DS moving into Y1 in a mixed year group class with Y2 - how does this work?

[Eggrules]

DS is in Reception and will be moving into Y1 in September. 15 of the most able/mature will move into a mixed year group class. The rest of the year will be mixed up/together (not sure).

I understand that teachers/ schools do differentiate work now. Since the start of Reception, DS and a few of his peers, have gone to Y1 for some literacy lessons. The two YR classes mix together really well and also take lessons in mixed groups. This has worked well so far. We have been told that the children will feel a change in gear in Year 1 with regard to the learning atmosphere.

What are the benefits of a mixed year group?
Is this hard on the Y2 children?
Has anybody had any positive/negative experiences?

So glad to see you are the OP asking this, Eggrules, I look forward to hearing how they split the current R children up next year WRT to ability and the reactions of the Competitive Reception Parents! (I suppose we will have to change their name then to Competitive Year One Parents ).

Anyway, I'm off the point. I don't have personal experience (yet) of a mixed year1/year2 class, but know that at my DD's school all of the new year 1's and 2's are split up equally between 3 classes and stay in these classes for registration, topic work, P.E, R.E, stories etc; For literacy and numeracy they are split into something like 5 working groups based purely on ability, not age, so theoretically you could have a very bright year 1 child working with the most able year 2's for a subject, or a year 2 child who is below average academically and needs more support working with the lower ability year 1's - does that make sense? AFAIK from talking to friends who have children in KS1 it seems to work well as all the children have teaching tailored to their needs much more than in eg. a standard year 1 class where the teacher has to cater for a HUGE ability range each lesson. My DD is in a mixed 3/4 year and I would say that the only slight problem I have heard of is that movement between ability groups is perhaps not as easy compared to a class of, say, just year 3's. But if you have an able child they benefit from, effectively, being taught the curriculum for the year above, which has worked well in our case.

Do let us know about all the fun & games when the divvying up for next year starts .

I've had a positive experience. My DS is in a 1/2 class. In his school it started of about half and half and is now (towards the end of the year) mostly yr 1. My DS certainly hasn't suffered - the teacher seems to give the Yr 1 children the right amount of work. And other the awe with which my DS can say 'but he's 7, you know', he doesn't seem to have noticed. No idea what the Yr2 children think or their parents.

Hello there Iamnotminterested So glad it worked well for your DD. Will she stay in the same class next year?

I had a small disagreement with another parent and did not behave well (my fault). I did not heed the good advice regarding ignore and avoid. I was having a bad day and 'saw my arse'. I am back on track making friends with some of the quieter parents. The class assembly is all about what the children are good at/ have a talent for. I am looking forward to the family and friends time aka post mortem, loud parenting and bragging.

Anyhow, a lot of people are very anxious that their DC is in 'the top 15' and I think some people will definitely be disappointed. Reception is all about settling in and that is what should be important. To be fair, I find some feedback to be a bit meh. If all children are doing really well; none of them are. I am not very good at reading between the lines and would prefer a brutally honest approach.

I think the competitive nature of the minority of parents is putting me off the mixed year set up. There is more to intelligence and ability than a precocious reading level. I am worried about how the DC will mix socially. The age difference probably won't be a factor as there may not be much difference.

DS isn't very bright imho. I am worried there will be a massive jump in learn through play to going to big school iykwim?

Will the year 2 DC be bothered to be with children of a younger year? (I suppose it depends on how the school deals with the mix).

Actually KW13 I didn't think about the age difference potentially being 5 and 7. I suppose a lot of countries start formal education at 7 and things will change as they progress.

Our primary did this. It works well if your dc is one of the ones that goes into 'yr 2', as my dd2 did. dd1 'stayed back' and it really knocked her confidence plus split up her peer group.

DS and 4 others were moved from YR to Y2 instead of Y1. This was really due to there being more than 30 children but a small Y2 class so they just picked the 5 children that would cope in Y2 academically and socially (not just the top 5 academically).

They cope really well with the age difference and the Y2s welcome them into their class no differently than they do the other Y2s as far as I know.

Next year there will be 90 KS1 children, 32 in YR2, so they will have to do a proper mixed year group but they seem enthusiastic about it at the school so I am hoping it will work ok - I am a bit worried though.

nummus I completely agree however at DSs school it has been the parents that have moaned not the children.

nummus that is what I was thinking; it must be harder for the children that feel they have been kept back. How is DD1 now?

accountantsrule the DC must pick up on the parent's views. Whatever happens I think you have to put a positive spin on things.

Eggrules Hi, yes she will be a year 4 in the mixed 3/4 classes next year, obviously, and like in KS1, will be with her "class" for reg, science, history, P.E, R.e, PHSCE etc etc but will continue to be in mixed ability groups for num and lit. I will have a chat with her lovely, lovely teacher at the end of the year though because DD is really quite good at all things literacy related and I need to know that there will still be enough challenge there for her next year.

With regards to the potential age differences between classes she has only mentioned one incident when the "I'm 9 and you're only 7!" scenario has occured and TBH the child she mentioned is a right royal PITA anyway so would have chosen other ammunition if she couldn't use the I'm older than you card.

Hiya. DS1 was 'held back' because they split it by birthdays/ability. All of his friends 'went up'. He was distraught-he spent 2 years in Reception. I think it held him back and his self esteem was non existent.

It happened again in the next class, he was held back and did Year 3 in the Year 2 class while his friends went up to be with the Year 4s. He had a tutor at that point.

He is nearly 13 now and in top sets but his self esteem is still a battle.

Iamnotminterested interesting point about keeping her challenged next year. Will she have the same teacher ?

dd1 moved from a reception class into a mixed YR/Y1 class, so the class numbers added up. there are IIRC 17 Y1s and 10 YRs. I was very concerned about this, especially as to how she would fare socially, but it's been brilliant.

the work is differentiated, although DD1 does work with the Y1 children in literacy, where she excels, but there's plenty of time for play. she's also been invited to a few Y1 children's parties, so must be doing ok socially.

Reading these posts it does seem that if done badly a child could suffer.

Surely a proper mix of ALL the year 1's with ALL of the year 2's for general classroom stuff would stop the problems that could occur if a child thinks they have been "Kept Down"? I think my DD's school handle it well, no-one AFAIK feels the way mentioned in some posts.

Sparklingbrook that is so sad. I hope the school deal with it well, especially with regard to the Y2 DC. I will prepare my DS to ensure he knows that the other DC have worked hard and things could change.

I am hoping that he will be with some of the DC that he has been taught with this year. He has not been asked to any Y1 parties.

It was sad Egg. DS2 had it the other way round, and 'went up' each time. He is full of confidence and very able. I can't help thinking it is linked. How could it not boost your self confidence knowing you are in a class half full of older children who you are keeping up with?

My dd moved up but I don't think it was good socially. The younger and less able girls were split from the older more able. Dd loved it but then of course when she did full year 2 class with her whole original class, it upset friendship groups both ways. Sme girls she was friendly with went up to yr 3 and h peers that joined her kind of unsettled others.
Wouldn't recommend it purely for those social reasons

Yes you're probably right eggrules, I don't think it has affected the children in this case as much as it was just 5 children out of 32. Also the 5 children were way ahead in particular in literacy so the other children knew that due to reading levels etc. I overheard some parents talking about it in a jealous type way so not really from the perspective you describe.

I think 15 is a lot and I think the children would feel left out for sure and TBH I don't really see the need if they are mixing the rest of the year groups anyway.

15 is about 1/4 of the year. I have no idea how many DC go up to Year 1 now - I think 5? It has been clarified that 15 from the current YR will go up; 15 will be 'kept back' from Y2. The rest of Yr will go into one class. I think I would rather he stayed with the R class. I am not sure why they don't do the same as they do now which is to move children up to Y2 on an ad hoc basis.

accountantsrule I can see this will cause problems with a few parents. There are a few very strange parents. It is sad that my DS won't be with his friends.

I trust the school and hope that they will help the new mixed class socialise as a top priority.

We found at first there were no issues and that they were invited to birthday parties of Y1 and Y2 children but as the year has gone on the 5 that went up to Y2 have been excluded more and more, its not an issue at paly time as far as I know though. DS is lucky that 3 of his close friends went up with him but if not it would have been a different story I would imagine.

It may not be as bad with regards to him not being with his friends as its a small school by the sounds of it so hopefully they will still socialise a lot.

Girl to boy ratio is odd; there are twice as many girls in each class. Girls tend to invite just girls to parties and so DS (and the other boys) haven't been to many parties this year. I don't know who else is going - I know his closest friend isn't.

I suppose I can just make his new friends welcome to come and play. It is a small school so I hope the classes mix as much as the YR ones are doing.

My dd1 has been in two mixed age classes. Year 1/year2 as a year one and year3/year 4 as a year 3.
I have to say that in her case it has not been the most positive experience from an educational point of view. Although year3 /year4 better. I got a distinct feeling ffom the year1/year2 teacher that the year 1 children were kind of overlooked a little so they could oncentrate on the year 2's catching up. I think that she was probably on the cup ability wise. Plus year1/year2 class had 30 children.
DD2 on the other hand is thriving as a year 1 in a year1/2 class. The numbers are smaller though and dd2 is quite bright. Strangely with the age thing one of her new friends is a year 2 child who was 7 in September so age doesn't appear to be an issue socially.

DD's old primary school was a small one with only 5 classes. The ofsted reports from the last few years have been outstanding, and over 65% of the children leave with level 5s in KS2 SATS. The downside is that the classes were split by date of birth, not ability and I did feel that DD was held back in year 4, but that was because the teacher in that class was the weakest one in the school. She did catch up, but I was frustrated by the fact that DD didn't do much work in year 4.

I understand it is still a problem and don't know why the school hasn't addressed it.

The class sizes are the same 30 in YR1/2 and 30 in Y1.

A couple of my friends have older siblings aged 8-9 that DS gets on with so maybe age won't be an issue.

BTW DS just said he going into Class x because he is 'really smart', which is not a phrase I use. Hopefully school will explain the specific benefits and aims in greater detail. There isn't another parent's evening, Reports are sent out and there is an open evening.

"DS just said he going into Class x because he is 'really smart'"

That is why the split was based strictly on birthdays at DD's old school because they didn't want to stigmatise the less able children. That said, two of the brightest children had July and August birthdays (one of them being DD), so they stayed down.