Since 2020, a rural school network has been established, comprising teachers from small schools with multi-age classrooms, as well as researchers from Umeå University. One issue that has come up during the network meetings is the difficulty of recruiting trained teachers for rural schools, an issue of utmost relevance for the survival of villages and towns in sparsely populated areas. Currently, student teachers are not given the opportunity to try and experience teaching in rural schools through practical training; the norm is the larger school. A project where students who were to do a four-week practical training were offered to do this in rural schools was initiated and implemented. The students and their supervisors were interviewed in depth in connection with visits to and observation of the teaching. The results highlight the comple-xity of mixed-age teaching in rural schools, and it is also clear that the students have positive experiences of the supervision and opportunity for reflection that the period of practical training has provided. They can all imagine working in rural areas after completing their teacher training.