Friday, March 28, 2014

School Reception Desks & Intimidation: Seeing a School through Student Eyes

School can be an intimidating experience for students. The first days and weeks of a school year, whether we’re talking about the student’s first day of school ever, at the beginning of a new school year, or in a new school after moving, can be particularly intimidating and even scary events in the life of a student.

It’s important that a school’s design not contribute to this feeling of intimidation. It should, in fact, help mitigate such feelings and facilitate positive interactions with teachers/staff and other students, as well as help students feel welcome. An elementary school’s reception desk provides an example of this.

In an elementary school, the youngest and shortest students should still be able to see over the counter at the reception desk. The design of the reception desk in the image on the left doesn’t allow for this, and provides those students affected with an intimidating and less welcoming experience. For this particular school, it was also an annoyance for those manning the desk in that they have to motion the students to peak around the side or they have to stand up. And that annoyance may be inadvertently felt by the student as well, increasing the negative nature of the interaction.
But at the school in the image on the right, the reception desk has a center section low enough for students, even the youngest and shortest students, to see over and engage the adult on the other side face to face. It encourages the human connection between receptionist and student as opposed to hindering it, and as such, represents the better practice.

As a side note, part of the reason we conduct post occupancy evaluations is to give the occupant a voice and allow us to see the facility through their eyes. As I conducted the analysis after visiting both of these schools, I realized I could have done a better job at showing the school through the eyes of the younger students. None of the photographs were taken from their perspective. Imagine how much more powerful the contrasting images would have been had they been taken from a kindergartner’s eye level perspective.

13 comments:

  1. This article piqued my interest in the latest products available on the market, and I found a great resource here: www.archiexpo.com/architecture-design-manufacturer/reception-desk-234.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. School furniture is an important part of any school it makes image building for the parents of students, but on the other hand, in sane countries, there is not focused on this important part, but with the help of assignmentmasters discount code school management easily gets the new ideas from it on low cost

    ReplyDelete
  3. It is easy to get Good info in the shape of picture, videos and books.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Education has much importance for society and educated person in society create harmony ,peace and development. So education is necessary for this we are providing phd dissertation writing services to facilitate your education and any one can get education of world class quality.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Research paper of students is one of the most important means of improving the quality of training and education of specialists with higher professional education in the field of economics, who are able to creatively apply the achievements of scientific, technical and cultural progress in practical activities. Here you can find out what is a research paper https://wr1ter.com/research-paper and correctly compose the papers you need

    ReplyDelete
  6. Betfair Casino & Hotel Map & Floor Plans - Mapyro
    Find 군포 출장마사지 your 창원 출장안마 way around the casino, find where everything is 목포 출장마사지 located 원주 출장마사지 with 제주 출장샵 the best prices, see all the information and information available on this page.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  8. As the one-year management plan for professionals with work experience Affordable Essay Writing Help becomes more and more popular, School B begins to focus on increasing the diversity of batches to maximize peer-to-peer learning. By: university Affordable Essay Writing Service | Six Dollar Essay.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love reading through your blog. It’s very interesting blog. Thanks for sharing valuable information to us.

    school furniture

    ReplyDelete
  10. Very Nice And Interesting Post, thank you for sharing

    school furniture

    ReplyDelete
  11. The degree from World Education University should be recognized from all over the institutions Online coursework help uk

    ReplyDelete
  12. As a former student who has experienced the school environment firsthand, I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments expressed in this article. The school reception desk plays a pivotal role in shaping the initial impression students have of their educational institution. It is essential that we recognize the impact these reception areas can have on students' emotions and well-being. if you are looking for the Study Desk for Student then The Giant Toys Store is the best option. They had variety of collection and market friendly prices. To know more about them you can visit their website - https://www.thegiantoystore.com.au/collections/education

    ReplyDelete
  13. They in their blogs will teach you the right way to behave with money as well as teach you how to invest it correctly and save money. Very useful information will be for everyone. Best essay writing services UK

    ReplyDelete