Watsonia Primary School

The Challenge

Like thousands of primary school halls across Melbourne and Victoria, the multipurpose hall at Watsonia Primary School was built for durability – not acoustics. Hard plaster ceilings, painted masonry walls created the perfect conditions for sound to bounce and build uncontrollably, turning an ordinary classroom into an endurance test for staff and students alike. Teachers reported having to raise their voices significantly just to be heard beyond the first few rows. Students, particularly those with auditory processing difficulties, hearing loss, ADHD, or autism, struggled to follow instructions or maintain focus during group activities. The classroom noise levels during learning and school events were so high that effective communication broke down entirely. This is one of the most widespread acoustic problems in Australian primary schools. The issue is not simply volume – it is reverberation: the way sound lingers and layers in a hard-surfaced room. When a teacher speaks, each word is still echoing around the room before the next one arrives. The result is a wall of indistinct sound that degrades speech intelligibility for every person in the space – and is especially damaging for children who are still developing their listening and language skills.

The Solution

SoundFix Acoustics conducted a full pre-installation acoustic assessment of the hall, measuring reverberation times across all octave band centre frequencies from 125 Hz to 8 kHz. The diagnosis was unambiguous: the space required broadband sound absorption distributed across both the ceiling and walls to break the cycle of reflections and bring reverberation within an acceptable range for speech intelligibility and learning. A single-surface treatment – ceiling baffles alone or wall panels alone – would not have delivered sufficient absorption given the volume and hard surface area of the hall. The SoundFix team designed a combined acoustic  system that addressed both the primary ceiling-to-floor reflection path and the lateral wall-to-wall flutter echo that was compounding reverberation at mid and low frequencies. The ceiling baffle and wall panel system was specifically designed to meet the AS/NZS 2107:2016 acoustic standard, which recommends reverberation times of 0.4–0.8 s for multipurpose educational classrooms. This standard is referenced in the Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) Building Quality Standards Handbook (BQSH) as the benchmark for all Department of Education capital works in Victoria.

The Installation

The SoundFix installation team arrived on the first day of the school holiday break with all acoustic materials pre-fabricated and ready to install. Suspended ceiling baffle systems were rigged from the existing ceiling structure using purpose-designed wire suspension hardware, avoiding any permanent structural modifications to the building fabric – a critical consideration for heritage-listed and older school buildings. Wall-mounted acoustic panels were fixed using a bracket system that allows the panels to be removed cleanly without damage to the painted masonry surfaces. Every panel was positioned according to the acoustic plan, with spacing and surface coverage calculated to achieve the target absorption coefficients across the required frequency range – not simply distributed for aesthetic effect.

The Outcome:

This room experienced the most dramatic transformation- cutting its reverberation time by more than 50%, completely changing the environment for both teachers and students. Beyond the acoustic measurements, the impact on day-to-day school life has been significant. Physical education sessions are easier to run. Staff no longer dread whole-school events or hall-based group activities. The multipurpose hall has become what it was always intended to be: a functional, flexible, and inclusive learning and community space. The full installation was completed during school holidays – ceiling baffles and wall panels across the entire hall in two days. Rooms were ready before students returned, with zero disruption to the school term.

Acoustic Solutions to Your Loud Classroom

This project is a clear demonstration of what properly specified acoustic treatment can achieve in a school environment. The combination of ceiling acoustic panels for primary reflection control and wall acoustic panels for lateral echo reduction is the most effective approach for large-volume halls with hard parallel surfaces – and it is the approach SoundFix Acoustics has refined across more than 100 Victorian school and education projects.

Does Your School Have a Noise Problem?

If teachers are straining to be heard, students are struggling to focus, or your hall is avoided rather than used – SoundFix Acoustics can help. We offer a free on-site acoustic assessment with a written report, no obligation.

Contact SoundFix Acoustics today to book your free noise assessment and discover how our ceiling acoustic panels can solve your school’s noise problems for good.