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Primary education

Mixed age primary school classes

10 replies

MammaLaura · 01/07/2010 16:50

I'd like to try and uderstand better how
mixed-age classes work. If your child
is placed in a class with reception and
Year 1, and the child is among the children
starting reception, what happens at the end
of the primary school cycle? At some point the children starting now Year 1 will have finished with primary school. What about the children from the other half of the class, who started a year later and joined them?
Will they have another year as just half class?

Thanks!

OP posts:
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domesticsluttery · 01/07/2010 16:55

In my DC's school they have mixed age classes.

There are 4 classes: Reception, Yrs 1&2, Yrs 3&4 and Yrs 5&6.

So each child spends two years in each class (except Reception, where they spend between 3 and 5 terms).

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TrinityRhino · 01/07/2010 16:57

dd2 is about to go into a primary 1/2 class

she will be in the year 2 classroom (which has two different teachers) and then go into the year 1 class for writing and reading

no idea how it will work or hw she will cope

completely confused by the whole thing and quite frankly scared

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TrinityRhino · 01/07/2010 16:58

sorry that didn't help you in any way at all

my panic spilled out instead
sorry

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Danthe4th · 01/07/2010 17:08

In our local village school we only have 2 classrooms.
Class 1 is Rec, yr 1 and yr 2

Class 2 is year 3,4,5, and 6

There are about 52 children in the school

In class 1 there is 1 teacher, 1 classroom assistant and 1 eyfs trained ta.

In class 2 there are 2 teachers and 2 ta's who are split in the morning.

Ive had 2 children go through the school, and 2 going through now.

Its fine, I trust the school to seperate as they need to, years 3 and 4 have seperate english and maths every morning and then join with the others for geography, science etc.

Really has worked well for my children as the brighter one has pushed forward and been stretched and my son who has struggled has been helped being with the level he is comfortable.

In reception the children have their own eyfs trained teacher and she is lovely, the older children are usually on seperate tables in the same room.

I think it must be hard for the teacher to plan but our school has been doing it for 100 years so it must be working!!

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domesticsluttery · 01/07/2010 18:31

Dan that is how my primary school was, we only had two classes. The DC's school with 4 classes seems huge to me!

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flowergirlbelle · 01/07/2010 20:31

My DD school runs like this as well, please don't worry! general subjects such as PE, RE, Science, Topic, IT are shared as a class. Reading, Writing and Maths are by the childs ability. My DD is in her Maths and Reading/Writing class with Year 2 & 3 (she is year 1), so is you are bright you are in a higher group, if you are struggling you would get more help.
It works well within her school and I am very happy with her progress. I hope that helps put your mind at rest. Do speak to the teachers though they are there to help

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AMumInScotland · 01/07/2010 20:47

DS was in mixed classes all through primary. In his school that was the only type of class (75 max). So there was a P1/2/3 class, a P3/4/5 class and a P5/6/7 class. Each year he would be with a different group of pupils, as the oldest ones moved up and a new P1 group joined.

It can work very well if the school are used to doing it, as the children are often working in groups anyway.

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paisleyleaf · 01/07/2010 23:50

There'll be a new intake

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MammaLaura · 07/07/2010 13:20

Thank you for your replies! It helps.
The whole system is quite confusing...

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taffetacatski · 07/07/2010 14:24

My DS is in a split year school, with half the children starting Reception in Sept, half (the younger ones ) starting in Jan. 2 separate classrooms for these. Then, there is one straight Y1 class, a Y1/2, a Y2 straight, a Y2/3, a Y3/4, a straight Y4,a Y4/5, a Y5/6 and a straight Y6.

Each class has its own classroom ,teacher and TA. As you get towards Y5 the teachers specialise a bit more and swap around for different stuff eg RE/DT.

In DS's class this year (Y1/2 split ) half the class are Y1 and half Y2. They are in different groups for different things and are taught according to the curriculum for their age and according to their individual ability. Its very confusing.

DS is going to split from all his friends next year.

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