Shops into schools – what a brilliant idea!
The bleak nature of the economy in the UK is driving some really innovative thinking of late, with parents, teachers and other organisations coming together to set up ‘free schools’ in the many disused shops that are now lining the high streets of towns and cities across the country. Small business has taken the brunt of the economic crisis in the UK and plenty of retail shops have gone to the wall as a result, leaving large empty spaces in prime locations, ripe for re-use.
The BBC has reported over 700 groups expressing an interest in setting up small primary schools (50-80 kids in each) in these spaces, with the new UK government pledging over £50m to cover their start-up costs and changing building regulations to allow these new places of learning to happen. What is doubly interesting here, is that small schools are known to work so much better than larger, impersonal, ones. In small schools everybody knows everybody else and a real, supportive community quickly develops. Bullying in small schools is almost unheard of; and all children’s achievements tend to be much richer across the board. And if happiness is a measure of success, then students in small schools are almost always far more successful than those in larger ones.
There are models for small independent schools elsewhere in the world, for example Sweden, Finland and in some states in the USA. But this initiative in the UK is certainly one to watch… and if it goes well, for us in Australia to learn from.
More here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10345302 and here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-10634612
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