Mixing classes up every year!!

[peppajay]

Hi

Just wondering on peoples opinions my son is starting school in Sept and they stay with the same class all through school. But at my neices school 2 miles away they mix the classes up every year. Just wondering what the norm is and whether parents feel the same class all the way through primary school is better or is it more beneficial moving them around every year!!

Thanks

As a mum id say mix them up but keep some friends together. Ds was in class with one child for 2yrs. The kid was really disruptive and horrible to ds so mixing classes up meant this year he got a break from him. Fingers crossed for next yr too!

As a teacher id also say mix them up. Kids change in a yr. By the end some children need to be seperated. Also ability wise. The year group could be split evenly at the start but be quite uneven by the end. I quite often find that you end up with a group of boisterous children in one class

We mix them up as and when needed. (3 form entry)

So they may stay the same, or we may just move 5 kids, or we may totally mix them up.

Whatever we think will produce the best class.

This is definitely the best system :)

We have separate infant and junior schools, with the same intake for both. They stay in the same class for infants and then get re-shuffled for the move across to Juniors, and then usually stay like that for 4 years.

DS2 is in Y4 and his teacher mentioned to me on a school trip that they are very unusually going to re-mix the classes this year as there is a big imbalance bewteen the two. It doesn't bother me, but I know it will some. It doesn't appear to be general knowledge yet so I've kept my mouth shut!

The school is moving towards 75 intake though, so there will be more mixing up in the future.

We do it when the mix within two classes becomes unbalanced, as inevitably happens somehow. But it's the most enormous hassle to do and, after hours of work and consultation, you're then bombarded with complaints from parents so it's not undertaken lightly.

In my experience combining year groups is fine for most DCs splitting them inevitably upsets someone.

no possibility of a mix up. One form entry, so DS is stuck in a class with the disruptive and violent one, the one who never stops bossing people around and the one who pulls other people pants down " for a laugh".

Hi my sons school is very small and for this reason, they kepp 3-4 children back each year. This seems extremely unfair, as all their friends go on to the next class and they are left with new children. Could anyone rest my mind, as to how they teach????

DDs school mixes them up every year and i think it works really well. Its 3 form entry so they get a chance to know other children in their year. DD had a personality clash with someone in reception and they've been put in different classes for year 1 which benefited them both. She's also made a couple of good friends with children who were not in her reception class so she didn't really get to know.

I think there may be another advantage in that different teachers will relate better to certain types of children so groups can be matched to allow for this (that said teachers should really be able to deal with all types of children!!)

ellemiami. Why do they only keep 3-4 children back? You are not allowed to hold children back a year. If it's to create a mixed year class it seems odd that they would only keep 3-4 back unless class sizes are so small that this constitutes half a class
If it's a mixed age class then they have to teach to both years through their topics, ime really hard but necessary in some schools.

My kids school mixes them from Nursery into Reception, then mixes them again at the end of year 2.
My school mixes them at the end of year 3 or year 4 - or not at all if the classes are well balanced.