A new school year has begun and research from The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) says that more than 1.5million children in England live in homes with unsafe air quality conditions such as damp, mould and poor ventilation, contributing to asthma, respiratory infections and chronic illness.[1] The report also raises the issue of air quality in schools, concluding with a recommendation for the UK government and administrations to fund air quality monitoring in schools, as well as granting relevant local authorities the power to amend, close or divert roads when air pollution near schools exceeds limits.
Netley Primary School & Centre for Autism and Gospel Oak Primary are two London schools that have taken air quality matters into their own hands by maintaining 32 high performing air purifier units across their classrooms and staff rooms. The units were first installed following a donation from Swedish air purifier experts, Blueair in 2019 after they were identified in a list of 400 schools in locations with unsafe air quality limits following the Mayor of London’s School Air Quality Audit Programme.[2]
Now, six years on, the schools continue to use the air purifiers so that staff and pupils can breathe cleaner indoor air. An updated air quality test conducted by Blueair’s Head of Technology, Lars Dunberger, in June 2025 following the installation of new filters showed that the units continue to improve indoor air quality by over 90%.[3] During the visit, Blueair checked the filters in all units and installed new filters where required to ensure peak efficiency when filtering pollutants from the air. Lars Dunberger comments: “It is clear to see from both our tests and visual inspection of the filters that there is a lot of pollutants being filtered during term time.”
“Air quality is a cause for concern in Central London schools,” says Gareth Morris, Head of School for Netley Primary School & Centre for Autism which is also partnered with Gospel Oak Primary. “Polluted air is shown to adversely impact on health and wellbeing, especially for children. We’ve been using the air purifiers since 2019 which have been proven to dramatically improve the indoor air quality in our classrooms and staffrooms. It is a major focus for Netley due to ongoing HS2 construction and the congested roads around our school. The units and ongoing monitoring give peace of mind that we are doing what we can to provide a healthy environment for all. We believe that indoor air quality needs to remain high up on the agenda and we’re pleased to work with Blueair to educate children and staff on the benefits of these units in the school.”
“So much still needs to be done to address that fact that school children are exposed to high air pollution levels,” says Simona Oboroceanu, Global Product Marketing Manager for Blueair. “We welcome the new research from the RCPCH as it keeps this high up the agenda, but it highlights that we are still some way off from affording our children the ability to breathe clean air as a fundamental right.”
There’s a simpler solution according to Gareth Morris, “In the last five years, resources for schools to educate pupils, parents and staff on air quality issues have improved. The introduction of ULEZ plus campaigns to raise awareness on the impact of idling cars has helped somewhat. But there is still not a proactive solution to mitigate the risks. Ultimately, schools in polluted areas need grants to update ventilation. Until then, we rely on the donations from companies such as Blueair who still update maintain the air purifier units and replace filters out of goodwill.”
