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Original poster

Mixed Ability Classes

30 replies

thismeansnothing · 01/10/2022 11:10

Were in the process of applying for secondary schools for my eldest. Were in an area I didn't grow up in, don't have any friends with kids in the local high schools so we are looking around as it's all new to us.

Our main concern is 2 of the 3 we have seen have mixed ability classes for English, maths and science. This isn't what me and DH are familiar with as we were set for everything at our schools. One school have done this for 5 years now so have a cohort who have done it all the way through and have some exam results for it. The other school have brought it in in the last 3 years.

At DDs primary there have been mixed year groups and this caused some issues. I'm not saying DD is a child genius by any stretch but she is bright and I feel at primary it's held her back a bit. In that she'll finish her work and it's been a case of read a book. Or pairing her up with someone whos struggling and getting them to work together and her re-explaining. And I don't want the same at secondary. After speaking to staff I'm dubious to see how this works in reality. How can a class of say 30 get the most out of a 50 minute lesson when there's such a range of abilities?

I have been slightly convinced to see how it may work in English. As it's a bit more abstract and ideas based and it's how you then get that down on paper. But something more skill based like maths and science I'm scepticle.

Me and DH have looked at the progress 8 score for the school that have done a cohort in this set up and it looks like it bebefits those that are in the middle ability wise. Where as high and low achievers seem to regress by the time they leave.

So what I want to know is is this the norm now? Has any mumsnetters kids gone through high school and with this set up and has it worked?

Got to say both these schools are quite small (400/500) pupils so maybe not the capacity to have mixed abilities for timetable reasons. Who knows.

OP posts:
Disneyblueeyes · 01/10/2022 11:36

I think it's fine for English, not for maths.

Even though I'm primary, I've taught mixed age and mixed ability for years and it's a nightmare teaching maths. You literally can't support every ability without spending hours and hours of your own time planning for every ability.

AllThatHoopla · 01/10/2022 11:33

My DD's is mixed ability for English.

It's very hard to teach a class if nobody is generating any thoughts or ideas. You need those children with something to say.

Nik2015 · 01/10/2022 11:31

They don’t work, someone gets left behind as the ability range can be massive.

sheepdogdelight · 01/10/2022 11:29

My DC's school is taught mixed ability for everything apart from maths. In KS4 science is "sort of " set in that most of the able scientists tend to take triple science, and they do take out a "top" set of those taking combined science (which generally roughly equates to all the combined science students who will sit the higher papers). They don't really advertise this though - so it might be that your school does something similar?

We've found it works well - it does need good teachers to be on top of the ability range and managing to set work at all levels, but my children have generally done well - I think they would both have done badly in a setted school for different reasons (DS because he has a patchy profile so any set would probably be "wrong"; DD because she is generally able but puts too much pressure on herself).

When we were looking at schools we also looked at another school that setted in every subject from day 1. The two schools took in broadly equivalent intakes. Their results were virtually identical.

In a school of only 400/500 (so about 100 a year?) there would still be quite a wide range of ability in a class even if they did set.

noblegiraffe · 01/10/2022 11:14

I would be very dubious about a school which was fully mixed ability for maths at least after Y7. Science I would expect to be set at least for GCSE if not before, for foundation/higher and single science options.

English doesn't have foundation/higher papers so at least they'd all be working towards the same exam.

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