School education flooring
Forbo Flooring Systems has a flooring solution for almost every environment within the educational establishment. Total flooring solutions, one supplier.

From nurseries to universities, educational establishments demand attractive, hard wearing, low maintenance, safe and sustainable flooring solutions. Durability and hygiene are important in areas used by children and young adults.
There are over 10,000 educational establishments in Australia ranging from childcare / early learning centres, primary, secondary schools to large universities. The diverse educational facilities, their challenges, and development needs, continue to evolve.
In education, refurbishment Installation must be fast especially when most renovation occurs during school holidays. Forbo Flooring Systems has a flooring solution for almost every environment within the education. Total flooring solutions, one supplier.
Children and young adults spend most of their time indoors, either at home or in an educational facility. When choosing a floor covering, there are Important factors to take into account:
■ Low emission & non-toxic
■ Stain & scratch resistant
■ Acoustic performance
■ Low cost of ownership & long-;lasting
■ Easy to clean & maintain
● Forbo Flooring Systems is part of the Swiss Forbo Group
● Key figures Forbo Group 2018:
> Net sales 1327.0 CHF Mio
> Group profit 137.6 CHF Mio
> Employees 5.739
● A worldwide presence:
> 15 manufacturing plants
> 38 Flooring sales offices worldwide
> 90 additional markets served via strategic partnerships
> 70 key account managers across 30 countries
● European manufacturer with factories in The United Kingdom, France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany and Russia.
We care about you and the environment
● Forbo is a founding member of the World Green Building Council.
● We have received various labels and certification for your products and or production facilities.
● All of our manufacturing sites are ISO certified. Raw materials are used efficiently, waste is recycled whenever possible.
● We are committed to social responsibility, the Forbo sites are certified according to SA8000.
● Forbo Flooring Systems Australia has partnered with Carbon Neutral Charitable Fund (not for profit organisation) to plant native Australian trees and shrubs. Every square metre of Marmoleum installed now contributes to restoring Australian native forests.
creating better environments
We offer you:
● a sole source of supply for all your flooring requirements
● local advice, support and cross border project management
● efficiencies of scale, the certainty of supply and rapid delivery
Above all one single contract and one single point of contact to save you time and money.
The right solutions for the right reasons
We pride ourselves on offering a truly comprehensive product portfolio with leading-edge products specifically designed to cater for all areas, from the entrance area, through circulation and communal zones, to each individual room in the building.
Forbo’s Linoleum flooring Marmoleum is made from natural raw materials and is the most sustainable and healthy flooring choice. It also has a long history of general use in Australia and worldwide. Linoleum flooring has been around for 150+ years!
Benefits of Marmoleum:
● GECA and Red List free certified ✔️
● A CO2 neutral product (cradle to gate) in addition, every m2 of Marmoleum installed contributes to restoring Australia’s biodiversity
● Allergy approved – Certified & proven to not harbour house dust mites or allergens (with the correct cleaning regime)
● Can last 20+ years with the appropriate maintenance
● Available in over 300 colours 🌈 (available in sheet, tile & plank)
●Topshield pro🛡️ factory finish - no resealing required!
● Naturally antibacterial for life – Kills MRSA and Norovirus
Flotex is a unique textile floor covering that combines the hard-wearing and durable characteristics of a resilient floor with the quality, warmth and comfort of a carpet. Making ti the perfect solution for patient waiting areas, where constant foot traffic and movement of chairs require a durable floorcovering.
Benefits of Flotex:
● Will not track and pack down.
● Releases 30% more dirt when vacuuming compared with conventional carpet
● Proven cleanability - Read about our recent test study
● Hygienic – Allergy and Asthma UK approved
● Sound absorption; comfort and warmth <22dB
● The impervious backing makes Flotex suitable for mechanical wet cleaning. The Flotex surface dries quickly and always restores to its original function and appearance.
● Excellent R12 slip resistance
● Low roll resistance
● GreenTag Level A certified
● Digital printing and custom design
● Available in sheet, tile and plank format
● Possible combination with Allura Flex LVT without the need of using a transitional strip
Sarlon acoustic vinyl flooring collection has been developed and tested to maximise impact sound reduction in heavy traffic commercial spaces, while maintaining minimum residual indentation.
What is unique about our new Acoustic Collection is the range of colour possibilities. 🌈
From fresh, popping colours to beautiful deeper shades, combined with the innovative use of grey pastels. The soft pastels have a subtle effect which creates a beautiful liveliness through light, making it the ideal choice for school and other educational facilities.
Carpet tiles are renowned for their aesthetic styling and outstanding performance in the most demanding heavy traffic environments.
Tessera carpet tiles offers:
● Sound absorption performance
● R12 Slip-resistant surface
● Modularity
● Quick and easy installation
● Variety from simple to luxury and rich textures
Are you looking for the aesthetics of natural wood or stone floors with the advantages of strong & comfortable vinyl? Explore our Allura LVT collection.
- Authentic look
- In house design
- Variety of sizes
- Various traffic levels
- Acoustic performances; comfort and warmth
- Variety of installation methods: glued down, loose lay, click for easy installation
- Production in Europe
Entrance flooring is fundamental for any interior. A well designed entrance flooring system will prevent dirt and moisture from being tracked in and thereby prolongs the life of interior flooring finishes, reduces cleaning & maintenance costs and the potential for slip injuries. Our textile Entrance Systems in our portfolio, we can offer an entrance solution for every situation.
● Stop up to 95% of the walked in dirt and moisture
● Maintain floors appearance
● Reduce maintenance costs
● Slip-resistant surface
● Textile Coral: sheet, tiles, click, logo
● Rigid mats for upper range high-intensity foot traffic
Vinyl floors are very popular because of their durability, low maintenance and versatility. Homogeneous vinyl is made of 1 single layer that offers vibrancy and depth of colour. It is incredibly durable and stain resistant which makes it a great flooring choice for heavy traffic areas.
- Durable
- Fresh colour palette
- Available in sheet format
- Production in Europe
- Best Practice PVC certified
- Extremely low in VOCs
Can't find what you are looking for despite our wide product range?
No worries, we have more. Within our Bespoke Design flooring you can design your own unique floor with our digital print techniques in:
- Flotex
- Eternal project vinyl
- Coral entrance flooring
- Aquajet cutting technique for Marmoleum flooring
STEM studies will develop within our younger generations the capability skills needed for the future; in critical thinking & problem solving, organised process, analysis & assessment.
Yet, to prepare them for a wonderful & purposeful life where they are confident and motivated to make a difference, and to solve problems we may not even be aware of yet, they also need to develop their imagination and ideation skills, collaboration, agility & adaptability, and communication skills.
The Australian government is supporting Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) learning at all ages with an investment of $5.1 million in STEM focused initiatives. Source
With one of their main focus being classroom design to support in STEM learning, a bad design can have a negative effect on student engagement, while good design can assist to inspire and motivate students.
To deliver high quality learning space design that will support inspirational STEM experiences and deeper learning, several essential ingredients are needed ;
● Functional design: It must work for all users, teachers & students!
● Beautiful design: The aesthetic should reflect the activity and the culture
● Purposeful design: The floor becomes the teacher’s aide
Using Augmented Reality accessed through web-based or device based Apps, the story of the artwork can be told to all who visit; this could be done in the local indigenous language or any other language, so that everyone can understand and share the story.
Educators and students can continue with deeper learning activities combining the stories of old with new technologies; using the floor as an additional ‘third teacher’.
Augmented reality can be ‘triggered’ or turned-on within an established device (smartphone or tablet) using a well-defined image.
The artwork can activate animation, a short video, a slide deck or PDF, and can be coupled with music, a voiceover or a soundbite – it is up to the imagination of the people setting up and managing the experience.
Learning spaces can be established with numerous triggers (images) with which an educator can assign puzzle pieces, clues, animations, etc. To further engage students in a current lesson; then changing it again for the next lesson. Each teacher can create their own content for their own lessons or have students create the content.
We all love a good story, a curious puzzle or an amusing game.
What if a beautiful purposeful flooring design could ‘play’ with those who walk upon it? To tell a story, or to amuse them with puzzles and games?
At this year’s School Spectacular, we will be doing just that. In the forecourt of Qudos Arena will sit a customised Forbo Flotex Digital Print floor design; STAR discovery. At 100m2, it has something for everyone
There are all sorts of ways that we want you to play on this space and to participate in our ongoing research to create flooring for a learning environment that do more than just get under your feet.
We understand the importance of employee & student health and wellbeing. Our product portfolio is designed with these two factors in mind. A high standard of employee + students' comfort and wellbeing means optimised productivity.
How our floor coverings contribute to a healthy learning environment:
● All our floorcoverings are very low in VOC
● Made with 100% renewable electricity
● Marmoleum is CO2 neutral for the cradle to gate life cycle stages of the product.
● All our products are phthalate-free
In the future of Australian education - Sustainable places for learning 2013 report from the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) shows that students in day-lit school environments demonstrated:
● 20% faster progression in mathematics
● 26% faster progression in reading
● 5-10% increase in performance when students had window views.
Floors can influence significantly the performance of the lighting in a classroom, so choosing the right floor is really important.
The interior layout of a classroom can have a significant impact on learning and is often overlooked. A poor layout can cause disorientation and confusion, which can have a negative impact on staff and students.
- Design of walkways, differentiation of different zones and signage affects the staff and student’s ability to navigate or orient themselves within the facility, especially in large universities.
The use of different flooring types, or even signs embedded into the floorcovering for walkways, classrooms, different zones etc… within the facility, can make navigation throughout much easier for the building user.
The “look and feel” of learning environments will affect how students will affect students' engagement and overall academic outcomes.
A report from 2013 GBCA Green Schools shows a study from the University of Salford and Nightingale Architects in the UK linked the overall impact of school building design to learning outcomes.
In fact, they discovered that classroom interior can affect a student academic progress over a year by much as 25%.
Noise pollution is known to cause a wide array of physical and behavioural symptoms that can negatively impact staff and students. A Study showed students have difficulty understanding nearly 30 percent of classroom speech due to excessive noise and sound reverberation.
Metrics and design considerations commonly used to assess acoustic conditions include:
● Background noise
● Privacy and speech interference
Designers can create improved acoustic conditions for retail environments by using building materials that are designed to create acoustic barriers.
Choosing the type of floor carefully will help to create the right level of acoustic you want to reach.
Biophilia is an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world. It has been demonstrated that exposure to the natural world (through any of the five senses) has a positive effect on an individual’s wellbeing by reducing stress levels.
Because students spend several hours a day in the classroom, people are spending up to 90% of our time in an unnatural environment, this results in a negative impact on our emotional well-being, cognitive function, and physical health. Biophilic designs enable people to reconnect nature in the built environment.
In studies of learning environments, the biophilic design was shown:
● Increased attendance
● Higher test scores
● Improved behaviour
● Reduced stress
● Increased engagement and focus
CSRIO estimates the cost of poor indoor air quality in Australia may be as high as 12 billion per year. Science Advisory Board has consistently ranked indoor air pollution among the top five environmental risks to public health.
Numerous experiments carried out demonstrates that learning environments with lower air quality can have a negative effect on children's health and academic performance.
What is indoor air quality? IAQ is defined by the concentrations of various pollutants such as:
● Pollutant concentration
● CO2 concentration
● Mould
● Volatile organic compounds (VOCs)
● Dust
Better indoor air quality can be achieved through low or zero VOC furnishing materials such as floors, adhesives used and cleaning products.
Interested in our products, want to know more about installation, need to get hold of technical data sheets?
Or maybe you want to contact our National Education Segment Manager Andrew Ford who is a phD candidate conducting research on learning environment design.
Andrew welcomes any discussion on different possibilities of design to improve user engagement within all learning spaces.
Please contact Andrew to request a presentation or more information by clicking on one of the links below!
Forbo is a proud supporter of Learning Environments Australasia (formerly CEFPI Australasia) is a community of over 900 professionals sharing best practice on the design, planning, building and use of innovative learning environments.
The diversity of our professional membership is the key to our success. No community can build a school in isolation or without the participative work of all stakeholders.
At the A4LE conference in Perth in 2019, Forbo Floorcoverings presented a new range of Marmoleum to designers and educators as well as presenting the case for culturally sensitive design to improve user engagement
Marmoleum is one of the healthiest commercial quality resilient flooring in the world with up to 97% natural material content, (no plastics) readily sustainable, lasting 25 years and beyond within heavy-use commercial applications. As well, it is the only CO2 neutral material not requiring offsetting (cradle to gate).
The process to culturally sensitive design:
It began by ensuring we had the right artist; as we were presenting in Perth, a local and respected Noongar Elder was sought.
Culturally significant art begins with a powerful story
Shaun Nannup was given a brief for an artwork story that explained traditional indigenous (noongar) teaching and learning. From the story, Shaun drew just a child's foot within an elders foot. “As the child and the elder walk together, the child teaches the elder just as the elder teaches the child”
The story expanded and local emblems were added. Local language was also included; all of which was checked by another local and respected Elder. A local linguist checked language.
For more information download our:
Meaningful design for engaging, healthy and sustainable learning environments leaflet
Using Augmented Reality accessed through web-based or device based Apps, the story of the artwork can be told to all who visit; this could be done in the local indigenous language or any other language, so that everyone can understand and share the story.
Educators and students can continue with deeper learning activities combining the stories of old with new technologies; using the floor as an additional ‘third teacher’.