Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Key Takeaways
- Light plays a crucial role in educational spaces, impacting wellbeing and academic performance.
- Poor lighting leads to decreased concentration and learning retention, affecting both students and teachers.
- Studies show a strong correlation between lighting conditions and student wellbeing, highlighting the need for redesigning educational environments.
- Tamlite Lighting offers solutions like LOGIK and HORIZON luminaires, designed to control glare and enhance educational spaces.
- Improving lighting in schools can reduce absenteeism and stress, leading to better outcomes for all involved.
The Vital Role of Light in Education
Wellbeing and mental health are important pillars of sustainability in WELL standards. One key aspect from the WELL standard is LIGHT. In all aspects of life, light has a major influence, and that is certainly the case for the educational spaces.
From children and young adults to teachers, the spaces in which we teach are changing. They are becoming more dynamic, more considered, more human-centric. As well as temperature, humidity and ventilation, lighting is central to providing the optimal conditions for both lecturers and students.
Promoting Equality and Academic Potential
A well-planned physical learning environment should help increase equality and ‘levelling up’ in education. This means every student should have the same chance to reach their full potential. Those who are easily distracted, taught in their second language, and students with visual and hearing impairments, suffer the most by an environment with poor lighting, acoustics or room design.
Through design changes based on wellbeing, and the knowledge around learning processes we have now, compared to 100 years ago or even 10 years ago, it is no longer acceptable to leave schools and higher education spaces in the past.
Achieving Standards with Modern Lighting Retrofits
A number of studies indicate that in schools and higher education establishments, attention levels are significantly linked to light. Concentration, focus and learning retention are key to maximising academic performance, and the right lighting can help boost these essential elements among students.
Two recent studies addressed the need to re-design educational spaces and benchmark the impact of educational spaces on student and staff wellbeing. They investigated how these areas are lit:
- Chloe Agg, University of Warwick – Wellbeing in Educational Spaces
- Jen Lorrimar-Shanks, CaSA Architects – Healthier, happier schools: how to improve performance of existing UK schools
Results of both these studies acknowledged the relationship between poor lighting (glare) and wellbeing.
Many of the educational spaces that they surveyed failed to meet the benchmarks for illuminance and there was a perceived variance in productivity in different environmental conditions – clear links with lighting.
Chloe Agg’s study found that there are numerous benefits to addressing student wellbeing and that lighting requirements were a recommended area of focus for university estate teams. The benefits being that during education hours, students bodies and brains will perform better, teacher absenteeism and stress will be reduced, providing the best outcome for all.
Jen Lorrimar-Shanks found a clear correlation between poor school environments, increased sick leave, and reduced academic performance. Poor lighting was linked to the reduced ability to process information, clearly affecting students.
Diagnostic Toolkit
The team at CaSA Architects drafted a framework which was developed and tested in the case study evaluations, then subsequently revised before incorporation into the diagnostic toolkit:
The diagnostic tool was built using staff surveys, interviews, physical assessment, and environmental monitoring. Self-reported data (surveys) is reinforced (triangulated) by physical assessments and environmental monitoring.
In education environments that were studied, they found that blinds were often drawn to control glare on display screens. This tells us that schools will definitely benefit from a lighting retrofit. Tamlite luminaires such as LOGIK and HORIZON COMFORT/FOCUS are manufactured with optics for glare control.
All BS EN-12464 compliant, these lighting systems perform perfectly in education areas, offering optimal spacing and big energy savings.
Talk to us about projects in Education. Tamlite Lighting provide luminaires for every area within Education, so work with us to get the best results.
Check out more information on our Education sector luminaires and projects from here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Numerous studies indicate that attention levels in schools and higher education establishments are significantly linked to light. The right lighting can help boost concentration, focus, and learning retention, which are essential elements for maximizing academic performance. Conversely, poor lighting has been linked to a reduced ability to process information.
A well-planned physical environment ensures every student has the same chance to reach their full potential. Students who are easily distracted, those being taught in a second language, and individuals with visual or hearing impairments suffer the most in environments with poor lighting. Modern, human-centric lighting helps create the optimal conditions required for both lecturers and students to succeed.
Research by Chloe Agg (University of Warwick) and Jen Lorrimar-Shanks (CaSA Architects) acknowledged a clear relationship between poor lighting, such as glare, and reduced wellbeing. Their findings showed that addressing lighting requirements can lead to better performance for students’ bodies and brains, while also reducing teacher stress and absenteeism. Furthermore, a correlation was found between poor school environments and increased sick leave.
In many studied environments, blinds were often drawn to control glare on screens, indicating a need for a lighting retrofit. Tamlite luminaires, such as the LOGIK and HORIZON COMFORT/FOCUS, are specifically manufactured with optics for glare control. These systems are BS EN-12464 compliant, offering optimal spacing and significant energy savings while performing perfectly in educational areas.
