National Association for Small Schools

Extended services - the key for village schools.

Rural schools could hold the key to the 'Big Society', but need to maintain their commitment to wider extended services, such as breakfast clubs, youth work and support for families. A new report by Capacity for the CRC, 'Small Schools, Big Communities: Village Schools and Extended Services,' highlights the work of four extended services clusters in raising the achievement of children and young people in isolated communities. Village schools play crucial roles in tackling under-achievement and enabling families to access extended services- a 1997 strategy to break the link between poverty and poor educational outcomes.

Offering access to extended services is more challenging in rural areas, where populations are dispersed and which include many scattered small communities. However, the provision of holiday schemes and other activities, childcare and parenting support may also offer a lifeline to remote villages and hamlets which suffer from poor transport links to larger towns. Village schools in school clusters provide a venue for extended services that may help sustain school rolls.

Sarah McAdam, Chief Executive of the CRC, said: "Children and young people in low income rural households can experience isolation and limited choices in education, training and future employment. We see village schools as the lynch-pin for rural community services and the key to ensuring that services reach all families, including those most at risk of exclusion.

The emphasis on public participation in the delivery of services shows rural schools offer obvious scope for wider community access and engagement. We suggest the extended services offer might be strengthened by closer alignment to a social enterprise or community development model. We hope to prompt and assist decision-makers to engage positively with rural communities to design and deliver flexible services supporting rural children, young people and their families."

Margaret Lochrie, Director of Capacity and the report author, said "Village schools are not only good for children, but provide an essential lifeline for families in need of help. There are significant inequalities of experience for families in rural areas. Services are less accessible and more expensive to provide. A quarter of rural children are living in poverty, but rural poverty is often hidden from view. In reducing spending it is vital local authorities do not overlook rural families. Small schools are (said to be- Ed) more expensive to maintain. There are fears among parents that spending cuts could increase closures of village schools. In their view, with rural shops, post offices and other services in decline, the loss of the village school would signal the death of the community itself.

The government is due to introduce a pupil premium to support disadvantaged children. The DfE formula needs to reflect rural as well as urban types of disadvantage.Childcare and other services alongside schools strengthen village life. At a time when there is a new governmental emphasis on democratic renewal and the involvement of people in services, schools as the hubs of rural villages appear to offer an important template."

NASS met Margaret Lochrie at her request. We welcome the many relevant points but regret she endorses financial arguments our evidence contradicts. That disappointed us. We asked to meet Sarah McAdam but by that time the Commission had been axed by the Coalition. It shows the conceptual leap on education costs still required for many in authority still tied to the tired old, limited single statistic of unit costs.