Hawke’s Bay furniture range reshaping support for neurodivergent learners worldwide
A Hawke’s Bay company has created what it says is the world’s only school furniture range designed for neurodivergent students.
Mindfull’s collection, which is run through a partnership with Hastings school furniture company Furnware, is now used in more than 100 schools and selling from about $150 to $2500 a piece, with exports to Australia and parts of Asia.
At Marewa School in Napier, one of the company’s six products has quietly become the most popular spot in a new entrant classroom.
Teacher Linda Kermode received a learning hut last term, a small semi-enclosed space designed to give students privacy and reduce sensory overload. Her 5 and 6-year-olds helped assemble it themselves.
“They loved it,” she said.
“And then it was theirs too.”
Kermode said students now use the hut throughout the day for drawing, writing or simply settling themselves.
One autistic student regularly moves into the space during writing time to manage noise and movement around him.
Another child who shows signs of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), “calms down” inside it, she said.
“They just come and use it whenever they feel like ... the writing hut is their little haven.”
The biggest change, Kermode said, has been how often children choose to write.
“It’s encouraged them to get a pencil in their hand,” she said.
“Several of these children aren’t used to writing. They don’t see people writing these days.
“You send messages on the phone, you put your shopping list on the phone, so writing isn’t part of their daily life, and several of them can’t even hold a pencil properly when they come to school.”
Marewa School principal Chris Meynell said staff across the school wanted the furniture as soon as it arrived. But the unit was placed with new entrants because of the class size and the benefits for early learners.
The school received the hut through a sponsorship collaboration between Duffy Books and Furnware.
“We’d love to have more. It all comes down to budget and schools, but we’d love to have more.”
The learning hut is one part of a classroom collection that includes a wobble seat, rocking perch, hideaway hood, learning hut, laylow raft and laylow pad.
Mindfull founder Matt Whyte said the idea came after schools raised concerns about increasing numbers of children in different states of overstimulation or understimulation.
“We’ve been selling desks and chairs through Furnware into schools for 30 plus years.
“And we met with some schools and asked what their biggest challenges were, and they just said, the number of kids that are turning up to school with neurodivergence, whether that’s ADHD or autism, anxiety or depression, particularly post-Covid lockdown,” Whyte said.
The aim, he said, was to create furniture that either “lets a student move without disrupting anyone” or provides a quiet refuge for those overwhelmed by classroom environments.
The products were developed with principals, teachers, parents of neurodivergent children and a neuroscientist, then trialled in schools before being launched two years ago.
“We’ve heard some awesome stories of kids that really struggled being in the classroom, and then they got a learning hut, and now they’re in the classroom from 9am till 3pm. The principal told us we changed that boy’s life,” Whyte said.
Mindfull won several categories at this year’s Best Design Awards for their innovative approach to learning environments, designing furniture to support student wellbeing and engagement.
The furniture range is now used in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong, with interest from North America and the United Kingdom, Whyte said.