Micro-schooling

[educator2020]

Hello!

I am doing some market research into micro-schooling - the concept of replacing the normal school day with a 'micro' school setting, in which 5-10 children attend a group where they receive lessons from a qualified primary school teacher.

The benefit of this type of schooling is that the curriculum can be adapted to the needs of individual children as the class is so small. Of course, there is also a benefit of the 'school' being able to remain open during mainstream school closures with no disruption to parental work schedules. Due to the very limited amount of pupils, the chances of contracting COVID-19 are far less and social distancing and 'bubble creating' is much easier.

I would love to know your thoughts on this idea as I am a qualified teacher myself with a Masters in education and have the space at my home to set something like this up, if the demand is there.

What are your concerns about a project like this? What benefits do you see in having an option like this available in your area? And what would you see a reasonable cost would be for child care and education of this kind?

Many thanks in advance, looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Rachael

Almost no private school will allow children to attend part time. And parents who are concerned enough to pay fees while not having their child attend at all can just employ an online tutor.
There is one family in my son’s class that will not have their child attend next term, but that is because of the extremely high risk the family is under temporarily (child will be back before christmas, its surgery related). They won’t send him to another group instead!
plus, most private school kids haven’t missed any school

I could see a concept like this working as a sort of "dispersed" private school, where the actual intake was at least 15 pupils each year and there were multiple classes of 5 pupils, which might then be scattered around a neighbourhood in the homes of each teacher, or maybe the school might have the resources to buy a 1-bedroom flat for each class which wasn't anyone's home but could be properly set up as a classroom (eg with walls used for learning displays, furniture bought to maximise learning benefits rather than being primarily someone's home). that would allow the creation of clusters of 5 pupils whose needs and learning stages are compatible. The school organisation could then be of sustainable size, as it would be possible to employ a couple more teachers than there are classes (eg specialist subject teachers for a small number of topics) which would mean that there was backup if a class teacher was ill, and time for the main teacher to have some planning and preparation time during the working week.

As a solo teacher, the success or failure of the experience is too unpredictable because it depends on the temperaments of the other 4 pupils and how compatible they are with ones own child. it is also unsuitable for families with more than one child as in most cases the parents will not want their children of different ages to be in the same micro class. your idea also seems to be very much aimed at being a temporary reaction to a temporary situation, setting things up so that kids can 'go back to normal' sooner or later. so what happens when 3 or the 5 pupils have gone back to a mainstream school but 2 don't want to yet, but the financials are unsustainable with only 2 pupils and you can't recruit replacement pupils? The investment required to make a successful learning environment wouldn't be earned back from fees over such a small timescale, it needs to be a model that wo et is over a longer timescale to be a viable plan.

Sorry but if you’re the only adult, are you planning on not having a bathroom trip all day?
What happens at lunch?

The parents who can afford this aren't going to be the parents who can come and help out.

I would expect you to be not of a relaxed homeschooling childminder than actually promoting strict education. There may be a market for that, in the children that have done better when taken out of school. Have you thought about pastoral support?

TBH I think the prep schools are the most likely to be able to stay open come what may as they already have small classes and lots of space.

I think this could work, it’s been done before, Java’s you seen the small schools association? But I think your target audience is wrong.

I’d be looking instead at providing high quality flexible educare to home Ed families who are growing in number. A lot of parents want to or do home ed but also need to work part time. There are few settings for their children especially settings targeted at their age group. if in England you could have up to six under 8’s and more over 8’s and simply register as a childminder. Their parents keep responsibility for their education overall, you supplement it.

I think your provision would need to be more interesting and varied than lessons all day though, trips out, Forest school, art, language lessons would really help to sell it.

I can’t see this appealing to private school parents at all. I’m sorry. Back up provision for homeschooling parents though might work if more Co curricular was offered

Hello everyone!

Thank you for your feedback it really helped me work out costs. I have reduced class size to four children and am looking to charge 60£ a day which totals to £3,600 per term (12 week terms). That's for full time 8.30-3.30.

What are your thoughts on that?

I was also thinking about offering that as the 'school replacement plan' and then offering a separate 'school enrichment plan' for a different group who was to just supplement their learning after school and charging £35 per hour for my time - which is roughly the same as private tutors in my area.

Is this reasonable? Obviously this is aimed at parents who would usually have their children in private school.

Keeping class size at 4 means I can do the school day on my own mostly and possibly get a TA and/lunchtime supervisor part time to keep costs down (and so I get some sort of break!)

I would love to know your thoughts on this pricing plan.

Thank you all for your feedback I've found it really useful.

Rachael

Sorry, I meant to say it's aimed at private school parents who are interested in alternative education - niche but my research (survey) has suggested there is a market for it in my area - and I only need four children to make it work.

have a look at my website to see the press release for the concept (in the blog section) www.hovemicro-school.com/

Thanks again!

@TheDIsiilusionedAnarchist

I think this could work, it’s been done before, Java’s you seen the small schools association? But I think your target audience is wrong.

I’d be looking instead at providing high quality flexible educare to home Ed families who are growing in number. A lot of parents want to or do home ed but also need to work part time. There are few settings for their children especially settings targeted at their age group. if in England you could have up to six under 8’s and more over 8’s and simply register as a childminder. Their parents keep responsibility for their education overall, you supplement it.

I think your provision would need to be more interesting and varied than lessons all day though, trips out, Forest school, art, language lessons would really help to sell it.

Interesting! This is really helpful, thank you.

And yes I agree - the good thing about the independence of this project is that I don't have to follow the national curriculum - and I can include less 'mainstream' subjects such as lots of outdoor learning, gardening, cooking, philosophy for children, mindfulness etc - depending on what the parents/children want on the timetable.

I also live near a beach and park and have a back and front garden so looking to make use of those.. Any other ideas on how I can offer more varied provision?

Thanks so much for your feedback!
Rachael

IF you don’t follow the national curriculum, where would these kids go after primary?
I pay private school fees - I expect my kids to be well ahead of the national curriculum AND get all these opportunities. AND I expect them to be taught the national curriculum and beyond without feeling pressure. And I’m getting this from our prep, and while they are great, they aren’t unique in this.
I could see this working for reception and year 1,but not beyond (except for significant special needs

In the UK, I think all this is a bit academic, given that schools will almost certainly go back in September and a vaccine in the near future seems likely.

In the US (where mismanagement of the pandemic seems really bad, there is widespread anti-vaccination and schools in most districts are refusing to open till next year), some version of micro-schooling is definitely taking shape. OP, try a Twitter search for "pandemic pods"---this is the term Americans are using. It seems to be mostly fairly affluent parents getting together with a group of friends and hiring a teacher. I don't think that any kind of official "organization" is being incorporated in most of these pods, and it all seems to be quite ad-hoc and informal, as far as I can tell.

If you are talking about microschooling as a "long-term"/permanent thing (ie. something that parents might want to do even after COVID19 has been banished)....?

I think that this sort of model would probably not work on a long-term basis, because of the risk of the pod splitting up---one person leaves, causing the social mix of the group to increase while the average costs per person will have to rise, making the group less attractive, resulting in more and more people leaving and then desertion of the group just kind of snowballs (very small private schools have the same problem, which is why you often see people on Mumsnet warning people that the "cozy little private school" that they are thinking of, may not be financially viable/stable in the long run).

If a pod collapses, that's bad news for the parents affected because they may be left with no good options: the "good" state schools will probably not have any places available, meaning that parents may then be stuck with having to accept a place in a poor state school or continue homeschooling by themselves, unless they can find a place in a private school that will accept their child.

Agree with a PP that a sort of "hub" providing extra services for homeschoolers (lessons, field trips, social stuff, extra childcare) would probably be a more workable model. You'd need to live somewhere like Brighton where there is a big homeschooling community though.

My daughter goes to a tiny village school with a maximum of 6-7 in each year group so pretty much as the OP describes. It works really well.

Sure, but it's presumably a state school and the government is obliged to keep funding it. A pod run and funded by parents is likely to fold once a few people start to leave.