Education & Healthcare

COLINWELL SUPPLY ACOUSTIC MASONRY TO BRAND NEW ST MARYS YOUTH CLUB FACILITY IN CREGGAN

Colinwell supplied their specialist EchoCheck Acoustic Masonry Block to the brand new £2 million state of the art youth facility for St Mary’s Youth Club in the heart of the Creggan community. This block has been designed to offer market-leading levels of sound absorption efficiency. It controls sound reverberation in big spaces like sports halls, helping it reach its audience without distortion or reflection, while at the same time minimising noise penetration through walls to adjoining areas by absorbing sound waves.

EchoCheck Acoustic Blocks achieves their sound absorption using a slot and chamber arrangement in the face of the block. These slots allow sound to travel into the hollow cores, which then capture, manage, and diffuse sound waves of all frequencies to great effect. They are also robust, can be built into the very fabric of the building and can be roller-painted, ensuring that the space remains an acoustically ambient space throughout the building’s life. Colinwells Echocheck blocks where used throughout the facility including in the brand-new sports hall, common area and music room.

Michael McGuigan, Sales Director for Colinwell says, “We like to challenge the conventional ways of doing things, be that manufacturing methods, or new product offerings. This allows us to offer our customers innovative new products like our EchoCheck block”.

www.colinwell.com

Colinwell Acoustic Masonry

colinwell.com

EchoCheck Acousitc Block St Bronaghs Primary School, Rostrevor Colour: Paint Grade

THE IMPORTANCE OF DANCE IN EDUCATION

AT A TIME WHEN CHILDREN SPEND MORE AND MORE TIME IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER OR TELEVISION THE ESCAPE DANCE OFFERS HAS NEVER BEEN MORE IMPORTANT

Dance is more than just exercise and entertainment, it enables young people to build discipline and artistic skills and to develop their abilities in physical interaction, team working, problem solving, observing, evaluating, verbal and non-verbal communication. Through dance, children can gain, sensory and spatial awareness, coordination, concentration and mobility. But, more than this, dance is used to express emotions, to increase confidence and to just make ourselves feel better!

There is always a strong focus on academic subjects in education, but physical education is equally important. Learning, thought, creativity, and intelligence don’t just come from the brain, but from the entire body – research has shown that movement combinations increase memory, order, and sequencing skills.

REIMAGINING HOW WE EDUCATE FUTURE GENERATIONS

Following the Covid pandemic, 21st century learning is looking to challenge the binary perceptions of space, exploring hybrid learning through the intersection of physical, virtual, formal and informal spaces. Today’s rapidly changing, interconnected world requires students to think differently, work differently and learn differently.

HARLEQUIN LIBERTY SWITCH™

Dance and performing arts encourage inclusive, responsive learning but not all education environments can dedicate a specialist area to this discipline. Harlequin Switch is an innovative, versatile multifunctional performance flooring system which enables an educational space to switch from a fixed floor to a sprung dance floor at the touch of a button. This enables flexible use of the space - with the floor in it its rigid state it can be used for performing arts, drama or music and then, at the touch of a button, it transforms quickly into a fully sprung floor for dance.

One unique advantage of the Harlequin Liberty Switch system is that the floor can be tailored to the requirements of the educational environment. Areas of the floor can be isolated and made rigid for the placement of pianos or seating, while the rest of the floor is used as a sprung dance floor with uniform and consistent shock dampening ensuring dancers’ safety and comfort.

To see Harlequin Switch in motion watch our product video by visiting the Harlequin website.

www.harlequinfloors.com