3) Size Matters

Are secondary schools too big? http://news.independent.co.uk/education/schools/article3158166.ece It’s a simple point: we developed large comprehensive schools in the 1970s because of the need to combine existing grammar and secondary modern schools in most geographical areas. It wasn’t because they were seen as an optimum size. Shame we didn’t discuss this before committing billions of pounds on the schools rebuilding program http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6935505.stm . Still, maybe breaking down the large schools into smaller units and treating them as separate units could be a way of combining some of the advantages of large units (bulk purchasing, niche services and products) with the advantage of smaller units. The closer relationships of the smaller units would seem to make it less likely for a failing child to be overlooked and to make the transition from primary to secondary schooling less of a formidable leap.