Indoor air quality in primary schools: First report

This EPSRC IAA Indoor Air Quality in Primary Schools Project is an interdisciplinary impact project led by Dr Gabriela Zapata-Lancaster from the Welsh School of Architecture as Principal Investigator, Dr Thomas Smith from the School of Geography and Planning as CoInvestigator and Mr Miltiadis Ionas as research assistant. This pilot project aims to support Councils and primary schools in maintaining good indoor environmental conditions in classrooms and indoor spaces. A secondary aim is to produce learning resources for children and teachers and guidance for schools and councils to maintain good indoor environmental conditions classrooms and indoor spaces. The project has proposed and deployed a visual monitoring toolkit to measure indoor air quality in school buildings and provide feedback to occupants. Moreover, it will propose supporting guidance to promote good indoor environmental conditions through behaviours and operational practices in buildings. This research team has partnered with Merthyr Tydfil Council and is working closely with teachers and children in two primary schools towards providing a means for councils and schools to manage the indoor air quality in school buildings. As a secondary aim, it is developing learning resources and engaging in hands-on workshops with pupils to reflect about indoor environmental conditions in schools, focusing on the nexus between behaviours and the resulting indoor environmental conditions.