Year groups with 1 1/2 class (45 Pupils)....how does your school sort pupils?

[pepsi]

Our school has a one and a half class year group, ie, 45 children so there will be a year 1 class, year 2/1, year 2 and so on. Last year this called lots of arguments. The classes were decided on age, ability and friendship groups, but obviously not everyone was happy with this as even the oldest child in the year was put in 2/1 and not 2 and her Mum was very cross. The school have sent out a questionaire on how we would like the classes made up. I feel that this is pointless as every parent is going to answer purely on whats best for their children, ie. my children are both spring birthdays so I wouldnt want anything to be decided purely on age. My ds7 certainly would make the higher end of ability, but my ds5 would as she is one of the brightest in her class. My feeling is make up classes on ability and friendship groups as age cannot determine how well you do at school throughout your whole school life. If they decided to do it purely on age neither of my children would ever have a chance of making it to the perceived top class which could indeed affect the rest of their school life. What system does your school use and what do you think on this subject, which definately seems to be a "what side of the fence you sit on" sort of argument.

Ours has an intake of 70. In infants:

2 reception classes of 30
1 reception(10)/year 1(20) class
1 year 1 class (30)
2 year 2 classes of 30
1 year 1(20)/year 2(10) class

In juniors it's just 2 classes of 35 in each year.

I think they just keep it a real mix so there is a mixture of ages, gender and ability in each class. Ds1 has been in a straight reception and straight year 1 class so the split classes haven't been an issue for us as yet. Most people I know have been perfectly happy with it. His straight year 1 class is definitely a real mix with some children still struggling to read and some flying through year 2 and 3 books despite still being only 5/6.

It's been done like this at our school for years and must work well as it's been a top school for as long as I can remember (I grew up here) and it's just had an 'outstanding' Ofsted inspection.

IME any class is made up of a range of abilities. For example the year 5/6 class I am with at the moment has everything from working towards level one up to level 5 in it in all areas of the curriculum. Teachers have to deal with a wide range of abilities as a matter of course.
We are vertically grouped( two age groups in a class) for the first time this year and it has been a huge challenge in terms of friendships, how each year group percieve each other etc. More so than the academic side of things. In fact some of the year 5 children have soared!!
We had to do lots of group building activities and now towards the end of the year, all the children have learned some valuable skills.
I don't think the classes should be arranged according to ability. That would result in a sink class.

We have an intake of 45. It's done purely on age and the children stick with their "term group" through the whole school.

So in Years 1 and 2:

One class straight Year 1 who are Spring and Summer term birthdays

One class Year 1/2 - Year 1 Autumn birthdays and Year 2 Summer Birthdays

One class straight Year 2 who are Spring and Summer term Birthdays

Does that make sense (took me quite a while to understand it )? What it means in practice is that if your child has a Spring birthday, they'll always be in the straight year group, Autumn and Summer birthdays will alternate. There is obviously some jiggling around needed as the numbers don't always work but essentially, you can map your child's path through the school as soon as they join.

Spudmasher - I agree. We were talking about it amongst mums the other night and I did point out that surely mixed classes have an ability range just as a straight year class (as ds1's does).

Must also say that they're streamed for English and Maths within the 2 years i.e. 3 classes for each in Years 1&2, 3&4 and 5&6.

As long as the school is effective in making sure that each child is working to their own ability level and is being appropriately 'stretched', it shouldn't really matter which class they are in.

Two reception classes. In year 1, two year 1 classes in the morning (for literacy and numeracy in particular), then 1/3 of year 1 pupils split between the two year 2 classes in the afternoon. Not sure how it will go from now on. Class sizes further up the school are smaller as the school has grown a lot in the last few years (village expansion and greatly improved reputatio for the school).

Based on 'maturity' (not age) and foundation stage profile.

So some July and August birthdays go to year 2 and some September/October birthdays stay with year 1. Obviously not popular with everyone!

Sorry - that should be year group sizes further up the school are smaller - one class per year group.

The school doesn't seem to have any particular system for mixing in the lower school.

Last year there was one reception class, one Yr1 class and one Yr1/Yr2 class.

This year there is a reception class, a R/Yr1 class, a Yr1/Yr2 class and a Yr2 class. The odd thing is that the Yr2 children in this year's Yr1/Yr2 class are the same ones who were with a Yr2 class LAST year. Effectively they've now been in a Yr1 class for 2 years in a row.

As long as my children are reaching their potential I don't particularly mind which class they are in.

Absolutely Jiggles.
As long as the teacher is good and providing challenging tasks moving on all the children we should not get hung up about which 'class' they are in.

Our school does this in infants too but it is based purely on age, the cut off being the beginning of May for year 2 this year.
My dd has ended up being the oldest in her year 1/2 class and she has thrived on it, she has come on sooo much this year. I admit at the start of the year it took her a while to adjust as all her close friends were in the year 2 class but she now has more friends, some year 1 as well.

Age is the only fair way to do it if you are splitting year groups - anything else will cause ructions.

Our school used to do split classes on age, but now they do it totally mixed, so a mix of age, gender, ability etc. Works well.

We don't always have mixed-year classes anyway, it really just depends on the numbers in any particular year.