Criteria for choosing cabinets for school, an overview of models
Modern classrooms in Russian schools are equipped in accordance with state standards of the educational system. Here it is necessary to take into account the dimensions of the room, the availability of free space, the purpose of the class and other criteria. In addition to desks, tables, at which the teacher and students are placed, other furniture is needed. It is the closet for the school that is able to accommodate didactic materials, children's notebooks, class magazines, laboratory, stationery, awards from competitions, demonstration materials. Many configurations, suitable material, dimensions and other parameters distinguish this specific kind of furniture from other household cabinets.
Appointment
School cabinets perform many functions. This is not a simple home cabinet where things are stored. Here everything should be clearly distributed, each stack of notebooks is separated from the other. Each class journal should stand in a separate section, and textbooks for the fifth grade should be separate from manuals for high school students. In addition, such a cabinet or shelving carries a demonstrative function.
A cabinet for a school can have several purposes:
- demonstration of exhibition material - colorful textbooks, encyclopedias, school history items, as well as other interesting exhibits put on display for educational purposes;
- storage of teaching aids - ordinary cabinets with shelves and doors;
- placement of various crafts of elementary school students - open shelves of cabinets, sections with transparent glass doors for the exhibition of creative and sports achievements of students;
- storage of outerwear for students and teachers - wardrobes in the teacher's room, wardrobe lockers for students;
- distribution of cool magazines and notebooks into separate sections - for convenience and speed of search;
- storage of chemical reagents, laboratory supplies - a cabinet or cabinet with a table in a chemistry room, life safety cabinet or biology cabinet must be locked with a secure lock. Equipping such furniture with special locking mechanisms is mandatory when it comes to children. Reagents, demonstration weapons, chemicals and other dangerous items must be stored in a safe place.
The container for a classroom library and other things for schoolchildren can have various configurations. All items can be collected separately or make up a monolithic ensemble.
Varieties
Depending on the purpose and location of the piece of furniture, the appropriate type of cabinet is selected:
- shelving - multi-tier shelves mounted on wooden or metal racks. They may have a back wall, but some do not. The second type of shelving is convenient for storing, for example, laboratory bottles, flasks, reagents and other materials in the chemistry room.The back wall of the shelf serves as a stand for books, albums, notebooks, etc. Such open cabinets are most often used in libraries for placing literature. Mobile racks on casters are very convenient;
- mezzanines - can be installed on top as an additional section on the main cabinet, or you can choose a model with a built-in mezzanine. There are rarely used items;
- walls - prefabricated or integral modules with many shelves. Suitable for textbooks, demonstration material, storage and exhibition of awards, as well as a variety of crafts;
- cabinets with shelves closed - for daily use, storage of educational literature and notebooks of students;
- cabinets with shelves open - almost the same wall, can be combined with lockable modules;
- cabinets with glass doors - the so-called showcases. Placed in the lobby, classrooms, meeting rooms;
- wardrobes for clothes - installed in the teachers' rooms, some classes for teachers and staff. Inside the wardrobe, there must be a rod for a coat hanger with outerwear, several hooks, shelves for shoes and hats;
- stand for tables under the board - compact design with a hinged door. They put cards, large tables, posters there;
- household cabinets - can be used to store teacher’s personal belongings, cleaning supplies, as well as other items (globes, maps, microscopes, chalk supplies, markers, rags and sponges for blackboards);
- stand for technical teaching aids (TCO) - a curbstone on a frame made of pipes of round or square section. Above the lower pedestal (with or without doors) is a worktop for installing a projector, TV. Sometimes the shelves of the lower floor can be adjusted in height. The whole structure is mobile, wheels are fixed on the legs;
- locker rooms - a separate group of furniture designed exclusively for students' clothes. In most educational institutions, such school furniture is made of iron cabinets. It is considered an unusual novelty in many schools. People still prefer minimalistic wardrobes from Soviet times. Such structures are metal supports on which a simple wooden wall is fixed, and there are many hooks on it. Such a locker room can be completely made of metal. As for the more modern and less familiar to the Russian school student wardrobe cabinets for the school, the metal representatives are more optimal from the point of view of safety. Although more space is required for their placement, at the same time, there is no need to constantly carry removable shoes, breakfasts, and some textbooks.
The whole variety of school cupboards will always find application in educational everyday life.
Which materials are better
Naturally, when it comes to children, first of all, when thinking about furniture, the word “environmental friendliness” comes to mind. Public and educational institutions for children should only be equipped with furniture made from safe and natural materials. Of course, the budget of the municipality will not be able to afford cabinets for classrooms made of solid wood of valuable species, but specially processed natural materials still exist, affordable in price and format of the product.
The most common furniture materials for cabinets today:
- Particleboard - wood chipboard. This is a composite made by hot pressing chips and sawdust with the addition of formaldehyde resins for binder. Convenient and lightweight material for cabinets, which has a relatively low cost;
- Chipboard - laminated particleboard, that is, coated with a special polymer film made of paper, and for greater strength it is impregnated with melamine resin.Unlike chipboard, this material is extremely waterproof, wear-resistant, not afraid of heat. A wall, a cupboard with a table made of chipboard will stand up even in the kitchen and in another hot, humid room;
- plywood - cabinets do not make whole of it. The plywood wall is thin, light, perfectly lends itself to nails and self-tapping screws. Since it is not visible behind the front facade, the back wall can be made of such material, it is quite economical;
- massif of a tree - integral parts of a trunk of any tree species. It is valued above all, so the cost is the highest. Proper processing will allow you to use such a product for many years. Unfortunately, in many schools the budget does not allow the purchase of furniture from this material.
Modern methods of processing these materials can significantly save. Thus, a solid cabinet or even a whole set in a school class will cost a modest amount, and it will serve for a long time. Perhaps, several generations of graduates will meet with this furniture.
Product Requirements
Each piece of furniture placed in the classroom must meet certain standards. School lockers meet the specific requirements established by law. The generally accepted norms pursue certain goals, and deviation from them entails an appropriate punishment.
Poor-quality or second-rate products purchased at a lower cost, it is likely to have any drawbacks from the technical side or in terms of quality. This method of saving can be fraught with damage not only to the furniture itself, but also causing damage to human health.
So, the mandatory principles of equipment for classrooms, and accordingly, the design of any school cabinet will be as follows:
- safety - any construction intended for public use and not only must be safe. The age category of young and older schoolchildren does not imply a complete absence of sharp corners. Children are already adults, this is impractical, such furniture is significantly more expensive due to the need for additional processing of parts. However, certain requirements must still be observed. This refers to conscientious assembly, processing of parts, the absence of sharp parts, a sturdy case that will not crumble, fall apart, zero risk of landing a splinter;
- spaciousness - wide functionality, ergonomic design will allow you to place a spacious cabinet in a strictly distributed space of the school office. It is possible to assemble a modular set of several parts that are more suitable for a particular cabinet;
- reliability - high-quality assembly should guarantee a complete absence of risk of injury, because we are talking about children. Strong mechanisms, reliable fastenings, loops, handles, self-tapping screws, sliding mechanisms - everything should work smoothly and smoothly;
- environmental friendliness - when purchasing cabinets, sets for children's institutions, it is best to give preference to wooden products than plastic ones. Metal will also not always be good, but chipboard, fiberboard, chipboard will do just fine. As a rule, when processing the edges of shelves and doors in cabinets, a PVC edge is used, and handles and other accessories are made of plastic or metal;
- attractiveness - do not forget about the specifics of the premises where the furniture is located. For a schoolchild, such an object should not become a distraction, but it should harmoniously fit into the surrounding interior and look nice. The absence of scratches, stains, scuffs, indecent inscriptions, the presence of all decorative elements, the absence of significant visual damage - all this meets this requirement. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the general furniture composition: the wall should be combined with a table, chairs and desks with a cabinet;
- Convenience - equipping cabinets and drawers with closers, additional shelves, sections, holders, hooks, convenient handles, as well as other accessories makes daily classes convenient, reducing the time spent on finding the right subject. Sometimes a school bedside table or a rack requires mobility, then it makes sense to equip them with wheels. So it’s very convenient to move furniture between classes, arrange demonstrations of materials, manuals at school meetings or exhibitions in the lobby. Stands for video equipment and projectors should also be mobile for ease of adjustment, moving between rooms, so supplying them with wheels is also advisable.
As for color combinations, everything is standard here: beige, brown, light, neutral tones. Usually the furniture for the school is made in natural wood tones, but for the elementary grades, more and more often they began to order bright sets. Furniture ensembles made in bright colors, combined with colored cabinets, desks, diversify the school interior and make it easier for young students to perceive the learning process. Such an atmosphere will relax even teachers.
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