Small School Experience

Attributes associated with small school size that researchers have identified as accounting for their superiority include:

1. Everyone’s participation is needed to populate the school’s offices, teams, clubs, etc., so a far smaller percentage of students is overlooked or alienated.
2. Adults and students in the school know and care about one another to a greater degree than is possible in large schools.
3. Small schools have a higher rate of parent involvement.
4. Students and staff generally have a stronger sense of personal efficacy in small schools.
5. Students in small schools take more of the responsibility for their own learning; their learning activities are more often individualised, experiential, and relevant to the world outside of school; classes are generally smaller; and scheduling is much more flexible.
6. Grouping and instructional strategies associated with higher student performance are more often implemented in small schools—team teaching, integrated curriculum, multi-age grouping (especially for primary children), cooperative learning, and performance assessments.

– Caldwell, Brian J., 2013, Research on School Size: An educational transformations briefing paper

MRIS prides itself on being a Small Independent Family School for the following reasons:

• Small scale learning enables our students to be known and valued as individuals.
• Each learner’s particular needs are met and all aspects of development – creative, emotional, moral, spiritual as well as intellectual and physical – are encouraged.
• The learning process is active, participatory and relates to the child’s own experience.
• The learning community is underpinned by environmentally sustainable values and practices.
• Parents and the local community are seen as vital partners in the life of the school.