Teachers' views of their primary school classrooms

This article presents the views of 222 head teachers and classroom-based teachers about their experiences and perceptions of 193 specific classroom environments from 29 primary schools in 3 different areas in England, UK. One-to-one interviews were carried out focusing on teachers’ perceptions about their classrooms throughout the year. It was found that teachers’ views of their overall comfort were fairly high, despite widespread problems with overheating, stuffiness, glare and noise. Surprisingly, schools built in 1950s had the least negative feelings, while those since the 1990s to date had the highest. The teachers appear to be aware of the ‘hard’ aspects of the physical environment, but less conscious of the impact of ‘softer’ aspects, especially those with impact on the level of stimulation created