With mixed age class, should y4 be doing y5 work?

[8etty8lue]

I'm concerned about my y4 DS who is quite bright but suffers more than usual from low self esteem. He was doing quite well last year (also a mixed age class), but is now in a mixed age class of predominantly yr 5 pupils and only about 6 y4's varying in ability. The teacher seems to be making them all do y5 work and now that things are getting harder for him, DS is struggling. Should the class all be doing y5 work? Even if he's bright, he's bound to struggle isn't he and his self esteem will be hit. I'd appreciate any info or advice on how work is differentiated for mixed age classes. Many thanks

There is no such thing as year 5 work.

Everyone should be working at their own level - whatever that is.

In a typical y4/5 class that could range from a level 1 to a level 5.

No way should everyone be doing the same - or should they be doing work which is too hard.

Work is differentiated by ability so I have some year 5's in my "top" group and some year 6's in my "bottom". ( In fact I have a year 4 in my middle group with some 5's and some 6's)

What Indigobell and snowball3 said.

Hi all,

Thanks for replying. Please excuse my ignorance, but the teacher is saying 'now that they are doing year 5 work', so I'm not sure I understand. What about work expected to be done in year 4 or 5 such as spellings etc and maths topics etc? I'm genuinely curious, not doubting what you are saying.

Your school may have a spelling scheme, with different topics to be covered in Y4 and Y5. That's your school, not a general thing. And is very possible.

Maths, they really do the same thing every year, with the concepts getting harder and harder as they go through the school.

Like snowball said, a lower ability Y6 child might do the same thing as a higher ability Y4 child.

But there def isn't a different syllabus for Y4 and Y5 in maths.

No the teacher should be planning separately for year 4 and 5. It makes sense to link them where possible of course but in literacy and numeracy in particular the learning objectives should be taken from each year's section of the Primary Framework.

Olibean, in reality it's more complex than that.

In a mixed Year 3 / 4 class, there will be children working on year 2, often year 1 and occasionally Early Years objectives in Maths for example, and others working on Year 5 and even Year 6 objectives. Obviously the 'core' of the teacher's planning will be drawn from the 'named year group' objectives, but inevitably the teacher looks at the relevant objectives for very low or very high ability children as well. And I would be thinking in terms of 'this particular GROUP is working on Year 2 objectives', where the group could have Year 3s and Year 4s ... equally another group could be working on year 5 objectives and be predominantly Year 3 children. It's a matter of looking at the attainment and targets for the children as individuals, rather than being constrained by their 'named year' .

To give an example, I'm doing a lesson on time tomorrow, with a Year 3 class.

Some are working on telling time to the hours and sometimes half hours - a Year 1 objective.

Others on to the quarter hours - a Year 2 objective.

Still more on to the five minutes - a Year 3 objective.

And one on calculating time intervals to the minute across one or more hours- a Year 4 or higher objective.

My main teaching will be on the core year 3 objective ... but my planning acknowledges that for some children that isn't their next step, and what they need is a step back or several steps on.