Class reshuffle- is there any point complaining?

[cosmicstardust]

DD's school is reshuffling the classes in her year for September. Only her year is being reshuffled, and this is the first time since her older cousin has been at this school that they have done it in any year group. They are apparently trying to address some 'imbalances' in the existing classes. There are three classes of 20 in her year- we are abroad and have different class size regulations than in the UK.

DD has been at this school for a couple of months, since we adopted her- so already there's been a lot of change in her life. She hasn't settled into school well and is selectively mute in most social situations, we've also had various issues with her classwork. There are three girls in her class she has recently starting talking to on and off, and will play with at recess. If she can't find these girls when she gets into the playground she will wander around by herself. We were told about the class reshuffle last week, and that the kids would be called out of class and asked to name two friends they would like to be placed with next year. No guarantees that they would be placed with all of these, but the school would do their best to place them with at least one. I did pick-up the day after the letter about this came home, and pointed out to DD's teacher that there was absolutely no way she would name two friends to a member of staff if called out of class. I was told to ask DD at home and write down three names, then send it into school in an envelope and that could be used instead. We did this- I handed it over to the teacher the following morning.

They had their 'induction afternoon' today in which they move up into their new class for the afternoon, then bring their new class list home at the end of the day- we had no way of knowing who would be in DD's new class until we picked her up today. She came home in tears because she has been split from the three girls she has started playing with. Her teacher wasn't available to talk to about it. Comparing the new class list with the old one, she is the only of the girls from her old class going into her new class, and one of six including the boys. Given that they have 20 to a class and her current class is boy-heavy I can see how it's worked out like that. However, DP and I are both concerned that this is a bad move both socially and emotionally speaking in DD's case. She's already coping with a lot of changes, and just as she's started to interact with some of the other kids she is going to be split from them and sent back to square 1. Is it worth complaining, or will they just dismiss it? As an added complication, this school year ends on Friday here, so if we're going to complain about it we're going to have to do it tomorrow. I'm worried it's just going to be ignored in the last week of the year chaos. Any advice would be appreciated.

Next level of authority would be local government- I hate complaining but I'm very tempted. As far as I know the no more than 20 to a class unless all classes are full rule is a provincial thing, so not sure what they could do realistically short of reshuffling all the classes. Or, hopefully, make an exception in DD's case. I'm wondering whether I threaten to complain to local government and hope the school decides it would be easier to sort it out themselves.

DP and I do feel that DD just gets 'left to it' a bit at school, English is her third language but we live in a bilingual country so the school don't seem to view that as a particular difficulty. Even though neither of her other languages are the other official language here. She also doesn't get the support offered to internationally adopted children- I think more common here than in the UK- even though she is an inter-province adoption and comes from an ethnic minority family. It's quite frustrating, I do think her teacher has assumed she hasn't faced the same level of upheaval as other kids she has taught adopted from abroad, IMO wrongly.

I don't know the other girls well enough to rule that out as a possibility Verydull, but surely it's not too much to expect that out of her current class of 20, they could at least have put her with one person she's familiar with- on a table with in class, or something like that? Out of her current class of 20, she is going into a new class of 20 as one of 6 from the old class, the other 5 all being boys she has had nothing to do with. The new class is 14 boys to 6 girls, the whole year is boy heavy but the other two classes are much more balanced. I'm absolutely not saying she can only play with boys, but given all her little social interaction at school so far has been with the girls in her class, the decision makes absolutely no sense.

I started a very similar thread in chat on Thursday. DD was being moved into another class next year and the only other girl being moved was the bully who had spent the last three years a living hell.

I would escalate the issue. I had a meeting where I made it very clear that I would raise a formal complaint and then DH went into a meeting with the Head . He listened to her "sell" and then basically said, "no, that's not going to work". By the end of the meeting, the Head was saying that we could make the decision of whether to move her or not.

I would be calm but persistent and I would escalate the complaint if necessary.

So glad it worked out for you djpig- would you mind linking your thread? Desperate for any ideas as to how to go about this at this stage! We are in the process of drafting another email to the principal before we take it further but as it's now the summer vacation here I don't know how soon we can expect a reply really. Our main worry is the selective mutism really, I can't for the life of me understand why school thought it would be a good idea to separate DD from the only other kids she's spoken to at all since she started at this school But even without that I would be worried. They stagger recess at DD's school, so she may not even see them then.

If you don't mind me asking, are they reshuffling anyone else to accommodate your DD moving or is it just her that's swapping classes? Our principal seems to think that unless it's exceptional circumstances she can't have a class of 21 while there's a class of 19, even though in other provinces this rule doesn't exist

OK, so DP and I have looked at the old class list vs new class list in more detail- admittedly we probably should have done this before we met with the principal but time was tight and we didn't think school could possibly be this insensitive So DD is going into a class of 20 and will be one of 6 girls in this class. Comparing the class lists, the other 5 girls are all currently in the same class. How on earth can anyone think that's not a recipe for disaster?

My thread is here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2116528-Why-would-a-school-do-this-class-reshuffle?

As far as I am aware, no one else is now being shuffled to make room for DD back in her original class, but we don't have any rules similar to your area.

I would find out the full escalation process and tell the school that you will follow it through to the end. Can you ask someone independent to read through the email before you send it? I think DH persuaded the Head to change her mind because he is very matter of fact and doesn't bring in extra detail or emotion to situations. He's very good at just saying, "no" until the opposite side says, "OK". I get too emotional!

Oh, just read your last update and no, that's not good!

I would be very angry too, we are in a similar situation, dd2 goes to a very small school and has been in mixed classes each year but has remained with her year group ( as there are only 12 of them) in September they are being split up and 5 children from her year group will be with the year below, dd2 is the only girls out of the 5 , we have had a meeting with her teacher but they won't change their mind and feel it will benefit dd.

Sorry haven't rtft, but my ds was in a similar situation last year. No particular issues on his side (unlike your DD's adoption and mutism, which must make it doubly hard for her).

My ds was separated from his 10 closest friends! I asked him to write a list of everyone he'd invite to his birthday party a few weeks after the start of term. Every single one of them was in the other class.

He had become particularly close with two other boys whose parents had also separated recently, both of them were destined for the other class and then both left and went to different schools! Luckily this meant that I had a perfect opportunity to insist he was moved as there was no issue with swapping another child to make space.

It didn't happen on first meeting, they kept saying that it's not their policy (I get that, there must be lots of parents and DCs unhappy with the allocations, but this seemed excessively drastic, as is your dds move)

They asked us to see how he got on for a week or two, they agreed that he could go on the residential trip with the other class so that he would get to make those special memories with his friends, but it took another meeting and him crying every day before school to get him moved. I think in fairness, he probably didn't settle because there was always the possibility of his swapping at some point so he was in limbo a bit.

They finally admitted that a mistake had been made and he is so much happier. At parents eve his teacher admitted that he seemed much happier since the move.

Anyway, my advice would be definitely complain, get together the compelling facts and don't take no for an answer. If possible try to help your dd make friends with some new people just in case it doesn't work out, but any teacher with a heart must see that this is wrong.

Thanks djpig, that's really helpful. Good idea about getting someone to read through the email first, I get too emotional too!

I just can't see how putting DD in a class where all the other girls have been together since pre-K is going to help her She's already had to try and break into an existing friendship group and it's taken her a month to get to speaking very rarely and occasionally joining in at recess. We are going to ask DD's old social worker for a statement to give to the principal- new social worker was assigned upon adoption due to it being inter-provincial, and with the best will in the world it's difficult for the new social worker to be of any help when she doesn't really know DD. I honestly don't know how she will cope having to start again completely in September.

Thanks Penelope, that's reassuring. Glad you managed to sort it out.

I would love to know how schools draw up their class lists in these reshuffles! It just seems absolutely nonsensical. I'd never even heard of switching elementary classes up until this week, I went to school in the US and it just doesn't happen there, not that I've heard of, anyway. I can understand the reasoning but in DD's case it just seems to be creating even more problems.