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School design may affect a child’s grades

A study of school design has discovered that school layouts can influence a child’s development by as much as 25 percent over the course of an academic year.

By Charyn Pfeuffer - MSN Living Editor Jan 7, 2013 7:05PM

If you want your kid to get good grades in school, you may want to take an eye-for-design approach and consider the school’s layout. That’s what a recent study published in Building and the Environment study has revealed.

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751 pupils using 34 classrooms across seven primary schools in Blackpool, U.K. were studied over the 2011-12 academic year, reports Wired.co.uk. University of Salford’s School of the Built Environment and architecture firm, Nightingale Associates collected data on each child at the start and end of the school year, including age, gender and academic performance. Each classroom was scored on a variety of environmental factors. Six of these factors – color, choice, connection, complexity, flexibility and light – resulted in a clear correlation with grade scores.

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Architect Peter Barrett, the study’s lead author, was quoted: “This is the first time a holistic assessment has been made that successfully links the overall impact directly to learning rates in schools. The impact identified is in fact greater than we imagined.”

Read more of the story here.

Do you think school design and classroom layout can affect a student’s grades? Why or why not?

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Photo: ColorBlind Images/Getty Images

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