This is our latest draft, any comments welcome! We're going to hand it in tomorrow.
"We are writing to express our continued concern regarding the ?promotion? of ds to the Year 1 class along with 4 of his Reception classmates. It has already had an unsettling effect on him and we feel strongly that having spent several weeks making friends among his Reception peers and becoming comfortable there, that that is the class that would suit him best. Whilst ds could probably cope academically and may even respond better academically to the more structured nature of Yr 1, he is finding it very difficult going into a class where friendships and alliances are already formed and that is too big an issue to ignore. At this stage we are more concerned about his emotional and social wellbeing than what he is doing academically.
The size of the intake was known in June, but this proposal was never mentioned to any of the parents as a way of handling it. To merely send a letter announcing it, after the children have been at school for 3 weeks, making friends and settling themselves, without any prior warning, discussion or consultation is not right.
It was presented in the letter as a ?done deal?, ie not as a choice for us. Although we were invited to a meeting to discuss this, we were surprised and disappointed to find that the changes had already been made prior to the meeting. Our disquiet at this was exacerbated by the fact that the original proposal had changed radically from one where the children would spend mornings in Yr 1 and afternoons in Reception, to one where whole days Monday to Thursday (inclusive) are spent in Yr 1, with only Fridays in Reception. There should be alternative ways of handling the issue without affecting individual children in this way. We would like reassurance that all such alternatives have been explored fully.
The deciding factor in our choice of St Peter?s was that the school would best meet his emotional needs and social development. However, these needs are not being met fully at the moment and he has become very unsettled. He feels all his friends are in the reception class and that he has not made friends among the Year 1 children which is perfectly understandable.
To summarise, for ds, it does not seem to be the appropriate solution and indeed, he is already asking daily to return to his former class. We would therefore request that he returns to the Reception class with immediate effect."