Small Schools Rule 

Small schools have their idiosyncrasies. There are many challenges to face but many opportunities that would never present themselves in a bigger school. The closeness of relationships, the chance to immediately identify and respond to individual needs, and the wider curriculum exposure are three of many opportunities that can be of enormous benefit to individual students in a small school.

Wanalirri Catholic School, 370 km north of Derby in the Kimberley, has claims on being the smallest Catholic School in Western Australia. The nature of small schools means that the student population can vary significantly and have a far greater relative impact on class composition. Add to this the transient nature of remote living, as people spend sometimes considerable amounts of time in nearby towns, and it sets the scene for an interesting and ever-changing class group.

Over the three and a half years my wife and I have been the school staff at Gibb River, we have had our share of highs and lows. Student attendance has been as high as 18 and as low as 2. There have been periods of weeks on end when we didn’t have the same group of students in front of us each day, as students came and went and we dealt with the issues of re-engaging students who may not have attended school very much elsewhere. Of course there were always students in the mix who attended well, including our own two sons, so we needed to balance the needs of all.

It’s a situation that certainly has implications for students, but also for teachers. Depending on individual needs, student success might present itself as a child coming to school, behaving well to other students, speaking, completing a written task, taking part in a game or giving an oral report on a completed unit of work. High expectations naturally vary according to student needs. For teachers, not being able to gauge progress because students have moved on can be extremely frustrating, especially when repeated with regularity.

We quickly realised the situation and were able to implement a range of strategies to help to hasten student re-engagement in the school environment. We also wanted to increase the likelihood that students would immediately enrol and regularly attend a school wherever they moved next, so a positive, supportive and appropriately-targeted school experience was vital.

Some of our strategies to this end are probably common to most schools.

• We run a breakfast programme on demand which supplies a simple breakfast to those who want it, but doesn’t seek to take this responsibility away from parents. We also provide a daily hot, healthy lunch which students help to prepare.
• We have a daily routine that is both familiar and flexible, providing students a way to be part of the class and doing the right thing from the moment they arrive, whether early, on time or late.
• When students attend regularly and demonstrate familiarity, we offer alternatives to the set structure which they can tackle individually.
• We utilise the whole-small-whole structure of lessons to involve all students in a theme, the specific learning around which is then differentiated.
• We offer a range of incentives to attend the whole week, and celebrate student success amongst the student group on weekly excursions and with family members at weekly assemblies.
• We implement the PAThS (Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies) programme and include regular times of Christian meditation in which students are assisted to explore their feelings and attitudes.
• We use Individual Education Plans to record formal and informal assessments and to plan individual pathways. This is particularly useful when students return after periods away. We also include health records and the implications of these on student learning.
• We implement a variety of practices that are Trauma-Informed, understanding that we often have before us students we don’t know very well, but who have at the very least just changed school and community, and may be living with different family members.
• As a teaching pair, we depend on each other to bring our best to our work, and recognise this in the way we support each other with assessments, one on one student support, timetabling and working from our areas of strength.
• We embrace the Multi-Age Grouping of our classroom and involve students in interesting shared activities, targeting different skill sets or understandings appropriate to age or level.

 What this looks like anecdotally is Kindy and Year 7 students making pasta together, or conducting a Science experiment, or making plans for how to explain to their next teacher that someone’s bullying them. On one occasion we had a group of students and teachers visiting from a city school. After the morning session one teacher had witnessed our students engaged in their learning and interacting with each other and their teachers. She identified one particular student, who had seemed to have a marvellous morning of learning and fun, and asked how long she had been at the school since she seemed to participate and fit in so well. I told her it was the students first day and that we didn’t as yet know her surname.

Small schools can provide their share of frustrations, which of course are simply opportunities in disguise. Resilience, self-reliance and an ability to accept change are prerequisites. I strongly encourage teachers in Catholic Education throughout Australia to consider teaching positions in small schools, especially in regional and remote areas. They are certainly not without their challenges, but they provide fertile ground for those wanting to become adaptable, well-rounded educators.