Posted By Mark Eastbourne
Morning all, I wonder if you can help?

I work in a college. We have to get more students into the classroom. I have been asked for advice on what is the most amount of students each room can accommodate.

I have said that it depends on the type of lesson being taught, for example, wood trades and plumbing may need less students than a room solely used for teaching Maths/English.

However, I have been informed that if I divided the total free space of a room by 3.6, this will give me a total figure of persons which can work in that room? I assume this is from the workplace regs and in that case this only applies to employees (students are classified as members of the public) - is that right?

I also said the best person to assess how many students are able to safely work in a class room is the lecturer him/herself.

So I guess what I am asking is, is the advice I should give a mixture of all of the above points?

Thanks in advance for your time.

Mark

Posted By Pete48
Mark, I am pretty certain that if you go to the "teachernet" website and search on "building bulletins" or maybe "area guidelines for schools" you will find the data you seek.

Sorry but do not have any more time to sort the exact links for you.

Posted By PeterL
Hi Mark,

I think it would be useful for you to view the Education Act 1996 and the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 these should give you a better understanding of how school numbers and class sizes are determined, as far as I can see there is no fixed requirement, but I do recall a Dfes document that gave guidance relative to the tasks being carried out.

P.S. Funnily enough playing fields are catered for as I remember.

Cheers Pete

Posted By Granville Jenkins
Hi Mark

The 11m3 rule applies but there is a maximum height of 4.2m which gives a floor area of 2.6m2/person - this does not include the space required for filing cabinets or circulation.

Assuming a general office with say 2.7m from floor to ceiling this would give around 4.1m2 per person. Also, it is not good to divide the area you have by the m2 to get the number of occupants as a general rule if you follow this method you need to divide the total by 2 to take account of filing space and circulation space and you won't be too far adrift in most circumstances at around 8m2, however, I recently planned some office moves and one office had around 15m2 per person due to the shape of the office, archive filing and access routes that needed to be maintained.

Regards
Granville