: RISE Mixed-Age Teaching: Professional Development for Small Primary Schools

Teaching a mixed-age or composite class brings particular challenges — but it can also create opportunities for thoughtful, responsive teaching.

This free, fully funded professional development programme, delivered by Cornwall Research School through the Department for Education’s RISE programme, is designed for small primary schools in Cornwall teaching mixed-age or composite classes.

The programme draws on evidence-informed approaches to teaching and learning, including relevant guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), and focuses on the teaching practices that can make a difference when pupils of different ages and stages are learning together.

Across eight online twilight sessions, we will explore practical, evidence-informed approaches to mixed-age teaching, including:

* Planning the room, not just the lesson
* Designing tasks that work across a wider age span
* Structured cross-age tutoring
* Reading the learning across different year groups
* Mathematics and early reading – what doesn’t bend, and what to do
* Inclusion when the span is wide
* Making approaches sustainable when staffing changes

Participants will have opportunities to connect these ideas with EEF guidance and evidence-informed teaching approaches, while considering how they can be applied within the realities of small-school and mixed-age contexts.