The SecEd Podcast: The perfect classroom environment

This episode discusses how teachers can create the perfect classroom environment for their students, offering a range of practical tips and quick wins.

Our expert panel discuss four core aspects – the physical classroom environment, the social environment, the emotional environment, and the learning environment.

Physical environment: We ask what we can do to create a positive physical space in the classroom to support learning, including the use of displays, the layout of furniture, and issues like temperature and natural light.

Social environment: We look at the tenets of positive social classroom environments, including how senior leadership and teachers can work together to create a "this is how we do it here" culture that is consistent across lessons so that children know what they will encounter when they walk in the door. We touch upon behaviour for learning, addressing low-level disruption, common lesson routines to reduce anxiety and maximise focus, and much more.

Emotional environment: This concerns students' emotional response to our classroom environment. What can we do to create a classroom environment that is conducive to challenge but which is unthreatening and a place where pupils become comfortable with hard work, including via the use of rewards and sanctions.

Learning environment: This concerns the way that learning is structured and organised in order to ensure every student values their work and strives to achieve, including the adaptations we make for SEND and other disadvantaged students. We discuss how to motivate students and consider a range of teaching techniques.