Split classes at schools

[Thaigal]

Ill try and give a brief history!

My son was in year one, he then moved into year 2 whilst the 'not so bright' children from his year group were moved into a year 1/2 class.

Then he moved into year 3 whilst the "brightest of his age group" were put into a year 3/4 class.

What this means is that my son is now in a class with all the bullies, "problem kids" and "kids from families who just cant be a*sed" and is doing much easier work than the other class, easier spellings and everything else whilst all the time having his lessons interupted by the numerous class clowns and the kids who just don't want to be there.

Surely this cannot be good for my son or the others in his class who moved from the 'better' class last year into the 'bottom' class this year? In this class they have a red table which basically consists of my son and the few others that were in his class last year and the rest of the class is made up of the "bottom" class from last year.

Now, I'm assuming that come next september there will be a year 4 class (for the "normal kids") and a split year 3/4 class for the "not so bright" ones from his year...so surely the ones that go into the split class next year will be doing all the same work all over again??

This has really stressed me out as I try frantically to keep my son at the top of class to ensure that he gets in the "good class" next year...surely this shouldnt be the way at 7/8 years old??

Am I over-reacting?

[fortyplus]

No way! Split classes are a nightmare. A proposed new development near where I live meant that the primary school was supposed to have an extra 2 class rooms - so would go from single form entry to mixed year groups. To the credit of the governors they said that they would totally reject this due to the 'disruption to teaching methods'.
Your problem will be that it's already in place and budget constraints won't allow change.
Your son will be moved from one year group to another throughout the school. Are you sure the classes are split according to ability? This seems unusual - it's usually according to age.
I would ask for an appt with the Head to clarify the situation.

[twelveyeargap]

Did they actually say that they split classes based on ability? My daughter's primary has one and a half classes per year. Every year, based on birthdate, they split the class and generally if you were in a split class one year, you'd be in a "full class" the next year. We never had a problem with this.
I went to school in a tiny school that had only 90 pupils in Ireland, so I was always in a classroom with three year groups and the three teachers always coped fine.
I don't like the sound of them being split by ability, (for the reasons you mentioned, that you'll end up with all the troubled kids together) but otherwise there shouldn't be a problem.

I would speak to the head about the way they split.

[Thaigal]

Its definately on ability, the teachers have said that they are split via age and ability but this doesnt ring true since there are only a few kids in the split 3/4 class from my sons year and they all happen to be the 'cleverest' ones from last year and the year 4's that are in that class are all the 'not so bright' kids from the year before.

[fortyplus]

That's really not on in my opinion - talk about labelling them at a young age! My kids' school had a 'buddy system' where an academic child sat next to a less able one and was encouraged to help them. The school ended up 2nd in the league tables for the whole country a few years ago - even though it's in a relatively modest area - most of the mums & dads are office workers, builders, teachers etc.