Gratnells Trays and Classroom Storage: A Buyer's Guide

Classrooms, prep rooms and science labs share a specific storage problem that general shelving doesn't solve well: dozens of small collections of materials that need to be pulled out, carried to a desk, and put back, repeatedly, by different people, several times a day. Gratnells trays were built around exactly that pattern.

Why Tray-Based Storage Works Differently to Shelving

A shelf holds whatever's placed on it; a tray system holds a defined, portable unit that can be lifted out as a whole and carried to wherever it's needed, then returned to exactly the same slot. That distinction matters enormously in a classroom or lab setting, where the same set of materials might move between a storage frame, a teaching bench and a pupil's desk several times in a single lesson.

Choosing a Tray Depth

IronStor's Gratnells range covers Standard Shallow (75mm), Deep (150mm), Extra Deep (225mm) and Jumbo (300mm) trays, all sharing the same 312mm by 427mm footprint so they interchange within the same frame. Shallow trays suit flat materials like paper and worksheets; deeper trays suit bulkier equipment, art materials or science kit that won't sit flat.

Antimicrobial Trays for Shared-Use Environments

Trays that get handled by dozens of different pupils across a school day benefit from more than a wipeable surface. IronStor's antimicrobial tray options, available across multiple sizes, are built specifically for that kind of high-turnover shared use, where hygiene matters as much as durability.

Frames: Matching Capacity to the Room

A Tall Double Frame holds a mix of deep and shallow trays across four shelves, suiting a classroom needing a moderate, varied mix of materials, while a Tall Treble Frame holds up to 51 shallow trays, better suited to a resourcing room or shared prep area serving multiple classes at once. Getting the frame right depends on how many distinct collections need their own slot, not simply on floor space available.

Science Labs and Bench-Side Storage

The Science Bench Single Trolley extends the same tray system to bench-side use in a lab setting, keeping frequently needed kit within arm's reach of the workstation rather than requiring a trip to a central store mid-experiment. It's a genuinely different use case from classroom resource storage, worth specifying separately rather than assuming one frame type suits both.

Planning for How Trays Actually Get Used

The most common mistake is specifying trays purely by classroom headcount rather than by how many distinct material sets actually need separate storage. A class of thirty pupils sharing five or six tray sets needs a very different frame to one where every pupil has an individual tray.

Final Thoughts

Gratnells trays solve a genuinely different problem to shelving: portable, repeatable access to defined sets of materials, rather than open storage. Getting depth, quantity and frame size right up front avoids a resourcing room that's constantly being reorganised.

If you're specifying Gratnells storage for a school, lab or prep room, our team can help you work out the right mix. Call us: 01782 770100, Email: info@ironstor.co.uk or fill in the form here and one of our team will be in touch.