Schools are always faced with quite a few problems to overcome but one of the most pertinent dilemmas they are currently faced with is how they can get more space. This is usually because they are having to accommodate more pupils, they are having temporary building work undertaken at the school or they just need somewhere outside of the main school hubbub for more personal one to one pupil tuition.

Or a school could be looking for new office space, a new library or IT suite, nurture room, outdoor classroom learning facility, art studio, science lab, multi-sensory room, community room, before and after school club building etc. The list can go on and on.

But if a school is already bursting at the seams and has already used up every square inch of available space and assuming there is not the budget or capital funds available for extensions, what are they to do?

We believe that we may have the solution. The Hideout House Company has a range of school classroom buildings which are all below 30m2 (in this case there is no need to apply for building regs) and which are built on a modular panel system so that they can easily be adapted to a school’s specific needs and specification. And they are designed with aesthetics in mind so that they are actually quite nice to look at in a school setting!

Manufactured out of cedar, these buildings have an in-built longevity as cedar is a premium, high quality timber which once sited, requires very little ongoing maintenance and typically lasts a lot longer than traditionally used wood such as softwood pine. Available in octagonal, square and rectangular shapes  other options include for insulation, double glazing, bi-fold doors to the front elevation and an attractive atrium roof to allow in lots of natural daylight from above. A school can also choose between carpet, decking or laminate flooring.

Unlike their open-sided gazebo style outdoor classroom counterpart, they can be used all year round as they are totally enclosed.

And because they are built on site, there is usually no problem with poor access issues which can be the case in a lot of schools and which sometimes hinders the pre-fab classroom system (in this case a crane is usually required to winch the unit into position which can be both disruptive and expensive).

Installation times typically range from 3 days to a week so there is hardly any long term lasting disruption to the school’s working day and with prices starting at £10K ex VAT for these enclosed outdoor classrooms, they are also financially extremely viable.

In certain cases, they may also fall under Permitted Development Rights so planning permission may not be required but it is always prudent to contact the local planning authority first before any work is undertaken.

For more information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or visit www.hideouthouse.com