Small schools don’t need fixing. The system needs to learn from them

Headlines about small schools “escaping” the DfE’s school improvement drive miss the point, writes Julie Kelly

When a year group has eight pupils, a single child’s outcome represents 12.5 per cent of the data. Two children can shift results by 25 per cent.

This isn’t flawed leadership – it’s mathematics.

Yet small schools have turned this into pedagogical strength, developing some of the most responsive intervention strategies in education.

Because they cannot hide behind averages, small school leaders know every pupil intimately and adapt provision in real time. Every child genuinely matters – not as rhetoric, but as reality.

So why does our accountability system keep treating this as a problem to solve?

The RISE letter as symptom, not cause

The DfE recently contacted 2,092 schools with the lowest published attainment rates, encouraging them to access RISE programme support.

Over 1,000 small schools were excluded because cohort sizes made their data unpublishable.

This exclusion matters less than what it reveals: our accountability frameworks fundamentally misunderstand small school contexts.

The National Association of Small Schools amplifies the voices of these settings, and they tell a consistent story: statistical volatility is being systematically misinterpreted as underperformance.

When data becomes a weapon

As chair of NASS and headteacher of a small school, my 2023 year 6 cohort – with significant SEND representation – dipped in maths.

These pupils received targeted support, became secondary-ready and continued thriving.

The local authority deemed us failing. By 2024, a different cohort achieved 100 per cent. We hadn’t suddenly improved. We were always delivering effective education.

A NASS colleague was required to present individual case evidence for every pupil to demonstrate attendance strategies during Ofsted inspection in order to meet the ‘expected standard’.

The irony? This granular knowledge is precisely what makes small schools exceptional, yet the system penalises them for it.

And when was the last time the government appointed a small school leader to chair one of its special panels, become the chief inspector or an adviser to the education secretary?

What needs to change

Small schools need accountability systems that distinguish between genuine underperformance and natural variance.

But most urgently, we need a narrative shift. Small schools aren’t the system’s problem – they often hold its best solutions.

When you can’t hide behind averages, you learn to genuinely know every child. When every result matters, you develop interventions that work. When resources are tight, creativity becomes essential.

These aren’t weaknesses. They’re precisely the practices our education system claims to value.

Small schools are ready to share their practice. Is the system ready to listen?