A room full of three-year-olds can be a colourful, noisy place, but noise levels used to be painfully high for children and teachers at Avalon School in West Kirby, near Liverpool UK.

Avalon School head teacher Joanna Callaway says children's learning was affected because they couldn't always hear staff clearly. Fortunately, Autex was able to help Avalon School with these issues, after a recommendation by a school parent familiar with the company's products.

In August 2016, Autex and acoustic engineering specialists Cundall worked to reduce the pre-school room's noise problems as a case study. To begin with, Cundall technicians tested the classroom to determine existing noise and reverberation levels.

Autex account manager Vicki Mahoney says the results revealed the untreated room was performing at 1.78 seconds' reverberation. "This was way out of the BB93 standards required." The British standard for classrooms is recommended at 0.6 seconds' reverberation time.

Mahoney says although Composition has a lower noise reduction coefficient rating than Class A (NRC1) Quietspace Panels, Composition was the ideal product for a classroom, especially a pre-school, as the product is excellent at absorbing frequencies at 1000hz and above, "which is quite possibly the pitches you would get in this classroom."

Cundall Principal Acoustics Consultant, Rob Turner, calculated that for every 1200 x 2400mm Quietspace Panel used to achieve a Class A result, twice the surface area of Composition would have the same effect. He says Composition provides adequate sound absorption at the "speech" frequencies included in the Building Bulletin 93 reverberation time criteria.

After installation, acoustic test results spoke for themselves. "The room is now performing at 0.58 seconds, which falls within BB93," Mahoney says. "By default, the Composition also makes the classroom a warmer and nicer place to be."

Callaway says Autex's service was exceptional and she was kept informed at every stage of the process. "The project manager was very professional and friendly and took the time to find out our needs carefully and then ensured they were met."