U.S. Elementary School Goes All Standing

After a one year trial following persuasion from parents, one California School has made a dramatic change to their classrooms by removing all traditional desks and replacing them with standing desks and resting stools.

The teachers at Vallecito Elementary in the San Francisco Bay area have reported that standing students demonstrate “increased concentration, less fidgeting, and less distracting behaviour”

Parents of pupils at the school Kelly and Juliet Starret who originally petitioned for the new initiative have since launched a non-profit organisation called “StandUpKids” 

StandUpKids actively promotes the use of crowdfunding for schools to overcome the financial investment of purchasing standing desks. They provide grants to US schools and aim to have children in every school in America standing within ten years. 

NHS guidelines in the UK state that Children under 5 should not be inactive for long periods, except when they're asleep. With the NHS now highlighting the health benefits and reduced BMI in standing kids and the UK’s health secretary actively promoting standing desks it may not be long until a forward thinking UK school makes the step to go entirely standing.

@standingdeskuk recently reported that children's life expectancy has dropped by 5 years.