Gratnells: why the classroom environment is a major factor in engaging students in the education process

At Gratnells, we believe the classroom environment is a major factor in engaging students in the educational process. Creating conductive environments for learning, particularly where the students have had input into the design, has been shown to greatly impact attendance, involvement and outcomes, with students getting greater enjoyment from learning.

The Smarter Spaces campaign plays directly in this space and is a significant contributor to advances in classroom design. It's also an important indicator of what can be achieved when you bring a group of visionary teachers, designers and education thought leaders who believe in transforming the school learning environment together. Gratnells is very pleased to support the campaign and provide support for the improvement of classroom spaces, creating better outcomes for more young people.

Our 'Tea Tray' campaign offers a monthly Gratnells tray full of tea, coffee and biscuits to a winning teacher for their staff room - you can enter on Twitter @Gratnells. We are also busy with 'What's in my Tray', which encourages teachers to think about the use of trays outside the normal storage function - water baths, pond dipping trays, growing trays, various experiments and collections etc. This has been very successful, and we recently ran some fun workshops at the Nation STEM Centre in York, where we are presenting our award for the winner of Science Technician of the Year.

Gratnells manufactures tray storage systems for education, schools, hospitals and laboratories. The company is a member of the Smarter Spaces Coalition.