KS2 in mixed age classes and appalling OFSTED

[CherryPie3]

I'm just wanting to know really how mixed age classes work? How important is OFSTED? I realise that sounds a bit naive but it seems a lot of fuss over a single persons opinion on the day of inspection.

OFSTED in March was absolutely appalling! Ummed and Aaahed about moving them and decided I'd rather not uproot my shy kids from their friends until it appeared completely necessary - it's my belief that they would achieve better where they are with no trauma of making new friends, meeting new teachers etc.

Then yesterday we received a letter stating that the temp head teacher has decided to mix all of KS2 up (my dd will be going into Yr 3 in Sept, ds into Yr2).

This will mean:
-Yrs 3+4 will be one class.
-Yrs 4+5 will be one class.
-Yrs 5+6 will be one class.

Trying to get my head around how this will work, the headteacher isn't giving any reasons behind it, only that she feels it will improve the efficiency of how KS2 is run.

Sounds to me like she's cutting costs.

Sorry, I didn't mean to digress...

Please advise as I'm very confused.

We have some mixed year classes here. This is because there is an odd number of children in the years, so they mix two year up. For instance, they now take 60 children in reception which is 2 classes of 30, but before it was 45 children so they had to do 2 smaller classes in reception but then mixed year classes as they went up the school to make classes of 30. So year 2/3 have had 3 classes, rather than 4 classes. It is to do with funding I think.

My boys have been in a mixed year classes since year 1 and I don't think it's done them any harm, they are both getting on very well.

The school also got an appalling ofsted report, but I don't think too much of ofsted as it is so i didn't make too much notice of it. I am happy with how they are getting on and the progress they are making, and they are happy there, so there's no way I'm going to move them. Quite a few other people moved their kids though.

Also, because they got a bad ofsted they get more money and help coming in from the county council for extra training and whatever, to help them get up to standard.

I hope this isn't too much of an essay!

I think lots of schools have split year classes. My DCs primary school has lots - Reception, reception/year 1, year 1, year 1/2, year 2 etc all the way up the school.

I think the idea is that it gives a child who is doing particularly well and needs the chance to be stretched a bit to work to a higher level e.g. a year 3 child could go into a Year 3/4 class. It also gives children who need a bit more help to work to their level too e.g. a Year 4 child in a year 3/4 class.

I don't have any experience of a primary school which doesn't have split classes, so all I can say is that it seems to work well at our school.

OFSTEDs are a snapshot of a school, but they are - I think - done by a team of inspectors (more than 1) and over 2 days. They sit in on lessons and also interview teachers, governors, pupils, etc and survey parents too... so it's a bit more involved than you might think at first.

Good luck with all the changes!

Thank you both for your replies, they are much appreciated.

My worry I think about the mixed classes is the lack of teacher-pupil interaction. In dd's class alone there are 28 children, I don't know how many are in the class above.

Nothing has been explained about how it will work so I'm thinking of the (rather silly sounding) practicalities. Such as classroom size... The classrooms are all pretty small. I honestly don't know how many kids they could squeeze legally into a small room. There hasi been 4 classes in KS2 in the past so how they're going to cut it down to just 3 I don't know.

In the OFSTED, the results were outstanding for the KS1 dept but for KS2 they were really concerning. It found the Yr6's were found to be well below the national average of learning - in effect not ready for high school!
The teaching wasn't even at satisfactory levels and the lesson plans and work itself wasn't challenging enough for the pupils according to the OFSTED write-up.

To my knowledge there was only one gentleman inspector that came to the school, my friend is an assistant there and said she'd only seen one so I don't think he came with a team.

I think what I need to do is have a word with the headteacher and get some more information. The previous headteacher was lovely and never sent out vague letters like this one, she always explained what was happening/proposed and why. Sadly she retired at Easter.

Another issue I have with the school is their reports. I was talking to dd's teacher 3 weeks ago and she was telling me how dd is under performing and unfocused, yet on her written report for the year dd has achieved A's throughout and 2's for effort. It doesn't add up, not in such a short space of time.
I'm wondering if they have been written that way purposely because the school is in trouble.

Definitely need to speak to the headteacher.

The previous headteacher may have been lovely and sent out really precise letters but the school has gone down the pan on her watch, so I think what you need to do is speak to the new headteacher and find out exactly why this is happening.
You have to expect that this is at least partially around funding and how many teachers they can actually afford. My suspicion would be that the school is losing pupils and this is a necessary step to keep the school afloat financially. However given the comments in Ofsted's report the emphasis of the school has to be on the KS2 teaching and learning so I would hope that your fears do not come to fruition. To be clear there is actually no limit on the number of pupils that there can be in a KS2 class, though obviously the limit is going to be dictated by the physical size of the classrooms.

I suspect they have lost a lot of pupils due to the poor ofsted ad therefore only have the numbers( and therefore finance) for three classes instead of four.

Can I point out that even though your last Head was lovely it was her fault that the KS2 kids have underachieved. They would've been failed for four years. This is not all down to the new H, whatever you think of them. They ate not being 'vague', they have already made decisions that will improve the school - going to 3 classes saves money that can be spent on resources AND gets rid of an ineffective teacher.
Mixed age classes work fine - I've got Y4-Y6 in mine and all kids made satisfactory to outstanding progress.