based schooling with a progressive methodology to 5 to 16 year olds .
The learning environment at The Galloway Small School has the following
special qualities:
· Flexibility in time-tabling to meet the needs of each child.
· A small school roll with small classroom groups, usually below eight
pupils, which encourages integration of children across age groups.
· Curriculum emphasis on learning by doing, with adequate time allowed
for craft work, performance arts, sports and outdoor activities plus
termly celebrations that involve all the children and adults.
· Children share the cooking, cleaning and community management.
· Democratic whole school decision making in a weekly council meeting.
A home hospitality scheme for children who need to live away from
home to attend that gives a strong family atmosphere to the school.
· The intention to live simply, healthily and ecologically permeating
school activities.
· Support on an individual basis for children with special needs, with
access to state-of-the-art learning support technology.
· A mix of school population, many local, some from overseas; with a mix
of abilities and disabilities and social backgrounds that cuts through
common stereotypes and prejudices.
The Galloway Small School aims to educate the whole child. The teaching
staff acknowledge their philosophical roots in the pioneering work of
educationalists such as A S Neill in England and John Aitkenhead in
Scotland. In all its educational programmes the school strives to
embody best practice from a growing movement towards progressive and
small school education in Britain.
School runs from 9.10 am to 4.00 p.m. each weekday. Single lesson
periods are 45 minutes(in the morning and one hour in the afternoon.
Sport, Workshop and Science may occupy double periods. The whole school
spends 20 minutes every morning doing ‘useful work’ where children and
adults share daily cleaning and routine maintenance jobs. Each
morning one or two children assist the cook, who is a member of the
teaching staff, to prepare the lunch. The clear up of lunch and all
other domestic work is carried out by staff and pupils, each involved
according to their age and experience. From time to time the school
will organise field trips or invite local artists and craftspeople to
offer a workshop in their particular skill, occasionally lasting
for a whole week. These events, and the pattern of the school’s
internal celebrations and day to day community management can cut across
the timetable to some extent. Time-tabling flexibility and the
accessibility of staff usually allows for catching up on lost classroom
time for specific projects and subjects.
PASTORAL CARE
The school has adopted a holistic approach to
each child’s growth giving
equal value to the social, practical
and academic aspects of education.
All members of the school community are involved
to an appropriate level
in the pastoral care of each other. The weekly
council meeting is an
essential expression
of the school’s approach to pastoral care.
All
children are encouraged to voice concerns about
themselves or others and
are supported by the school community in doing
so. The meeting, chaired
and minuted by pupils, examines and decides upon
all points raised. An
important aspect of this framework is in modifying
unacceptable
behaviour through
peer expectation
rather than by edict. The council
meeting is empowered to apply sanctions but usually
conflict resolution
and curtailment of anti-social behaviour is achieved
by open
examination of the causes and background to a
situation leading to those
involved willingly ‘undertaking’
some form of positive action that make
amends. The Meeting also serves as an opportunity
to celebrate
achievement, exchange information and views.
Although the Council
Meeting is useful even to the youngest and newest
children, there are
occasions when other means of support and communication
are appropriate.
The underlying conviction that is explicitly cultivated
in the school
community for any such exchange between children
and adults or
children
and children is that all problems can be overcome
by thorough
exploration and by
compromise. And all adults in The Galloway Small
School accept the befriending of children as part
of their role.
Regards
Paul Godden
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