In my experience of working with schools, you must be sure that you know the possible future changes if you employ a fitted solution. If you are a secondary school which timetables IT as a subject, then a fitted specialist room may work but a workstation approach in secondary schools is preferable and more professional.

When choosing a workstation or trolley, start with the type of equipment that you have, or are likely to purchase. If the school uses windows computers (Acorn A-series, Mac or WindowsOS2 PCs), the space for a mouse pad will need to be included.

BBC and Master users who might upgrade in the near future need to ask the following questions when buying a trolley or workstation: will a monitor fit on the shelf? Can the shelf be repositioned or removed? Can it be used for the printer? Is there a tray for the wires? Will the power and data cables clear the top of the upstand at the back of the trolley? Will the lower shelf (if fitted) catch the pupils’ legs? Are the castors lockable and with rubber wheels? If using a dot-matrix printer on sheet-feed, where does the paper enter and leave the machine? Is there a tray or shelf?

For PC and Archimedes, buyers should also ask: is the worktop deep enough to accommodate the monitor and PC leads as well as a keyboard? If there is not room on the work surface for a keyboard, is there a keyboard tray fitted or can you fit one to the trolley?

If you daisy-chain your computer trolleys (plug one into another) you may require an electrical “trip” to cut the power, should the system be over-loaded. This might happen when a member of staff plugs a kettle in to one of the workstation’s electrical sockets for a quick coffee. Most manufacturers will supply a plug which incorporates an electrical trip; this cuts off the power to the equipment if the system is over-loaded. Four sockets per trolley or workstation should be the minimum for BBC or PC users.

The position in the classroom may be dictated by the power outlet. The teacher may be forced to locate the computer in such a way that shehe cannot see the pupils working. This may be because outlets are only positioned in one or two places in the room. The introduction of a computer to the teaching space will affect the layout of the furniture. Circulation and grouping of children around the computers will be new factors to handle. In the primary class, which is traditionally 54 square metres (30 pupils x 1.8 square metres), the space is too small to take one or two computer workstations. Each workstation with two pupils working is equal to approximately four square metres. For example, 30 pupils with two computers should have a space of approximately 62 square metres as an absolute minimum. Make sure that you have the space now or you will have problems later.

The computer provision in each classroom or subject area should be viewed as part of the overall provision for the school, and the furniture should be flexible and adaptable as the hardware changes and develops. Have a planned approach to your IT needs, working within the school development plan. Remember to consider the age of the pupils and choose the trolleys and chairs to match. Consider a five-star office chair with arms if the pupil is using the computer for more than 45 minutes. The arm on the swivel chair will allow pupils to rest their arms. This is of concern as prolonged keyboard use can result in repetitive strain injury (RSI) staff are particularly at risk.

Consider castors and gas-lift action on the office chair. However, one chair on castors plus two kids equals disaster if the class is not well supervised. The favourite exploit of “enthusiastic” users is to use the chairs like dodgems. Children love to play with chairs on wheels, and with a gas-lift mechanism the national curriculum comes into its own: investigation, experimentation, defining the problems. An office chair is ideal; however, think twice about the cost and the likely results if the pupils are not completely house-trained.

If you have taken the plunge, the chair must match and work well with the computer workstation or trolley. The pupil’s eye level should be in the centre of the monitor screen with the head level. The pupil should not be looking upwards as this will cause neck strain.

There are three variables: the age of the pupils, the height of the chair seat and the height of the monitor. And for this, two major rules apply, regardless of age: the pupil’s feet should be resting on the ground or foot-rest and the head should not be looking up towards the screen. As a very rough guide, I would expect a dimension from the centre of the monitor to ground level of between 800 and 850mm for infants, 900mm and 1000mm for juniors and 1050 and 1150mm for secondary schools. If in doubt, choose a lower seat and workstation not higher.

Finally, if you visit BETT ‘95, be prepared to ask vendors the following questions before you sign away your IT budget.

* Has the manufacturer or supplier obtained BS 5750, even though this is primarily a management tool and not a guarantee of suitability or good quality?

* Check what the BS 5750 refers to, and ask for a copy of the summary of details.

* Check that the trolley frame has been tested and passed to: Strength BS 4875 (1985) Part 5 test level 5 and Stability BS 4875 (1985) Part 6 test level 4 or Strength BS 5873 (1985) Part 3 test level severe and Stability BS 5873 (1985) Part 3 test level normal.

Conforming to, or tested to, does not mean that the computer workstation has passed the required strength and stability standards. Understand what is on sale from the manufacturers and suppliers. Always check the price. Is the cost of the electrical socket included in the price of the trolley? Always ask for a copy of the test certificate, so that you know what you are buying. Always ask for a discount and confirm a realistic delivery date.

Finally, the key to the whole process under local management of schools and grant-maintained schools is to get control of the IT funds yourself or you will not be in the happy position of purchasing new furniture and equipment. Get agreement in principle from your headteacher to spend Pounds x next financial year. This may be difficult but does save arguments later.

Present your proposals no later than the end of the winter term for inclusion in the following financial year, which starts in April. Even more important than choosing the right furniture is who does what in advance.

Nick Carter was chief furniture designer for the Department for Education and is now an independent consultant.