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Education

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Original poster

Year 2 class size going down from 7 to 3!

20 replies

gingerone · 21/05/2007 14:21

DD in year 1 currently which has been fantastic in a class of 7 in a lovely private school...it is a mixed school but the class is all girls at the moment.

So quite a lot of the class are leaving and next year (year2) she will be down to being 1 of 3. I am very stressed about what they are going to do with the class, whether they will try and merge it or leave it as it is.

If they leave it as 3, I am concerned that my dd will be lonely - the others are 1 very adult girl and 1 quite babyish girl.

Help, I dont know what to do....

OP posts:

clutteredup · 21/05/2007 14:23

why are they all leaving?

throckenholt · 21/05/2007 14:25

are they likely to merge it with another year ? You will still have small class sizes so get reasonable attention per child.

Also I supposed more children might join during the year.

Original poster

gingerone · 21/05/2007 14:31

2 are going to live abroad, 1 is going to a different school, 1 needs more friends....all very different reasons.

Year 0 at the moment has 16 and Year 2 has a similar number or maybe less.

In the past they have merged classes Years 5 and 6 for example. The thing is I think they will merge down, not up as not all of year 0 will go up as some of them are very young and will carry on in year 0.

The school has recently moved groups (from 1 to another), the head is leaving and the year 2 teacher is pg - it does not look good.....

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macmama73 · 21/05/2007 14:48

Am pretty jealous to be honest, my dd starts school next year. The school we have been looking at are planning to start this year with 35 kids! God knows how many will be in the class next year. They are only allowed to split the class if it bigger than 36 kids.

I can understand your worries, but even a class of 19 with mixed age groups has got to be better than that!

Original poster

gingerone · 21/05/2007 14:52

OK, have called the group who run it, but only got voicemail...

I just dont think it is good news. I know lots of people talk about class sizes the other way, but geez, a class of 3. Also, from a commercial point of view, you have to think that this cannot continue, it must cost more to run this than they get in...

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tigi · 21/05/2007 14:54

To be honest I wouldn't be happy about my child just having 2 same age friends. We have small classes at our village school, which they have to merge together, to make classes of 20+. Now my older son has started his senior school, where there is an intake of 90, I have to say i am quite pleased that he has more of a choice of friends to play with. I though wouldn't be worried about a mixed year class, they soon make friends and play together anyway. It's just that they may be split again the following year, and so have to start to make friends all over again with new children.

tigi · 21/05/2007 14:56

What i also meant to say was that the social mixing aspect is as important as the educational side. Aren't there any other schools she could go to to get a better mix?

macmama73 · 21/05/2007 15:03

A class of 3 wouldn't work anyway, look how often kids are ill, the teacher would be sitting alone some of the time or with just one pupil.

Sometimes mixed ages is quite good though, the little ones learn from the big ones and the big ones learn a lot about social skills. They are doing an experiment at the moment here with a combined year one and two. Don't think it is good with so many kids but might be ok with a smaller class.

Original poster

gingerone · 21/05/2007 15:04

Am thinking of moving her, but it is a real nightmare in terms of schools and our lives right now. DH considering giving up work, we are considering moving, it is all up in the air, so dont want to move her and then move her again...but also dont want her to be with 2 other girls.

School still hasnt called back

OP posts:

Original poster

gingerone · 21/05/2007 15:07

DD is in year 1, ds in year 0 and he will probably stay down for a bit longer as he is only 4. However, I keep being told how bright she is (pretty much straight As - haven't a clue where it comes from) and if they mix down, I dont know whether she will get enough of an educational challenge.

Also, then what happens, she moves into year 3 with 2 other girls?

Also, it is more the social side that is really stressing me out.

OP posts:

hannahsaunt · 21/05/2007 15:18

FWIW ds1's teacher said that in mixed year classes they always teach to the higher end as it's easier and more effective to provide support to the younger end whilst the older ones then get on with the task.

parma · 21/05/2007 15:20

Tbh I'd have serious concerns about the school's viability. Have the classes always been like this or is your dd's situation not so typical ? And yes, socially not great either, to say the least !

Original poster

gingerone · 21/05/2007 15:27

Hmm, school group just called, they are going to hold a meeting within the next week apparently, nice of them to let me know.

There is such a massive difference between those going into year 2 (joined up writing, long sentences, great reading) and those just leaving year 0 (very little reading, huge lovely wobbly writing, shorter sentences and less understanding of the world) that I think it would be very hard for them to teach to the top of the class. The other problem is that they keep telling me how exceptionally bright she is and how she will need her own type of exams to make sure she gets the most she can, how on earth would this work in a mixed class.

Socially it would be a disaster for her I think. She will be 6 nearly 7 and the others will be just 5 which at school is quite a large difference. Also, she has just found out that 1 of her current class is leaving and she is a bit stressed about 'why all my friends are leaving?'

OP posts:

haggisaggis · 21/05/2007 15:32

ds attends a state primary. THere are 5 in his year (P3), 5 in P2 and 3 in P1. Needless to say, teh 3 years are taught in one class. It works fine - although I had a bit of concern in P2 when I felt the teacher (a probationer) concentrated more on the new P1s (there were 8 at that point) than the rest. He will move into the other class next year - P4 - P7 combined - and in total there will be around 25.
THere is a lot to be said for composite classes - most of the time children are taught in ability groups anyway. The children learn to help others and work with other age groups. I would worry in a private school on the viability of the whole school though.

clutteredup · 21/05/2007 16:47

i can see your concern socially but it looks like there will be very few in the class either way so academically they will be able to teach to your dd's individual strength - i used to teach in a private school with small classes and even when i had a 'big' class of 20 (I KNOW!!) it was easy to teach to each child's ability as being private the behaviour was excellent and therefore i could concentrate on teaching and had time for each of them. i had an extremely able child in yr 4 who i was teaching up to year 6 level whilst the others were working at all different levels so don't worry too much about that side of things - it is ( or should be) what you're paying for . lots of luck.

fakeblonde · 21/05/2007 22:26

I have been through exactly the same dilema !
dd1 is now 15,dd2 in year 6 and ds1 due to start the same small school my other 2 went through next year.
24 in the school in total..
dd1 was 1 of 2 in her year.
dd2 is the only girl in her year.
ds 1 will be 1 of 2.

For me personally it was disaster but thats just for us.
dd1 was very unhappy as the only other person in her year bullied her so badly she ended up in hospital.
Socially it has taken us 3 years to build up her confidence,self esteem and ability to mix confidently with girls her age.

dd2 was and remains very out going and confident was she was very bright and this wasn`t helped or encouraged as all the people she could work with to her own ability left 2 years ago.
Have been on an emotional rollercoaster with ds1 and finally decided last week to start him a a bigger village school where he will have a class of 8 in his year.

I am very wary about change, so its been a hard decision, but i agree with tigi that social skills are as if not more important than educational in the early years.
I am dreading telling the school he wont be coming as they are so desperate for numbers and they have literally hounded me for months to sign the new starter form.

Sorry mine is such a negative story but i feel that i have made the right decision for us and i hope you do too.

Loshad · 22/05/2007 11:07

3 is way too small for a class - imo classes can be too small as well as too big, and would feel that way about most classes under 14 pupils (admittedly if you are very rural then there is very little that can be done about it) but i would be seriously concerned about the future of the whole school, especially if the head is leaving. Do think you should prepare back up plan, even if only theory in case school is closed down - there was a private school in a very pleasant small town near our big conurbation that closed a couple of years ago. They were still interviewing and enrolling pupils right up until the Easter hols, on return all the staff and pupils were told the school was closing at end of summer term.

SparklePrincess · 22/05/2007 21:22

I specifically chose a small (110 pupil) village school for my dds, thinking that the small class sizes etc would be great & build their confidence, but its unfortunately not worked out that way at all.
They are both in mixed age classes of about 20. The youngest is one of only 6 girls in her year group, & quite frankly its not been good socially for either of them. Im now waiting on a place for my youngest at our local one form entry school where I hope they will find more choice of friends to play with.

Original poster

gingerone · 23/05/2007 10:13

I have the Director of Schools for the group calling me today....let's see what she has to say.

I am concerned, the more I think about it, the more concerned I become.

It is such a lovely school, but just all falling apart. The nursery side of it is going well, so I think they might just make the nursery side bigger and close the school. I think in total there are about 60 pupils. Lots and lots are leaving. There will only be 3 in Year 6 (is that the right year, 11 years old?) next year, 3 in Year 2, so it does not look good...

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tuppy · 23/05/2007 10:21

Very sad gingerone. I hope you find a solution.

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