What Makes a Good School Canteen?

Despite being overlooked by many schools when they consider a redesign or remodel, the humble school canteen is a key component in the success of any educational establishment. It is not just somewhere for students to sit down and eat their meals at lunchtime – or, at least, it shouldn’t be.

With a well-designed school canteen, you can improve your students’ mental health and well-being in incredible ways. Our Versa range of mobile folding tables has been designed with exactly this in mind, and in this article we will discuss the features that make the biggest difference.

Good Food for Growing Kids

While we plan to discuss design features in this blog, let us not forget that school canteens need to provide students with healthy, nutritious food that will give them the energy they need to carry on learning in their afternoon classes. What is less often considered is how much the dining environment itself affects whether students eat well. A comfortable, welcoming space encourages them to sit longer, eat more slowly and make better choices about what they put on their plate. A cramped, noisy hall with nowhere to sit comfortably tends to have the opposite effect.

Smaller Peer Groups for Better Interaction

Having long rows of dining tables, such as those created by our Benchmark tables, is the traditional school aesthetic and one that can still work, particularly in schools with larger numbers of pupils where space is limited. However, if you have the room, consider smaller cluster tables – but more of them – to encourage more intimate peer groups that can have a conversation with one another during lunch. Our Hallmark tables are just the thing, seating eight to 16 students depending on the configuration.

Eye-Catching Visuals

There have been many studies concerning how our environment can impact our relationship with food. Different colours on the walls and tabletops can affect our eating experience. Bright red stimulates the appetite, making students eat quicker, while green makes them more relaxed, helps them slow down their eating and can even persuade them (albeit subconsciously) to make healthier food choices.

You do not have to repaint the whole room to see a difference, either. Our Versa range comes in over 160 laminate colours and finishes, so you can bring colour in through the furniture itself. Some schools use this to zone different parts of the dining hall, while others match their school branding across every surface or add custom artwork to the tabletops, which is a nice way to give the space some character.

Layout and Flow

It is easy to focus on the tables themselves and forget about what happens around them. Students need to be able to get from the serving area to their seats without squeezing past everyone who is already eating, and the queuing area needs enough room that it does not spill into the dining space during busy sittings. If you have students using wheelchairs or mobility aids, the gaps between tables need to work for them too.

Think about whether your canteen could benefit from different zones. A slightly quieter corner with round tables can work well for students who find the main dining area a bit much, while the rest of the room handles the numbers. You would be surprised how much of a difference even small changes to the layout can make.

More Than Just a Canteen

Many schools use their dining areas as multi-purpose rooms, making the most of the space available. That makes perfect sense to us, being much more cost-effective than getting an extension built. If your hall also needs to host assemblies, exams or PE, how quickly the furniture can come and go makes all the difference. Our Wall Pocket tables and benches fold flat against or within the wall in minutes, leaving a completely clear floor for the next class or group.

Talk to Us About Your Canteen

Whether you would like to upgrade your current dining furniture or are looking for something new, we have delivered a number of multipurpose and dining hall projects that meet the needs of education environments. Here is what our customers had to say about our work.

Contact us today to find out more – call 0330 030 0330, email: ideas@versadesign.co.uk or visit the Versa section of our website.