Can anyone confirm that in the UK children cannot be permanently in a class which they are too old for?

[wanttomakeadifference]

I'm enquiring on behalf of a friend who has a daughter at DD's school. This little girl has almost completed her Reception year and her parents have been told that she will be kept in Reception again next year.

It's a long boring situation but in a nutshell it's quite obvious that due to class size issues the school have decided to keep the 5 or 6 less able children in Reception for a further year.

They have said that other than being allowed to spend playtime with their peers, these children will be taught alongside the New Reception children.

Obviously my friend has several concerns which she intends to discuss with the Early Years Coordinator. She has been given the impression that her daughter will remain in a school year younger than her actual age permanently.

I am sure I have read on Mumsnet that in state schools children have to move up the school levels (ie primary to junior, junior to senior) within their correct year group.

Can anyone confirm that this is correct or incorrect as my friend would like to have all the relevant facts to hand- links to the 'official' guidance on this would be brilliant.

Thank you in advance.

I've posted this in chat also, to try and get the best chance of a response.

Are you sure it isn't just a composite class?

No they can be held back a year I believe but very rare. I would be kicking off big time

I worked in a school which had a mixed reception/year 1 class. The year 1 children had mixed phonics/numeracy lessons with the other year 1 children. I wouldn't be happy if my child was left in the reception/year 1 class though

Yes, my DD is moving from reception to Y1 this year so I am aware of the set up of the classes: there will be two y1 classes and 3 reception classes, 1 of which will have 5 or 6 children in who have not been allowed to move into year 1.

To clarify my last post- yes I am sure this is not a composite or mixed class.

Ok I only ask as at ds's school they have 2 p2 classes and then 6 or so kids were left over and they're staying with the p1 kids.

As far as I am aware the moving up is automatic based on age of peers.
When I was debating returning to the UK I actually asked whether DC1 could attend the year below her actual year in order to catch up. Told no - would be based on age.

I understand your friend's feelings but personally would see it as a huge advantage - repeating the year should consolidate what they have done this year and being the bigger fish in the smaller pond will improve both their confidence and hopefully their ability/performance in relation to peers.

They will still get to play with old classmates but will also find new ones who won't necessarily clock on that they have been there a year previously unless they tell them and even then, so what?

markgruffalo I do see your point but our school already allow for different abilities by grouping children within the year group. Ideally these less able children should be grouped and taught as such- there is also every chance that they will catch up with their peers.

It does potentially become a problem if my theory that children cannot permanently be kept in a year below that if their age is correct- as this little girl will then potentially move back into her 'correct' school year which may be a struggle.

*The case of the United Kingdom is very particular. There are no specific requirements that children should progress to a new age-related group each year and no legal requirements about how schools should be organised.

However, there is a fundamental principle, enshrined in legislation, that
education should be suitable for a child?s age, ability and aptitude. In line with this, the structure of the curriculum is designed to accommodate differences in pupil ability and performance.

This framework provides the context in which schools organise their teaching groups. This means that children with different levels of performance are normally taught with their own year-group and are placed ?out of year-group? only in exceptional circumstances.*

Hello wanttomakeadifference

according to the intro to the document above staying back a year doesn't help them significantly so I stand corrected.

OP that paragraph came from section 2.1 bottom of p 23 of a 2009 report on resitting years/comparative study across Europe.

You friend needs to know what is 'exceptional' re the circumstances of the six less able kids that warrant them redoing reception year ... it cannot be based on class sizes as that would appear to be at least met with a dim view by the LEA/Ofsted both of whom your friend should insist on contacting.

eacea.ec.europa.eu/education/eurydice/documents/thematic_reports/126EN.pdf

I would print out at least the intro and highlight the passage which deems that resitting won't pay dividents particularly for disadvantaged pupils and p23 which confirms circumstances should be - here's the keyword exceptional - as opposed to convenient for the school.

Thank you for that Markgruffalo. I do think that there are no exceptional circumstances here other than that moving all the children (65 in 2 reception classes currently), up to Y1 would mean that the school has to provide an extra Y1 class.

Can I ask where the text that you quoted is from?

dividends

here is the intro concern p5

The communication entitled ?Improving Competences for the 21st Century: An Agenda for European Cooperation on Schools' (European Commission, 2008a) commented as follows on the practice of repeating a year as a strategy to combat difficulties:

?in some education systems up to 25 % of pupils repeat a year whilst in others this rarely happens. This measure is very costly. Whilst some pupils who repeat a year catch up, the vast majority do not.
The repetition rate is clearly higher for children from disadvantaged groups
and, in the long term, the results of children who repeat a year are often worse than those weaker pupils who were not held back.?

I would go into the meeting waving this and stamping my foot - if they are holding her back then later as wantto says placing her back with her peers.

That said from your op you state it would be a permanent change and she will stay with the other group throughout.
Unless that is a future issue on a CV for uni or jobs - bearing in mind some start at 19 as they take a year out anyway - unless you think repeating a year 'marks' you in some way; it could be they are thinking of the kids not the class size. You need to assertain which it is based on progress made/current ability.

As I said this would have been my own preference for my bilingual child who would be very behind now in her English but I can see it may not be for everyone.

Sorry markgruffalo, crossed posts!!

Many thanks for the very very useful information.

Unfortunately, it really does look like this is down to class size issues. As I posted below keeping these children in Reception means that no extra y1 class is required. For next year the school has SN extra large reception intake so an extra reception class had been created with 25 new starters and the 5/6 children being kept down.

My friends daughter is a little behind her peers academically. Socially she is bright as a button. I'm not a teacher but to a lay person she appears to be incredibly laid back and has no motivation to get cracking with phonetics etc. 2 of the other children staying in reception have learning delays and behavioural issues. I don't know about the remaining 2 or 3.

I thought there was a cap of 30 on infant school classes? Surely 65 in 2 classes is illegal in the first place.

sorry Wantto You ARE the OP!

Both quotes above are from this european report in the link.
I live in Germany where 'Sitzenbleiben' certainly y1 is not wholly unusual - it goes on the forms for the grammar school applics and some may be a bit but the theory goes: Repeat a year earlier, stay within that group, then you have better chance of making it to the hallowed Gymnasium where you may also have to resit year 5 then eventually you may graduate aged 23+

So I guess I am looking at it from a German's point of view

duchesse I think the limit is 30 plus any children meeting exceptional criteria (e.g. Successful appeals under some circumstances, looked after children, children with a statement of SEN naming the school and children of military families

In our case the numbers have steadily crept up over the year. I don't know which of the exceptional criteria the 'extra' children meet as its none of my business but I have to assume that they must fit into one of them.

As I understand it though, if is against regulations to move an oversized class from one KS1 class to another. So there can be an oversized reception class due to exceptional circumstances but the school must provide an extra class if all children move to year 1.

Hence my strong suspicion that the overriding reason for this is class size issues.

Socially/psychologically it may be a big wrench for her then, especially if she wants to stay with your DD.

Could it be a kick in the bum to work on phonics over the Summer? Lots of books on the market - superphonics etc and go over those word lists they give you, the high frequency ones (Our SENCO used to put them on jenga tiles and you would take a tile - read it - give a sentence with it in then place it back on the top of the pile without it spilling...)

If you are sure it is class size and not based on emergent writing/reading age ETC then you have a strong case for refusing for that to happen and taking it up with the LEA imho (but I am PGCE secondary not early years). I just know from very sorry experience how many year 7s we used to have who struggled with their reading/ with a 'working towards' NC level and low raw score on SATs and I would always wish they had repeated key skills at primary level.

But I am in a totally different school system right now so hopefully a primary teacher will be along tomorrow. Is there not still a teacher quiche you could bring back from the dead and post this on. Or the TES forums are excellent.
Is it really true they are bringing back O-levels?!!! plus ca change...

Its very common for schools with large intakes on year to create composit (mixed) classes to fulfil the infant class size limit requirement. It makes sense rather than employ an additional teacher, find an extra classroom etc to place some in a class with spare capacity I'm afraid. Lthough they are physically in the class below they will still be classed as in year and aren't repeating the year. an

My DDs school did this - in her reception class she had 6/7 yr 1 children who the school felt could do with extra time in reception for either academic or social reasons. But what they did was move the children up to the 'proper' yr 1 class when they were ready so by the Easter the class was all reception aged children. For the most part the class operated as a normal composite class - with the yr 1 children doing different work.