Outdoor classrooms can come in all shapes and sizes with variants for school needs and budgets. The Hideout House Company offer a truly comprehensive and diverse range of these type of playground buildings which take in octagonal, rectangular and square designs and which can be “themed” too – we have outdoor classrooms for special educational needs (SEN), eco classrooms where the building itself becomes a natural learning resource and forest school settings. Our buildings are manufactured out of cedar wood which has numerous benefits over traditional timbers (such as pine) including the fact that they are virtually maintenance free and do not require any on-going maintenance or further treatment once installed and they will last longer.

Outdoor classrooms are very popular in schools as they encourage learning outside of the classroom and teach children about the natural environment – that it is the reason we have options such as sedum living roofs, water butt and guttering systems for rainwater harvesting, educational renewable energy systems such as mini wind turbine/solar panel/energy monitoring board and power units including a datalogger, in-built planters and mini eco ponds. For the building itself, we can add in wall panels, louvre opening and closing panels for the window apertures, benching, decking floor with non-slip decking, ramps, steps and trellis panelling.

And in certain instances, we are able to help with funding for these type of outdoor classrooms.slider8

New Fire Pit Shelter with Canvas Roof

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outdoor shelters for schools

outdoor fire pit shelter

We have a lot of enquiries from schools who run forest school programmes and who are looking to provide for some kind of shelter for the children but usually it is a request to cover an existing fire pit area. The schools want to have the facility of being able to light fires outdoors but with some sort of protection from the elements.

We do offer a current range of fire pit shelters & outdoor classrooms which are manufactured out of timber for this exact purpose and which have a special two tier roof (with a hole cut into the top of the roof) to allow the smoke to exhaust out through the roof. The roof underside of these timber shelters is also applied with two coats of an intumescent varnish paint which acts as a flame retardant.

However, we are now able to offer these fire pit shelters with a cheaper alternative using a more cost efficient canvas roof but these differ from our standard canvas shelters in that the canvas used is a special flame retardant canvas. The canvas is available in seven colours as well (cream, sand, silver, red, blue, green and black) and the other great advantage is that you can have roll-down canvas panels made of the same flame retardant material to allow for extra protection from the elements. These full length canvas panels can be applied to as many sides as you like – so if needs be you could completely enclose the shelter.

Our services allow for delivery and installation nationwide.

For more information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01832 275902 or email: info@hideouthouse.com

Multi Faceted Canvas Shade Canopies for Schools

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outdoor shelters with canvas roof

20m x 5m modular canvas shelters

Schools always need to provide for some shade and shelter from the UK’s ever changing elements and the products they can buy or use range from literally hanging up a tarpaulin sheet right over to the more grandiose shade sails.

But true to form, we at the Hideout House Company always like to innovate when it comes to designing products and that is why we have now added a range of new options to our ever popular outdoor shelters with a canvas roof.

As these canopies/shelters come in a square format (as opposed to triangular like shade sails suspended from posts), they provide for a greater surface area and can therefore offer more protection from the sun, wind and rain. And rather than just being a shelter, they can also be an outdoor learning classroom if  you were to include the various options we list below.

The canvas we use is a marine grade PU coated canvas which comes in a range of colours so that a school can choose its own school colour from the range. A point to note here though is that the darker the colour, the higher the UV protection.

These are the options a school can now choose from:

  • There are three standard sizes to choose from – 3m, 4m or 5m square
  • A choice of colours for the canvas roof – green, red, blue, maroon and vanilla
  • Modular systems so that you can join the canopy shelters together if you need to cover a bigger surface area (there is a PVC guttering that runs down the middle between two adjoining shelters)
  • Timber decked floor and sub-frame base (especially useful for those installations on grass)
  • Benching/seating
  • Side panels
  • Easy to use, full length roll-down canvas panels (excellent for providing further protection as you can literally totally enclose the whole shelter)
  • Trellis panels

These shelters are really easy to install and canvas is typically cheaper than a timber roof. So an ideal product when budgets are still tight for schools.

For further information on our range of outdoor shelters and canopies, please visit our website www.hideouthouse.com or email us info@hideouthouse.com

square outdoor classroom with decked floor and benching

 

 

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School Grant For Healthy Living, Mental Wellbeing and Physical Activity

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We were recently approached by a school in Lincolnshire who informed us of a new capital grant which has become available for a minimum of ten thousand pounds and which has to promote key areas including healthy living, mental health/wellbeing and physical activity.

They approached us because they were thinking of having some sort of outdoor shelter or classroom for their forest school activities but on further reflection and thought, we have taken this a lot further to help this school meet the above criteria and put them in a good position to receive this grant funding.

We suggested one of our fire pit and cooking shelters  – this unit has a central fire pit and cooking unit which has a flue that goes all the way up to the roof so that it is entirely safe for a school environment. Children can therefore use this facility to cook their food on (and light fires which is all part of the forest schools programme) and thereby promoting healthy living. Also there is some quite considerable research which shows that cooking is very good for mental health issues and is used to relieve anxiety and stress.

The shelter itself is also a good place where children can have some “time out” and “break-out nurture” space on their own and with their teachers in a tranquil setting that is away from the main hub-bub of everyday school life.

And then we needed to address the physical activity issue and here we have a cunning plan! We can supply some special electricity producing bikes which the children have to pedal in order to create power (so physical activity box ticked!) but we have a smoothie making package too. The bikes are connected up to a smoothie blender machine so the faster they pedal, the quicker the smoothie gets made. And if their smoothies have fruit and lots of good things in there, we are also encouraging healthy living and eating.

If you would like to know how we can work alongside your school and think a little out of the box, then please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com

4m x 4m open sided shelter with

 

Treehouse Outdoor Classroom

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treehouses for schools

Treehouse round a tree connecting to elevated treehouse

We have just completed a unique treehouse outdoor classroom for Marnel Infant School near Basingstoke. The school originally approached us looking for an outdoor classroom which they could use for their outdoor learning sessions. It had to be big enough to cater for a class of 30 and it had to be totally enclosed so that they could use it all year round. And it had to be interesting in order to fully engage the children!

The original discussions started off with us supplying one of our standard octagonal cedar clad outdoor classrooms which we were going to enclose with French doors and window upper panels and some additional eco options but it soon became obvious that the school had more adventurous plans.

By the main school entrance, there is an area which was suitable for what the school wanted to build – namely an enclosed outdoor classroom which is built around an existing tree in the middle which is then linked by a 10m long elevated walkway to a 5m treehouse elevated off the ground on stilts. This is also totally enclosed on all sides and has French doors to the front elevation so can easily be used all year round.

We have also supplied an additional “mud kitchen” for their forest schools activities which has opening and closing louvre panels on one side (which allows the building to easily adapt to the weather), barn doors to the front elevation and windows on the back to make use of the natural daylight and setting. Like the treehouse outdoor classroom, it is also manufactured out of premium grade cedar with a cedar shingle tile roof.

The school are already reporting that both the treehouse outdoor classroom and the mud kitchen are a great success with the children who love the fact that they can enjoy their outdoor learning in such a unique and special setting.

For further information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982, email info@hideouthouse.com

Rectangular outdoor classroom with polycarbonate windows and louvre panels

Insulated all year round use outdoor classrooms and shelters

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modular classroom with larch cladding

We have taken the traditional open-sided, gazebo style outdoor classroom – in all its sizes and shapes including octagonal, square and rectangular – and adapted it for the many and varied uses that an educational establishment now demands. Typically due to the nature of the need or requirement, the building needs to be totally enclosed and in many cases fully insulated for all year round use.

Schools use these type of buildings for a whole host of reasons and in the past we have supplied them for the following:

  • Outdoor learning hub & classroom
  • Library
  • Temporary classroom
  • Sensory room
  • Meeting room
  • Community room
  • Nurture or break-out room
  • Prayer room
  • Quiet study room

The majority of outdoor classrooms that we supply to schools are below 30m2. And there is a reason for this and that is that they do not need to be passed through building control for approval so it is just makes the process a bit simpler and in some cases, cheaper. But that is not to say that the enclosed outdoor classrooms are not built to the exacting standards that building regs would require.

Dependent upon the use and application, it is also possible to fully insulate these buildings and we therefore have two levels of insulation packages to suit different needs, usage levels, budgets and most importantly whether a school intends to heat the building as well. But we also use either cedar or Siberian larch both externally – the roof is also attractive cedar shingle tiles. All timber is a natural insulator anyway but cedar has additional thermal properties which make it the best natural insulator of all softwoods – so its excellent thermal properties can make for some savings if the building is being heated. If it is not being heated however, then insulation still works in two ways – keeps out the heat in the summer and keeps in the heat in the winter!

There are many options to choose from in this range. Firstly the shape as they are available in octagonal, square and rectangular formats. As they are modular, it is very easy to have your own walls, windows and door configurations and specifications. Other options include double glazing, an attractive atrium roof to allow in lots of natural light from above, laminate flooring, the afore-mentioned insulation packages, internal partitioning, timber sub-frame base for uneven ground or grass installs and various eco initiatives such as renewable energy power and rainwater harvesting systems.

For buildings above 30m2, we are also able to offer these in a modular form and typically this size of outdoor classroom allows for WCs, a small lobby area and a kitchenette facility.

For more information on our outdoor classroom and modular school buildings range, please visit our website www.hideouthouse.com or contact us on 01865 858982 or email info@hideouthouse.com

 

Why We Use Cedar For Our Outdoor Classrooms

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A lot of our outdoor classrooms and school classroom buildings feature cedar as the principal default timber or as external cladding on our timber framed buildings. And there are some very good reasons for this from a school’s point of view & perspective. We list below some of cedar’s principal qualities and why it is of a benefit therefore within a school environment.

Western Red Cedar is a well accepted softwood timber from British Columbia in Canada, renowned for its beautiful appearance, its ability to last for many years without maintenance and its acoustical and warmth insulation properties. Slow growing and naturally durable, it is the product of choice amongst architects and recognised worldwide as being the ideal material for residential and commercial buildings. We buy cedar in container load quantities, direct from the sawmills of British Columbia, and as a result we are able to pass on to our customers the cost benefit of the savings that we can achieve.

Decay Resistance

One of its most well-known and valuable characteristics is its natural high resistance to decay. Cedar has its own built-in preservatives known as thujaplicins, which enable cedar to last for many years and under most conditions. Unlike most other softwoods, it requires no artificial treatment  such as tanalith and is therefore one of the most durable coniferous species.

This is the reason we are able to offer an extended 15 year guarantee against timber rot, decay and degradation on our cedar products.

Natural Insulator

Cedar has a low density value which not only makes it an easy wood to work with but also it massively enhances its natural insulation value. Timbers with a low density value typically have the highest insulation properties and values because the cavities within the wood fill with air – and air is one the best known thermal insulators. Timber is a natural insulator anyway (hence the reason why people in northern Scandinavia all live in log cabins for example!) but cedar stands out as being one of the best and is way better than brick, concrete or steel. So this means reduced running costs for a school. And remember insulation is there for two reasons – to keep in the heat and to keep out the heat so the building is kept cool during the hot summer months and warm when winter comes.

Stability

It has a very low shrinkage factor which means that it has a high resistance to warping, twisting and checking which can be found amongst other softwood timbers. And it has high acoustical properties which means it can dampen vibrations.

Minimal Maintenance

From the point of view of degradation or rot, no treatment is required. From the point of view of colour change, cedar, like all other timbers, reacts to strong direct sunlight. Either schools can leave it and within two or three years, the cedar will turn from being a brown/red colour to a more mature silver/grey. Alternatively, cedar oil will maintain the original colour for a while but this is purely an aesthetic choice to make. But for those schools wanting to preserve the cedar tint for a longer period of time, then we recommend the use of Sikkens Novatech wood treatment. All our buildings are treated with this preservative and it is recommended that it be re-applied every 4 years or so a simple and it is an inexpensive application.

Environmental

Cedar, like the majority of timbers, leaves a very small environmental footprint. It grows naturally and therefore produces less waste. It also uses less energy compared to other materials. And a major factor is that wood absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere thereby reducing the world’s carbon emissions.

For further details on the benefits of using cedar, please visit the website given below:

http://www.realcedar.com/why-real-cedar/

The Hideout House Company Ltd

Tel: 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com

www.hideouthouse.com

A Unique Solution for a Temporary Mobile Classroom

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We were recently approached with an interesting enquiry from the head teacher of a primary school with a nursery provision. Basically they wanted…or needed…some extra space to be used for a whole host of reasons – namely break out sessions, nurture room, outdoor learning, extra space for the 2 year olds for the nursery and last but not least as a community room. But they didn’t need anything too big, it had to be insulated as they wanted to use it all year round, heating and lighting requirements and it had to have a WC/washbasin facility too as it would be used out of school hours.

Oh and one last item on the wish list, it had to be capable of easily being removed in a couple of years time as the school was potentially going to be relocated! Quite a challenging list I think you will agree.

But luckily we have the ideal solution. We have another division in our business which deals with the leisure market and one of our most popular products we sell is a mini lodge which is essentially a pre-manufactured unit and is used as guest sleeping accommodation and usually comes complete with an en-suite and kitchen area. As it is used for these purposes, it is fully insulated throughout and has an electrical pack which includes lighting, heating and power sockets. And it measures 7m x 3.6m which just happens to be the size the above school were interested in. And as it is built to conform to the definition of a caravan, it can easily be moved or removed at a later date.

So all we had to do was knock out the kitchen area and shower and bingo, the school had the ideal solution to their problem. The building is also clad in natural cedar and has an attractive cedar shingle tile roof which means that it is incredibly low maintenance and will last a long time.

And another huge advantage to the school is that, assuming a base is down with services already running out to site (electricity, water and foul drainage), you can be up and running within a week – as opposed to a traditional on-site build time of 3-4 weeks with the involvement of numerous tradesmen coming and going.

For further information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com

www.hideouthouse.com

 

Planning Permission and Building Regs for Outdoor Classrooms

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We are constantly asked as to whether outdoor classrooms require planning permission and if they are also subject to building regulation approval. Always a tricky subject to have a 100% definitive answer but there are certain guidelines to work to. I will list these below:

Planning Permission – the majority of our outdoor classroom installations have been installed at schools without the need for planning permission as they fall under what is called Permitted Development Rights (PDR). And the below are the criteria for what constitutes permitted development:

By virtue of Part 7 Class M of the Town & Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015 the relevant provisions can be summarised as follows:-

The erection, extension or alteration of a school is permitted development provided that:-

(a) the cumulative gross floor space of any buildings erected, extended or altered would ​not ​exceed—

(i)25% of the gross floor space of the original school, college, university or hospital buildings; or

(ii)100 square metres,

whichever is the lesser;

(b) ​no ​part of the development would be within 5 metres of a boundary of the curtilage of the premises;

(c) ​no​ land used as a playing field at any time in the 5 years before the development commenced and remaining in this use​,​ could no longer be so usedas the result of the development​;

(d)the height of any new building erected would ​not ​exceed 5 metres;

(e)the height of the building as extended or altered would not​ exceed—

(i)if within 10 metres of a boundary of the curtilage of the premises, 5 metres; or

(ii)in all other cases, the height of the building being extended or altered;

(f)the development is not within the curtilage of a listed building;

But I do reiterate that we, as a company, are not planning consultants and we would always advise schools to check first with their local planning authority as to whether planning is required. A lot of planning authorities nowadays offer a “pre-app” service whereby you pay a nominal fee to the authority for their learned opinion before filing a full planning application.

Building Regulations – if an outdoor classroom building is less than 30m2, has no sleeping accommodation, is wholly detached from the main school building and is in excess of 1m from the boundary, then it is exempt from notification to the local authority. However, all good suppliers/manufacturers should follow the guidance in building regulations to ensure structural stability, adequate ventilation, safety glass is used where applicable, prevention from moisture ingress and a school should also ensure that the building is included in the school’s fire management plan.

For further information please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com

www.hideouthouse.com

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Yurts vs Outdoor Classrooms

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5m Hideout House outdoor classroom

 

I have been to a few schools recently where they have been looking for some sort of structure for an outdoor learning or forest school provision. So could be an outdoor classroom, shelter, early years provision, reading hut, break out or nurture room etc

And the school has been considering yurts into their overall mix of choices. I thought that it would be a good idea therefore in this blog to put together some facts as to the advantages a timber structure has over a yurt as we have quite a bit of experience of yurts due to the leisure side of our business where they are used for accommodation purposes on glamping (posh camping) sites.

Firstly, a school needs to weigh up as to what sort of longevity they are looking for with their need for an outdoor provision because essentially yurts are very big tents. The canvas exterior is hung around trellis side panels and supporting roof poles with a plastic sheet for a roof light to let in some sort of light from above.

Insulation (if supplied) in these yurts is very limited and so this will also limit the time you can use it for only certain times of the year. I know this personally because I stayed in one on a glamping site in September and even then it was extremely cold at night. The canvas needs constant maintenance, tightening and cleaning so that is another stretch on resources and time.

There is very little natural light as well – the only light comes from the roof light or the glazed panel in the front access door – so they are quite dark and dingy inside which I would not have thought is terribly conducive to positive learning/teaching outcomes. Condensation can also be a problem so sometimes they can feel quite damp inside – one nursery school I recently visited said that they could no longer use their yurt due the fact that the children were suffering from too many colds as a result of these conditions.

Yurts are not that cheap either once you factor in delivery and installation and a base for them to sit upon.

And so here’s the pitch for our outdoor classrooms – they are solid structures manufactured out of high quality cedar timber so they will last for a long time – in fact we offer a 15 year guarantee on our cedar buildings against timber degradation, rot and decay; cedar actually has one of the most natural insulating properties for wood but we can also offer ecotherm insulation to the walls, floor and roof to ensure that the building can easily be used all year round…..and no condensation build up either; we can also offer an atrium roof to allow lots of natural daylight in from above but you can also have as much glazing as you like to the upper wall panels – so they will always be light and airy inside; they require little or no on-going maintenance at all which is another benefit of using cedar; we will undertake all of the installation work so no need for the school or site manager to get involved at all; and we also think they are a lot nicer to look at too!

For further information on our outdoor classrooms and shelter, please call on 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com

www.hideouthouse.com

Amphitheatre Seating Project for North London School

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amphitheatre seating

amphitheatre seating

We were approached earlier in the year by a school in North East London who were wanting to encourage their pupils to take their outdoor lessons and performances outside. The brief was fairly straight forward – it had to easily blend in with its immediate environment, not be too “show-y”, had to cater for a class of 30 children and could easily withstand whatever the elements would throw at it!

The area the school had allocated to this outdoor amphitheatre project was fairly tight  – so hence the reason an amphitheatre seating arrangement was chosen as we designed it into a semi-circular format to make the most of the space available. We were installing onto a non-level grassed area by the side of the school’s hall so in order to blend naturally into this environment, we used artificial grass for seating along the two seating tiers. The other advantage of using this material is that it can easily withstand harsh weather conditions and it looks aesthetically pleasant too! The frame is made from heavy duty sleepers which are treated for longevity.

The school didn’t want to have any roof over this area either as they felt that it would be too imposing and restrictive.

The school also wanted to have some sort of a built-in, focal central stage so that either pupils could use this to present their performances or studies and/or teachers could also use to teach from. Again, we had to take the weather into account so this stage is made from a special anti-slip decking.

The job was completed within a week during the summer holidays so the school are now looking forward to their first outdoor sessions!

For further information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com

amphitheatre seating

amphitheatre seating with stage