Letter: Small is beautiful

Sir: Judith Judd's account of Ofsted's survey of small school virtues is timely ("Ofsted praises work of small primary schools", 6 July).

Yet another school is proposed as a candidate for closure for no other reason than being top of the county's repairs and maintenance list and despite new funding by central government to meet just such problems. Local authorities are desperate to close small schools by one subterfuge or another before the dramatic truth of Ofsted's findings sinks into public perception.

In small schools children are happy, identify with the education process and believe that effort is worthwhile and achievement possible. Attitudes and behaviour are excellent. The challenges of mixed ages, limited buildings and few specialist teachers are proving to be strengths, rather than the weaknesses they have so long been alleged to be.

It is time we saw our small schools as assets rather than liabilities, developing the model of excellence they represent for the profession as a whole.

MERVYN BENFORD

National Association for Small Schools

Banbury, Oxfordshire