBLP Supervisor Ron Rodney: “It made the students feel a sense of pride that someone cares enough to provide them with these new items.”
This sense of pleasure is mirrored within the effort that college students are giving. Case Manager Julia Briggs describes a dialog she had with a mother or father shortly after the brand new furnishings was put in.
“She told me that she is so happy her son came to our St. Ann’s campus,” Briggs says. “She sees a positive change in him at home and in his school reports, and she is very grateful.”
