Mixed age classes in primary

[MsMarvellous]

My kids go to a small rural primary and we've just had an email home to say that the school will be moving to mixed age classes from next year so that we can financially stay afloat.

I just wondered who has had experience of their child going into a mixed class from a traditional year group class and how it has worked.

My gut reaction was "argh no" but I'm wondering if there could be lots of positives here.

I went to a school like this. I think it's pretty good when you're the youngest age group. We had four years in each class, but separate tasks per two years.

I went to a school like this.... On the whole it was very positive for all of us. For some reason year 2 was the only class that wasn't mixed! (early 90's)

It is a different way of teaching and planning- one that the teachers in your school will have to learn. It will mean that they are very, very busy and stretched for a while.

I would also say that while having 2 years on 1 classroom is absolutely fine, having a single year split across 2 (so e.g. half of Y1 with reception, half with Y2) is far from ideal, in terms of guaranteeing that children in the 'split' year group ALL have access to the specific teaching that they need to progress. I would have MUCH more concern about this than I would have if e.g. starting at a school which always had 2 full years in 1 classroom with a single teacher, and was really experienced at this.

DD was at a school that was normally three form entry, but had a few low number year groups, so combined and it was great. I actually can't recall a negative at all. Great for a variety of friendships, great for group work, and differentiation. I'd hate to teach one, but as a pupil, lots of positives.

I went to a Montessori school from 4 onwards and they always have mixed age classes. Mine was 4-6, then 6-8 and 8-11 roughly if I remember correctly. That’s part of their ethos and personally I always thought it worked really well. The idea was that you worked independently and asked other students for help just as you might the teacher. I never had any trouble with the system at all, it promotes independence.

My children (now 16 and 19) went to a small rural primary school with 5 classes (they were in year groups of 11 and 13 respectively). They were in mixed year groups all the way through. We are in Bucks so all children take 11+ - they (and a high % of their peers) qualified for grammar school and transitioned with no problems to secondary. They’ve both done very well - eldest in gap year before Uni and youngest year 12. Mixed age teaching is just fine don’t worry.

I went to a very small village school that had 2 classes, infants and juniors ( although I only started part way through juniors but my previous school wasn't much bigger), I loved it although did find the work a bit easy towards the end and now I see what my DS is doing ( thanks lockdown) over those years I have no idea how the teacher made it work!

I've taught in a mixed years class (reception and year 1) during a teaching placement with a high degree of variation in the childrens abilities. From my experience the class was beneficial for all the ages. The more experienced and older children got their needs met and were stretched academically while the younger children had lots of support through staff but also through watching the higher years. I felt though that the middle ability group was often overlooked, however due to their natural abilities they never fell behind. I think with younger children the gap between ages isn't so prevalent, but if you're children are older, I might be a bit more wary.

My school was like this. There were only 2 of us in my actual year but we joined with the year below to make a class.

Tbh I didn't really twig until I went up to secondary school lol.

It was fine for me. I really don't remember any issue at all.

We have a local rural school class sizes 20ish my DS has had a mixed 3/4 and 4/5 will go to Y6 in September. Honestly it's been fine no issue at all. Close in ages so get on fine and the work is differentiated. I cant really think what a real negative would be.

DD went to a school like this. Mostly very positive. Given it was a small school, mixing the year groups meant fresh faces every year. She definitely had a preferred mix (the year below) and got on with them better.
School did stretch activities and small group work to meet a variety of needs. I'd agree it mildly neglects the able but not exceptional pupils (DD was one of these) but it hasn't held her back at high school. It was a good experience overall and I have no regrets sending her there. Every school will have something you don't like!

We have a tiny school, depending on numbers Year 1-4 and 5-7 are in same class sometimes it's 1-3, 4-7. My children haven't started yet but will this year and from what I can see it works well. The children get to know older (and younger) kids a lot better than in normal sized school and really seem to like and care for each other. I'm not worried but it's how it's been here for ever and the teachers are obviously well experienced in this type of teaching.

Our school does half and half.
My child has been in mixed age for half the years she's been in school.
The first time I did ask the teacher how it would actually work teaching 2 different levels but apart from that I've not really given it much thought.
I don't think she's had particarly different experiences either way

Composite classes are EXTREMELY common in Scotland, wouldn’t even bat an eyelid if my son was put into a composite any given year

I went to a very rural mixed age school, along with two siblings. We all had good sats and went on to achieve well.

Was it ideal? Probably not. But it didn't harm our long term education. Also, the chance to live in a nicer area versus a less nice area with bigger classes

Also tickles me that people think of 5 classes as being small, there are several schools in our local authority with only 1 class and many many more with 2 (usually P1-P3 and P4-P7)

My son was in a mixed class for a couple of years at 5 and 6. It wasn’t a problem. He made friends outside his year group; work was set separately for each group. Must’ve been harder for the teacher, but fine for him.

My kids are in a school that has 20 per year group. We have YR on their own, then Y1/Y2 , Y2/Y3, Y4/Y5, Y5/Y6.

The school has a 3 year curriculum from from Y1 onwards so no one ever repeats a topic, but not everyone has the same topic in the same year. It's been great for mine

This is all really helpful and reassuring. Thanks everyone.

I went to one for all of primary school and thought it was the norm, it was great and I loved it, we had big year groups so it wasn't cost cutting or anything so we had two receptions, two reception/yr1, two yr1/yr2 and two year 2 s

It helped with ability levels as I was high ability in my year group, so was always placed in the younger half of a split class so I could do the work of the year above.
And my brother who really struggled with a lot of stuff and had dyslexia, was always in the older half of a split class, so he could work at a slower rate and never felt like he was much less able because there were lots of younger kids there too.

We moved to one this year due to a work relocation. DD started year 1 in a 2 form entry/60 kids per year primary and moved part way through the year to a 45 kids per year primary with each year mixed ages.

I find the numbers confusing but it's worked really well. Her class is 15 Y1 and 15 Y2, and they do literacy and maths with other kids from the same year, but are otherwise all together. She's learnt a lot from the older kids and I think it will help her next year to be one of the Y2s in a mixed class so an older one. They've also got it set up so that the summer borns get a bit longer in a Reception environment - there is a 30 kid Reception class and a 15 Reception/15Y1 class.

I think it’s a big problem. The teacher has to spend half of their time teaching one class, then those kids get ignored for the other half because the teacher is teaching the work for the other class. I’d prefer my child to be taught 100% of the time not just 50%. And the teacher is obviously going to be less prepared for both classes because they’re having to prepare two lots of work so they can only spend half as much time preparing for each class.

My youngest is starting a small school in September and they’re currently maintaining one class per year group. But the reception class this year is small and if it’s small again next year they’re threatening to do mixed year groups. It’s a good school and I’d like him to attend but only if the classes remain as single year groups. I don’t know whether to just remove him from the school now before he even starts, and put him in a different school where they’re guaranteed to have single year classes?

We went to mixed year groups when I was in year 6. It wasn’t great tbh, and we ended up repeating some work. I did feel like it held me back and made it a bit boring. That was a long time ago though.

@Suddha there are very few subjects where the class has to be taught at different levels. Maths and English being the only ones I would have two sets of planning for. Even then there is a huge amount of crossover. Plus it is very good for children to learn to work independently and quietly.

Completely agree with Suddha. It's a bloody nightmare.