Primary schools with combined years groups in one glass

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Not sure what the correct terminology is, sorry.

my oldest and now my youngest go to a primary which have one class per year group. Youngest is year 3, around 170 in the school.

my is struggling at the school at the minute and not really getting supported and considering moving schools. Although I know there could be a lack of support in any school so I am not taking the decision lightly.

many of the schools near me are smaller and rural and seem to have more than one year group in a glass so for instance year 1&2, 3&4 and so on. Another near me have year 1-3 together, year 4-5 together and 6 on its own, which would make sense putting year 6 in a single class.

anyway, experiences of these kind of schools please? Never liked the idea myself but am would like some experiences shared if possible please?

Some of the pros can be that they're still smaller class sizes than many state schools, even with mixed year groups. I think the teaching and pastoral side of things in a smaller school can be great. But there can also be downsides in terms of making friends when there's fewer children- one of my friend's kids was one of only two girls in her year group, and they tend to have a larger catchment area so your friends from school could live miles away for play dates. They also never had enough children of the same age group to field a football or netball team for local competitions.

It's tricky as a teacher because it's hard to judge where to aim your teaching at. Splitting a curriculum in to two year groups is hard and getting the balance between the two difficulties. Is the work going to be challenging enough for someone working above in the higher class? Or is it going to be too hard for the year 3 child who really should be working at a y2 level? Plus y6 might not always be there own class, next year it might be a mixed y5/6 class depending on numbers!

Where I grew up this was the norm, I think we all fared OK. Seeing what the older children could achieve made us more ambitious to learn. I live in a city now where single form entry schools seem to be considered a bad thing, let alone only 4 classes in the whole school.

Thank you. I went to a massive primary myself with 2-3 classes per year group!

my child's school is not huge and class sizes vary widely. I think there's 22 in her class, not too bad. But another class has 35 and another 17, but they are all single year group classes so I guess it depends on intake.

the class size is not really my issue. Yeah I guess smaller classes are better but her current class isn't huge as above. I don't know why her to just keep her in her current school and push for more support - she does have an EHCP and I don't think they fully supporting her needs. I was told today that she will likely slip under the radar as she's compliant and behaves at school

Smaller classes and more one-to-one teaching as the teacher is prepared for pupils to work at different levels. I was very happy with our local small school. My DC also had issues and received weekly assistance from someone coming weekly to the school (can't remember her title but she helped him with reading and writing) and as he was the only child that needed help, he got this assistant to himself every week and made huge progress. The other bonus was that my DC did not feel that he was struggling with the work as there were younger children working at the same level as him. In his previous school he stood out as he was so far behind.

My DC went to a village primary with combined year groups.It was such a tiny school that there were 5 in reception when DC1 started.
In later years the classes were about 20 over Y5/Y6.
Pros
Very family orientated caring environment.
Classes so small no child gets lost
More difficult for a disruptive child to dominate the teacher
A bright child will progress fast in the first year of the class as is exposed to teaching a year above
Cons
A bright child will feel frustrated in the second year of the group as they have picked up most of it in the first year

My eldest was exceptionally bright and while he could have been pushed harder in the long term it made no difference - he got top grades in GCSEs, A levels and a 1st in Maths at uni.
The younger one was a slower starter and the pace was very comfortable for him. He also was a high achiever once he moved to secondary school.

My kids are in a school like this. There is a class of four year olds, and a class of 5 to 7/8 year olds, and a class of 8/9 to 12 year olds. It's a very small school in a rural are, less than 50 kids altogether.

I find it really positive, there is a lot of scope for kids to work at the level they are at, the cross age groups seem to be quite good socially as well, with older kids really providing leadership to the younger ones. Overall the kids are pretty tight.

At the end they have good results in terms of the kids academics, and they are popular at events and such like going to the pool as a school because they are really well behaved.

My DCs went to a small primary school where most of the classes were composite classes.Both DC were in P1 stand alone classes (in Scotland),then from P2 to P7 all classes were composite ie P2/3, P3/4, P4/5 etc.
For example,the older P3 pupils would be in P3/4 and the younger ones in P 2/3. It seemed to work well and DC were always working at their level regardless of which class they were in.

My kids go to a village school. There currently are 4 classes and about 80 pupils. My DD is in a p1/p2 class and my DS in a p2/p3 class. The classes are decided on the numbers of kids in each year group and also ability and friendship groups apparently so they aren’t the same each year.

I’m happy. My kids are doing great and there is usually a maximum of 20 kids per class. I feel like ability can vary so much within a year group anyway, that the teacher has to teach to different levels.

our neighboring school only has 30ish kids so they only have 2 classes and I think that must be more difficult due to the spread.

I don’t think it’s good enough to say that OP’s DD will slip under the radar because she’s well behaved and compliant. She has an EHCP which must be followed. Unless it’s written in vague terms. In which case, request an emergency review and get it watertight.

I think it requires far more planning and evaluation to run mixed year group classes and huge organisation. I’ve seen it work very well though, so it is possible. I’d be concerned if there isn’t sufficient focus on the support in the EHCP.

My dc attended 2 small primaries - first one had around total 28 kids split between 2 classes - so 1-4 then 5-7 and 2nd one had 3 classes - 1-2, 3-4 and 5-7. Good points and bad - first one very friendly, family feel school. Children played across the year groups. Good liaison between school and home - it was the heart of the community so lots of activities with parents helping out in music, gardening etc activities. Small size meant dd got individual 1-1 attention every day (she has dyslexia). Her dyslexia was picked up right at the start of primary 1 I think because of the small class sizes. Poor points - because the groups were so small friendships could be tricky. dd learnt diplomacy skills fairly early on as id you fell out with someone it could be difficult to find a new friendship group. There was little opportunity for team sport. Multi years being taught in one class I think is good if you are in a lower year and need stretched - but dd at a primary 3 level found it very demeaning being taught in the same group as primary 2 or even primary one. She's 20 now - she still feels humiliated by this.
2nd school had a totally different feel and the 1-1 support (or any learning support) did not exist. So don't assume a smaller school will automatically have better support. Looking back I really wish we had moved dd from the small 2nd school to a larger school in the nearby town.
DS by the way did fine in both schools!