Mixed Years classes in primary school

[nicurro]

Hi , our local primary has started this year in mixing Y2 & Y3 pupils together.
This has been quite stressfull for the children as they have been moved into a small class away from the friends they had last year and the Year 3 pupils are going over work that they did last year.
Surely this is an absolutely stupid approach for the development of children.
Does anyone else have this in their Primary school and have there been any studies done into the impact of this by the Government.
The class size for this mixed goup is 16 pupils where the year 3 class that my Daughter is in has 33 pupils. Surely a better balance could be achieved.

[witlesssarah]

Sorry to hear its stressful for you. The school DS is at has this, but he's only in reception so I don't know how he will respond. But I had this as a child and it was great, it spreads out the ability levels so that younger children can be challenged and older children work at less challenging levels without having to accelerate them or hold them back. It worked for me, but I suppose it depends on how the school operates it.

[HumphreyCobbler]

It is an odd mix as it across the key stage, but in general I think mixed age classes can work very well. Most of the classes I taught were mixed year 1 and 2.

The school will have thought about this carefully - the year three children should not be repeating work, they will be given differentiated work to suit their year group.

Have the school told you why they have changed the system?

I would prefer my child to be in a mixed class of 16 than an unmixed one of 33.

[inkyfingers]

It's very common to mix years in smaller schools, but as Humphrey says, odd to mix across key stages. But the class size sounds idyllic!

The class teacher or head should be able to give an explanation for this and reasonable for a parent to ask. At our school new class arrangements are explained to parents the previous summer.

If your child is working at correct level and likes the teacher the adjustment shouldn't take much longer. If your's is a year 3 pupil, ask about the levels and targets for this year (to ensure they are being challenged) and carefully ask about the work you understand that they are repeating - it should be new stuff.

[taffetacat]

My DS (Y2) is in a Y2/3 split, with 8 Y2 pupils and 22 Y3's. It is due to a cock up oversubscription issue where an additional 8 kids were let into the school on appeal, further down the school.

Parents evening tomorrow but from what I can gather they are all doing Y3 work. Which is fine, as its been streamed, but I am worried about repetition next year. I shall be asking about this tomorrow as well as work differentiation.

The school is taking the social and emotional development of the Y2s in this class quite seriously, bearing in mind its technically a KS2 class. Amongst other things, the Y2's go to lunch slightly earlier so have longer break and sometimes go into the straight Y2 class for free play.

[prh47bridge]

As others have said, mixing years is fairly common. Mixing key stages is less common, but the teachers I know say this is mainly because parents don't like it. With such a small class it should work well and the teacher should be able to ensure that all the pupils stretched appropriately.

[Novusleaf]

All classes in our 9 class school are mixed, but they don't mix across KS1/2. As prh47 says, each pupil should be working at own appropriate level. No real problem for our kids. And they get shuffled up each year, so the not-being-in-with-friends thing is common and they just learn to understand that they can play together at playtime and lunchtime.

[ChileanMinersMistress]

nicurro - mixed classes are anything but stupid. In smaller village schools they are the only way that the school can survive.

I have 3 DCs, the oldest is now in secondary school, the younger two are still at a mixed primary and I think it works really well.

As long as you have a teacher who can plan for the mixed ages children get a fantastic opportunity to learn at their own pace, the less able don't feel stigmatised and the more able can be stretched. A good school will also be able to deal with those at both extremes of the spectrum.

I think you need to keep an open mind and think about the positives.

As for goverment studies I suppose you could look at KS2 sats for mixed ability schools but I suspect they might be misleading as the catchments for smaller schools won't be the same as those for regular sixed primaries.