To have reservations about this

[newm55]

Ds is in year 3. About to go into year 4 in September. He goes to a school with a PAN of 45 so mixed age classes are the norm. In the past they have had a straight year 3 class, a straight year 4 class and a mixed year 3/4.
They have in the past selected children for the split class on ability. DS is currently in the year 3/4 class. Under the old scheme he would be going into the straight year 4 class.
In September they have decided to have three year 3/4 classes. Ds's class appears to have more year 3's than year 4's. Plus many of the children in the class are the ones who previously were in split classes as older children.
I am worried that this is going to result in a much greater spread in ability levels than previous years.
Should I be concerned or does this system work? Comments from teacher's and parents appreciated.

DC school has intake is anywhere between 31-60. So lots of mixed age classes.

DC school mixes for optimal social balance, not on ability or age. All I can offer is that It seems to work well for DC at the brighter end of yr group, even when they've been the oldest in class. DS2 (emotionally immature, fairly "average" academically) hasn't been in a mixd yr group yet, but I think he'd be fine academically, tho' might struggle with older ones socially.

Social mix much harder to differentiate for and meet needs of than academic mix, so its important to get social mix right as all good teachers differentiate work as a matter of course. he will be fine.

Thank you adventures. The whole social thing is another issue. He has 3 friends and they have all been split.
I think I would be ok with it if there was a balance. However, ds has only got 8 children from his current year. The rest are from the younger age group.
I guess I am also abit fed up of mixed age classes. DS has had 2 years of them and tbh I don't think he benefitted as much. One year teacher admitted they concentrated on older ones who were struggling.

So what exactly does optimal social balance mean? Ds is upset as his closest friends have been separated (no biggy) and he has at least one child he doesn't get on with in the class? Plus the age range isn't really balanced either. Approx 19 year 3 and maybe 8 year 4's. Plus only 2 other boys from his age group.

They like to even up the ratio of girls:boys & evenly distribute the trouble-makers & volatile characters like DS2.

How badly doesn't he get on with the lad? Would your DS start throwing pencils if other lad moved his paper? There was a lad in DS2's yr who reacted like that.

Some kids work better firmly in their comfort zones some work better being challenged. Don't just think about English-maths, there's all the topic work & PE & art & PSHE they don't want to feel stressed out in. DS2 kicks off if paired up with bossy girls.

They can get it wrong, obviously.

I find with DC school that they mix the kids up again for subjects like maths (the kids literally move around between classrooms), so it's not like they learn in fixed groups at all just depending on who is their nominal teacher. DD (quite good at English) is paired with a boy who is kind of lousy at English, in the hope that both will benefit. They are same yr group, anyway. I can't say for sure about academic effects, DD pushes herself in English anyway. Otherwise it has helped them get on better socially (bit of a history).

DD was split from her best mates for y4 & miserable about it (same mates are now her worst enemies, but that's a different story, liable to change next week!). The worst thing was a new rule came in that they HAD to sit with their own class for lunchtimes. That really cut down on her social time with the (supposed) BFF. You might want to check on lunch rules.

Those things have nothing to do necessarily with mixed yr, though, all easily can and do happen within only homogenous year classes. Like DD is same yr group as her English partner who is (she says) very weak at English. I only mentioned it to say how spread of ability seemed not to be a problem. Boy who tantrummed when DS moved his paper, is 10 days older than DS (so same yr group). DD was separated from all her friends for y2 by being placed in the other completely y2 class. We both thought it'd be a social disaster, but she made better friends in the new class.

Like I said, all I can offer is that I can't see that DC suffered from mixed yr classes.

Tiggy are you a teacher? Yes, it is a lot to think about. But that's our job. As people constantly point out mixing the ages doesnt make that much difference because there is so much difference in one class.

I dont think sorting classes out by ability works in primary. It is a necessary evil in secondary. The children on the cusp of one class or another are either not pushed or pushed too far and then disheartened. Teaching a low ability class is much much harder as many children who are not progressing also find it difficult to concentrate or process ideas. Things take longer and have to be repeated a lot. However teaching the top classes means a higher level of subject knowledge. If you are a year 4 teacher you may not have touched the year 6 curriculum for a while but suddenly faced with a class of level 4s and 5s, that is bascially what you are teaching.

All this is of course part of our jobs as teachers but it does seem unfair that for a full year 1 teacher has a really tough class (what if all the badly behaved children are also very clever) or 5 TAs to manage or a strange mix of friendship groups and constant arguments.

Setting for english and maths, yes I very much see the aim of this. But creating clasess from ability I think is unfair on children and teachers. Also if your school have been 'setting' by putting the low ability children with the younger children then this isnt really setting. Because surely the group of year 3s will have an ability range as well, they wont all be 'year 3 level'.

We have split classes based on ability.

In your position I would be thinking that as Ds was in 3/4 class - out of 45 he was in the top15 y3 for ability - alongside the bottom 15 of the year 4 class.

Whilst he has been in this class I would assume that he has been taught the year 4 work (not the year 3 work) - therefore I would expect his next move not to be into the year 4 class - which after all will be the lower performing current year 3's, but into a mixed y4/5 class, otherwise he'd be going backwards surely.

I must admit I am still concerned. I know he is by no means one of the brightest year 3's. Probably was on the cusp of being in straight year 3 class. However, his literacy is good and school is not doing any king of setting for this.
Obv, the social mix may be better than I thought as I am sure ds will have forgotten a few names but it still really seems unbalanced.
Maybe time to ask a few questions at school.
I know that some of these year 3's will be working at year 4 level but my worry is that some of them could be working at year1/2 level. Likewise with the spread in ability at year 4.