Blended year 1 & 2 class

[butterfliesinmytummy]

My dd is 5 and in reception class. I've found out that next year she will go into a blended year 1 / 2 class along with another 6 or 7 of her classmates (class will be 18 kids).

Dd is among the oldest in her class and has an older sister and I'm not worried about her in this class as I know she's pretty confident and resilient and I've heard that the teacher is excellent but I wanted to ask if anyone had any experience of this? Also I've heard that the parents of the kids from the year 1 class who are now in this blended year 1/2 class are not very happy.....

We have this set up at our school, although we don't know yet which class my ds will he in - find out Friday. I can understand why the new year 2 parents wouldn't be too impressed to be honest.

The school I went to everyone was in split classes, it worked fine.

My DS is coming to the end of year 2 in a blended Y1/2 class. I was worried about him at first because the work seemed to be pitched at a very low level, however as time went on and his teacher got to know him and what he was capable of I found that she was definitely differentiating and giving him some challenging work to do. Where it wasn't possible to accommodate him in class (in reading for example where he was miles ahead) he was sent to an older class to work with them.

He's made great progress and finished the year with level 3s. He's going into a mixed Y3/4 class next year which I'm quite pleased about because I think he'll enjoy keeping up with the Y4s. It's organised so that it's the older Y3s and younger Y4s so they're all born roughly within a year of one another.

Hi my kids have always been in mixed year classes snd it has worked well. They have been stretched and acheived good grades both getting into selective grammar schools. So for us it worked for us but we had fantastic teachers who were used to teaching across the years. If your school is getting good results it must work

My twins are going to be year 2's in a mixed y1/y2 class next year. To be honest I'm worried about it, they are doing well academically but I worry that the work will be aimed more at the year 1's in the class. Our school splits on age only so oldest 15 year 1's and youngest 15 year 2's all in together. I think I would be a lot less worried if I was a parent of one of the year 1's.

Thanks all. Meant to say that I understand why the parents of year 1 kids going into a blended year 1/2 class might be miffed, and just saw the other post on here about "being kept back a year" which is how I guess it may be (mistakenly) perceived from the other side.

The school is private (overseas) and as far as I'm aware there haven't been any blended classes in primary for the past few years. We've been at the school for a year, it is an outstanding school so they should handle it well. Glad to hear about positive experiences too.

We have the same set up at our school, causes trouble every year when parents find out there child is being separated from friends and being in mixed ability classes but I have to say it seems to work well.

Classes are split into tables for each subject and each table taught to their ability, children get the correct level of work for their age and ability, the class only really work together when they are working on their class topic and subjects such as music and art. Dd1 has spent the past year in a class of year 4s and 5s, we worried as she is a year 5 working at year 6/7 levels but her teacher has provided her with challenging work and she has had a great year.

DD2 was the youngest reception DC who 'went up'. She felt very small (she was pretty small) and a bit miffed to be parted from her friends, who were all summer birthdays and staying in the YR/1 class.

In fact it was totally fine, they all played together at break and she made friends with a new girl.

(At 13 and at different schools, they are still great friends).

Our school only takes 15 into each year, so all children are in a blended class for their whole school time apart from reception. It works fine for us - DD1 is very mathematically able, and has been working with the yr2's this year (she is about to finish yr1). Next year, as an 'oldie' she will be working with the class above for maths, as the whole school does maths and literacy at the same time, so kids can be switched between classes if necessary. Quite a few are, both up and down, and everyone just accepts it as normal.

DS was in mixed classes all through primary school, but that was because they were small schools and only had mixed classes.

It certainly worked well for him - the teachers were very practiced at differentiating work for the range of children they had in their classes, and he could go through to a different class for some subjects if that was a better 'fit'.

My only concern for your situation would be that the school haven't done it before, so they will be less practiced at it, but if you are happy with the quality of the staff in general then I'm sure it will be fine.

It certainly doesn't mean anyone is being 'put up' or 'held back' a year. Just that the physical class encompasses a wider range than a single year.