Streaming in Year 1 / Summer Borns.

[rafa]

Hello,

Just wanted some feedback from others that have been in similar situation. DD currently in year one, latest possible August birthday. Struggled in reception with phonics and reading but was working at the expected level for her age.

Now in Year 1 has really got going. Classes are streamed for phonics (4 sets,1 being the most advanced ) and she is currently in set 4. I mentioned to her teacher about the possibility of her moving up a set as she is really coming on now and the teacher said the problem is she may struggle as will have missed some of the work that has been done.

My issue is I know that she is where she is because of her age. If children are already streamed at such a young age and doing different work what hope have those in the lower sets ever got of getting to their full potential,especially the summer borns?

So my questions are, do you think I should bring it up again with the teacher or just leave it? How are ability groups reassessed in your experience and when do the summer borns catch up?

Thanks all!

avery if you gave my son the same 6 words as the top set he would struggle and feel like a failure. Give him less and easier words which he is ready to learn, he gets them all right and this boosts his confidence. I can see only negatives in giving him spellings he is not ready to learn.

The problem is not about differentiating tasks for children of different abilities. The problem is when a child is ready to move up and want to move up but not necessarily a space will be readily available for that child. Or unless the teacher made someone move out to make a space for that child.

vkkyu. This is the problem with such overt streaming. In our primary school there were no sets and the brightest children were mixed up with the average children. Even those that were struggling were mixed with average children. Work was differentiated on the tables and each child had at least someone of similar ability to work with. Table composition was changed regularly. I would be unhappy with rigid setting. I would be especially unhappy with rigid setting based on birth date. This is assuming no prior learning has taken place or ability to learn very quickly. Surely a school can assess where a child's learning is at after say, half a term at school, and then mix the tables up. As I said earlier, some children can read books really quickly after starting school, or indeed before they get to school, so why would they be kept back on an age related table? In my DDs year group there was virtually no difference between the summer borns and the September borns apart from, occasionally, size. If summer borns cannot catch up, then how do they ever get to the best universities etc.? They do, so they catch up.

We coud move to the South African system of January to December, but someone is always young! Just the way it goes. I think we should never make excuses for summer borns and they should have outstanding teaching and class organisation so they do catch up.