Heads of small schools need special skills, especially as many teach full-time. Helen Ward and Karen Thornton report on a new course to help them out.
SMALL may be beautiful, but it isn’t necessarily easier to manage.
The head of a school with fewer than 100 pupils often has an almost full-time teaching commitment and few staff to share responsibilities. Now, following pressure from the National Small Schools Forum, the National College for School Leadership is launching a pilot project in 11 authorities and 33 schools this spring to tackle problems.
Mike Carter, vice-chairman of the forum, said small-school heads had profited from previous training “but the way you implement things with a large staff of people is very different from how you implement things with a small staff”.
The help will take the form of a one-year course consisting of workshops and school visits. Content has yet to be finalised, but issues highlighted by the forum include how to manage initiatives and time and how to collaborate by clustering schools.
Caireen Goddard, partnership programme development manager at the national college, said: “Many heads of small schools are full-time teachers. That can make it very difficult to come out of school. Workshops arranged at the local level mean heads don’t have to spend as much time travelling.”
Prue Rayner, head of the 56-pupil Caldecote primary near Cambridge, said:
“Being the head of a small school is a privilege. The staff work so closely that disseminating ideas and enthusiasm is very easy.”
A research project into small school leadership will run alongside the course, looking at issues such as how to combine headship and teaching and how to manage different age groups in the same class.
SMALL TIPS...
* Maximise advantages such as the “family” feel and the ability to innovate quickly.
* Cluster with other schools for support, for example in providing in-service training for staff and to allow children to mix with others.
* Reduce isolation and maximise time by developing ways of using ICT for staff and pupils to communicate between schools.
* Prioritise in a principled way: consciously manage time and effort.
* Celebrate success: the National Small Schools Forum is holding a small schools week from June 24 to do this. See www.nssf.co.uk
SMALL FACTS...
THERE were around 2,400 schools of 100 pupils or fewer in 1999.
* Inspectors say such schools have more good teachers, a positive ethos, close links between staff and pupils and a vital community role.
* Test results were higher in small schools, but lower if adjusted for social background.
* Mixed-age groups mean classes for under-fives are not as good, but classes are smaller.
* The small schools forum defines “small” as primary with fewer than 100 pupils. The DFES says “small” can be up to 200 pupils in primary and up to 600 in secondary schools.
