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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Class changes - does anyone else find them stressful?

43 replies

thirtysomething · 01/07/2006 08:57

DD is coming to the end of reception and changing class next year. All the reception classes have been reshuffled with the result that some children are staying with 4-5 friends and some children with only 1. The school asked for minimum input from parents - mostly they just asked the kids who they wanted to be with and clearly decided to disregard this information for some but not all the kids! I cannot help but feel upset for those kids who have to virtually start over in September whilst some will be remining with huge groups of friends. It just doesn't seem fair, especially as oftern they have formed quite a clear groups of friends (like DD). Does this happen in everyone's school and am I over-reacting! I guess I just have to accept that I no longer have any control over dd's education!

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Blu · 01/07/2006 09:05

Friendship and who works well together in groups are a different thing. DS and one of his best friends (a perfectly lovely little boy) are forever having to be separated in order that they make any educational progress at all, whilst with others calm seems to prevai. I geuss the school need to ensure a good spread of ability, sexes, age-range and 'chemistry'. Teachers see what goes on in the classroom, so I would tend to let them get on with it. They can still be freinds in the playground and after school - maybe mixing is a way to make more friends. I can also see that a teacher's lot would be impossible if they have 60 sets of parents as a decision-making committee.

Blu · 01/07/2006 09:06

But I agree that it's hard not to approach any kind of change for our children without a tight feeling in the throat!

ayla99 · 01/07/2006 09:33

Both my children ended up in mixed age classes when they left reception (they were one of about 6 yr 1s with the rest of the class Y2s with all their friends being together in a Y1 class). I was quite concerned intially but discovered they weren't bothered a jot about being separated from their friends and i've changed my view entirely.

DD is now in Y6 and i'm confident she'll have an easier time making friends at secondary school next year than I did having sat with the same people through my entire primary school education.

mrsbang · 01/07/2006 09:36

Don't have any choice in our school. There are only four classes for seven years.

Blu's right though, am sure the teaching staff there would love to split certain groups of lovely children up if they could, as the "mix" can be explosive sometimes.

Gobbledigook · 01/07/2006 15:25

Ds1 is also coming to the end of reception and we find out on 17th July what class they go into next year.

From reception he could go into one of 3 classes - a reception/yr 1 mixed class, a pure year 1 class or a yr 1/yr 2 mixed class.

It will be interesting to see where he ends up. I'm not overly worried on the friends front as he's very sociable and mixes well and, probably because they know that they will be mixed up next year, they work closely with the other reception class now and so ds1 knows lots of the other children in the other class that he could end up with in his new class.

From an educational progress perspective I'd not be very happy if went into the reception/yr 1 class - lots of these children will be about the same age as ds2 (ds2 is Nov birthday so not in reception till next yr), plus ds1 is already on the year 2 reading books whereas most of those in reception won't be reading at all right now. I'd be very surprised if he ends up in that class and wouldn't mind if he was in the yr 1 or the yr 1/yr 2 mixed.

OTOH, the school is fabulous and they've taken this approach for yeeeeeears, so I'm sure they know what they are doing!!

KBear · 01/07/2006 15:36

They used to do this in DD's school until the parents questioned why, after a year of forging friendships, the children were split up and had to effectively start again. The school thought it through and realised that there was little point and stopped doing it.

they now stay in the same class for the whole of their primary years (unless there is a problem or an educational need to move someone).

SoupDragon · 01/07/2006 15:38

DSs go through all the way to Y6 in the same class.

Gobbledigook · 01/07/2006 15:57

Hmmm, I can see both sides. I can see that it's nice to remain settled in a class you are familiar with throughout primary - I'm pretty sure that's what I did. OTOH, it does create a real 'whole community' feel as all the children do seem to know all the children from the various classes across their year and the years around them (since some classes are mixed years). The reception classes have done lots of work together this year so they are a bit like one big group rather than 2 very distinct classes that don't interact. This means that when they move up, they will know children in their new class even if they weren't in their class the year before. Ds1 talks about boys in the other class - he plays with them in the playground anyway.

Gobbledigook · 01/07/2006 15:58

That is, mixing the classes creates a 'whole community' feel.

I don't think I have a strong feeling either way tbh - I can see the pluses for both. Will see how it goes with ds1 anyway!

Original poster

thirtysomething · 01/07/2006 23:09

thanks for all your input - i see I have been a bit too emotional about this and not considered the reason for the school doing it (probably because they don't bother enlightening us!) but I suppose they must have their reasons!

OP posts:

mrsbang · 01/07/2006 23:23

I don't think you've been too emotional tbh.

It's difficult to understand a system if you don't know the reasons behind it and sometimes schools can be lax at explaining things.

Dior · 01/07/2006 23:28

Message withdrawn

Dior · 01/07/2006 23:28

Message withdrawn

Original poster

thirtysomething · 02/07/2006 22:19

thanks Dior, you have brought me down to planet rational again !

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Dior · 03/07/2006 11:29

Message withdrawn

crunchie · 03/07/2006 12:11

I queried this my my DD, simply becasue I didn't understand why they did this, andthat is all. I think that parents should be told that they mix up year groups for a number of reasons, to get gruops working together to forge friendships across whole school year, to split up kids who are friends but distract each other etc. In DD1's first year she started in Christmas so 2 terms later she could have been moved, she stayed one more term in a Y1/R class as that teacher was leaving at Christmas for maternity leave, so she had one year with one teacher, but there was only about 10 kids who stayed with her. In year 1, she was only actually in the class for 2 terms, so she joined a class that had already started, but wasn't an issue as she was with her friends. For Y2 she was most upset as she was split from her frineds and the start of year 2 was V V rocky, she stressed the whole f the summer. BUT she soon realsied that although they were in form groups they were grouped within the YEAR group for maths and other things, so she still got to see her friends. She also saw them every break etc so it wasn't a problem. She had been worried as the teacher is well known to be tough and she was scared of her (now loves her obviously!!)

I have no idea what will happen to DD2 when she goes into Y1 in Sept, she is a socialble child, so I have no worries there, she doesn't actually play with her best friend much at school, and she has so many friends it is difficult to know.

BUT I still wished we had been warned that the classes mix up, and that this is going to happen, I didn't feel prepared for it and that was the issue

fullmoonfiend · 04/07/2006 16:35

It's horrid, but I don't see there's a way round it, when different years have diff class sizes etc due to differing birth rates.

This is a bit senitive for me as my ds2 goes into yr4 in sept and we have just found out today that not one of his friends is going to be in his class. The worst thing is the kids all have to write 3 friends who they would like to be with next year and the school tries to ensure at least one friend goes with them. Sadly for my ds (who hates school anyway) every single one of his friends is in one class - and he is in the other. He is rather over-sensitive and is heartbroken and thinks he is being punished or something. I just don't know what to do. Or if there is anything I can do. Sorry to hi-jack, but was going to start a thread asking for advice. Any teachers out there think it's worth pleading for him? Or is it a logistical nightmare and a done deal???

LIZS · 04/07/2006 16:45

We are likely to have the smae - it sounds almost certain that they are remixing Reception to Year 1 classes as 2 of dd's class are leaving. On average they should be with 4 friends , if they spread the groups evenly but we'll find out the new class lists tomorrow.

ds is quite sanguine about remixing , he's had it every year to some extent and only moved to his present school into year 3 last year. He does have some firm friends so it would be nice to keep them together socially but perhaps they don't necessarily work well to each other's benefit in a classroom situation.

Original poster

thirtysomething · 05/07/2006 15:09

fullmoon how awful for ds - we haven't found out yet about our ds's class (also going into Yr4 and also mixing classes up again) but if he isn't with any of his friends I will lose it with the head, I know I will! It's such an important thing especially as by then they have such strong friendships, what's the point of asking them to write down 3 friends if they disregard it? It would be different if none of the friends were together, but I can see why he feels punished. My ds would be the same. The only thing I would say is that they tend to mix the classes up for sets for numeracy etc. and then they all play together at lunch so maybe he won't actually end up spending less time with them anyway? I think maybe the thought of it is worse than the reality, in that by Yr4 the notion of seperate classes isn't very real as they inter-mingle so much anyway. Sorry, not much help, I so sympathise and if this happens to my ds I will make my opinions known - but like you I sense that these decisions cannot be overturned. Good luck whatever you decide to do!

OP posts:

fullmoonfiend · 05/07/2006 18:08

aw thanks thirtysomething - I hate being a whingy parent, but I just think it would be fairer if they did it completely randomly or not at all.

However, we have just found out today that he is in with his best friend, after all; huge sighs of relief all round. Though, to be homest I'm amazed they have let them be together for another year as they are soooooo silly together. Still, not my problem and at least they are happy.

At the same school, one of my friends is set for a battle as her dd has been bullied by a group of girls. Not only has she got none of her chosen friends with her next year, she is in with the clique of bullies too (which the school know about). As you can imagine, my friend is rather angry...

Fingers crossed for your ds now!

Alan · 05/07/2006 18:13

going from middle to working was horrendous tbh
Mummy and daddy wernt best pleased nor was I

LIZS · 05/07/2006 18:13

ds' class has moved en mass plus one new girl into Yr 4. dd has 5 of her current class plus 11 others in her Yr1 class, some of whom she knows, others less so.

saadia · 05/07/2006 18:45

Ds is going from nursery to reception and has not been put with his best friend. There are a couple of boys and a few girls from his nursery class but no-one that he is really friends with. I think he will settle much better if his best friend is with him so am inclined to ask if he can be moved but I think that now that the classes have been allocated there is probably not much point.

rustybear · 07/07/2006 17:09

The problem with putting children with their friends when they move up is that three weeks after the start of term they're probably not friends anymore.

HenniPenni · 10/07/2006 13:29

At our school the junior children all move up as a whole class at the beginning of the academic year, however, DD3 could a) stay in her present reception class i.e mixed year 1s and reception (she will be a year one.) b) go into a class purely made up of year ones or c)go into a mixe class of year ones and twos. The parents are not informed as too which class until the day before they break up!!

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