Help!!! I'm going to spontaneosly Combust!!!! and I can';t see the headteacher till monday!!

[Upsadaisy]

I've just taken my 5 yearold who is 6 next week to a party with him classmates. I found out of a couple of parents that when they go back on Monday they are joining the children who should be going into year 3 with the my sons class who should be going into year 2. The class size will be about 42.
The letter that was sent only a day before the school was due to close for holidays and the headmaster just dismissed the concerns of those that voiced them!

Today there was a few of us who hadn't even received a letter. How can a school join two different age groups together like that without holding a meeting to reassure parents?
Isn't there a class number restriction surely 42 is far too many?

[IhavetowatchwhatIsay]

The class size is rather large, but as teaching is generally done in small groups the age factor shouldnt be a huge problem

[robinpud]

I would try and stay a little detached from it all until you really know exactly how the classes are to be arranged.
Unfortunately children do not pop along in neat little batches of 30 and so schools have to accomodate year groups of fluctating size through the school.
Is there to be a year 2/3 class and a year 3/4 class for instance?
When you have found a little more, if you still have concerns then talk to the Head and make your own mind up. Don't let what might be inaccurate information spoil your last few days of holiday, I am sure all will work out well.

[Upsadaisy]

Has anyone had experience of their child's class amalgamating with another older class?

Is there an authority who headteachers are accountable to?

I'm so worried my son is still getting to grips with the basics and hates writing with a passion...I'm worried that he will just loose even more confidence and be put off even more when they start teaching him the seven year old syllabus. Can they even do that? Surely thats not right. I'm so livid at the total disregard shown by the headmaster!!!

[robinpud]

what ever the class arrangement, your son will be taught according to his needs, no school will expect him to cover year 3 work when he is a year 2. Have faith in the school and find out the facts about how the teaching is to be organised.
Please don't let your anxiety be too palpable to your ds.

[Upsadaisy]

Robinpud and IhavetowatchwhatIsay thank you. The information I have is that they are joiningg the classess together.

I'm just so worried My ds used to cry last year when they'd try to get him to write whats going to happen when he starts hearing about children in his class sitting sats exams.

[auntymandy]

our school did this and it seemed to work ok. Although none of mine were in the class!!

[bilbo1]

The school that I have worked at for over ten years has always had split year groups...Yr1/2, 3/4 5/6.

We sometimes have parents who come in annoyed about where their child has been put.
The staff spend hours organising and re-organising classes so that children are in the correct place to ensure that their learning is as it should be.

When parents come in all-guns-blazing without even bothering to ask how these things work it really annoys me!!!
It's as if the school has just bunged kids anyway as far as a few parents are concerned!!!

Who are the professionals with the years of experience?????

Sorry - rant over - what I mean to say is make sure you ask about how it's been arranged rather than just going in fuming on Monday.

[Upsadaisy]

It can't be ok not to inform parents of such a change and not reassure there concerns?

Were all asking the same questions and worried.

I'm fuming I could of done more to help my ds, I've been encouraging him to write now and again birthday lists missing teddy posters and that but I could of done more how on earth is it ok not to be informed of such a potentially major impact on my sons education?

Its not just education its social aspects too theres a couple of boys in that class that cause alot of trouble...I know it can't be helped who your classmates are and all kids act up but I don't want him round their type of acting up.

[singersgirl]

Just a query - if he isn't 6 till next week, in England he would be going into Year 1, not Year 2. Are you living abroad?

Don 't have any experience of mixed age classes myself, but have heard they can be very successful; as other posters have said, a lot of teaching will be done in small groups.

Hope you get this sorted to your satisfaction.

[Upsadaisy]

Bilbo1 I understand your point however teachers may be profesionals at teaching but that does not give them a right to change something like this without speaking to the parents and reassuring any concerns.

[bilbo1]

I know of several schools that don't give out the new class lists until the last day of the year.

I understand why Heads do this - I suppose after years of having queues of parents in (some over very trivial issues) it must be very tempting to do this and save themselves the hastle.

I would like to believe that if I was in that situation I would NOT leave it to the last day however - even if it's only for good PR - parents ought to feel as if they can come and ask.

I also agree with you that if it affects so many children then it should have been explained at least in a newsletter if not in a meeting.

End of terms can be rather frantic though!

It sounds as if you are doing the right thing and helping your ds out with bits and pieces of writing at home.
I am sure that the school would not put him in a class that he is incapable of coping with.
They will have done loads of assessments and know his personality and ability well so that they make a very informed decision.
HTH.

[schnapps]

If your son is not yet 6 shouldn't he be going into year 1 or are you not in England? Before the holidays didn't your son have a transfer session where all the kids go to spend time in their new class with new teacher?

[bilbo1]

Sorry - I took such a long time replying that I hadn't read your last comment!

I agree with you and put that in my last post before reading yours!!!!!

[Upsadaisy]

No not living abroad unfortunately. Forgive me I got mixed up with the years. My ds has just left reception going into year one which is being amalgamated with the children who should be going onto year 2.

It's the only classes there doing with this as my sons class is small.

[bilbo1]

I taught this situation last year.
The most able Yr 1s (your ds's age) went with the year 2s and, actually, ability-wise they were all very similar despite the year's age gap.

Legally the Government says a keystage 1 class (infants) must be less than 30.

Perhaps when it said that the classes were mixing it meant that there would be two parallel classes instead of two seperate aged classes??

[robinpud]

Upsadaisy- my son is in exactly the same position. He is going to be a year in a year 1/2 class. I don't have an issue with it at all. Falling birthrates are a national issue. He wll benefit socially from mixing with older children at times, he will benefit academically from having access to a wide ranging curriculum. I know he will access things at his own level, ie listen to stories about Neil Armstrong etc but not be expected to do the same follow up work as the year 2s. Teachers are expected to differentiate what they teach- it means adapt their teaching to the abilities of all children in their group. I know they spend a lot of time getting this right. As bilbo eloquently says, teachers are professionals and spend an inordinate amount of time getting class grouping as right as possible.
My advice is the same as my first post. Get all the facts and then make an informed decision. Make sure your ds is feeling happy to go back. Beware of the mutterings of other parents, they can be very unhelpful sometimes.

[Olihan]

Upsadaisy, I understand your concerns but as a teacher I'd like to reassure you a bit.

Firstly, I would hazard a guess that the class won't be that big all of the time. It's quite likely that the children will be streamed into smaller groups for Literacy and Numeracy, based on ability and age. I've taught mixed age classes and it doesn't affect the kids that much - the parents are always far more concerned!! They won't just be taught from the Y3 curriculum either. Some lessons will be Y3 stuff and some Y2 stuff, but good teachers know how to adapt it to be appropriate for all the children.

WRT Sats: he would be doing them anyway this year so I would doubt it will make much difference whether he is in a mixed Y2/3 or pure Y2. The Y3's will most likely be doing optional SATs at the same time and will be able to reassure your ds that they aren't that bad anyway. (Which they aren't in Y2. The writing tests, if not all the tests - are conducted in small groups with a teacher - it's not like sitting a GCSE or even a Y6 Sat.)

It does sound a little underhand in the way the head teacher has announced the news but it's not unusual. My last head did the same in exactly the same situation. It's not right, but there's also nothing anyone can do about it - it's all to do with funding unfortunately. I'd also second what bilbo1 said about the thought and planning that goes into placing the kids. It's never a case of splitting a register in half and that's it. Teachers also think about ability, personality and friendship groups when deciding who goes where.

Try not to worry about what's happening, give your ds time to settle into a new school year (i.e, up until half term), find out how the class set up is actually going to work wrt age/abilty/subject and if you really feel it's not working for him, then approach the head. Believe me, he probably will be as unhappy about the situation as you are but he is tied by budget at the end of the day. Despite everything the govenment says about school funding, the reality for many schools is that they just can not afford to have the class sizes they would like.

HTH a little bit, enjoy the last day of the holiday.

[Upsadaisy]

We moved him from the school near by to this one as it seemed to be a better one and because of that we didn't mind traveling although its thrown up lots of hassles. I would never of moved him knowing that they would put him in a class so big.

I'm tempted just to pull him back to the school he was previously at as he misses his friends and at least the teachers communicated with the parents when there were issues. But then again I'm worried that will do more damage.

I'm going to speak to the headmaster and give him a chance to explain why he didn't see fit to inform all parents in the first place and at least arrange a meeting over the matter. I then want to know the teaching organisation within the class.
I'm going to give it six months and if its having a negative affect I'll pull him. That school obviously doesn't give a kak and for that I have lost faith in it.

[Olihan]

Oh, sorry, took me so long to type that I missed all the posts in between, so half of what I said is irrelevant. Would still say, let him settle in before you go ranting to the head. Your ds will only be a couple of weeks younger than the youngest Y2's anyway so he'll be better off than the august children anyway.

[auntymandy]

I think when we choose a school we have to trust them to do th very best they can for our children. The staff have to be able to do what they feel fit without asking parent permission all the time! It is annoying when you are not kept informed but at the end of the day tey wont change their minds!
So instead of having 6 weeks worrying like other parents you have only had a few days and bu October half term hopefully you will wonder why you worried at all!!!

[tiptoes]

Upsadaisy-I am in a similar situation re my thread on "anyone fought the school and won" in the special needs section.

My ds will be staying in reception with a few other children and the new children joining reception this term.He will be doing year 1 work but will alsobe going over reception work again.

I was given my letter later than other parents a few days before the end of term and did put my concerns to the head but were totally dismissd.
My ds has selective mutism so am in a different position to yourself but sdome of your concerns worry me also.
I have spoken to various people LEA ,school govenerners etc and has been difficult as I have not been able to resolve this through the summer holidays.

I agree that you should have been made aware of this a lot sooner and then your concerns could have been heard and discussed.
I know that the teachers are the experienced ones in these matters but in my sons case with his selective mutism reports from his doctor and SALT were ignored and who knows their children better than their mothers!!

[Blondilocks]

My LO's school has mixed aged classes. It's worked pretty well. There the different years within the class do the work suitable for their age - although they study the same topics, just at different levels IYSWIM. Also only the older year group will go up into the next class each year, so they aren't skipping a year or anything. It does sound as though you could have done with more information concerning how it was going to work.

However the school is small ... only about 70 pupils in the whole school so it probably wouldn't be worth having separate classes for each year.

We were worried initially about the mixed classes but it's not been a problem. LO has been doing the work of children older then her this year, so it has been good that she was in a class with the older year as well.

[tiptoes]

Upsadaisy-Just wondering how you are today?

[nooka]

My dd is going into a mixed yr1/2 class next week, and she will be six on Thursday. I'm happy about this, but we did get a letter explaining all about it at the end of last term, and the new class only has 23 children in it (basically the younger yr2s and the older yr1s) If she had been born a week earlier she would have been in yr2 anyway, she sailed through reception, and she will have the same teacher as last year, so I have no worries about the effect, especially as the school often has to do this (not enough children being born locally). Is it at all possible that the 43 comes from a "this is how many children there would have been if we put them all together" bit in the letter - ours had a line like this. Also schools do have a tendency to put letters into book bags, and for them to get subsequently lost - is this a possibility here? I do think that most schools could do with communicating far more, so I can absolutely see where you are coming from, but it may well be cock up not conspiracy.

[robinpud]

so, what is the outcome?