I am worrying about the whole mixed class thing which occurs in DS? school and I would like some reassurances from others who have experienced it.
It?s a village school with a PAN of 20, a few years ago it had falling numbers but in recent years (last 3) it?s been full and the actual intake has been more like 20 ? 23 ish. So the school is ?bottom heavy? IYSWIM.
This year my DS is in a class with his own cohort plus just a handful of kids from the year above, but for next year it?s looking like it?s going to be closer to a 50:50 mix of his cohort with the one above. Basically what happens is that the lesser able third to a half stay in the same class and the more able move up to join the lesser able kids of the year above. This seems to happen a lot in the middle years as Reception stays as just Reception and at the top of the school they put Y5&Y6 together.
I am worried about how they differentiate work across such a broad spread of kids? ability and stages. For example within a given year group I would estimate that there is more than a year?s difference in ability/progress between the kids at the top end and those at the bottom end of the class and from what I can see from my own DS work, the work is not really differentiated enough for the kids already without throwing in a new half of the class who are now supposedly working in a different key stage.
Can anyone please explain how this can work successfully as I am really unsure about it.
Also what happens when the current full KS1 classes get to the top of the school then in this case? We are talking of a combined group of 40-45 kids potentially, they can?t have a class as large as that presumably? So then some Y5 will be left in the class below potentially with Y3 and Y4?
As you can see I am really struggling to fully understand and get my head around all this, it is something that has worried me since day 1 at this school but until now it has not really affected DS.
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Mixed class worries, help me understand please
2 replies
RaisinHell · 30/06/2011 08:13
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