I went to a very small rural primary school when I was a kid. The entire school was only 20 or so children. There was one full time teacher, and a second who w

I went to a very small rural primary school when I was a kid. The entire school was only 20 or so children. There was one full time teacher, and a second who was part time. That's actually a pretty good student to teacher ratio compared to the overfull classes of today. Perhaps half the days activities were done in a single group and the other half we would be split in to two groups to do academic work. I think that having mixed age group was very positive. It allowed kids to learn from the older ones but in addition everyone moved forward at their own pace. The school had to be designed to handle each student being at a different place in their education by it's very nature. When I moved to a larger secondary school at age 11, I was miles ahead of my new peers. It was at least a couple more years before any of the content being taught caught up to what I had learned in primary school.