1. What are the HR benefits of being a small school?
Put simply, your strength is the friendly, collegial nature of being a small school, almost a family, where you can be truly accessible and treat your staff as the unique individuals they are.
2. How can I recruit high-quality staff to a sometimes-challenging location with a modest salary and benefits package?
Again, consider making a strength of being small. Can you offer a position of additional responsibility with a modest stipend or time release? Can you provide the teacher with the opportunity to teach a subject or grade level that they have always wanted? Can you offer the possibility of professional growth and/or career advancement?
3. Being the “solo” head of a small school can be lonely. How can I share the load?
Consider developing a leadership team of teacher leaders with roles with teacher coordinators heading your various divisions, developing curriculum, managing after-school activities and athletics and so on. You may be able to fill these roles with eager teacher leaders who want to make a difference. Through shared leadership, you build support for yourself and provide your teachers with opportunities for professional growth and career advancement.
4. How can we retain quality staff beyond their initial contracts?
As a small, friendly, but professional school, you may find that your staff enjoy the feeling of being part of a small school family. In addition, the ability to wear multiple hats and take on positions of additional responsibility can be a powerful incentive to stay on a little bit longer. Working in a positive environment with an appropriate degree of professional autonomy and appreciation can go a long way.
5. We have only 5-6 students or less at many grade levels. How can we staff the school without bleeding money?
Consider creating multi-grade or multi-level classes that might shift each year based on enrollment. With meaningful differentiation and the support of a full-time assistant teacher, this can work well; besides, the larger class social group is good for the children—and appreciated by parents.
6. How much of our school’s operating budget should we devote to personnel costs?
Rule of thumb is that schools should spend between 70% to 85% of their budget on staff salaries, benefits, and professional development. We will argue here, however, that small schools in Africa are wise to keep that cost to between 65% and 75% to ensure sustainability during challenging times.
7. How can we provide our staff with meaningful professional development opportunities given our budget and location?
Do be sure to allocate at least 1-2% of your operational budget to professional development and ring-fence it. Devote the bulk of your professional development budget to one or two (not more) annual targeted initiatives. For other professional development opportunities such as attendance at conferences, upgrading qualifications, etcetera, you might wish to share costs with both the school and the employee bearing part of the cost.
8. How can our small school support children with special learning needs?
Here again, your small size can be a strength. While you may not be able to provide as much specialized help as larger schools, you can often tailor individual programs more easily. If the class has a full-time assistant, you are already on your way. If you can provide that assistant with an online SEN course, you are farther along. Partner with one of several organizations offering quality online support, therapy, and assessments, and be clear with families as to what you can provide and what you cannot.
9. We have a very small number of students who would like to stay with us for some, or all, of their high school years. How can we offer a meaningful program?
High schools are expensive and complex! Here you really do need to partner with an accredited provider of quality online high school courses. Fortunately, this handbook has a chapter on Expanding Educational Reach that you can turn to for advice.
10. How do I keep my head about me when all about me are losing theirs?
Being the head of a small school in Africa is a wonderful experience. It can also be incredibly demanding as you often find yourself wearing just too many hats—head of school, principal, business manager, admissions officer, counselor, and…and…and…. Do look after yourself as well as everyone else. Share leadership within your school. Reach out to the heads of other small schools through AISA; their support can be invaluable. Speak with trusted colleagues around the globe. Set a fixed time when you go home and try to turn off school for at least a few hours. Remember that you, too, are a valuable human resource for your school. Take care of yourself!
1. Trying to do it all.
Schools are in the business of helping people and we honestly want to help. However, we risk having ourselves and our staff running madly off in all directions. Be honest about what your school can offer and what it cannot. Transparency and honesty are vital. Stay laser-focused on your mission and vision and what you can do well.
2. Trying to recreate the leadership structures of large schools.
Many of us cut our teeth in some of those large international schools, and we tend to want to replicate those structures in small schools—after all, it is what we know. However, if you try to have two full-time divisional principals in a small school, you will be spending far too much on the salaries and benefits of your management team and everything else will suffer. Be very thoughtful about all non-enrolling positions.
3. Overstaffing and spending too much on personnel costs.
Your personnel are your most important resource, and you do need to invest in them, but if your personnel costs rise above 80% of your budget, you risk your school’s sustainability when hard times hit. Try to ensure that you have at least 6 months of operational funding in your reserve fund.
4. Over-estimating the importance of money as a motivator.
Let’s face it, we all like money. Or most of us do! The problem is that your school likely doesn’t have too much. There is plenty of research, however, that demonstrates that professional autonomy, meaningful opportunities for professional growth and career advancement, a shared sense of community, and supportive leadership matter more. So, even if you don’t have much cash to use as an incentive, you can still motivate, support, and retain!
5. Failing to up-skill local staff.
Your local staff will be with your school for the long-term seeing teachers and heads of school come and go. Helping to properly train your cleaning staff, improving the qualifications of your school nurse, and upskilling your accountant or business manager can have a major impact on the success of your school…and it will surely help your successors.
Use of Materials
These resources are provided for AISA member schools for internal school use and adaptation. If you adapt or share these materials, please acknowledge the AISA Small Schools Resource Hub. Materials may not be sold or publicly redistributed without permission.