*3.1.3 Quiet places for retreat*

Students who felt unsafe in the school's crowded and busy corridors creatively sought out and appropriated places of retreat that were not necessarily designed for that purpose (see **Figure 6**). For example, some students took photos of the unused stairwells in the wings. One student wrote that:

*I like spending time by the stairs on the top floor /…/ because it's quiet and my friends and I can be on our own there. We usually sit on the steps and listen to music and talk. As we have both long and short breaks, it's nice to chill out a bit in the longer breaks instead of sitting in the corridor, where it's often quite noisy, because there are usually lots of people in the corridor outside our own classroom. (Girl, Year 8)*

Other retreat places featured in the photos were corners with high-backed chairs or furniture that provided some sense of privacy, as well as furnished nooks and crannies. Thus, the furniture, the location, or both, helped to provide positive experiences.

*I like it here. It's close to the science classroom and when there are no lessons it's quiet, which I enjoy. All the loud and rowdy people are not here. Most of the time I hang out with my friends, because that's the best. It's chaos in a corridor, which is really very tiresome. (Boy, Year 8)*

What became apparent in the students' digital stories was that during the breaks, some students experienced the noise and movement in the corridors and other common spaces and other sensory impressions as stressful. For this reason, they needed to seek out places of retreat where they could work quietly or talk with their friends (see **Figure 7**).

*Students' Digital Photo Stories about School Spaces for Safety and Learning DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.101195*

**Figure 6.** *A place experienced as safe: The stairwells (girl, Year 8).*

**Figure 7.** *A place experienced as safe: A furnished nook near the science classrooms (boy, Year 8).*
