tvs | balconies & breakout spaces

Breathe for a second.

Breakout rooms and balconies let them be them.

Breakout rooms and balconies are beautiful.

They are also contested as they are highly sought after.

Students in this study explain that they value break out rooms and balcony spaces that are quiet, private, up high, with an outlook over their school or their city or nature.

Comfortable flexible furniture is valued, as well as choices for moving or sitting still. Sometimes they want to be alone, sometimes they want to work or socialise with peers in small groups.

Both breakout rooms and balconies offer views to the outside world. Balconies also offer fresh air, the smells and sights of the city and the feeling of the breeze.

Balconies and breakout rooms are important respite spaces.

“The breakout room space. I feel like there should be more around school for, like, before school, like so people can just go in there and, like, do what they want.”
I think privacy is also close to, like relaxing, because if someone comes home or comes to school and something happened at home, like family problems or whatever it is, they kind of just wanna, like, chill out on their own. And in these in these places, they're like a couple of main spots where you'd see someone sit on their own and just like, and just relax kind of.

Breakout rooms and spaces are more than an extra luxury

Breakout rooms are spaces for belonging and choice

Fun

Privacy

Social

In control

Relaxation

Individual & group work

Flexible furniture

An outlook

Requiring effortful management

Peer to peer learning

Time

These places are quiet and calm. An escape from the chaos of class. People want to escape but they are why others want to escape. The breakout space can be used for kids with special needs like sensitive hearing or crowded spaces.

thriving story

Breakout spaces can be used to meet different wellbeing needs

In each school there is some debate on how the break out rooms are used...students explain that they would like a more consistent approach.

“I've always found is purely like everyone's just silent just doing work, or it's completely social. I prefer it when it's social, to be honest, because there's a lot of talking and it's it kind of feels more relaxed. But you still to get more work done than you would outside. Even though it is talking.”

“Teachers have to put limitations to it when you're allowed, and it kind of ruins like the whole point of it, what it should be able to. It should be able to go like calm down if you need to, like, reset, like coming back, not feeling well. You love to work in there, but like now, like they're like limiting like everything you do, you can only go in there like you have to finish work.”

“You can talk about all the ideas. And then once you fully understand, then you can, like, apply it a lot easier. I saw a Tiktok video of how you understand a topic. So, the first one is reading about it, then writing about it. And then it went all the way up to once you've understand it, teaching someone, that's where you absorb most of the knowledge. So I feel like that also helps as once you go into the breakout room, just like, talk about it and understand it. And then sometimes when I understand it, I'll teach my friend in a different way than how the teacher would explain it. And that helps me understand it more.”

Breakout spaces, balconies & benches are high potential thriving spaces

Students clearly associated breakout spaces with thriving.

Why are balconies & breakout spaces so important for salutogenic wellbeing?

Breakout spaces are important to learning and wellbeing. The most meaningful breakout spaces were those that are quiet, private, up high with an atmospheric connection to their school, their city and nature. Students and teachers recognised that well designed break out spaces are manageable. Breakout spaces were defined as giving students an opportunity to relax in comfort. Students explained that different people use break out spaces in different ways. Some students want to use the spaces for peer-to-peer learning, others want to reset alone. Having predictable and comprehensible access to these spaces helped students feel a sense of control over their own learning and wellbeing.

With so much upward movement, navigating of stairs and minimal nature based walks between buildings, there are few places for student respite and socialisation and few non communal places to do school work. Good breakout rooms and balconies in vertical schools also give students a rare opportunity to survey their surroundings below and link to their wider community. A well designed balcony, for example enables a student to look out over their city and /or feel like they are up in the trees.

Personal

Thriving is enhanced when break out rooms are available for students to use to meet their needs whether that is for quiet work or having fun.

“It is a quiet comfortable relaxing space where you can have fun while working with your friends. SS. If too many people are in the breakout room it gets loud, overwhelming and you can't focus on work.”

Thriving is enhanced when how the students are meant to use the break out spaces is predictable and comprehensible.

“...some teachers don't let you go in there like they let you go in there for five minutes, and then they just pull you straight out. So that's why I was just like, what's like the use of a breakout room. And like some teachers keep the doors open, too. And I'm just like you can't shut the door. Then why have a door on it?”

Social

Thriving is enhanced when there are choices within breakout spaces for moving or sitting still, individual or group use, and for use before, during and after school.

“The breakout room space. I feel like there should be more around school for, like, before school, like so people can just go in there and, like, do what they want.”

Environmental

Thriving is enhanced when breakout rooms and balconies offer inspiring views connecting to the outside world. The change of atmosphere is associated with a different feeling.

“I think they really appreciate that...having that open air, the view, the greenery. Um, just giving them that kind of, like brain break...in a classroom where they just go into a different space that they actually enjoy feeling like not crowded or claustrophobic which I think is really important. I just don't know how to implement that.”

Environmental/Social

Thriving is enhanced when students feel included. When students find their environment difficult to manage, such as in a mismatch between sensory needs and the school environment, then exclusion arises.

“There are a few breakout rooms where you just feel like you're being watched. But it mostly depends on the teachers”

Text on screen: “The balcony is a place for students to relax and focus”, and a final card that reads, “It's a place for everyone”.

How do we make balconies & breakout spaces more thriving places?

designing around spaces

How might the value of breakout rooms and balconies inform the design of other spaces within a school?

What might a 'whole of school' approach to breakout rooms look like?

What are ratios of breakout rooms to classrooms and students are needed within a vertical school?

Where should they be located?

How could we reconceptualise the classroom from the perspective of breakout rooms to make school work better for students with sensory needs?

Are breakout rooms more of a concept than a space?

communication & access

How might these spaces be better understood within schools?

How might we communicate the plurality of these spaces to everyone?

How might access to these desired spaces be managed?

What would it look like if everyone in a school had a shared understanding of these spaces, a balance of predictable use of the spaces with flexible use of the spaces?

How could students have more agency to access these spaces without losing their value?

teacher use of rooms

How might teachers use breakout spaces effectively with students?

What might best practice for teachers look like and how might it be communicated?

What are some 'shoulds' and 'should nots' for teacher use of these spaces during class?

"This place is quiet and calm. An escape from the chaos of class."

Student Focus Group Hidden Balcony & Breakout Space Stories

balconies & breakout spaces

student stories that bring light to wellbeing possibilities

Breakout rooms and balconies are beautiful.

Balconies and breakout rooms are important respite spaces.

Breakout rooms and spaces are more than an extra luxury

thriving story

Breakout spaces can be used to meet different wellbeing needs

Breakout spaces, balconies & benches are high potential thriving spaces

Why are balconies & breakout spaces so important for salutogenic wellbeing?

Personal

Social

Environmental

Environmental/Social

How do we make balconies & breakout spaces more thriving places?

designing around spaces

communication & access

teacher use of rooms

story credits

hear from students