Classrooms are not meeting children’s needs. They are bright, overwhelming and uncomfortable and are creating barriers to learning. Be brave enough to question the norm.
As part of our Therapeutic School Approach we are redesigning classrooms purposefully, ensuring they are trauma-informed and attachment-aware, and places where every child’s mental health is considered.
We are not afraid to question the norm, and we are on a mission to change perceptions, challenge the status quo, and set a new standard for UK classrooms.
A Therapeutic Classroom is a room that has been purposefully designed with the children at it’s core. They include comfortable chairs, flexible seating options and calm lighting!
Watch this 30 second video to hear about our mission…
Our schools have seen an increase in:
Eye contact
Social skills and communication
Calm noise levels
Concentration
Attendance
Disclosures (because children feel safe)
Participation and focus on tasks
Happiness and wellbeing
Comfort
Regulation
Our schools have seen a decrease in:
School refusal and avoidance
Dysregulated behaviours
Barriers to learning (especially for children with ADHD, Autism and ACES)
We have had the privilege of working with many pioneering schools up and down the country who have transformed their environments with us.
We have transformed classrooms in all settings. From mainstream primary schools – large and small – SEMH schools, special schools and prep schools.
Our approach is new and constantly evolving, and we are always improving and working alongside our partner schools as we embark on this journey together. We are so grateful to those schools who are brave enough to try something new and move towards a better vision for education. We hope that this approach will become the new normal for UK classrooms.
When transforming our first classrooms, we realised there was no furniture available to schools that was aligned with our approach.
We wanted comfortable chairs for children but there were none. We wanted furniture that looked like it belonged in a home – there was none.
So, we set out to create our own.
After a lot of learning, developing and working with our schools – we now have our own, education approved range of furniture!
We have seen the benefits of this room in such a short space of time. Children who were previously reluctant to come in, are now here on time, ready to learn. Children with additional needs are able to self-regulate and we have even experienced a child taking a nap on the couch for 10 minutes and then returning to their learning more refreshed!
I would never have imagined it having such a positive effect on our children, but it does – it works!
We want to help you create classrooms that cultivate learning through their design, somewhere both teachers and children want to be, and somewhere that supports everyone’s mental health.
Let us know you are interested, and we will send you all the information you need to become familiar with what is involved in creating a therapeutic classroom, and what we’ll need from you to get your project started
Once we have all the information about your room, we will begin to design the space for you!
Once you are happy with the design, we will source all items and soft furnishings and send them to the school
The best bit! Once everything has arrived, you will receive a make over pack from us which will help you put together your room!
The Therapeutic Classroom Starter Pack gives you everything you need to begin creating a calm, emotionally safe, nurturing learning environment using simple, low-cost changes you can make right now without changing the furniture. This is an online resource pack.
Cost £25
The opportunity to book Shahana Knight for a site visit. Get in the moment insight, ideas and strategies. Honest, grounded conversations with staff and leaders. Clear signposting to resources, training or next steps and time to ask questions and think differently
Cost £550 + travel depending on distance
Our full project makeover service is for those who are ready to transform your environments and would like us to take care of everything for you. We will design, order and source everything for you as described above.
Cost: Bespoke – see Therapeutic Classrooms website or enquire for details
Every environment we create is tailored around the needs of your children and follows our therapeutic classroom framework. Here are some examples of our work at different phases of this journey.
In this free 45min session, Shahana Knight – founder of Therapeutic Classrooms will walk you through why conventional classrooms are not working, and what you can do to make changes straight away following our Therapeutic Classrooms Approach.
The impact is really hard to put into words. We have happy children who love coming to school and who want to learn…
Our channel follows the stories of our first few schools as we transform their rooms and includes tips and hints to create therapeutic spaces
Note: We no longer use some of the furniture shown in this video
The Therapeutic Classroom Approach isn’t just about good looking rooms. It has evolved as part of our Therapeutic Schools Approch and that starts with our Therapeutic Teaching Course – a 6 module course for schools that helps them embed a whole school, trauma informed and attachment aware approach to support children’s mental health, wellbeing and behaviour.
