Furniture outlasts the pupils who use it. A desk specified 60 mm too tall is not a small mistake — it is a small mistake repeated every day for a decade. Yet height is the part of a specification most often left to the supplier.
It is worth getting right. Conventional desks and benches are frequently uncomfortable, and poor seating height pushes children into the postures that cause neck and back complaints. Furniture sized to the child supports good posture and proper alignment instead.
The chart we build to
Our catalogue publishes five sizemarks. Each one pairs a seat height with a desk height, so the two are specified together rather than separately:
| Sizemark | Stage | Age | Desk height | Seat height |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sizemark 1 | LKG | 3–4 years | 500 mm | 270 mm |
| Sizemark 2 | UKG | 4–6 years | 580 mm | 350 mm |
| Sizemark 3 | Lower Primary | 10–12 years | 640 mm | 380 mm |
| Sizemark 4 | Upper Primary | 12–15 years | 700 mm | 400 mm |
| Sizemark 5 | High School + | 15–Adult | 750 mm | 450 mm |
Two things are worth saying plainly about this chart. The published age bands leave a gap between six and ten years — they are reproduced here exactly as printed, and we have not quietly filled it in. And the bands are guidance, not a rule: a class is a range of heights, not a single number.
How to read it against your rooms
- Specify by room, not by year. A room used by several year groups is better served by one sizemark that suits the middle of the range than by a mix.
- Measure a few pupils. Seated, with feet flat, the seat should meet the back of the knee and the desk should sit just below the elbow.
- Check the room, not just the pupil. Laboratory benching, library tables and activity tables are sized to the task as much as to the child.
- Ask about the ones that are not sized by pupil. Lab benches, cupboards and lockers do not follow the sizemark chart at all.
When none of the five fit
Every product we make can be adjusted in size, height, colour and finish, because we manufacture it ourselves. If a room or a year group needs something between two sizemarks, that is a specification question rather than a problem — tell us the year groups and the room, and we will come back with the sizes we would build.
