To complain to school

[tall1234]

My daughter is going into year 1 and as is customary they have mixed the classes. It’s a big school and they do it to readjust for ability / gender etc.

im absolutely gutted from my DD. She’s been separated not only from her three friends, who are all together in another class, but as an added issue the one other girl she has made friends with from an out of school football club is also in that class.

my daughter is a shy and anxious child and a similar thing happened to her at the end of reception, to be honest it took her a year to make new friends and then lockdown hit with all the issues that came along.

she sat in her new class this week alone, with no one to talk to.

would I be unreasonable to contact the school and complain? I feel so bad for DD.

I wouldn't contact the school and 'complain', I'd maybe ask to have a chat with the teachers and ask how they feel she is settling.

Before you complain, just ask how the decision was made. We ask the children to give four names and make sure they are with at least one of them. I'd be surprised if they had cruelly taken her away from everyone she knows but it is possible that a mistake has been made. At our school, we don't move children into another class at parental request, but some do now to pressure so you could ask.

You could ask, but before you do, maybe ask the teacher to keep an eye on her and encourage her to make friends within the class.

The class teacher will have been briefed on all the children by the reception teacher, so will probably know that she is shy.

Children often work together in groups and she might settle more easily than you expect.

Yeh I get that. I just know how hard she found the last shuffle after reception and it seems to cruel 😟

I'm confused when you say the last shuffle from reception. If she is going into Y1 then she is in reception now?

I don't think all this shuffling is fair or necessary. My DD goes to a 5 form entry school, they have only had one shuffle and that was going into Y5. She would have found it too unsettling to constantly change. When they mixed them this year they kept friendships together. So DD moved with 3 good friends. She has also made some new friends and still plays with friends from her old class in the playground if that is any consolation. Are they going to mix them every year? I don't understand what ability or gender has got to do with it?

The time line of this makes no sense? End of reception is start of yr1? Lockdown was like 2 years ago? I'm lost.

Speak to the school and prepare to be pushy
IME that is what works

It's sgit that sometimes they decide it will be "character building" to seperate children my dd was always separated because she was so good at making friends unfortunately now she can't really keep friends long term because she is used to only being with people a year or two at a push

Sorry that was a typo - she’s going into year 3

Sorry for the confusion. She’s going into year 3. The last shuffle she didn’t cope with was going into Year 1 (which was Covid year).

Not sure how helpful this is but we tend to organise classes based on kids reading groups. Perhaps those children are in different reading groups to your daughter?