Mixing up classes in primary school

[Faciadipasta]

My dc has found out today (with no warning) that their school has decided to mix up the 3 classes in their year group as they move from year 2 to year 3 in September. They are the only year that this is being done with. A LOT of the children were in tears at pick up today. I'm really worried that they will all have difficulties making new friends, and a lot of them are already saying they don't want to go to school any more now. If this has happened to your dc how did it go? Were the kids happier in the long run?
It just seems really mean, I'm sure they have reasons for doing it but I feel like these kids have already all had so much to deal with, being the cohort that were in reception when covid hit, so they've missed so much in terms of continuity and security within school and now they are having their friendship groups broken up as well. I think I'm almost as upset as my DS (who has been in tears since he got home) the reasoning the school has given is that the class sizes are uneven. They currently have 2 classes of 24 and 1 of 30 so they want to make them more equal. I do understand that point but I think only 2 children have actually left the year since they joined so why couldn't it just have been more balanced from the beginning?

Can't be many schools that segregate all classes at break and lunch? Some different year groups have staggered breaks but can't imagine the logistics of splitting the same year groups up?

If it does happen it must be the minority of schools.

I realise it's going to be a minority but our local primary has for example year 2 class a on playground 1 and year 2 class b on playground 2. They are not allowed to mix. They have lunch at the same time but each class has its own table, again no mixing.

How many schools have the two playgrounds you speak of, @Zwellers?
Or the no fraternising rule?
Are the children kept apart at the start and end of the day?

And do people not have the phone numbers of parents of their children's friends? No possibility at all of organising playtime together?

I suspect only a very tiny minority of students would be affected by the circumstances described by Zwellers, so the assumption that mixing classes would not result in the upset associated with severed friendships is very likely valid.

Classes were mixed every year at our DD’s infants school, 4 classes per year group . Moved on to junior school and they also mix the classes every year, 6 year groups. The kids are used to it and the view is that it helps prepare them for secondary school. New teacher every year too.

Our school is doing it for the first time this year. Like yours, we didn’t get any warning; they just asked the kids (year 2) to write down their favourite friends who they’d like to be in class with and then that evening they sent us an email to tell us what they were doing. I think they’re trying to spread out the troublesome kids as they seem to be concentrated in one class. I’m just hoping I can finally escape from the really annoying mum who thinks she’s in charge of our current class!!!
DD doesn’t seem too bothered, but she seems to know most kids in the year anyway. They’re already in sets for literacy and maths so they’ve worked with different kids over the last 2 years.

I live outside the UK, and mixing the classes every year is the absolute norm. It was only on mumsnet that I discovered that (some? most?) UK schools don't do this. Cocooning them in the same bubble for years is ridiculous.

It's healthy for them to change every year. Imagine being stuck with someone who bullies you/disrupts the class/is teacher's pet for 5-6 years. What a nightmare.

The other side of the coin is that each year you will get a parent who demands that their child isn’t in the same class as another child.
So what do you do? Move that one child?

@Zwellers have they said why? I can see it might have been something good to utilise in Covid to avoid both classes going down but why still?

I'm in the US and I agree. I didn't realize this was a thing they did in the UK.

The other side of the coin is that each year you will get a parent who demands that their child isn’t in the same class as another child.
So what do you do? Move that one child?

No, you issue a statement that the school decision is final and no objections to class composition will be entertained. People get used to it and accept it.

I'm pleased ro say that after a 'transition day' my DS came home feeling a lot happier than when he was told. He even told me he had made a new friend which was great.
I can see that there could potentially be a lot of benefits from mixing classes but I still feel our particular school handled it badly.
The children were not aware that it was even a possibility until they were told they were being moved. It would surely have been better if we could have spoken to.them before hand to prepare them. Lots of PPs have said their children were able to write put a short list of.top friends so the school could ensure they were placed with at least 1 and this seems like a reasonable compromise to me.

Good news that it went well.....