N is for Neutral

Part 1

There has been a huge shift in the last few years with a return to the natural/ neutral classroom with many of us opting for Kraft paper for backing our display boards, draping (plastic) ivy everywhere, and covering our primary-coloured storage units with wood-effect sticky backed vinyl.

So, what exactly is it all about?

There have been numerous research studies into classroom environments and their effects on the children’s ability to focus, retain information, and regulate their emotions. The research tells us that children are unable to visually process too many colours and stay on task. In short, the bright, primary colours are distracting and over-stimulating, and prime ‘conditions’ for learning are in neutral classrooms which have pops of colour. As a result, teachers are now using the findings of these studies to design spaces which support learning and emotional well-being. They are moving towards creating calm classrooms.

Gone are the days (or at least they are well on their way out) of brightly backed display boards with clashing borders topped with printed, generic, laminated ‘resources’. We are now seeing teachers up-cycling items from home, charity shops, and car boot sales. They are providing children with more open-ended resources by incorporating natural loose parts and curiosity corners. The buzz words and hashtag trends include ‘Reggio Inspired’, ‘Hygge in the Early Years’, and ‘Curiosity Approach’, and searching any one of these will bring up pages of classrooms which are designed using wooden furniture, wooden resources, baskets, wicker, cork, log slices, hessian, trellis, fairy lights, and ivy. While I agree that this is all heading in the right direction, I can’t help but think we might be missing something vital…