How do we support and celebrate our smallest schools in challenging times? In our family of schools we have a large number of brilliant small schools. Fourteen of our forty-three members of the Oxford Diocesan Schools Trust educate fewer than 150 pupils. And so, while we definitely don’t pretend to have all the answers, here is some shared thinking about how we aim for each one to flourish in its own community, and seize control of its future. Here are ten ways that we can support our smallest schools, and also some questions to help leaders and chairs reflect on how we are doing.

Leading a small school is both a privilege and a challenge. At their best, small schools sit right at the heart of their community, generating fierce local feeling, building on age-old traditions, and creating a loyalty from staff and parents that’s invaluable. And of course, they are led by school leaders who are the world’s best multi-taskers.

Yet they also present unique challenges. Heads teach for much of the week, so school leaders most likely to progress in their career often look at bigger schools where they can lead a larger team of staff. Managing the needs of mixed class teaching can be technically tough, while finding space to accommodate and manage the higher needs that now exist in mainstream is tricky for a busy headteacher. Energy costs per pupil are higher than in bigger schools, and, in an age when teacher recruitment targets are being missed each year, this hits smaller, more remote schools harder. And there is often a sense of isolation for leaders having to make decisions alone.

NFER data shows that of all schools to join a trust in 2021-22, fifteen per cent were primaries with one hundred or fewer pupils – the largest growth in six years. But now that the conversion grant (which supported schools under 210 pupils) has been cancelled, schools are encouraged to join trusts in groups, meaning our smallest schools may be hanging on for longer without the Trust support they are looking for. The Confederation of School Trusts said such decisions leave smaller schools “very vulnerable”.

And so, in the worst cases, small schools risk becoming more and more isolated as they find themselves unattractive to large trusts and increasingly distant from strong collaborations. We need to protect the future of these schools, and to allow leaders to flourish in the joy of running a small school.

While Trusts provide school improvement, finance, HR and other administrative support, there are less tangible benefits which are harder to quantify, which are largely about relationship and being part of something bigger. When we get these relationships right, it enhances the sense of community, adding to the growing confidence and support of the wider family. When we get it wrong, it can trample long-held values and squash the essence of what it means to be a brilliant small school.

Trusts can provide previously unreachable, or unaffordable CPD and school support, share the burden of the things which make leaders feel isolated, but still cherish the freedom to be unique and celebrate each school’s values and identity which is the very reason parents chose them. Done well, ‘empowerment’ can be so much more enriching that ‘earned autonomy’, and it allows you to face challenges together, to ‘tread lightly’ on the lives of smaller schools.

Reflections:
What are the opportunities and challenges of being small?
Why do parents choose you?
What do you need help unburdening, and what might empowerment look like?

1/ Agile school improvement
The cost of high-quality school improvement work is beyond most small standalone primaries. A significant factor for small school leaders and chairs choosing to be part of a trust is to benefit from a comprehensive package of support and challenge, as well as professional development. In most Trusts the minimum SI package looks like five or six full days of SI support. We try to offer more than this, as well as categorising our schools into three tiers of support. I think where SI teams work best there is agility and flexibility around how support is allocated depending on the school’s priorities and context, and of course this should be a deep conversation with each school leader and chair. Strong Trusts provide support before, during and after inspection. They should also bring a systematic approach to safeguarding, with a cycle of audits to check not just short-term compliance, but for proactive planning for effective practice in the long term.

Reflections:
What level of SI support do you currently receive (what criteria is applied?)
How does your school engage with the central team’s safeguarding lead?
How does your school contribute to the central team’s offer to other schools?

2/ People matters
One of the biggest sources of reassurance and support for a leader is the knowledge that when you pick up the phone to HR, you can talk quickly to someone that you know and trust with the challenging elements of the job. It’s the answer to the “what can I do about…” question we all have as leaders.

Being able to access a strong and comprehensive professional development offer for leaders, teaching and support staff is usually something small schools simply cannot afford. This can create natural stepping-stones which prevent staff in small schools becoming isolated and stuck, and provide a real sense of being part of a wider professional community. Releasing staff to access accredited national qualifications is key, and we are currently using the Church of England’s flex model.

Choosing a model of appraisal which will actually help you to get the best out of each adult in the building is vital for retention, and to help us achieve this we are now using the Growing Great People model thanks to @ChrisMoyse. Being part of a Trust helps access apprenticeship funding with which to develop teaching assistant qualifications, helping us to grow teachers from within our existing support staff.

Reflections:
What are the biggest opportunities/ challenges for you in recruiting to a small school?
What is it that would encourage a prospective teacher/support staff member to work at your school rather than one in the next village/town?
What are the key training needs for your team, and how are staff engaged in the appraisal process?

3/ Alternative leadership models
Being part of a Trust can achieve savings through the sharing of roles – the biggest saving being where one leader oversees two or more schools. Sometimes LGBs and parents are hesitant of this model because of the perceived risk to standards, or the desire to see their Head at the school gate each morning. This mindset can be hard to shift. Sharing the headteacher role means that a smaller school can benefit from a more experienced leader. If you are a leader who wants to stay rooted in your community, the current beyond-headship destinations appear limited, and so executive leadership can allow leaders to continue their development while remaining an integral part of their community, and enable those beneath them to grow too.

Executive heads are made, not born. The skillset and the challenges are different to regular headship. Many are having to make it up as they go; there is little clear guidance beyond, say an NPQEL qualification. Learning as part of a network of executive heads and school improvement advisors within a Trust can become a rich source of CPD, supported by 1:1 coaching.

Reflections:
What is your leadership structure and how will this develop over three years?
What are your biggest leadership challenges, and your succession plan?
Which schools in your hub are you working closely with?

4/Collaborative inclusion
It is no secret that Local Authorities are stretched to breaking point in managing their statutory responsibilities with respect to SEND. Where Trusts can really make a difference is in sharing specialist knowledge and expertise across a group of schools.

Small schools face unique challenges with SEND: parents of children with additional needs may consciously choose a small school because of the small class size, and the pastoral care ‘feel.’ At their best, small schools should be highly inclusive and do SEND well, because with fewer children personal relationships should be strong. But there are real pressures especially around funding, and a lack of specialist staff. Space can also be a real drawback, with children with behaviour needs often ending up at the headteacher’s office, making the job almost unachievable.

Increasingly Trusts are now taking a lead in setting up their own specialist SEND provision, in other words, by owning responsibility rather than abdicating it. This can support a group of small schools, and this can help heads who spend much of the week supervising high needs children stuck in their office.

Reflections:
What are the biggest SEND challenges for you right now?
How will the Trust’s strategic plan around inclusion benefit small schools?
What training is currently in place for staff with responsibility for SEND and inclusion?

5/ Make subject leadership do-able
The Ofsted framework disadvantages small schools. The focus on subject leadership puts disproportionate pressure on staff in small schools and makes comparison with bigger schools with a higher number on roll if not futile, at least unfair. Developing meaningful curriculum sequencing is a tough ask when two or even three-year groups are in the same classroom, perhaps with an ECT or inexperienced teacher.

Trust subject leadership networks can bring a real sense of teamwork. If you are a history lead in a primary school working in relative isolation, you have a series of responsibilities: designing the history resources for every age, supporting other staff in their delivery of the curriculum, checking its effectiveness, and of course teaching your own class. This is just about unachievable. So, being part of a network, meeting up with other history leads and sharing resources (and responsibilities) can be a lifesaver.

Alone in a small school, you could be responsible for three subjects, so the level of responsibility snowballs. Working together, there is potential for schools to plan subject leadership within hubs, so there may be a history lead supporting staff beyond their school, and a geography lead in another school supporting beyond theirs too, and the workload picture begins to look more realistic. An innovative approach for small school settings could include the design of a curriculum across two schools building on the good practice already begun with executive leadership models, and finding release time so that staff can develop their skills.

The tight community around small schools can add huge value. Our small schools can often see exceptional music and sports enrichment opportunities, supported by adults beyond the school, and premises may be used in creative ways by all ages beyond the school day. One of our schools has developed exceptional community links to support wider curriculum activities, such as use of a local field and woods and wooden cabin for genuine forest school and art activities, providing help with transport for sports events, supporting music and drama productions, and cookery lessons led by professionals.

Reflections:
What are the biggest opportunities for you running a small school curriculum? (how can your community further enhance the curriculum offer?)
What are the biggest challenges for you in managing subject leadership?
For your strongest subjects (how do subject leads contribute to subject networks?) and for your weakest subjects (what are the key training needs)?

6/ Good local governance
We run a highly delegated model of governance, and we enjoy and expect a real and considerable contribution from local governing bodies in how our school’s are supported. The close working of the triangle of central team, school leaders and the local governing body is key to how we share mutual accountability. Empowerment is one of our key values, and nowhere else is it more clearly seen in action. This triangle forms an agile way in supporting leaders with some of the toughest bits of the job, such as SEND or exclusions, where difficult decisions need to be made quickly and effectively.

Development and succession planning is key – from a ‘Chair’s Pathway’, to training events to network opportunities, we provide expertise around current challenges such as managing allegations & complaints, as well as one-to-one conversations to build relationship within our family. We want to both develop and retain local governing body members, with the aim being high quality governance with fewer meetings. One area we are thinking about is the make-up of LGBs, so that we can be leaner and more effective.

Reflections:
What are the biggest opportunities & challenges for you as a chair of a small school?
How engaged are your LGB in the training offer, and how do you manage vacancies?
If executive leadership – how do you limit the number of meetings to reduce workload?

7/ Shared solutions to finance
Small schools often require disproportionately more time and resources. School leaders are rationalising experts – forced to delay the purchase of new books, think twice about replacing staff, reduce the heating, or eke out finite resources with a view to tomorrow. While this affects everyone in education, it is especially the reality for our smallest schools.

Small schools may have staff who are more experienced, more expensive, and less likely to move on. This can be good for the quality of education and relationships, but challenging financially. There is a sweet spot between stability (with some healthy flux) and stagnation. Being part of a trust where there is a clear strategy around leadership development can be part of the solution to this.

Many trusts find themselves with a unique opportunity to demonstrate what their values really mean and how they are connected to genuine action. This may involve decisions around the best use of reserves, pooling GAG or simply an acknowledgement that a trust will, for a short period, need to protect and subsidise small schools. Many trusts are using practical ways to help, from providing in-house finance or SBM services, more efficient HR structures, building capacity by sharing roles across schools (eg SENDCO, site management, SBM), or apply benchmarking data to help rationalise. Small schools are more susceptible to volatility in pupil numbers, and where fluctuating numbers has led to an in-year deficit, this can be supported, with a plan of how this will be paid back over time.

Reflections:
How economically viable would your school be as a standalone school?
Is your income (NOR) increasing or decreasing?
How do your leadership costs compare with other schools, and what functions (SENDCO/SBM) could you consider sharing in the future?

8/ Mixed age teaching
Many small schools have mixed age classes. Parents may be nervous about this and can worry that teachers cannot possibly teach children two years apart in the same room. But in fact teachers with experience, skill and training know exactly how to rise to that challenge. Schools experienced in this often have a rolling curriculum over two or three years. Mixed age teaching allows an autumn-born child to be stretched and challenged when in the younger end of a mixed class. When a summer-born child is part of the older year group within a class, this gives them the opportunity to take a lead.

It also allows classes to be mixed up – children are not always stuck in one peer group, and it can refresh and create different relationships each year. However, the parent of a Y5 child in a mixed Y5 & 6 class for example may feel that their child is forced to grow up too soon – and this requires skilful handling and communication with parents.

Reflections:
Are mixed age classes used, and how are they experienced by children and perceived by parents?
What are the biggest opportunities for you running mixed classes?
How do mixed classes enhance or constrain your curriculum offer?

9/ Church and community
There are 4,632 Church of England schools serving their local communities across the country. The church should support the vision for being the best church school we can possibly be – with church and school working closely together around the things that matter. At ODST we are proud of this foundational relationship, and we are exploring the way in which our church schools support their local school communities, and how we might do this even better. This involves us bringing incumbents and school leaders together, to think about how spirituality can support children and staff, how collective worship can inspire, and to explore the real issues in our school communities too.

Reflections:
How would you describe the relationship between your local church and your school?
How many hours a week is the church actively involved in your school and vice versa?
Which community projects are organised together (visiting the elderly, reading projects, Open the Book, Family Worker, Community Hubs and cafes, Waste2Taste)

10/ Supportive operations
For some of our smallest schools in ODST, premises management is a massive challenge with Victorian buildings, leaking roofs and sky-high heating bills. Operations teams bring expertise to helps share this responsibility, monitoring the safety of each site. Capital funding decisions are made mindful of the need to minimise risk, but alos thinking to the net-zero future, and being part of a large trust provides access to SCA capital funding which can help when the boiler breaks, or the roof leaks.

Reflections:
What are the biggest site challenges for your school?
What are the key actions from your Health and Safety Audit?
How does your LGB use the risk register to support school leaders around H&S?

If you would like to know more, or see the full version of our small schools toolkit, then please either DM me, or email Jennifer.Payne@oxford.anglican.org.

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