Client: Rakegate Primary School
Type of works: installed Rockfon Scholar ceilings throughout the building.

In the summer of 2006 Rakegate Junior School, which was built in the early 1950s, shut its doors for the last time. An intense 12 month building programme followed and in September 2007 the new Rakegate Primary School was officially opened. In line with modern education requirements, the new school has been built to the very highest specification, with a Rockfon Scholar ceiling installed throughout to ensure a high quality learning environment is provided.

Headteacher, Mr Harris comments on the new school; “At Rakegate our children will benefit from our new school building, which enhances the community and the learning environment. Everyone appreciates the quality of the building, which has produced light, airy rooms that are comfortable learning areas. The design of the ceilings complement the style of learning that we are trying to generate; quality, neat, efficient and effective in purpose”.

When choosing the right ceiling for a new school many different criteria have to be considered, including aesthetically pleasing surroundings, a good acoustic environment, high fire safety and long-term durability. To ensure good speech intelligibility, particularly in primary schools, it is important to regulate the high sound levels generated by young children by the use of a ceiling that absorbs sound efficiently in the child speech frequency range, contributing to a low reverberation time. This provides good learning conditions and helps student concentration, whilst also contributing to privacy between adjoining open plan areas.

Rockfon Scholar was selected for use at Rakegate, as it met all of the key criteria for the education sector. In particular it provides the highest level of sound absorption.  It combines an attractive White finish with good impact-resistance and strong edges. A tough concealed reinforcing mesh applied between the stone wool and the finished surface acts as a resilient impact resistant membrane. This combined with the strong latex covered edges ensures that Scholar is a tough, durable and fire resistant acoustic ceiling.

Importantly for a development project like Rakegate Primary School, which took many months to complete, Scholar products are lightweight and easily handled.  Due to their inertness and dimensional stability, no special storage or handling requirements are necessary. They can also be installed at an early stage in the building program due to the inherent stability of the 100% stone wool.