Classroom Acoustics
Create schools where every word is easier to hear
Consultant-designed acoustic panels that reduce reverberation, improving speech clarity, concentration and comfort for teachers and pupils.
Primary and Secondary Classrooms | SEN Teaching Rooms | Nurseries
Help every pupil hear the lesson
Hard walls, floors and ceilings reflect speech around a classroom, making teachers more difficult to understand and increasing listening effort for pupils. Songbird wall and ceiling panels absorb these reflections to improve speech clarity and create a calmer learning environment. Our acoustic consultants assess the room and specify the right treatment quantity and layout, considering BB93 requirements where applicable.
What better acoustics can achieve in classrooms
Improved Speech Clarity
Acoustic panels reduce echoes and background noise, ensuring teachers’ voices are clear and easily understood by all students.
Enhanced Focus and Learning
Reducing reverberation makes lessons and discussions easier to follow, creating a calmer environment with fewer internal acoustic distractions.
Support for All Learners
Better acoustics benefit students with hearing impairments, language barriers, or attention challenges, ensuring a more inclusive learning environment.
Reduced Listening Effort
Controlling reverberation makes speech easier to follow, reducing the effort pupils need to understand lessons and instructions.
Reduced Vocal Strain
Improved room acoustics help teachers communicate clearly without continually raising their voices over a reverberant classroom.
Flexible Use of Space
Acoustic improvements make classrooms suitable for various activities, from discussions to multimedia presentations, without overwhelming noise levels.
Take a look at our projects
Education
Acoustic Treatment for a School in London to BB93
Improving speech clarity and reducing reverberation across a busy London school—without compromising the appearance of its classrooms or disrupting teaching.
Office
What our clients say about us
Design, supply and install of acoustic panels for a mixed-use community hall.
“I just wanted to say thank you for everything you have done in terms of the acoustics at Kirkgate Community Centre, also Andy and his team were amazing. The place looks amazing.”
Nicole Williams – Kirkgate Community Centre
Supply and install acoustic panels for 5 Sports Halls.
“Thank you for the works provided over the summer period. It has been a seamless project and the new panels look great. “
Lauren Cassidy – Galliford Try
Design, supply and install acoustic panels for a multi-use school hall.
“We are very happy with the work and the difference is very noticeable.“
Anna Ellison – Weetwood School
Our Service from Start to Finish
Tell us about your space
Send us your floor plan or dimensions, photographs and a short video, and explain the acoustic problem.
Acoustic consultant review
Our acoustic consultants assess the layout, finishes and use of the space to determine what treatment is needed.
Treatment design & quotation
We recommend the right panels, quantities and locations, with a clear layout and quotation.
Supply and installation
Choose supply-only or nationwide installation, scheduled around your working hours where required.
Why choose Songbird for classrooms?
Consultant-led, not guesswork
We calculate the appropriate panel type, quantity and layout for your space.
Designed around your interior
Panels, rafts and baffles coordinated with your lighting, furniture and branding.
Supply-only or nationwide installation
Choose the service you need, with installation planned around working hours.
Clear, honest advice
We explain what acoustic panels will solve—and when source control, layout changes or sound insulation are also needed.
Ready for a better-sounding space?
Send us your room details and an acoustic consultant will recommend the appropriate panels, quantity and layout—with no obligation. Prefer to talk? Call 0113 322 7977 for expert advice.
What are the legal acoustic requirements for a classroom?
Building Bulletin 93 sets the acoustic standards for school buildings in England, and compliance is enforced through Building Regulations Approved Document E. It is a Building Control matter, not a recommendation. The core requirement for a classroom is a mid-frequency reverberation time, measured furnished and unoccupied.
| Space | New build | Refurbishment |
|---|---|---|
| Primary school classroom | 0.6 s | 0.8 s |
| Secondary school classroom | 0.8 s | 1.0 s |
| Rooms for pupils with special hearing or communication needs | 0.4 s, averaged 125 Hz to 4 kHz, and no octave band above 0.6 s | as new build |
| School library or resource area | 0.8 s | 0.8 s |
| Sports hall | 1.5 s | 1.5 s |
BB93 sets two other requirements alongside reverberation. The first is an upper limit on indoor ambient noise, measured as LAeq,30min, which is the same for primary and secondary and relaxes by 5 dB for refurbishment.
| Space | New build | Refurbishment |
|---|---|---|
| Primary and secondary classroom | 35 dB | 40 dB |
| Music classroom | 35 dB | 40 dB |
| Study room | 40 dB | 45 dB |
| Corridor and circulation space | 45 dB | 50 dB |
The second is sound insulation between spaces. Acoustic panels address reverberation only. Ambient noise is a matter for building services and the building envelope, and sound insulation is a matter for construction. A school can meet the reverberation standard and still fail the other two.
What an untreated classroom actually measures. A typical primary classroom of around 8 by 7 metres with a 3 metre ceiling, hard plaster finishes and a vinyl floor, measures roughly 1.3 seconds. That is more than double the new-build limit. Getting it to 0.6 seconds needs around 31 m² of Class A absorption, which is about 55 percent of the ceiling area.
| Room | Target | Untreated RT60 | Class A absorption needed | Share of ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Primary classroom, 8 × 7 × 3 m, new build | 0.6 s | ~1.3 s | ~31 m² | around 55% |
| Primary classroom, refurbishment | 0.8 s | ~1.3 s | ~17 m² | around 30% |
| Secondary classroom, 9 × 7.5 × 3 m, new build | 0.8 s | ~1.4 s | ~22 m² | around 33% |
| Room for pupils with hearing or communication needs, 7 × 6 × 3 m | 0.4 s | ~1.3 s | ~43 m² | more than 100% |
That last row is the one worth pausing on. A room for pupils with hearing or communication needs cannot reach 0.4 seconds with ceiling treatment alone. The absorption required exceeds the ceiling area, so the specification has to include wall panels as well, and it needs to hold below 0.6 seconds in every octave band from 125 Hz to 4 kHz, which is a harder test than a mid-frequency average. Schemes that treat an SEN room the same way as a mainstream classroom will not pass.
Figures assume hard finishes with no existing acoustic ceiling, the room furnished and unoccupied, and Class A panels to BS EN ISO 11654 (αw ≥ 0.90), using the Sabine method.
Why children need better acoustics than adults, not the same. An adult listener uses context to fill in words they did not quite hear. Children are still building the vocabulary and language structure that makes that possible, so they need a clearer signal to reach the same level of understanding. The effect is largest for the pupils who can least afford it: children with hearing loss, children with English as an additional language, children with attention or processing differences, and any child sitting at the back of the room. Reverberation does not lower everyone’s comprehension by the same amount. It widens the gap between the pupils who were already following and the ones who were not.
The teacher side of it is a workload issue. In a reverberant classroom, teachers raise their voices for hours a day, every day, and voice strain is a recognised occupational problem in teaching.
Four things to consider for classrooms
Check the project criteria
Agree the applicable school acoustic requirements and the condition in which performance is assessed.
Design for additional needs
Pupils with hearing or communication needs may require lower reverberation and wider-band control.
Treat more than the ceiling where needed
Wall absorption may be necessary where the required area or frequency performance exceeds what the ceiling can provide.
Separate the acoustic problems
Panels address reverberation; services noise and sound transmission require separate design measures.
Frequently Asked Questions
Acoustic panels are not specifically required by law. However, school buildings may need to meet acoustic performance requirements under Building Regulations, with BB93 providing the relevant design guidance. BB93 specifies the performance, not the product, so panels are one way of meeting the reverberation requirement rather than a requirement themselves.
A mid-frequency reverberation time of 0.6 seconds for a new-build primary classroom and 0.8 seconds for a new-build secondary classroom, measured furnished and unoccupied. Refurbishment values are 0.8 and 1.0 seconds respectively. Rooms for pupils with special hearing or communication needs have a much tighter requirement of 0.4 seconds.
Both, at different levels. New build and extensions must meet the full standard. Refurbishment has relaxed reverberation values, 0.8 seconds for primary and 1.0 for secondary, but work that constitutes a material change of use brings the full new-build requirement back into play. Where a project sits on that line is worth confirming with Building Control early.
A typical untreated primary classroom of 8 by 7 metres measures around 1.3 seconds and needs roughly 31 m² of Class A absorption to reach 0.6 seconds, which is about 55 percent of the ceiling area. A secondary classroom targeting 0.8 seconds needs closer to 22 m². Rooms with an existing acoustic ceiling need considerably less.
No. BB93 requires 0.4 seconds averaged across 125 Hz to 4 kHz, with no octave band above 0.6 seconds, and the absorption needed to achieve that in a typical room exceeds the ceiling area. These rooms need wall panels as well as ceiling treatment, and the low-frequency requirement makes them a specification job rather than a standard order.
Not necessarily. Rooms used by pupils with special hearing or communication needs have demanding acoustic criteria, and ceiling treatment alone may not provide sufficient absorption across the required frequency range. The room should be assessed before the treatment arrangement is specified.
In a mainstream classroom the ceiling usually does most of the work, and wall panels top it up where the target is tight or the ceiling is unavailable. In rooms for pupils with hearing or communication needs, both are required. Wall panels in classrooms should be mounted above display height so they do not compete with the wall space teachers use.
Most classroom schemes are installed in school holidays, which is how the majority of schools sequence this work. A single classroom is typically a day or less. Panel systems are mechanically fixed or bonded, with no wet trades and minimal dust, so a room can be back in use immediately. Multi-room programmes are usually phased across a summer break.
Often not, and it depends on the tile. A Class A ceiling across most of the room will usually meet the mainstream classroom target on its own. Lower-performing Class C or D tiles, which are common in older installations, will not. The only way to know is to measure, which is quicker and cheaper than specifying blind.
No. Panels absorb sound within the room. Sound passing through a wall, a folding partition or a corridor door is sound insulation, which BB93 also covers but with a different remedy. Folding partitions between classrooms are a frequent weak point. NOVA Acoustics carries out UKAS-accredited sound insulation testing to identify the actual path before anything is specified.
Shop the Songbird Acoustic Panel Range
Already know what you need? Explore our high-performance panels for direct UK delivery. If not, our acoustic consultants can recommend the right product, quantity and layout.
Sustainable, high performance acoustic treatment
Sustainable 40mm Polyester Fibre Acoustic Panel with Class A Sound Absorption made with >60% Recycled Material. Suitable for walls, ceilings, rafts or baffles.
Premium finishes and design-led interiors.
Simple, cost-effective self-installation.
40mm Fabric Wrapped Acoustic Panel with Class A Sound Absorption. Self-adhesive for easy DIY Installation. Suitable for surface mounting to walls or ceilings.
Durable protection for high-impact areas.
