To be upset about the class Pods!?

[irishmammy85]

My DS (5) is starting school this year and they have been put into pods of 4/5 and not 1 of his good friends are in his pod...😭 surely it's pointless separating them as they will be having play dates outside of school!! Also does it not make sense to have them with their best buddies to make all this easier on them!? Aibu...I don't want to be THAT parent but I'm gutted for him already and they haven't even started 😫

Sorry yard not years

Maybe the schools have either randomly allocated pupils into pods, or given it good thought with proper reasons. Either is fine. You're being a bit silly. They are 4/5 it really doesn't matter what pod they're in they'll be fine. They don't need "best buddies" at that age

I definitely think the teachers have done it on purpose to (a) upset your child (b) make your drop offs and pick ups more difficult.
The teachers have nothing else to do other than work out ways of upsetting people.
I think you should complain to the prime minister. Or phone the police. Its shocking and the fact he isn’t with his best friend at age five will scar him for life. My thoughts are with you.

@switswoo81 this is what we were told!! We were told no pods at that stage...the junior class in the school I teach in has done similar to you. Ds's school seems very serious about these Pods, I haven't said anything and I won't (I wouldn't dream of it! I know how stressful it is...I get it) But sometimes my parent hat takes over. 😢 I was in school today to sort some things and it was tough.

@Barryisland that's great but why on earth would I complain to the prime minister as he has no say in Irish schools and how they are run

The Irish prime minister will though surely?

You child and his friends from play school may have been a total nightmare together and they’ve chosen to split them up. No doubt you’ll say that’s not the case but you won’t have seen what the play school staff have. They may have not put him with his cousin because they thought it may stop your son making friends.

You sound like hard work to be honest. They’re 5, they’ll have 10 different ‘best friends’ by the end of the year. I wish my daughter was going to be in a bubble of 5, she’s going to secondary school and her bubble is her whole year, 250 kids. Poor kids, poor teachers.

Haha so you post in AIBU we tell you that you are and then you state “I AM allowed to be upset” 😂. Not sure you get how this works

I don't really see the point of pods. 7 seater cars turn up to school with kids from a variety of year groups and pods and many children also have siblings in other year groups too so the idea of non-mixing is a non-starter really. When you incorporate the out of school activities, play dates, scouts and sports then it's only a text book exercise. Sure to me it makes more sense to account for friend groups if you are serious about separation as it would be easy to manage then.

We had just moved when ds started school, so he didn't know anyone in junior infants. He was fine. But his teacher was big into doing a song with actions every few minutes, I assume that won't be happening!

YABVU.

Your precious kid will be completely fine. Schools have got far bigger things to worry about right now.

I would expect one friend to be in the pod! I'm also a teacher and we make sure that there is one friend with every child.

I disagree that at that age they make friends in 5 mins or change friendships as both my children are still very close to their reception friends and so am I to mine!!

When they get older there may be reason to separate but I can't see why that would happen in their first year at school. It really annoys me when teachers say they purposefully separate friends, it feels like arrogant power wielding and is not very empathetic!!

@Barryisland he is called the Taoiseach. Not prime minister...

@irishmammy85 I think some schools are misinterpreting the guidelines. I presume it's a small enough school from the way you describe it so I don't see why they are being so rigid.
I think it's a bit tough in juniors to do it. I plan on changing the desks once a month after a weekend so kids can mix better.

Yabu

You're definitely being 'that parent'

@maverickallthetime exactly! That's what we do so I just presumed they would do the same...

Op: AIBU?
Everyone: Yes.
Op: No I'm not because XYZ.

It's more than acceptable for foreigners to refer to the Taoiseach as Prime Minister. Don't be so nitpicky over a minor issue because the majority of the users disagrees with you on the main point of the thread.

I don't really see the point of pods.

Neither do teachers tbh. They're a bit of a sham to make it seem like the government are putting safety measures in place.

Aw OP. I'd be gutted too but as a teacher you should know full well there are a lot of logistics behind the scenes other than friendship groups. He's 5, he will make new mates, and these pods aren't forever. Just accept it.

Honestly I would raise it with the school and give them a list of people who he should be in a pod with. My DD's class was split before the holidays and all her friends who were going back were in her split. It made her return to an unfamiliar environment so much easier.

Ok IABU...fair enough...

@Twigaletta I would love to but I won't 🤣🤣🙈 I would be the talk of the village 🤣🤣 I'll leave it be and be secretly gutted and hopeful that these "pods" will fizzle out as they wont be able to police them 🤣🤣

It’s entirely normal to worry when your kid is starting school and hyper focus on a less than ideal detail - especially this year.

Hope he has a great start at school.

We had to do our pods according to families-all the A’s together in pod 1 throughout the school, etc, to make dismissal easier (all pod1s leave at x time, etc) and also, if we end up having to have splits coming in, it’ll mean if all pods 1,2 and 3 come in on x day, all family members will be attending school on the same day. Unfortunately no accommodation could be made for friends. It would be an impossible task in a school of over 500 children. Accommodating families was our priority. N
Your child’s school probably has a similar rationale.

When my DS was in nursery (attached to the school) he had 2 best friends. When they started Reception there were 3 classes in that year group and they put him and each of his best friends in a different class but everybody else had been put with their friends. When I asked why the school told me that they totally agreed that the 3 of them had a lovely friendship but if they put them together there wouldn't be much learning taking place and that was that. My DS is now 13 and although isn't friends with one of them any more, he is still really good friends with the other one even though they go different secondary schools so I wouldn't worry too much. I get that pick ups will be more difficult but at the moment this situation is probably difficult for a lot of people for various reasons