In my master thesis I compared the performance of students from small village schools and large schools. At that time, exams and tests were duplicated on paper, and I used to take them to Pyhäjokilaakso schools when I was doing research. While visiting those nice little schools, I noticed how important the village schools were for the children and the surrounding community.
I was reminded of this yesterday when I was participating in the American National Summit on School Design online event. The theme of the event was the importance of schools in poor residential areas for the surrounding community. We noticed that there were drops in both children and parents; good results had been obtained in various experiments to prevent the phenomenon.
I heard that the typical American school dropout skips school after summer vacation. Yesterday, we discussed how the school could keep in touch with the child so that everyday life and routines would be preserved during the holidays, so that this would not happen. The school's daily activities and the duration of the academic year were to be extended and diversified so that the community next to the school would also have a daily safe haven from the school.
Our problems do seem light compared to the United States. Thanks to the elementary school and the fact that we have actively tried to reduce inequality in schools. This work will be important in the future, because by concentrating on large units, schools are once again becoming the centers of communities, "villages".
The transition from the natural school communities around small schools to new school communities formed by several schools together is not quite simple.
Creating a new community so that teachers, children and parents feel safe requires joint effort and especially pedagogical vigilance from teachers.
What kind of experiences have you had with the merger of several schools like this? How have you made the process successful or what mistakes should be avoided?
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