Small schools with big ideas – a connected curriculum model

Aimée Tinkler, School Improvement Lead, The Village Federation, UK Jacqueline Bone, Infant Teacher, Fitzherbert Primary School, UK The definition of a small school is not entirely clear-cut. While the Church of England (2018) defines any schools with fewer than 210 students on roll as small, across the country, especially in rural and coastal areas, schools exist with significantly lower student numbers. The Village Federation is a group of small primary schools in rural Derbyshire. Each of the schools has only two classes, which cater for students across the entire primary age range. This reflection explores the challenges of building an effective curriculum in these schools and how the federation is able to provide their students with a curriculum experience that makes the most of their small size rather than a curriculum that is effective in spite of it. In recent years, the notion of a knowledge-rich curriculum has become as much a part of daily discourse in schools as the co