Mixed age classes for first time

[flourandeggs]

Hi, my local (rural) school has previously had single year classes but has just announced that from September the Year 2 class will be split - half the children will join Year 1, half will join Year 3. We have no other information yet but a meeting has been set for later in the week - at 2.30 in the afternoon which many parents are going to struggle to get to (work/younger children). I have spoken to other parents and these seem to be the main concerns - that the teachers are not used to these type of classes and are already stretched so will this new set up be overwhelming? That the split has been done on age alone, not taking into account maturity, attitude to learning etc (I have a summer baby but she loves learning and has been doing really well so far and is very happy in her class) Finally I have heard (not officially but from a very good source) that the children will meet for register in their new classes (mix of year 1/2 and year 2/3) then spend the morning as the old classes (Year 1, Year2, Year 3) doing maths and English but that there will only be 2 teachers to oversee this and one higher level TA. Then they will spend the afternoon in their new groups (mix of Year 1/2 and year 2/3) to do topics and other subjects. I have never heard of this sort of set up - the other schools locally seem to use a variety of factors to decide which classes children join and don't rely on higher level TA for core subjects. Sorry for long post, I just wonder if anyone has any wisdom for me? I have two older children so not new to school changes but this one is confusing me!

The school should not really be using a HLTA for the mornings lesson on a regular basis if they are running three small year group classes.They are saying they are running 2 larger classes mixed year1/2 and year2/3 so they only need to have 2 teachers but using an HLTA long term is not acceptable. You need to challenge the school at the meeting as to whether this is really happening or not.

My children were in split classes most of their primary school life (I think every year except reception and year 6). They selected by ability rather than age (except in reception when the older ones went in with some of year 1).

I think it worked well when the classes were pretty evenly split, which was the case most years. However, year 1 was difficult for my older daughter. Her year group was split 3 ways: one class of all year 1s, one class mixed with reception children, and her class in which she was one of only 6 yr 1s in a class of mainly yr 2s. She started the year knowing only one of them because the other 4 had been in the reception class for older children (mine and the one she knew had been in the reception class for younger children (both had summer birthdays).

The year 1s were a bit neglected I thought, as the teacher concentrated on preparing the yr 2s (who the weaker ones in their year group) for their SATs. It was also uncomfortable socially. I remember my daughter was invited to very few parties that year, because the yr 2s didn't invite her to theirs and many of her old reception classmates just invited the whole of their new class. That made my life easier, but she did feel a bit left out sometimes.

Thank you both for your replies. They have now said that they are favouring teaching only two classes, so a mix of Yr3/Yr2 and another of Yr2/Yr1. So no need for HLTA teaching core subjects, but they will be very large classes and more of a schism for the going in to Yr2 class who have had 2 years together to form friendship groups. My daughter is young so will go 'down' but has a great attitude to learning to hoping the feeling of staying down doesn't impact on that. Bit of a first world problem I suppose, I am aware we are seriously lucky to get great state school education in this country, my children all watched The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind on Netflix recently and realise just how lucky they are.