Appeal against decision to hold DD back in yr 1- MAT

[mummytwobears]

Hello, has been yrs since I used mumsnet, but I'm stuck and wondered if anyone had experienced this.

My kids go to small village school (55 kids). For last 3 yrs it's been great, couldn't ask for better. Last yr school became part of large MAT, with 8 schools not all locally and the leadership is very very different now.
The classes are divided into 3 classes EYFS/yr 1: yrs2&3: yrs 4-6. This has always been fine.
My DD will be going into class 2/yr 2 in Sept...or so we thought.

Yesterday we were given a letter at end of the day stating that DD is not 'emotionally mature' and will therefore not be transitioning into yr 2.
Never have the school or us raised any concerns before this.
My DD is so excited about going into class 2 with her big friends and was really looking forward to Monday when they have their meet your new teacher/class room day. All her friends are moving up without her.
I'm so appalled they've sent this with absolutely no warning.
My DD has no SEND, is meeting expected targets.

I'm sure the real reason is that they only want to employ 3 teachers and want to reduce some of the class sizes.
The ridiculous thing is and I know this shouldn't matter, but I am a (currently unemployed) teacher and my husband is a children's MH nurse, so we do know what we're talking about!

I'm not going to tell her and have written a letter of complaint and asked for decision to be reversed.

Just wondering if anyone has heard of this before and what people think?

Ta x

Being "the cleverest" in class can have a huge, long term, positive impact on many.

Children that go through school being middle ish, bottom ish. They know they aren't the ones getting the highest marks, doing all the extension tasks, producing the best work. These children could thrive being placed in a group where they can legitimately think of themself as "The Best at..."

So I would frame this different. It's not a setback to her self esteem. It's the exact opposite. It could be the making of her...

It's a small school. Presumably to have the other y2s in with 2/3 they would go over the legal maximum class size for KS1. School funding is shite, they can't afford another teacher. It really, really isn't easy for schools these days.

As a parent whose DC are in a school with mixed classes its always the years with older ones that in some ways have more angst. If you don't trust the school move her, otherwise they are doing their best and being right at the top of that class may well be the making of her.

What I would do if I were you would be to clairify how they plan to ensure she is taught the correct curriculum for her age range in a R/1/2 class.

Yep, this ^^

"But it would have been absolutely possible to inform the parents a few weeks ago that next year the organisation of the classes will change, and that it will mean that some year groups will be split. ". Not if it hadn't been decided a few weeks ago. As a teacher I was once told that I would be teaching a mixed key stage class in the final week of term.

I would in no way blame the teachers but I would blame the MAT management that the possibility had not been made clear to parents earlier.

The school might have been waiting for reception numbers to be confirmed before they could decide what to do (ours are still to be finalised).

I wrote a long post and erased it as I genuinely do try to support schools and am hugely impressed by the work teachers do so don't want to sound like an argumentative keyboard warrior! I am also cynical about big MATs which possibly clouds my judgement.

I get that they may have had to wait to finalise numbers but if there was ever a possibility of children not moving up then as a parent I would have wanted to know this so I could frame it positively to my DC. This sounds as if it has come as a complete shock.

There have been a few uncertainties recently in my DDs school (different things from this) but what has really impressed the parents is the fact that parents (and children) have been told all the way along that there is uncertainty, that there are various options and when the school do not know what is going to happen. This has allowed us to manage expectations with children and is possibly one of he reasons the school has such a good reputation. Of course I realise there are things the parents are not told and that I don't need to know but if in a small school it is always a possibility that children do not move up a class when their peers do then I would expect that to be spelled out repeatedly through the year.

Sorry OP, don't want to hijack your thread. Obviously I am not a teacher so not an expert on this and others have more experience. Hope that your DD settles well whatever the outcome .

"I get that they may have had to wait to finalise numbers but if there was ever a possibility of children not moving up then as a parent I would have wanted to know this so I could frame it positively to my DC. This sounds as if it has come as a complete shock" have you considered that it might not have been a possibility until the last minute ...that's what happened to me as a teacher.

Hope the meeting goes well.

mrz, I suppose if it was really not a possibility until the last minute then fair enough.

We aren't in receipt of all the information and neither is the OP.
It's important to ensure the children remaining in class one are taught the appropriate curriculum and the school would be foolish not to.
The OPs child isn't being held back in Y1 which seems to be what the OP thought.