Why classrooms got so loud

Open-plan and flexible learning spaces have become a go-to design choice in new and refurbished Australian schools over the last decade. It’s easy to see why – they’re great for collaboration and team teaching. Back in 2017, the then NSW Education Minister even flagged a preference for open-plan classrooms of up to 120 students in new school builds, citing the flexibility on offer.

The catch is noise. Macquarie University researchers compared the acoustics of four Sydney kindergarten classrooms, ranging from a 25-student enclosed room right up to a 205-student semi-open K-6 space. The bigger and more open the room got, the more noise crept in from neighbouring classes – enough to genuinely affect how well young students could understand their own teacher.

Part of the problem is that Australia doesn’t actually have a nationwide acoustic standard schools have to meet. The Building Code of Australia covers sound insulation between rooms, but not the acoustic quality of the classroom itself. The closest thing we’ve got, AS/NZS 2107, sets recommended noise and reverberation levels – but it’s not mandatory. So in practice, how a classroom sounds often comes down to luck of the build, not design intent.

What noise actually does to learning

This isn’t just a comfort issue – it changes how students learn. As background noise climbs, so does the number of words students mishear or miss entirely, and younger students are affected most, as their speech-recognition skills are still developing and they’re less able to compensate for what they miss the way older students can. Students with hearing loss, auditory processing difficulties, or ADHD are affected even more, often struggling at noise levels their classmates barely notice.

It’s rough on teachers too. A widely cited research summary drawing on Professor Bridget Shield’s review of classroom acoustics found the vast majority of teachers feel stressed by classroom noise, and a striking number develop voice problems from talking over it – far more than in the general working population. Safe Work Australia’s own guidance recommends noise stay below 50 dB(A) wherever clear verbal communication matters – a bar plenty of classrooms blow past during a normal lesson, let alone a noisy open-plan one. It’s easy to see how that adds up over a career: raising your voice over background chatter, day after day, term after term, isn’t something a bit of throat lozenge and a coffee can fix.

Two classes, same teacher, same lesson — different outcomes, simply based on how much students could actually hear. Even seating matters: in a noisy room, students up the back can miss a significant portion of what’s said, so the same lesson doesn’t reach every student equally.

The good news: you don’t need to rebuild the room

Fixing a school’s acoustics from the ground up isn’t realistic for most schools working within existing buildings and budgets – especially open-plan spaces that were never designed with sound separation in mind. The encouraging part is that acoustic performance can be improved a lot without any construction. Sound-absorbing furniture and screening, placed thoughtfully, can cut down reverberation and stop noise bleeding between class bases.

It’s a much cheaper lever to pull than a building upgrade, and schools can do it room by room, starting wherever the noise is worst. Batger’s New Carrel is a good example, a semi-enclosed workstation that gives a student their own quieter pocket of focus inside an otherwise busy or open classroom, no renovation required. For rooms that need broader sound-softening rather than individual workstations, screening like the Cove Acoustic Screen (600mm High) or the Double Wrap Screen (500mm High) can help break up noisy open-plan zones without touching the walls or ceiling. These screens also pair well with desks like the Klass Single-Sided Sit-Stand Electric Desk, letting schools build quieter, more flexible individual workstations without losing the benefits of an adjustable desk setup.

The takeaway

Noise gets in the way of learning, full stop – and the students who can least afford to fall behind are the ones who feel it most. It’s a big part of why some schools are turning away from flexible layouts and back toward traditional classrooms, with noise and behaviour management the recurring complaints. Acoustic screening splits the difference: the flexibility schools want, without giving up the quiet a traditional room provides.

Batger has been designing and manufacturing Australian education furniture since 1953. Explore their New to Classroom Collection →