4.6. Improving room acoustics

Improving room acoustics

There are number of things that can be done to improve listening conditions in a room depending on the budget available. Making changes to improve the acoustics of a room benefits all pupils and adults in the classroom.

An Educational Audiologist may be able to ‘provide advice to schools with regard to acoustic treatment’.

Acoustics companies can also offer an acoustic survey e.g., The Woolly Shepherd, Resonics, Sound Solutions or search on the Institute of Acoustics website or Association of Noise Consultants website.

The Essex Study -Optimised classroom acoustics for all, 2012 (Canning. D and James. A)

Reducing reverberation

Reverberation can be reduced by adding materials which absorb sound to the surfaces in the room. Rugs, carpet, curtains, fabric blinds, drapes on displays or suspended drapes or sails and soft furnishings can be added to increase the number of absorbent materials in a room and help towards reducing reverberation in a room.

For very reverberant rooms, acoustic panels could be added to ceilings and/or walls.

Resonics – School example (St Nicholas CE Primary School, London)

Roberts Audio Solution – Case Study  – Wadebridge  School

Roberts Audio Solution – Acoustic treatment  – Case studies

Reducing noise

It is important to consider the sources of noise in a classroom and how the effect of the noise can be reduced. Things to consider could include:

• Close windows and doors to reduce noise from outside entering the classroom.
• Consider using furniture, pods, acoustic screens or partitions or acoustic curtains to create a smaller area in a large room.
• Switch off equipment when not in use.
• Service and maintain heating and ventilation units.
• Well-fitting doors or adding acoustic seals to stop noise coming in from gaps around the door.
• Carpet squares at the bottom of toy trays or boxes in Early Years settings
• Foam / felt in pen pots.
• Rubber tips or felt pads on chair legs.
• Fitting double glazing

Whiteboard apps such as Silent Light App or Too Noisy Pro can help to monitor activity noise in a classroom and provide a visual reminder to learners in the classroom.

Reducing distance

Skilled use of assistive listening technology can help to reduce the impact of distance from the speaker (see section 6). However, the NDCS point out that assistive listening technology should be additional and not instead of good acoustics.

Optimal seating position should consider critical distance (see 4.3).

Further reading

• The NDCS website contains ‘Creating good listening conditions‘ sections for different education stages.  
• MESHGuide-Acoustics
• NDCS Acoustic Toolkit publication (Archived publication – available with consent from the National Deaf Children’s Society))
  • Introduction
  • Noise Surveys (Schools)
  • Reverberation Times (Schools)
  • Speech Intelligibility (Schools)
  • Assistive Devices (Schools)
  • Noise Surveys (Specialists)
  • Reverberation Times (Specialists)
  • Appendix A  How to create a graph
  • Appendix B BB93 Performance standards
  • Appendix C BRE Absorption coefficients
  • Appendix D1 LIFE-UK IHP

Next page in section 4

4.7 Soundlevel meters (under development)

Previous pages in section 4

4.1 Characteristics of sound sources and rooms

4.2 Room acoustics listening and speech intelligibility

4.3 Acoustic properties of a room

4.4 Acoustic standards legislation and guidance

4.5 Effects of poor acoustics

Next section

Section 5 Listening skills and functional hearing

Other sections

• Section 1 Anatomy and physiology of the ear
• Section 2 Aetiology and types of deafness
• Section 3 Auditory perception and hearing testing
• Section 6 Hearing technologies