Small rural schools, advantages and disadvantages

Eliza_2

Sorry, not exactly moneysaving but I wonder if anyone has any views on small rural schools. One of our local ones is threatened with closure and we are scouting around to see what views people have on this to maybe launch a campaign. Everyone knows that when schools close it can mean the end of small village community life and there's usually lots of history. However from the point of view of children and their education, and parents, is it better for children to go to a small school where classes are mixed ages, and maybe only a couple of teachers or to be bussed to a larger school in the local town where facilities might be better and there are lots of other children of similar ages? There seem to be arguments for and against and I wondered what parents on here think

Thanks

Liz

SkintGypsy

I spent years five and six (9/10/11?) in a village school with mixed age groups. I don't recall learning much, but do remember lots of painting, sewing, field trips and class projects. I enjoyed my time there, and was no further behind the rest of my peers at secondary school. My year group had six people and our class probably two or three different year groups. Everybody went to all school events, and it really was a charmed life.

RAS

I went to a school with an infant and junior class. The head, who taught the juniors, was brilliant and both of us had to go up a year when we moved schools so we plainly learned a lot. We had to learn to muck along with other children of different age groups and different backgrounds.

I know of one school that nearly folded a few years ago, because it was in special measures. It was the parents' commitment and determination to see it succeed that pulled it round.

**curlywurly**

I know lots of parents who really rate small village schools. The points you make are all valid - a lovely little community, children thriving in that small community, possibly a lot more "caring" because the teachers have less children (and less parents!) to contend with. It's also lovely for children to be able to walk to school and not to have to rely on a bus.

However, I avoided using one myself because I don't agree with mixed year groups. I think it's difficult enough for a teacher to teach 20 or 30 children of different abilities within one age group, let alone within more than one age group. My nephew, eg, is a July birthday. He was being taught in a class with children nearly two years older than him. Not a problem, he is a bright child and socially mature. My other nephew, an October birthday, was taught in a class within children nearly two years younger. This was a problem, he was often held back to the level of the younger ones - when he was 7 he was in a class with 5 year olds, some of whom could not even write their own name. So if I was going to use a school with mixed year groups I would really want to know what the teacher's strategy was to deal with this situation.

I also found that our small village school is very "cliquey", and if you don't belong in the clique, then you are out in the cold. You will find that sometimes the same people are the governors, run the PTA, belong to the WI, run the Brownies, etc, and if you don't fit in, both you (and more importantly, your child) may suffer. That said, the clique thing can happen at any school, not just the small ones.

runnerbean17

I suppose each has plus points and each negative. My son is currently in a mixed class of 2 year group but there are only 12 in the class (may not be the same after sept - looonnnggg story) but I'm very happy and he has come on in leaps and bounds. Next year he may be in a class where all the children are the same age but there will be up to 35!!!!!!!!! I know which I prefer

gratefulforhelp_2

M village has a small rural school, TBH it looks a lot better than it really is. The head's attitude stinks, in terms of being desperately complacent and having a history of noone contradicting her ever, and they get away with doing a crap academic job.
To be fair though, there are lots of good things, it is a safe place and behaviour is good.
Have the governors of your school looked into federation which may allow you to keep the school but share a governing body?

rozmister

I went to a village school (grew up in Cornwall) and I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing although I've turned it over in my mind alot and discussed it with my boyfriend who went to a big prep school.

For me the issues were

a) it was very cliquey and if you weren't in with certain people you had no one to play with. As the year groups were so small (there were 5 in mine) you were limited on how many people you could play with if you fell out with your friends as little ones do.

b) the education wasn't up to scratch because of the mixed classes. I finished all my worksheets (we did mainly lesson plan worksheets so you could do harder work if you were older) before school finished and I remember spending a jolly two days putting every book in our small library into alphabetical order for fiction and the dewey decimal system for non-fiction. I also learnt weird classes like cornish history and didn't play many team sports because we were such mixed abilities and ages so I found it hard when I went to secondary to take part in PE. The rules were a given but I'd never learnt them or played alot.

c) It is normally very insular and you don't mix with such a wide range of people which doesn't reflect the real world. I didn't go to school with any child who wasn't white and I didn't know anyone who wasn't Christian/Atheist. I know that is part of the way rural communities are made up but I don't think it's healthy for children.


The positives of going to a small rural school were

a) I knew everyone by name in my whole school because there were only 50 people. A lot of the people I knew then I still see where I live now and my mum is always telling me about so and so's mum/dad/sister/brother that she saw in Tesco/the library/etc. If there was a problem the parents all already knew each other which helped sort things out.

b) We did a diverse curriculum. I'll never use most of it in the real world but I know some really random stuff that would probably have never made it to a big school because you'd have a teacher for 1 year who taught the same class every year. As there were 4 years in a class we got to learn a much broader range of stuff because they couldn't repeat a lesson plan every year. We also seemed to have quite a lot of freedom with what we did in class but that started to reduce throughout my primary years so I think that was to do with legislation rather than the size of my school.

c) I never felt any pressure to achieve. With such a wide range of abilities and ages there wasn't the competitive environment you get in big schools. It was just accepted some people could read well, some couldn't, some people could run fast, some people couldn't.

d) There was a proper community behind our school as it was in a village and people's parents ran most of the local businesses. We had a Strawberry Tea every summer in the village hall with the kids and the community and School events had a high turnout.

e) Children can't slip through the gaps. There's too few of them! Kids don't wander out of playgrounds, someone always notices if there's issues with the homelife and the teachers normally already know the problem. Everybody watches out for everybody.

If I had children I personally wouldn't send them to a small village school past 7. I think the level of education offered won't maximise on your child's potential if they're bright and it won't support them enough if they have issues as they won't have as good SEN facilities. I think village schools can be very good for children but it depends on the individual child and the quality of that specific school. I think village schools are really good for communities but with the changing pace of society people need a much higher level of education to achieve a well paid job most of the time and there are less jobs in rural areas so people need more qualifications as they may need to move out of the area for work so can't rely on their community. E.g. 50 years ago it didn't matter if you didn't learn a lot academically at school because you might become the local butcher's apprentice and get a job that way. Now you would find it hard to get an apprenticeship in your community and when you move away you need certificates of education to prove your skills which, if you learnt in a mixed ability class with worksheets only, you may not find easy to obtain.

On a complete tangent though I've turned out fine. Am a sociable degree student who has no trouble getting employed, even in a recession, and am quite capable with Maths and English!

Eliza_2

Thanks everyone, some really good points here. We are really just at the early stages of thinking about this, worries are starting to emerge before any sorts of proposals have been put forward but want to be able to think a bit about it just in case.

There is an issue about the head, as grateful has found, the leadership isn't great. she's been there a long while and I think has also become a bit complacent as well as not really keeping herself up with things. One of the issues that has emerged is that her teachers feel a bit isolated from others, without someone to really bounce ideas off, which wouldn't happen in a larger school. We feel that if the head was a better leader, she would have found ways to encourage her teachers to get together with others to share experiences. I think really she quite likes the idea of working in isolation. There are other issues connected with mixed year groups and cliqueyness, already mentioned here. Some parents have also said that she hasn't taken a strong enough lead over things like bullying and not been supportive enough when things like that have happened. A lot of the objections to closure seem to be coming from ex students, people who remember happy times at the school, maybe 50 years ago, and while valid, it's not about that, it's about the children who are there now or in the future.

I feel pulled in different directions depending on who I've spoken to, so it's really good to get views on here from people who don't have an axe to grind. Thanks.

Liz

soupdragon10

My DD went to a small village school and the education was second to none. In fact she coasted years 7 & 8 as much of the work was familiar to her because 'I did some of this at primary school'. Teachers expected a good standard of work, and any children having difficulties would be quickly picked up and given extra help.

The school has such a good reputation that children are now brought in from further afield to take advantage of the high standard of education given.

SandC

Difficult one. I think you need to take each school on its merits. One village can be cliquey, another one you are all singing from the same songsheet.

There seems to be a lot of people whose education suffered a little from an academic point of view. That wasn't the case with me.

So I'll go on my experience but bear in mind there must be far more red tape and paperwork going on in any school these days.

I went to a small school in a rural area in North East Scotland. 40 pupils. In my year at the time I left - 4 of us, me and 3 boys. Teachers taught 3 year groups in a room but that still didn't nearly get to 20 pupils of course. My teacher was the head and I recall thinking he was rubbish. We got to watch 2 telly programmes every single day and when our work was done we got to do work on the magazine.

However, when I left there and started at a much bigger school (100+ pupils) in England I found I was ahead in things like maths. So our education had actually been superior in the small school - the the extent that the lovely kids at the new one accused me of having private lessons, geez.

The small school had better sports facilities strangely enough and mums used to help out without officially being on the books - of course that wouldn't happen now in either school.

Everyone knew everyone and issues and problems were swiftly sorted out. Although I can see how you could easily get smaller villages where it can be cliquey. What might make a difference these days compared to my experience is that nobody's mum worked. Nowadays I assume there would be more working than not and those differences could create cliques.

I think it's good for the community to try and keep small schools running.

pbny24

I went to one and loved it.10 in my class and about 60 in the whole school.
As the classes were so small everyone had to get on and play/work with each other noone was ever left out of parties etc and I don't remember any bullying noone would have got away with it from teachers or the other kids.
Work wise we were all pushed to achieve all we could and also encouraged to help each other out if someone was struggling but the teacher was always there. We found when moving up to high school we were ALL quite further on than other kids especially in maths and english-the maths teacher at high school was amazed we all knew up to 12x tables off by heart where as some kids from other schools were still on 5 or 6x. Small point but those things do all help to a good start at high school.
We did a lot of additional activites music sports etc but it was always clear to us all if the work wasn't up to date/done properly then no fun stuff! This was always enforced so a few upset kids here and there when they missed out but they always knew why and they made sure it didn't happen again! As we did a lot of competitions etc we were always doing sports etc with other schools so had good opportunity to mix. About half of us went on to have degrees etc but the rest are all in good jobs as we had a good work ethic put in us from about 5!
The secondary school had about 120 pupils and the gradual class increase let you build up friends over stages so easier on the quieter children before the bigger move up to a levels then uni.