Learning commons, learning hubs and education studios are all part of the revitalised trend in collaborative learning at all school levels, from primary through to intermediate and secondary. As school designs have changed, flooring options have also been updated for modern environments.

Choosing the right type of flooring is an important consideration for any school fit-out. In schools flooring needs to be hard-wearing and easy to clean, and new open-plan style rooms often demand acoustic benefits and colour-coded design. Carpet tiles meet all of these requirements and are a fantastic choice for large rooms, with various types of vinyl suited to messier break-out areas for subjects where a wipe down or safety flooring surface is required, such as art, technology or science.

Many schools are now also being designed to meet a Green Star rating, making environmental friendliness another important selection criteria. Jacobsen carpet tiles, sourced from Shaw Contract Group or Desso have the Good Environmental Choice Australia certificate and GreenTag GreenRate Level A respectively, giving points under the MAT-9 credit.

Hingaia Peninsula School in Auckland and Endeavour School in Hamilton are excellent examples of the creative use of Shaw carpet tiles, with each school using the array of colours available to suit their learning environments. Hingaia Peninsula School uses a block colour system — the same carpet tile is laid throughout the main learning area, with blocks of colour delineating different break-out rooms. At Endeavour School they have chosen a more free-form mix of five different colours of the same pattern, with speckles of solid colours as features.