Vast majority of children receive education from government run school nursery, primary, middle to high schools. For pupils to receive learning certain resources & facilities require being available to teachers and students continually all day each day of the week.
School pupils attend state school for an average of 7 hours a day in western countries where they’re given teaching instruction, relax during breaks and consume food and drinks.
Multiple different basic essential school facilities from classrooms, sport field, gymnasium, playground and school canteen all contribute to the education, safety and wellbeing of school students & teachers.
List of facilities in school and equipment
- Design technology classrooms with machines, tools, benches & equipment.
- Science labs with machines, microscopes, beakers, jugs and experiment liquids.
- Indoor sports hall for multipurpose use.
- Library- learning resources room with books and learning materials.
- Computer rooms for information communication technology.
- Classrooms with interactive smart boards, white board, heating & air conditioning.
- Food technology classrooms.
- Toilets & changing rooms.
- Swimming pool.
- Science technician room.
- Playground areas for different age school pupil.
- Sports fields including football, baseball, running track, ruby and multi purpose field.
- Language laboratories & classrooms.
- Dining hall & school tuck shop.
- Assembly & events hall.
- Art, music and drama rooms.
- Medical room.
- Lockers for school students.
- School Reception & office and teacher’s room.
- Netball & basketball courts.
- Teacher’s room.
- Church or other religious building or prayer room.
- Student detention time out room.
- Car park & school bus transport.
Also see Primary school facilities
What are school facilities?
Used by pupils, teachers, support staff, parents and other stakeholder’s school facilities are grounds, sports fields, classrooms, halls, canteen, gymnasium & buildings used for educational learning, safety and wellbeing.
What facilities should a school have?
Each type of education facility requires not only age appropriate & size equipment and furniture but classrooms, and sports fields that can be used to teach the school curriculum effectively.
What facilities does a high school have? Education at high school requires many more additional facilities and equipment than elementary school as it’s a different curriculum.
Basic high school facilities include:
- Classrooms for food & design technology, art, maths, humanities, English & music.
- Science labs for physics, chemistry & biology.
- Computer rooms.
- Indoor sports hall with showers and changing rooms.
- Library.
- Sports fields: football, ruby and baseball.
- Basketball & netball courts.
- Gymnasium, showers and changing rooms for male & females.
- Multipurpose hall.
- Toilets.
- Student lockers.
- Exercise playground for 2 different age groups of students.
- Dining hall & snacks counter.
- Student bicycle shed.
- Parking for vehicles.
- Medical room.
- Staff room & school administration reception office.
- Time out room for students with inappropriate behaviour.
- School bus service transport.
School classrooms
Most important facility in school after classrooms are toilets, halls, playground, sports field, medical room, heating or conditioning, canteen and school office.
School students spend much of the day in a multi subject classroom being taught subjects including maths, history, geography, social studies, RE, English.
Standard classrooms at high school age include table & chairs, white board, projector & interactive smart board and smaller items of teaching equipment, heating & air conditioning and possible storage room.
Science labs & technician room
3 main subjects are taught in science labatories at high school in the science department chemistry, biology & physics for 11-18 year old students.
Teaching classrooms for science subjects include white board, interactive smart board & projector, chairs, work benches, machines, jugs, protective clothing, microscopes, beakers, jugs experiment liquids.
Learning resources room
A large room runs as a library with books, magazines and other reading material for school pupils to read in the library or they can checkout a book to read for 2-3 weeks at home.
Assembly hall
Schools large and small have a general purpose indoor hall where they hold all school or year assembly each day and use it for other school events.
The hall gets used for school discos, charity events, quizzes, talks, and examinations.
Elementary and high schools also hire out halls to local charities and community clubs for a fee in the evenings & weekends to run sports, leisure, crafts and social events.
Language labs, art, music and drama rooms
Essentially all classrooms in one way language labs are classrooms is computing listening & audio teaching and learning for pupils to be taught & learn foreign languages.
Music, art and drama rooms are purpose equipped classrooms to teach and learn arts & crafts, drama & dance. A music teacher instructs schools students in the piano, drums, trumpet and other wood & brass instruments as well as play in groups together.
Toilets & school front office
The school office is a busy place where students and teachers deliver notes and collect important information such as the class register for school pupil attendance, if not computerised.
School students don’t go to the office often, although they do use the school toilets on a daily basis during break and lunchtime.
Indoor sports hall, gym, sports fields & courts
Middle and high schools all have sports fields for football, baseball, running track and ruby. Some state schools have a swimming pool for students swim lessons, although not many.
Gymnasiums has equipment like climbing ropes and trampolines as well as bar’s and other gymnastic sports equipment for teachers to teach school pupils.
Playground for school pupils
Schools all have playgrounds at kindergarten, elementary and high school level for students to relax at break time. They are mainly paving or tarmac, although children can also use grass sports fields if it’s dry.
Different age group children are normally separated in different playgrounds for bulling & safety reasons, although 1-2 playground teacher monitors are present.
Dining hall & tuck shop
Western countries state schools all have student dining halls for pupils and teachers to each lunch or get snacks to take out as it’s important for children to eat & drink indoors while sitting.
School dining rooms are staffed by dinner ladies or men that prepare and serve lunch to children in one or two sitting depending on space available and number of students.
Food is prepared in the schools kitchen for larger schools, although at small schools hot meals for pupils are brought in for lunchtime.
Meals range from a selection of hot dinners including meats, vegetables and pudding. Vending machines are also available dispensing confectionary, crisps, sandwiches and hot & cold drinks.
A tuck shop can be found at some high schools, not all, staffed by school support or by senior age students.
Pupils can purchase snacks and stationary during break & lunchtimes at discounted prices compared to regular shops.
Medical and detention rooms
School medical room is used by students if temporary unwell or if they get injured. Additionally, a nurse from the local hospital comes in to inoculate school children against disease.
Only a few school pupils ever get sent to the detention room during school hours to complete class work as they have been disruptive in class lessons and disturbed other students learning.
School car park & teacher’s staff room
2 places pupils don’t use are the school parking area and the staff room for teachers that are exclusively used for teachers, support staff and occasional visitors.
Usually there are more than enough parking spaces for school staff on the grounds in larger schools, although small, inner city or village schools there’s not enough space for all staff cars.
Church or other religious building or prayer room
Some faith schools big and small for example have a church they use daily for prayers on school days and on a Sunday.
Not many state primary schools in the UK or elementary, middle or high schools in the United States have a fully functioning religious building they use for prayers during school hours.
Student school bus service transport
Essential is various school buses that service the local community and outlaying county areas to transport students to and from home to school.
The school bus service could be the only means of transports some children have access to if they live in a village or rural area away from school.