'Small schools at risk' says top head

12 May 2005

Small schools do a remarkable service for children of average and below average ability, but are at risk in the current political climate, a leading independent school head said today.

David Vanstone, chairman of the Independent Schools Association (ISA), told members at the start of their annual conference in Malvern, that small schools are able to offer extensive educational opportunities within a caring environment. But government policy, he said, "aims to create the very behemoths that cannot by their very nature focus on the individual."

Mr Vanstone, head of the 300-pupil North Cestrian Grammar School, Altrincham, said of the government's plan to let popular schools expand: "It sounds good to take pupils from failing schools, but the proposal ignores the fact that as each new class is introduced so the buildings become more crowded, the facilities overstretched and most dangerously - because additional funding cannot resolve this problem - there is a further drift away from intimacy and individual understanding that gives young pupils the confidence they need to thrive.

"Why is it that small schools are considered essential to the pastoral welfare and educational opportunity at primary level but suddenly at 11 youngsters are expected to cope in huge, soulless institutions of over 1000, 1500 or even 2000 pupils? In the US they've learnt the lesson and have begun to break up over-large institutions setting up, in their place, a number of smaller schools."

By contrast, Mr Vanstone said, independent schools offered choice and, as survey after survey proved, the majority of the public would choose it if they could. He noted that many teachers chose independent schools for their children and added: "This is because they have choice and can look around for the type of school that is best for their child; often they select the smaller school where they know the teachers and they would make use of choice if they were given any in the state schools."

The success of the independent sector, he said, used to be ascribed to privilege - wealthy parents, able children and additional funding. This was not true. "Many of our parents are not wealthy and work night and day to find fees that they have already paid through increasingly onerous taxes. Huge numbers of our children are not particularly able and one of our greatest services is the provision we make for those with special educational needs, both academic and emotional."

He added: "We can achieve our aims economically in small schools because we don't waste money but we do provide extensive opportunities within a genuinely caring and supportive atmosphere which understands the individual."

The government was running scared, said Mr Vanstone. "It knows only too well that if it were to widen access to the independent sector then the public would vote with their feet; give parents access to the money they've already paid through taxes with a voucher and we will do the rest."

The full text of Mr Vanstone's speech is available from the ISC Press office, tel 020 7766 7060.