School of thought

Fortunately Jersey school stock has undergone either total replacement or complete refurbishment over the years in a bid to meet modern standards of education.

The majority of work I have undertaken for the States of Jersey has been with primary schools together with a number of specialised buildings in the secondary school sector. The States of Jersey follows the mainland in terms of Building Regulations and legislation, although somewhat behind in timescales.

Over the last twelve years the changes in building standards have been noticeable. The major change has been in the use of passive ventilation, which has resulted in some mixed views. Although technically correct in design terms, after a number of years in operation the teaching staff overwhelmingly wish many of the solutions had never been installed on the basis that they are intrusive and disruptive to normal class operations and discipline.

The two types of systems initially used were twin turrets or single turret with opening side windows. The main staff objection to the twin turrets is that large areas of the teaching spaces can be subject to uncomfortable and erratic air movement, usually under or in close proximity to each terminal. The main contributor to this condition is the revere air movement due mainly to wind direction or lack of speed to the profile of the building structure, causing cold downdraughts. Secondly the automatic opening side windows and louvres used in schemes cause visual distraction to pupils.

The majority of the schemes have now been changed to disable any automatic operation during school hours. In addition opening window schemes have a further problem in that the introduction of overhead projection devices in classrooms requires large number of black out blinds over windows. This has resulted in blinds being damaged due to them being drawn out though opened windows.

As reconstruction of the schools continues the latest schemes have become hybrids of the earlier projects and contain, where practical, passive ventilation usually through high level roof opening windows. Their operation is allowed to be fully automatic for short periods outside normal school times. Most night-time cooling schemes have been abandoned due to numerous false security and fire alarms, put down to bats, moths, squirrels and in one case a very large toad.

During normal school periods the control is given over to the teacher who can open or close the ventilators via a button located in each room. Each button has a feedback giving the staff visual indication that the windows are, or are about, to open. Windows with controls operate at very slow speed and have very quiet actuators – the use of chain drive devices is avoided as they are extremely noisy. The only automatic control in normal school time is an override to inhibit opening or closing in the event of fire, rain and excess wind speed. No schemes have side automatic opening windows.

Trevor T Murch, Weston Super Mare, North Somerset