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?

Small village school here, only two classes . One is p1 - p3 and one is p4 - p7. My children and thriving educationally.

when i was in primary school, we had one year 3 class, one year 4 class, and one mixed of the 2, and the same set up for years 5 and 6.
The higher ability children would go mixed, 4, mixed, 6, and the lower ability 3, mixed, 5, mixed.

I thought this was normal? I remember my primary school having mixed classes in the 90's?!
My children's school has a year 1, year 1/2, year 2, year 3, year 3/4, year 4, year 5, year 5/6 and year 6. Sometimes my children have been in a mixed class, sometimes they haven't.
I must admit though, I do prefer that they aren't. Especially if they are in the younger year group (ie my son was in year 1/2 as a year 1 and the year 2's in his class seemed so much older than him).

My children's school has mixed years. 1 nursery class, 2 reception classes then 3 x mixed year 1 and 2 classes, 3 x mixed year 3 and 4 classes, then back to 2 x year 5 and 2 x year 6 classes.

It is an ofsted outstanding school. The system has worked very well there and my children have thrived. It's not a tiny village school but not a huge school either.

@Mummy2024 because it not one age group. It's like year 1-3 in one class.

They change the composition here every year. Have not announced it yet.

The issue re siblings is very much child led.

Two of mine, two of my friends, they would not want together. Two of other friends, they absolutely would. So I suppose they look at the children and balance it around that. Do we have 1-3 or 1-2 etc.

I think this is great- at the moment my child is the youngest in her year - Id love it if she was with some younger children!

I think this is great. It's natural

My child goes to a school with mixed year groups. They have 4 classes with two year groups in each. It’s a small village school with approx 90 students, max 15 per year group. It’s worked really well and has extended friendships groups across different year groups as well as their own year. Teaching is either done as a whole group or by year group taken by either teacher or TA for specific subjects/topics. Been a great experience for far for my child who is now Year 4.

Politely, you need to get a grip. I attended a village school on a rural peninsula, there were two classrooms in the primary school, so 4 years in one (P1-P4), 3 years (P5-P7) in the other. I did well in that school. I don't see the issue here.

I was in mixed year group classes in primary school in the 80s and my children’s school is the same today. My daughter is in year 5, currently in a class of year 5 and 6. They split the class into ability groups for maths and English classes and then learn all the other subjects together. Works great for her.

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

Yes.

my kids village school does this but i don't see the issue, all the kids are very smart and lovely kids who love the school so must be working well. Better than going to one of those big state schools and having to fit into a class with 30+ other kids

I was worried about this, but it worked out fine. In my son's school, years 5 and 6 were also combined. It's quite nice when they go up to secondary school and know some of the year 8 quite well already. It was a big school, so I don't know why they did it.

Same at my primary school (early 80s and im fairly sure its not much different now) small village school.

Reception - 1st and 2nd year infants in the same room but two teachers.

Then the next two years together.

Then oldest two together.

Now I believe reception have their own room but otherwise its the same set up.

It is only done where classes are small, when I started primary, my year group consisted of 3 of us and by the time we left had only grown to 6!

I think it has its benefits, its quite nice being one of the older kids in the class for a little while, whereas if you are isolated to just your year group you might never get to alternate between being one of the young 'uns and one of the older ones!

I think it’s more common in Scotland due to the way our school places are allocated (all dc in catchment are guaranteed a place, so p1 intake can really fluctuate), but obviously not particularly unusual in England either. There are definitely pros and cons to it, and I suspect some teachers are better at coping with it than others. I also think it is more of an issue in the first and last years of school than others.

DS is at a primary where 2 year groups are merged. There are only ever 100-115 kids in the school so they simply don't get enough funding for a teacher per year group.

It's fairly common in small rural schools.

Not sure I'd be happy if it were to be a mix of more than 2 year groups though, in fairness.

How it was for me at school, and that school was a good one. It's the quality of teachers and willingness of the children to want to learn that is of most importance in an education.

It’s very common where I live, as we are so rural. At my children’s primary school they have 3 classes to cover ages 5-11 and one reception class as well. 4 teachers for the whole school. I think how well it will suit your child depends on their character and how academic they are. Kids who are around average academically suit it best, my kids are pretty good academically and they have always really enjoyed being in the younger half of the class working up a year ahead with older classmates, but found the second year in the same class rather stifling. However it has done the eldest no harm as he got into one of the most academically selective secondary schools in the country.

Also a lot depends on the teachers and whether they are used to teaching mixed classes.

I think it’s a lot healthier for all the children concerned.

Of the ten or so closest primary schools, my DS’s is the only one with one class per year. One school is very small and has 2 classes plus a preschool. There are advantages and disadvantages, if our local school did have mixed years I would still send DS if I was happy with the rest of the school life.

My daughter went to a small school and they merged the classes like this. She's taking her GCSE's now in a huge secondary school and has predicted 7s and 8s so it's not done her any harm.

My children's infant school had mixed year classes. There can be the same range of ability across a year group as there is across, say, the top end of one and the bottom end of another. They all went on to University and professional jobs. Good teachers know how to differentiate.

I am a Governor at a small school and due to falling rolls and tight budgets it is something we have started to talk about. Parents often don't realise that schools are funded per pupil. Small classes are wonderful in theory but the school won't have enough money to pay a teacher to put in front of the children!

Let's hope Labour tackle the crisis in education funding ......

I had this in primary, am 33 now so its not new! But it was a very small school, I think there were 8 in my year and 10 in the year above. My niece is at the same school now and they still combine the year groups, works well for all involved

It's very common in rural schools. Even in my part of London, they will open a new school with 30/60 reception places, and composite classes for the older year groups filled with in-year transfers and older siblings of the reception intake.

Composite classes are common in small and medium-sized state schools.