Small Schools Have Some Considerable Advantages for Pupils' Learning

Maximising small school learning

Comments collected by Mike Carter UK National Small Schools Forum [NSSF]

Small schools have some considerable advantages for pupils' learning, for example:

1. Time. Small school children spend some 7% more school time on task. There is less preparation, moving around and setting up time spent by children. (Hargreaves, in Galton & Patrick, 1990 Curriculum Provision in the Small Primary School. Routledge)

2. Implementing curriculum change. This is easier with a smaller staff. (Waugh, 1991 Small Primary Schools. Studies in Education No 44 Hull University) (Webb and Vulliami, 1996 Roles and Responsibilities in the Primary School. Open University Press)

3. Class size. The Shropshire Survey schools' average class size was 18.3 children. Hargreaves reports a greater degree of individual attention in small schools. (Hargreaves op. sit.)

4. Assessment. Both assessment for learning and SATs and summative tests are easier to do and to use with a smaller number of children who are well known to the teacher. But with mixed-age classes, recording is time-consuming and may lead teachers to rely too heavily on their memories of what each child knows and can do. Is there a manageable yet effective compromise? (See NSSF Paper on Differentiation at www.nssf.co.uk)

5. Home/School relationships. Often these are less formal, more productive and more capable of enabling "real learning". (Hughes, M. Home Learning -Some recent research Unpublished notes from a lecture at Edinburgh University 2001)

6. Parental partnership and support is often strong. (Hopkins and Ellis 1991)

7. Mixed age classes. Younger children can often gain from others. The able can be stimulated by their elders while weaker children can gain by working with the younger children. But what about older, more able pupils? How can the internet or the cluster help? (Zone of Proximal Development, Vygotsky).

8. The small school multi-subject co-ordinator often has the opportunity of much subject training and can plan from first-hand knowledge. (But it is time-consuming and demanding.) (Dunning, 1993 Managing the Small Primary School: The Problem Role of the Teaching Head in Education Management and Administration, Vol.21, No.2.) )

9. Attitudes. Children usually have good attitudes to work and responsibility. (Francis, 1992 Primary School Size and Pupil Attitudes: Small is Happy? in Education Management and Administration Vol.20, No2.)

10. Long-term planning. This is easier to devise, own and implement with a small staff (Walters, ed. 1999, Coordinating the Curriculum in the Smaller Primary School, Falmer Press) but may be hard at first in accounting for the needs of each age group and allowing for changes in the age mixes of classes. Considerable guidance in now available on the web. (eg NSSF Papers)

11. Small schools are better placed to help pupils gain conceptual and meta-cognative knowledge. (Galton, M. in NSSF News 5 1999)

12. Long-term close relationships between pupils and teachers allow for closer match of the learning to the child and for greater commitment by both the child and the teacher to each other. This in turn helps with closely focussed revisiting.

13. Curriculum innovation takes effect faster in small schools. (Waugh 1992, op.cit.)

14. Teachers are often experienced in a range of teaching situations. (Patrick 1991, Teachers in Small Primary Schools in Waugh, ed. Small Primary Schools. Hull University) 15. Transitions to and between schools (Galton, Gray & Rudduck, 1999. The Impact of School Transitions and Transfers on Pupil Progress and Attainment, Research Brief No. 131 DfEE) and between classes are "human scale" and avoid the typical dip in learning.

Quotes

"I wish I'd gone to a school like this." Wendy Berliner (National Education Correspondent) on taking her children to the village school.

"Because of the small size of their staff they (small schools) become highly sensitive to the personal and professional qualities of their teachers, more so than larger schools. Some of the best and some of the worst primary education in developed countries is probably to be found small schools in rural areas." Bell and Sigsworth 1987 " The Small Rural Primary School" Falmer Press

"The problem is no LEA wants to admit how good a lot of these small schools really are, because they cost too much to run. It'es much easier for LEAs to argue that village schools can't delived a full curriculum and close them down, than it is to accept the truth that they are mostly doing very well indeed". Professor Maurice Galton in Times Educational Supplement. p.10, 20.02.98

"It is as wrong to assume that a small school cannot meet the full range of requirements of the National Curriculum as it is to assume that a large school can, but the balance of probability tends that way." (Alexander, R., Rose, J. and Woodhead, C. Curriculum Organisation and Classroom Practice in Primary Schools: A Discussion Paper - Department of Education and Science 1992)

"It is well within the capacity of small schools to teach the full range of the National Curriculum. Many do it well, making good use of their environment and community…….most small schools are achieving standards and providing a quality of education at least as good as those achieved in larger establishments." (HMCI 1999).

"…in my first post as the headteacher of a small, rural, primary school I remarked, 'I'm as happy as a sandboy'. (Some years later,) I began to doubt my own abilities as a practitioner and the killer guilt crept in. This was intertwined with my other role as head and almost completely concerned with time. I resigned and …… now teach on a supply basis. I am really enjoying just teaching and need never have doubted my teaching abilities." (Tuer, A. 2002, "The Final Straw" in National Small Schools Forum Newsletter Issue 11)

" In small schools successful heads are active and engaged with what is happening across the school and in every classroom. They are hands-on leaders, involving themselves in seemingly everything in the school. They are observant and sensitive to all that is going on around them….. They are hard-working individuals with an appetite and capacity for work. Moreover, they know it is important to do this because they wish to lead by example. Leading by example involves many things, but it certainly includes pulling one's own weight and being prepared to do the same tasks as everyone else." (Southworth G, Primary School Leadership in Context. 2004 RouledgeFalmer)