combined class y1/y2

[dappy]

My sons school has proposed (for one year only - my son's year) to combine one class of year 1 & yr 2 due to not having enough classrooms in Sept 2010 to accomodate the 72 children progressing to y2. This would be for one year only as they will be building a new classroom for Sept 2011 y2s. Naturally I am opposed to this as if my son is one of those 'selected' I believe it will be detrimental to his education & subsequent transition to the Juniors (Y3) I am looking for any opinions/ proof that it works or doesn't work, as a few of us mum's feel that we have to enter the debate 'informed'. My son is currently in Y1 & doing very well.

With regard to Y2 being more important due to assessment, SATs have changed and children are assessed throughout the year, rather than simply at one point in the year.

If children are moving from an infant to a separate junior school, then of course support needs to be offered and organised, but this support can happen just as easily and well in a composite class as in a single age class.

As I mentioned, the school may be under financial pressue and not have flexibility over whether they run a composite class or not. Classes break even when there are about 28 children in a class in this area. This means, that your ds's school may not be able to afford to run 3 classes of 24 and pay for a temporary classroom.

Good luck with your discussions.

All schools have to make cut backs due to finances current and future. Our school went from 12 classes to 11 this year (so most classes went up in numbers by 4-5 pupils). Four of those are mixed years, only a few years ago the school rarely had mixed yr groups.

I doubt you'll get anywhere fighting this because of the money and premises factors are fixed, you'd be better off concentrating your energies by continuing to do everything at home to your utmost to support your child's learning.

Every school and teacher should be able to handle mixed year classes, the same skills apply.

Very gracious apology, dappy. Thanks.
And I was more than a little snippy last night so sorry too.
But feenie's point was valid: the "official" curriculum for any yeargroup is only a starting point really. We have to look at where the children are at (Assessment for Learning) and take them on from there. All of them. Regardless of where they might be individually. So if your DS's current teacher is catering for his needs now, then so too will the next, whether it's a single year group or mixed.

I can see that it would be easy to worry that some kids are being "kept back," be it because of the geography of the school or whatever, but try to view it as making 3 classes out of 2. One year 1, one year 2, and one mixed. (have I understood that correctly?) And, whilst I'm sure you're thinking of all of them, the children of your friends' kids too, but I'm guessing that your son, if he's able, would more likely to be in the straight Year 2 class.

To put it into perspective, and echo someone earlier, the ability range within a class is so wide anyway that it wouldn't necessarily make much difference anyway.