Tory (UK) Calls for Smaller Schools in the Name of Belonging

By Brian Smith



Short article relating belonging to class size... from ALT: The Education Union:

04 September 2007
A Conservative policy group has indicated it believes schools should be broken down into smaller units, among other things.

Baroness Perry, the co-chair of the public services improvement policy group, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 that she felt smaller schools would benefit children.

'It's a sense of belonging I think more than anything else which children lack in very large schools. They feel that nobody knows them and if you're not known then you can get away with anything,' she said.

Baroness Perry added that when pupils feel as if they are part of a smaller community they develop a sense of belonging where one's actions matter.

Claiming that experiments with smaller schools in the US had been successful, Baroness Perry suggested British schools follow a similar scheme, as according to her, the development of larger schools is 'at the root' of the growth in bad behaviour in the school environment.

Meanwhile, the new term sees the introduction of a new scheme - Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning - designed to promote civility among school pupils.