does your school set cildren in year 5 and 6 for maths english and science.?

[clockwatching77]

My ds' s school is a middle school so they have specialised teaching and setting in year 5 and 6. Just wondering if your primary schools do the same. Also is it a good or bad thing? Thank you

There is no maximum number for the sets in dd2's KS1 maths class....and kids move between them fairly fluently and frequently, with lots of talk about gaining confidence etc. so at this age, at least, they don't seem demoralised.

Not sure about KS2, but there is no way they could teach maths at the same level to all - the difference in levels is massive.

My dcs' school is trialling this for years 5&6 - early days but the data looks good for the high achievers and much less promising for the lower achievers.

I do notice a big difference between years3&4 and 5&6 though, in terms of maturity etc so I think there must be positives in moving to a slightly more grown up middle school environment - and of course you don't move up to high school until later so perhaps there is a benefit there too?

My son hated maths before they started streaming in Y4. He just found it too boring. Now he is streamed and it is starting to interest him. I thought it as a sad reflection on our system that someone as talented in Maths as him said his favourite lesson was History.

I can see it is a tough lesson for kids being moved down but surely it is a valuable lesson: if you don't put in the effort there will be somebody else who does, waiting to take your place!

They don't at DCs school although there's only one year 5 and one year 6 class so wouldn't really work. They used to have three mixed year 5/6 classes and I think they had maths and English sets then.

Y5 and Y6 are only one form still at dds' school, and they still set - in terms of having differentiated work - for maths and literacy. The top maths group get taken out for extension work twice a week, and the bottom groups also get taken out for extra help.

And there is no way that being in the lower sets is always about lack of effort. In fact, I'd say some of the more able kids make less effort than those in lower sets!

I fear my DDs school is pretty rigid about sets - 5-6 per table in English/ Maths - no more, no less. Science is shaken up - with tables formed ad hoc on the day - usually mixing abilities.

Like Snowdown describes for her school - My Dd's school's table system requires that someone has to move down for someone to move up and yes (as in DD2's case) this has upset the poor kid moving down. Worse yet DD2 gets into this spiral of working like stink to be noticed each year, gets moved up in the last few weeks of the school year and starts the next school year off being moved back down.

I had to cope with an 8 year old yelling at me about how I spent too much time with her sister last summer (we were preparing for the 11+) and it's all my fault she's forgotten everything.

I think the fluid/ no limit style of setting seems much more child friendly and less off putting - but my girls have never experienced it.

Mores the pity.

"No we don't as we believe it leaves some children behind"

The evidence says that low-achieving pupils show more progress in mixed-ability classes, and high-ability pupils show more progress in setted classes.

(Sukhnandan, L. and Lee, B. (1998) Streaming, Setting and Grouping by Ability. Slough: NFER; Kulik, J. and Kulik, C. (1992) ‘Meta-analytic findings on grouping programmes’, Gifted Child Quarterly, 36, )

I'm not saying what is preferable, but wonder what criteria schools use to decide which group to hinder.