ds1 is a square - what's that all about?

[yossa]

ds1 (in reception since september) came home on friday and said he is a square, along with some other children in his class. Me thinks this smells of streaming as they are all different shapes. How would the teacher be likely to react if i asked - and does anyone know if a square is likely to be a good thing or not in complarison to other shapes such as circles and triangles - seems bizarre!! Am i on the right track or is it more likely to be completely random?

its likely to be some kind of setting, maybe for when they are doing maths and english type activities. My sister had this when she was in year 2 up to year 6, but it was shapes so they didnt know which set they were in. Reception does seem a bit young to be doing this but im sure if you ask the class teacher she will explain.

IME reception classes are divided into smaller groups - in ds2's class they are colour coded ( yellow table, red table etc). It may well be random - the tables are often mixed up a couple of time a year.

If this is a new thing, then yes, it is probably some form of ability grouping, though possibly only for one topic eg either literacy or numeracy say. I think that the point of the exercise is that it isn't meant otbe obvious at to which set is which - there isn't a universal system. However ime ds1 could tell which table was which.

DD's class has different tables - all girls so fairies, princesses and ballerinas This is in recpetion year group. they are not setted yet though - very much mixed ability from what I can gather. The tables just help with the organisation of activities during the day.

It's probably just their table name.

DS1 and 2 were both different fruits when they were in Reception, but they were just names for mixed ability tables to help with classroom organisation. So the teacher could say 'It's the apples turn with the water tray, or sand tray or home corner etc.' It wasn't for any kind of ability grouping.

Dd is Yr 1 - she's a hexagon for maths and an apple for literacy. It is a kind of streaming I believe. I've no idea what shape or fruit is better but have an ickling dd is towards the top

• meant to say what hula did - small groups to help with activities - e.g some playing with water, some in the home corner, some reading to the teacher - then they all swap round

Ours are set for ability from reception - ds1's groups at the moment are alphabetical for literacy, and 'numbers of sides' for maths, so circles, triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons.

doddle - you read my mind

my sil (very bright!) came up with the theory that the more sides the shape had, the higher the ability was likely to be!!

DD1's class (mixed Reception/Y1) has different sets for all sorts of things. My favourite is Gym and Topic (yep!) for which she's in Elvis. The others are in the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles.

yossa, ours is the other way round, so a circle is the highest group.

I laugh at these euphemistic terms the schools use for streaming because the kids know exactly what's going on.

MI - do they have to do music and movement to their repective bands ?

if it is streaming - either way it looks like a square is somewhere in the middle!!

I'm totally amazed when anybody expresses surprise that there are ability groups in their KS1 child's classes

How else do you imagine the teacher is going to be able to deal with up to 30 children of mixed abilities ... if they are grouped by level at reading / writing and numeracy then they can all work on the same type of things in groups

I personally believe the thing to check is that this is a fluid situation .. ie they are grouped and re-grouped throughout the year so there is fluidity from table dependent on their ability

its a totally fake situation using colours and geometric shapes instead of a sequential labels (alpha / numerical) .. but I think that's for the parents' benefit or some quasi-PC stance .. because the kids know .. particularly in Year 1 .. they really do KNOW who is better and who can't write yet

oh spidermama .. so much more succinct

Agree with Twiglett - when I first went in to help with Reception, I was amazed at the difference in abilities - ranging from reading fluently, and able to compose and write sentences to knowing no numbers, not able to hold a pencil or make a mark on paper, knowing no letters. It would worry me if they DIDN'T group them tbh!

are the teachers allowed to tell the parents (individually to their own child) what a "square" is in terms of ability. Just dont want to embarass myself by asking only to be told in a stern voice that it would be more than her job is worth to divulge that information!

Ask your child what other groups there are, and who is in the groups, thenI guess you'll be able to work it out.

Although DD's reception age class is not streamed/setted (only 15 in class with teacher and FT TA so no eed as yet) it is true theat the children already know which children are better than them at some things, and who they are better at than other things. DD and her friends are often seen comparing which reading book they are on to.

yossa, when you get a parent/teacher meeting you need to ask, 'What are her targets?' and 'is she making the progress you would usually expect?'

Where she is with respect to the rest of the class isn't important, all you need to know is that she is making progress, and if she isn't, what the school intends to do to rectify this.

yes, teachers are allowed to tell parents what the abilty of the groups are. it is completely at the school's/teacher's discretion. but unnecessary imo to keep it a secret, cos everyone can work it out given time.

not that I'm bovvered but gentle probing of ds2 (yr1) has just informed me that he is allowed to sit wherever he wants....so no bloody clues there