Our classrooms smell. This fact is rarely given a thought, at least not in advance. A lesson plan might include a settling activity, perhaps accompanied by a piece of calming music. But how often do lesson plan templates encourage teachers to think about the impact of smell?
Smell is a hugely powerful sense. Cleaning products from our childhood; freshly cut grass; gone-off milk; rain on hot tarmac; school toilets; a mother’s perfume: all have the power to transport us back to childhood loves or repulsions.
At school, however, despite attempts to connect to young people on an emotional level - to create a purposeful, relaxed, stress-free learning environment - scent is rarely considered. I think this is something that needs to change.
A 2014 study showed that humans can distinguish more than 1 trillion different odours. Our sense of smell is incredibly sophisticated. It’s also directly attuned to our environment and can trigger our behavioural responses. For instance, think about how you would react walking into a yoga studio scented with calming aromas compared with walking past a recently unearthed landfill site.
Harnessing the power of scent to create a calming, focused atmosphere could subtly transform the day-to-day emotional responses of children in our schools, including those with special educational needs and disability (SEND), some of whom may be more powerfully affected by sensory stimuli.
Of course, teachers already have plenty to worry about without factoring in how their classrooms smell. But introducing a focus on smell wouldn’t be as hard as you might think.
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought many changes to the school day, one of which is an increased awareness of the need to let fresh air into our classrooms. Suddenly, those smells of stale coffee and assorted teen body sprays, intermingled with the occasional fart, have given way to smells of the outdoors, which, in many cases, will be far preferable.
Of course, it is not ideal to have windows wide open in the middle of winter, but this year has taught me that classroom smells matter - and that teachers might benefit from understanding more about the science behind our response to smell, and how we could realise its potential in the classroom.
There are plenty of ways to change the way a room smells, be it simply cracking open a window or using the scent of an essential oil to subtly change the collective mood of a class. We already know, anecdotally, that aromatherapy can be used to affect mood. Citrus scents are said to boost focus, for example, while the scent of lavender is supposed to be calming.
If we could harness those benefits, who knows what the impact could be.
It wouldn’t take much: opening windows regularly, alongside investing in a scent diffuser, room sprays or even a softly scented cleaning product, could have the potential to invigorate, relax or rejuvenate our students. A choice of two scented sprays would be plenty - one to increase energy and focus, the other to calm and relax.
Surely it’s worth a try. After all, anything has to be better than the scent of teenage farts.
Clare Deal is a SEND teacher working in Newcastle
This article originally appeared in the 6 August 2021 issue under the headline “Smells like teen spirit?”
