Streaming in reception

[Creole]

I found out yesterday that the school my son will be going to in sept, use some form of streaming in their reception year - apples, bananas and cranberries, with apples being the lowest stream and cranberries the highest

Does any of you have this in your kids school? Is this the norm for all schools?

think a degree of competition is healthy but must be situated within a supportive educational ethos so the children feel confident enough to try and are not afraid to 'fail'

Just a slight tangent on the subject but, if the child is held back a year, is that for ever? Or do they somehow get put back into their correct year?

SM, whichever fruit/colour/character from Batman you label children with in order to disguise the ability streaming, children still know who is better at running, better at counting, spelling, making friends, etc. They also know who is worse. It's a pecking order and it exists whether you label them or not.

I think it's probably more helpful for it to exist as it means children who are struggling get extra support and children who need stretching can be put on the rack and pulled. Er...did I mean that? Oh, heck, whimsy has crept into my posts again...

Thanks a lot for all your advice, seems like this is the norm in most schools - I'll try and support him in any level he's put in.

I was just shocked that they stream at such an early age, but it seem people believe it can be a good thing.

I expect you're right, hunker. I am too much of an idealist.

Furball

If a child repeats a year, at some point they will have to go back into their correct year. This usually happens either when they go from Infant to Junior schools (if they are separate), or from Primary to secondary school. The main draw back is that they will have to miss a year completely at some point, and therefore be separated from any friends. For example, if a child does 2 years in Reception and stays with their second reception class all the way up to year 6, when they go to Secondary school, they may have to miss Year 7 (the first year at secondary school) and go straight into year 8.

As a teacher, I would want to have extremely good reasons why a child should not receive a differentiated curriculum with their current year group, with whom they have social attachments, rather than repeating a year. A decision is sometimes made on the basis of a child's level of maturity, which does not take into account that at some point, they may start to mature more quickly and will then be in a class of children a year younger than themselves.

This is all my personal opinion, and I'm sure there are other people on here who could give you reasons from personal experience where repeating a year has worked well for their child.

Littlefish thats what I thought, so in my view the child ends up worse off in the end. I met twins yesterday who were in different years due to this system.

Sorry to hijack this thread abit.

I wished they ahd had streaming at my Son's last school, they held back on teaching for a ayear as he went to a Montessori and the others just went to playschool and he was ahead. He has moved to a school now where all kids had nursery provision before entry, and there is streaming in place, I know he would have been streamed low as he is in efect now a year behind having missed out on anything in his Reception year. Fortuitously however, before he had been streamed officially, he assumed hee was in the Peaches group (surname being Peach) and streamed himself with the second group!! Ha ha ha!

I don't like the idea of steaming young children, don't like them being labelled and comparing themselves to others. However I can why teachers need to divide by ability in order to teach.

I think it's really important that children realise hat the groups aren't fixed for the rest of their school lives. I guess this is why, as a parent,I am suspiciouls os streaming. You have to hope that the teacher will look at each child's individual strengths and weakneses, moving them to the right groups at the right time.