Be honest… would you be ok with your child in a classroom like this?! Apparently common in state sector

[Mrppp]

our daughter is due to start school next September. We learned today that the classes are merged from ages 5 to 9. So 5 and 6 year olds in one class, 7 and 8 in another etc. This means in some instances children with be two years apart, depending when they are born, but in the same class?

surely this is crazy? Development is huge over a year at that age?

My kids went to a small village primary school with a total of four classes covering ages 4-11. Obviously it depends on the school but in our case it worked fine.

That’s only ‘common’ if you’re in an island with a total kid population of 20!

My dc were in combined classes and absolutely thrived. It was no problem and has been going on for years.

I couldn't get worked up about it, but that's probably because I'm 67 and it was very normal in the 1960s and where I lived in west Cornwall. Most primary schools were small.

The alternative is no local school and driving miles to find one, presumably.

All merged? DS' school had two "bulge" years where they accepted an additional half class. The first year they had three smaller classes, but then once the second year also had the extra children they had 2 classes of just Reception/Year 1 and one class of mixed - this went on for a few years until a combination of natural attrition and the option to increase class sizes kicked in.

It's surprisingly fine. Our school does a lot of work around subject matter school-wide. But I do think sufficient teaching assistants is necessary to help when the children are being separated for tasks.

Having said that, it only went to Year 2. Im' not so sure about higher year groups.

If it's a small rural school then that's not unusual.

I've taught in mixed-age primary classes. You're not wrong that there are extra challenges, and if you're worried you could ask for a chat about them with the teacher or phase leader - but my experience is that they can work really well, with a good teacher and TA support. There is always a need for differentiation and targeted small-group work in any class, so it isn't as different as you might think.

I'm in a rural village and DS has always been in classes like that. It's not had any adverse effects on him. He's predicted top grades at GCSE.

The school I work in has only two classes and covers ages 3-11!

The work is differentiated, and there are lots of support staff.

It Isn’t uncommon to have mixed age classes. I’ve taught at two where they had mixed year 1/2, 3/4 classes and 5/6 classes and were normal town state schools. It was low birth rate for the current cohort that are starting school.

I don't think it's ideal (and more difficult for the teacher I expect) but it's common in smaller schools and if the school was otherwise good I wouldn't let it put me off.

Totally normal in smaller schools. Works really well for the children. Much harder for the teachers though. I did really well in a small primary and my children are doing well in a school with mixed classes

My dc were in combined classes and it worked really well - because the teachers were excellent at differentiation. My dd thrived being able to do the more difficult work with the big kids. It's also worth considering what TA support will be in the class etc if you can find out. The 'big' dc benefit from being the old hands and able to show the 'little' ones about, the 'little' ones benefit from having 'big' friends in the playground. It would not immediately be a concern for me.

We had this in primary. Didn't have any issues

”vertical learning” is the new thing I think.

it’s supposed to be an excellent way of teaching as kids are taught by ability rather than age. Great for challenging able kids, and slower learners can also go at their own pace.

my kids school did a variation. They were generally in their age classes, but mixed for key subjects like maths, so the very bright y1 kid went to learn with yr3.

It was common when I was at primary school in the 60s - in those days, our composite class contained at least 42 pupils.

Nowadays (in Scotland at least) composite classes are smaller than 'normal' classes - max of 25, I think - and this seems to work well.

Yup. Have just checked.

This article might be of interest.

https://fraserofallander.org/new-research-on-multi-grade-classes-and-pupil-attainment/

Mixed age group classes ate very common.

Its better than extremely long journeys to get enough children of the same age together...

(My mums school had 20 children 5-13 for example. At 13 they went into lodgings near the secondary school on a different island, or to a proper boarding school)

It's common with a 45 child intake per year - wasn't ideal but okay for my kids. Lower ability children ended up with much younger kids though and it also skewed the gender balance. Was heartbreaking sometimes if you were split from a friend.

I was in at least 1 class like that at infants school, and again at junior school (year 4/5) and we had 2 teachers split through the week too.

worked fine for us - there is wide disparity in ability in kids of the exact same age at that stage anyway, and teachers are experienced at making sure they're working at the appropriate level for them, so there will always be a mix of kids working on different things, or being set slightly different tasks. DS was a bit slow off the mark at primary school, but was flying by the time he left.

Thanks, I’d never heard of it before and was quite shocked! Only alternative round here is private so I’m glad people have found this set up ok.

Totally fine, and the norm in many village schools in my area. There can be a huge ability range even within one year group, so you will always need to differentiate anyway.

My son went to a small school with only five physical classrooms so there were composite class groups all the way through.

Pluses: friendships all across school years, rather than being with one group all the time
In Scotland, composite classes are capped so actually he was in a smaller overall group
Because it happened all the way through school, his teachers were very well practiced at setting and extending children based on ability/stretch

Negatives: sometimes there would be a lot of DCs from year group A and not an awful lot from year group B

Where primary one and two are mixed I think it can be a bit of a pain for the P2 kids who are by that point much more aware of the school routine which then has to be taught again to the p1s. Likewise I felt sorry for p6s in a P7 composite because we do make an awful lot of fuss around kids in their last year at primary.

But overall, fine and no problems. Being honest.

I went to a primary school with two classes, infants and juniors.

dd went to a school with 3 classes, infants on one and then juniors split into two classes.

its common in small rural schools. I was fine and dd did well. In fact we moved her from a standard school to that school in year 3. She had fallen behind at the bigger school and came on leaps and bounds in the smaller school even with merged year classes. As long as teachers are providing differentiation of work which they should do anyway i dont see the issue.