As we began this school year, our enrollment reflected the changing landscape for families and students across the United States. Many families made the decision to return to the public school system, despite uncertainty about masks and Covid-19 safety protocols. On our first day of this school year, we had six students in our Upper Elementary class and one Primary student enrolled for full-time attendance. Last year, we had 27 students enrolled across all of the classrooms. This change in the size of our school community required some flexible thinking to ensure we met the needs of each student.

Last year, with the exception of lunch and community meetings, each classroom spent the day learning and exploring separately. This approach would not make sense for our smaller school community; how could we make sure that our Primary student felt connected to other children, and what impact would our smaller school size have on all of the kids? As I planned for the beginning of the year, I recalled my previous experiences with multi-age classroom settings, such as in Montessori schools and began to dig a bit deeper into the idea of keeping all of our students together for more of the day.

There’s something about our school that makes me think of the quintessential one-room schoolhouse, with the woodstove at the front for warmth and a bell that is rung to call the students back in from play. Many times, I’ve thought of this as I load more wood into the stove; that I’m teaching in a way my great-grandmother did (though she drove herself to school in a horse-drawn buggy and lodged with her students’ families during the week!) I also think of this when we learn for much of the day without electricity or technology, another thing that makes our school both unique and incredible.

The one-room schoolhouse model worked because it encouraged students to help each other: younger students paired with older ones to benefit both. As we began the school year, I kept this in mind. We started each day with a whole school morning meeting, focusing on social-emotional growth and support through discussions and practice at conversational turn-taking. Our Upper Elementary students modeled raising hands, giving kind feedback, and caring for one another for our Primary student, and our Primary student found in his older peers a whole class ready to teach him everything they knew about attending school at Morse Hill. During lesson time, teachers work separately to offer grade- and age-appropriate curriculum and activities. However, students come back together many times a day, including at lunch, nature play time, and community activities or games.

Now, entering our third month of school, the one-room approach is working beautifully for our school and for our students. We’ve had additional students enroll part-time, and they’ve been welcomed into the whole-school community in a way I could not have imagined if we’d kept the groups separate by age. Our school is small enough that every child has had the opportunity to get to know each of their peers well and find ways to work with each other, regardless of differences in age. These deep connections have made it possible for us to work on a whole-school project, a first for us! I’ll share more about that project in my next blog post. :)