V e s & Op inio n Viewi ws & Opinion


Small schools and deep dives


Comment by FLORENCE HAY Pendoc k Primary Schoo l


AYLES, Class 1 Teacher at


small numbers, the children also had the opportunity to have their ideas heard and valued, their work critiqued verbally in a relaxed, informal atmosphere and their Higher Order Thinking skills to be challenged through 1:1 questioning. I left the session feeling confident that every child had engaged with the tasks at hand and their learning had developed in a variety of subj But on my way home, I found myself queryin


g whether this lesson ects.


would have been valued in a Deep Dive inspection. If you asked the children, t hey would probably have told you that they did somethin g for Topic in Forest School. They could have told you which Deity they learnt about and how they demonstrated their knowledge. The rest embedded via osmosis; through natural exposure to the concept of habitats, through cooking on a campfire etc. I doubt they would have been able to explain how many subj nor precise learning obj


they all made progress in the sub worksheet on one subj


bjectives. Does this detract from the fact that bjjects associated with the session


though?Would it have been better to give each year group a bject with one learning outcome in order to


embed the fact that 'today we did Science?'What are the time commitment implications for this in terms of ensuring we meet all of the foundation subjbject outcomes across all of the year groups? Just one of the high ranking benefits for cross-curri cular learning is, afte r all, the time-saving element.


Having read Ofsted's guidance on Small School Deep Dives, a proposed solution is for us to link up with a local School who can manage subject leadership in order to compartmentalise n's learning and ensure full coverage in accordance with


the childre help us to


bj


Whether you teach in a big school, a small school; independent or state; high school or primary school, we all face different pressures. Let's be honest - we as teachers are guilty of making the job as big as it can be. So keen are we to feel that we have covered all bases, done everything we can possibly do to support each child that we give our time freely.Whether working in a small school or a big school, I am willing to bet that we are all devoting similar hours to the cause.


However, one pressure affecting small schools in particular at the moment is the impact of the Deep Dive. In a rural village School with the capacity for approximately 50 children, our staff were interested to see what guidance we would receive about managing our foundation subjects.With a teaching staff of two plus a head teacher, we were keen to see how this new expectation would work logistically as well as administratively .


As a small school, we have thus far survived the pressures of the National Curriculum/EYSF by offering a cross-curricular learning experience. In order for a PerformanceManagementMeeting to take place this very week, I took whole school (ages 3-11) to Forest School with two fantastic TAs, for example. The Key Stage 2 topic at the moment is the Ancient Egyptians and the EYFS/Key Stage 1 topic isMagicalMe. Key Stage 2 read about Horus, and were encouraged to create a trail to suggest that the Falcon Deity Forest School.Meanwhile, Key Stage 1 looked a their School and made different types of habitat


s for them. At the t local birdlife to had been in our


celebrate o end of the


session, we made banana splits for the campfire to ur achievements and come together as a community


around a f ire. The session hit objectives from EYFS to end fo Key Stage 2 in History, DT, Food Tech, Science, Understanding The World, Geography and Literacy. I would also argue that it went beyond National Curriculum expectations in terms of learning skills in teamwork, resourcefulness and basic survival/hygiene. Due to the


inspection expectations. In so doing, I would be asking a remote colleague to plan for a group of children they had never even met before, and I am unsure how we would all execute release time to visit each other's settings regularly enough to ensure we are monitoring and tracking the curriculum.


Small Schools are a really special feature of the British Education system. They provide choice for families with c hildren who would b e lost in a bigger School. They energise the heart beat within communities which might otherwise lack effervescence. They think creatively in order to establish a setting which can deliver an engaging curriculum that is relevant to the families in attendance of that geographical location (would that aforeme approach have worked as well for children who a farm free range every day, I wonder?).


In direct response to the Ofsted guidance on Small School Deep Dives, I think most of us would absolutely agree that imagination and vision are essential for the success of any School. Small Schools are already being creative in their approach to delivering the curriculu m, marketing, maintaining local community links, fun d raising, and even the basics of timetabling/delegation of workload with fewer members of staff on board (to name a few). They do this while they deliver foundation subjects in unique and original ways with limited spaces and resources.


In Education, expectations change like trends and fashions. If Schools were on a fashion runway this season, larger schools would likely display a few models, wearing a co-ordinating scheme of hats, gloves and scarves. They would work up until the eleventh hour to ensure everything was watertight in their latest collection. The review? "Boxes ticked, well done." Small Schools would rock up with one model wearing at least ten different hats in a variety of different-coloured wool found at the bottom of the Art cupboard. We proba bly wouldn't have quite mad it to f inishing the elevent h one, but we would bring it to the table to show that we did our very best to exceed expectations right up until the final hour. "You tried, but be more creative...." they say to the small school. And so one way or another, we will.


e


bjects we had touched upon,


are used to roaming ntioned worksheet


2 0 www


www.education-today.co.uk.co.uk


Decembe r 2019 2019


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