It’s easy pickings to say that manufacturer Perch is preaching to the choir when they assert that those long hours spent in primary education can be detrimental to one’s health: “lower back and neck pain are the most recognisable afflictions, but many other illnesses are linked with poor posture: poor digestion, nausea, deep vein thrombosis, headache, poor circulation, obesity, and lack of concentration.” The good work done by designer Simon Dennehy intends to stop this pernicious progression in its tracks. His collection of Ergonomic Furniture for Primary Schools all but guarantees a straight spine and the consequent cultivation of a lifetime of good postural habits.

Ergonomic Classroom Furniture. Designed by Simon Dennehy. Manufactured by Perch.

Perch’s Classroom Furniture Makes Early Education a Healthful Endeavor

A great sage once said, “the best position is the next position.” The aphorism applies to the salient musculoskeletal fact that we must move to live, that body tissues need mobility to retain function. Just so, Dennehy’s Ergonomic Classroom Furniture encourages movement at every juncture.

That statement is meant literally as well as figuratively, since the collection of classroom chairs and accompanying desks are each packed to the gills with features that promote mobility. Constructed of co-extruded hollow-section polycarbonate, the seat and back of the chairs feature ventilated slots that encourage airflow and thus increase user comfort. The material also facilitates the chair’s flexible front wings, which perpetually exert a mild upward pressure–thus encouraging students to gently oscillate their legs in response which, in turn, promotes muscular activity and increased blood flow.

But the extent of Dennehy’s ergonomics hardly ends there. The chairs feature an easily adjustable mechanism for increasing or decreasing chair height. This, in concert with the convenient footrest, assures complete freedom of leg movement while promoting the micro-adjustments needed to relieve sore spots and increase comfort.

Dennehy’s desk also engages in this fortuitous adjustability. Optimally positioned on a slant to reduce neck strain, the desk incorporates a handy elbow rest and an extended “storage trough” to position text books for the perpetually open lesson plan. The desk is also fully height-adjustable to conform to the needs of different students and/or the occasional standing work session.

About the Manufacturer: Manufacturer Perch is glad of the attention paid of late to the detrimental effects of sitting, but, even so, they believe our children may be getting short shrift. The company exists to rectify the woeful state of classroom furniture, which encourages poor posture in children and thus reinforces bad habits that they may carry into adulthood. The consuming project of Perch is thus to “rectify the fundamental problems associated with the current selection of school furniture.” Collaborating with designer Simon Dennehy, Perch has created a line of Ergonomic Classroom Furniture that aligns the spine, promotes movement, and encourages sound ergonomics,. Best of all, the line comes in a bright and shiny slotted orange mesh that’s sure to please kids and help ignite a love of learning.