Once you’ve decided on a canopy for your school, it’s important to take the time to decide on its colour because colours can have a really positive effect on a learning. There’s plenty of research to show each colour has its own unique psychological properties that can evoke specific feelings and responses in children especially in educational settings.
If it’s for extra learning space, then bright colours are great for stimulating creativity. Likewise, if it is going to be used for extra dining space, it’s good to choose a bright colour to help everyone feel more cheerful on dull or rainy days.
Some of the most popular colours for school canopies are grey or white followed by red, blue and green though we offer frames in lots of different colours to suit your needs. For example, we have fitted purple frames too, bringing a more vibrant look to the school.
Many schools often choose colourful frames to match their badges containing coats of arms which represent a school’s history and values such as respect, kindness, independence, determination, perseverance, aspiration and tolerance.
In the same way, most schools use colours for different houses such as yellow, red, blue and green, matching them to names specific to the school or area.
Common school colours like red can be used to demonstrate qualities like action, strength, energy, bravery and passion while blue represents responsibility, trust, security and loyalty.
Red’s less fiery cousin, orange symbolises positivity, enthusiasm, warmth, joy and creativity.
Yellow is known for its ability to stimulate mental activity and promote happiness and often invokes feelings of playfulness and creativity while blue embodies feelings of responsibility, trust, security and loyalty.
On the other hand, green is seen as a calming colour promoting the feeling of safety and harmony while purple is regarded as a spiritual colour promoting warmth, imagination and creativity.
According to the research Children's emotional associations with colors, most young children associate the majority of colours with positive emotions.
Colours can help attention spans, help children focus on so-called dull topics better, and increase their ability to retain key information. A study published in 2021 discovered a direct link between colour in learning spaces and student performance, mood, and behaviour. It revealed that specifically white,
green and blue helped add a feeling of curiosity, satisfaction and hope.
However, black and grey could have the opposite effect, creating feelings of worry and fear.
Children tend to be the most focused and creative at school when they’re exposed to the colours that enhance their skills, according to world colour specialist Jacob Olesen.
He recommends focusing on:
Some schools opt a plain grey or white frame and instead choose bright colours on the roof or on the post protectors. Coloured polycarbonate roof panels in red, orange and yellow can cheer up even the dullest of days, helping to evoke the feeling of sunshine as you can see from our case study.
Whichever colour you choose, our Spaceshade canopy designers can create visuals for all of our projects, so you it’s easy for you to visualise how each colour will look at your school.