Small schools are central to our communities, cherished for their ability to provide personalised support and strong relationships.
There are around 4,000 schools in England with fewer than 150 pupils (Kueh, 2024) and as local authorities nationally continue to be affected by falling pupil rolls, such settings are no longer limited to rural areas.
In addition to having a strong sense of community, small schools play an increasingly important role as community hubs. This is in part due to the decline of public services which has led to an increase in leaders providing place-based support for vulnerable pupils and families (IFG, 2025).
While being a leader of a small school brings numerous opportunities, it is not without its challenges as Headteacher Update reported last year (Peck & McGovern, 2024).
Indeed, in 2023 the National Association of Head Teachers conducted a survey asking the leaders of small schools about their financial situation.
The results were stark: “The financial situation in schools is so precarious that 47% of members who responded to the survey in small primary schools are concerned or very concerned about the possibility of the closure of their school within the next five years. This represents an increase of 12% in just three years since NAHT last asked the question.
“Three-quarters (75%) of these members reported that a lack of funding is a factor contributing to the possibility of closure.” (NAHT, 2023).
Since this survey, the government has increased core school and high needs funding by £2.3bn in 2025/26, which will go some way to alleviating financial pressures – although as many have said, more will be needed.
A complex leadership task
Leading small schools is difficult. The benefits of high-quality professional development are widely accepted, however small schools face specific challenges in this regard.
In a small setting with less income, offering professional development opportunities can be challenging due to cost and associated cover arrangements (Burns, 2005).
Also, implementing new initiatives can be tricky. Small schools are made of teams of individuals who hold numerous responsibilities and manage multiple priorities. Therefore it can be difficult to implement a range of national or local initiatives (Walker, 2010).
There has been relatively little research into the specific challenges of leading a small school. However a recent research study – entitled The potential solutions to the challenges faced by leaders of small schools in the UK (Kim et al, 2024) – offers five recommendations for leaders of these settings.
- Inclusive and focused leadership.
- Enhanced finances and pooled resources.
- Developing relationships and partnerships.
- Providing leaders and staff with effective support and CPD
- Enhanced school provision.
1, Inclusive and focused leadership: Smaller schools often have a flatter leadership structure which can be used to promote a “listening culture” and an inclusive approach to leadership, where all stakeholders are able to feel valued and heard. Dillion and Bourke (2016) identified the inclusive traits leaders should seek to demonstrate. They include curiosity, cultural intelligence, collaboration, commitment, courage, and cognisance or awareness of one’s own bias.
2, Pooling resources: Naturally sharing resources across a collective or group of schools enables leaders to do more with less. Similarly, embarking on service-level agreements or procurement as a collective enables groups to capitalise on the benefits of bulk-buying, which may result in increased resource or enhanced enrichment provision.
3, Developing relationships and partnerships: As one of the most frequently identified support mechanisms, the power of partnerships is not to be underestimated. Whether it is through informal or formal partnerships, collaboration, professional networks or more formal routes such as academisation, partnerships can be transformative. Some schools adopt a practical approach – sharing facilities, resources and policies or collaborating on curriculum projects and quality assurance tasks. Others prefer to share expertise and experience more informally. What’s more, research demonstrates the benefits to a small school leader’s wellbeing when these relationships are formed (Johnston, 2019).
4, Providing leaders and staff with effective support and CPD: Leaders may want to explore the possibility of collaborating with local schools so that they can build capacity and expertise – identifying where capacity is needed in specialist areas and mobilising support (through secondment or sharing staffing costs). This can also help to free up leaders from their dual responsibilities. In particular, teams may want to consider creative ways that mentoring and coaching can be used to tackle specific issues, develop the pipeline for leaders, and promote retention.
5, Enhanced school provision: The research report states: Enhanced finances and pooled resources can be helpful in reducing many leaders’ challenges, including providing and participating in CPD, networks and other collaborative groups … Enhanced national financial support for small schools is critical for the survival and effectiveness of small schools.” While we can take action in pooling resources, we cannot, of course, control the funding decisions made in Parliament.
Case study: St George’s Hanover Square CE Primary School
Small but mighty: Pupils at work in a lesson at St George’s Hanover Square CE Primary School in Westminster – a 96-pupil small inner city primary school (image: supplied by school)
St George’s is a small half-form entry school in the heart of Westminster, London, with 96 pupils on roll and mixed aged classes from nursery to year 6. The school received an exceptional inspection outcome in November 2023, after a rapid and sustained school improvement journey led by head of school Elizabeth Barnes.
She explained: “Balancing the strategic and operational demands of a small school is always a challenge. This was especially true when I assumed my headship at St George’s. I needed to consider how to support teachers and leaders with curriculum design and manage teacher workload, while continuing to raise standards and manage the day-to-day operational challenges.”
To alleviate these competing demands and drive forward school improvement, St George’s collaborated with five local Anglican schools. This well-established partnership has developed a range of processes and systems to facilitate professional development.
Each school has dedicated partnership leads – typically senior leaders who lead on curriculum design. They are assisted by the assistant partnership lead – typically a middle leader with responsibility for co-designing the curriculum and monitoring its implementation and impact.
Pairing leaders together supports succession planning. In event that middle leaders have aspirations to assume a senior leader position, they have a clear model of leadership and benefit from informal coaching.
This risk-averse way of developing the curriculum also enables less experienced leaders to shadow senior leaders until they have sufficient confidence and expertise to undertake tasks independently.
Curriculum project groups meet every half-term, the focus is needs-led, and this presents teachers with another opportunity to work with colleagues from another setting.
As a small school, this collaboration and protected time enabled the team at St George’s to improve the quality of education at pace, even in instances when they didn’t have the expertise in-house. For example, less experienced teachers who were new to subject leadership were mentored by an experienced leader from another school.
School improvement plans exist at partnership level for each school leader to personalise. This further supports collaboration as there is alignment of key priorities.
Balancing CPD needs
Naturally, resources are limited and as there is finite capacity careful consideration needs to be given to how CPD is organised. For this reason, the professional development calendar is mapped out in advance and adapted where appropriate, should new priorities emerge.
This typically includes weekly staff meetings, opportunities to collaborate with peers from across the partnership, and one-to-one coaching.
Careful planning of CPD ensures that new strategies are implemented in response to identified whole-school priorities. This prevents teachers from becoming overwhelmed and stops initiatives from being introduced on a whim.
The leadership team maps out time for staff to revisit concepts to ensure key themes and priorities are embedded. As a small school this ensures the cycle of improvement is both ambitious and sustainable.
Quality assurance is both effective and efficient. Middle leaders carry out “deep dives” into books, while the headteacher completes “book blinks” – short sharp 30-minute reviews of pupil books with verbal feedback to teachers the same day to enable teams to swiftly act on feedback.
Teachers have the opportunity to take part in termly professional development days which include lesson visits, work scrutiny, pupil voice, feedback to the class teacher, and coaching. This also presents leaders with the opportunity to revisit previous actions with teachers.
The monitoring and quality assurance processes include moderation across the partnership, enabling teachers to receive objective feedback on formative assessment.
A supportive culture
Leading a school improvement journey, Elizabeth was mindful of her responsibility to develop a culture of supportive challenge and articulate a clear vision and high expectations.
We know that leaders who give more emphasis to communicating goals and expectations are found in higher performing schools (Robinson, 2007).
Results at the end of each key stage significantly improved, with phonics results rising from 56% to 82% over one academic year.
Over time, capacity was built through pooling resources and working in partnership, collaborating with schools locally to strengthen the premises and office teams.
Staffing structures across the partnership also enabled the leadership team to build capacity. Elizabeth is ably supported by executive headteacher Harvey Webb, who supports with strategic leadership and quality assurance.
In addition to the practical benefit of developing relationships, Elizabeth is quick to point to the social and emotional benefits of working in partnership: “I can call upon any one of my colleagues if I need a resource or policy or if I simply want to talk about a pressing school issue. Knowing that you can pick the phone and speak to a supportive colleague about anything at any time is invaluable.”
Final thoughts
There are some challenges of school leadership which are universal and others which are unique to a small setting.
While typical school challenges are magnified for leaders in a smaller setting, Ofsted is keen to note that small schools are also able to be more agile than large schools, enabling them to “course-correct” more swiftly. There are numerous benefits for pupils too, which explains why a smaller setting is often preferable for parents.
Urie Bronefenbrenner’s research on human development – see his book Two Worlds of Childhood (1970) – reminds us that children are influenced by their environment and that family, school and friends play a significant role. Small schools with an inclusive culture are well placed to develop a sense of belonging for all pupils, including our most vulnerable learners.
- Laura McPhee is director of education at University Schools Trust. She is a facilitator for the National Professional Qualification for Headship on behalf of the London South Teaching School Hub. She is also board member of the Virtual School Management Board and guest lecturer at London South Bank University. Find her previous articles via www.headteacher-update.com/authors/laura-mcphee
Further information & resources
- Burns: Tensions between national, school and teacher development needs: A survey of teachers’ views about continuing professional development within a group of rural primary schools, Journal of In-service Education (31,2), 2005.
- Dillon & Bourke: The six signature traits of inclusive leadership, Deloitte, 2016: www.deloitte.com/content/dam/assets-zone1/au/en/docs/services/consulting/2023/deloitte-au-hc-six-signature-traits-inclusive-leadership-020516.pdf
- Institute for Government: The precarious state of the state: Public services, 2024: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publication/general-election-2024-precarious-state/public-services
- Johnston: How to succeed in small-school headship: A reflection, EdD thesis, University of Nottingham, 2019: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/56297/
- Kim, Crellin & Glandorf: The potential solutions to the challenges faced by leaders of small schools in the UK: A systematic review, International Journal of Educational Research (124), 2024: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883035523001647
- Kueh: Our approach to inspecting small schools, Ofsted blog, 2024: https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2024/04/30/our-approach-to-inspecting-small-schools/
- NAHT: Under pressure: The squeeze on small schools in England, 2023: Click here.
- Peck & McGovern: The challenges of running a small primary school, Headteacher Update, 2024: www.headteacher-update.com/content/best-practice/the-challenges-of-running-a-small-primary-school
- Robinson: The impact of leadership on student outcomes: Making sense, Australian Council for Educational Research, 2007: https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1006&context=research_conference_2007
- Walker: Choice, cost and community: The hidden complexities of the rural primary school market, Educational Management Administration & Leadership (38,6), 2010.