3 children with the same name reception class - would you be annoyed?

[Twozealotmorethan1]

My son is due to start reception in September. It's a large school with a 3 class intake per year. We got class lists through this week and I was surprised to see that there girls with the same name have been put in the same class rather than spread between the three. They are the only three girls in the year with that name and the name is relatively common around here, but not overly so (for what difference that makes). For the purposes of this post, let's say they are called Sophie. Aside from not making it easy for the class teacher of that class, I think it's quite unfair on the girls, especially as in this school, unlike some others I've heard about, the classes stay unchanged throughout the primary school and so these children will be together until age 11 at least.
I can't help think that it's inevitable that the girls will become known as Sophie P / Sophie E etc according to their surnames and may even be more likely to attract unkind nicknames as they get older e.g. 'Big' Sophie, 'Fat' Sophie etc.
I realise it's not always possible to avoid having more than one child with the same first name in a class and I know various factors are taken into account when setting class groups but I can't help think that in a school with three class entry this could have easily been avoided? I would be a bit irritated if I was one of their parents. I have a younger child who will go to the school too in due course and am tempted to feed back to the school politely that I don't think this approach is helpful. What do you think?

[Ohmyfuck]

Omg. PLEASE don't worry about stuff like this or you're going to find life a bit of a trial.

[driveninsanebythehubby]

I'm in agreement with the majority on this thread, OP - no, I would not be annoyed. I wouldn't be annoyed if it were my own child, never mind some other random children!

I must say, with the responses you have been putting on here, you are sounding more and more like "that parent" by the second! It really reads that you absolutely hate the fact that no-one agreed with you, you felt it made you look a bit silly..... but couldn't just hold your hand up and say that, so have had to carry on defending your craziness!

If the other mums have an issue with it, let them question for themselves how/why the classes have been split up like that. I cannot see anyway at all that this should (or could) come from you.

For what it's worth, my youngest is just coming up to the end of his reception year. He is one of 2 with his name in the class out of 2 classes that have reception children in - there are only 13 reception kids in his class as it's split with year 1! His cousin is also in the class and she too has a name that is the same as another child's. Guess how many fucks we give between us over this 'issue'? None. Not a single 1 - because it isn't an issue and teachers have far more to worry about that something that trivial!

[Devilishpyjamas]

My son found another with his name in secondary. His class sorted it themselves by giving my son an entirely different name. When I occasionally meethos friends parents they are sometimes confused when I call him by his real name.

[NotYoda]

Great post Wombat

[tireddotcom72]

My friend had her dd 2 days before me and I didn't know what she had called her when I had my dd - it was pre posting everything on Facebook time. We both ended up giving our girls exactly the same names including spelling and middle names - we hadn't discussed this name before either as both of us had different name choices originally. The girls are inseparable- schools, brownies, guides, dancing etc they do everything together and they would have been upset if they had been split up! Having the same name hasn't done them any harm they are jokingly referred to by everyone as the 2 "Sophie's" and they differentiate themselves as big "Sophie" little "sophie" as there is a massive height difference.

[user1955]

It could be worse- I had two children in my class once with both the same first and surnames. It was single form entry so nothing we could do about splitting them and no middle names to help out. They were totally unrelated. One had been in school since reception and the other joined the school in my Year 3 class.

[spanieleyes]

Clearly they should have been refused permission to join the school unless they agreed to change names-surely this is part of your school's "Names in a class " Policy

[Mrstrumpalot]

Easy to spot the easily affronted, authoritarian teachers on this thread I think.....

Op, I am neither of the above but I agree with the majority of posters. Even more strange as you are not even a parent of the children involved.

[Mrstrumpalot]

Just to add , the first sentence was the op's statement not mine. Bold fail!

[Mittens1969]

Far worse for a child is having a first name or a surname that people always spell wrongly!! Or, worse, a name that the other children will taunt you about all through your years at school.

Re having the same name, it wouldn't even occur to me to worry about that!! It's bound to happen at some point in their lives if they have a popular name.

[NotYoda]

MrsTrumpalot

People start petty threads about schools at this time of year to get a rise out of teachers.

[BlackbirdSingsInTheDeadOfNight]

My 90's secondary school class of 30 featured a Katharine, Kathryn, Katy, Katie and Katharine-known-as-Katie. They all seemed to survive!

My son's primary (2 class intake) had all 3 Matildas put into the same class. The mother of one of the Matildas was absolutely livid, declaring angrily at the school gate to the other mums that her daughter had better not be expected to abbreviate her name, as she was the eldest of the three Matildas so the name was hers first!

[Robstersgirl]

Gives child an unusual name "Aren't you worried they'll be bullied?'
Give child a common name, same applies.
It's not your place to worry about this though.

[LittleIda]

People start petty threads about schools at this time of year to get a rise out of teachers.
Yes they do. Perhaps people are resentful the teachers won't look after their children over the summer too or something. I've noticed on threads like this when no teachers reply it blows over and people are fairly reasonable, but when teachers come on and defend themselves people just get more and more goady. Perhaps teachers should respond to the more obviously goady threads by hiding the thread so the gfs won't get the rise they are looking for?

[LittleIda]

Gah sorry i thought this was another thread. This one wasn't goady. Thought this was the Last Day thread.

[Itsnotwhatitseems]

my ex shared the same first and last name as a boy in his class, they also were born on the same day, one of the lads lived in a house that backed onto my garden and he threw a stone, cutting my lip as a child, I didnt like him, the other became my first boyfriend and father to my 3 children. now that is odd

[kennypppppppp]

Our head of year in reception spends a bloody age sorting classes. By male/female, when they were born, Sen issues, twins being split up, nursery friendships, speech/language needs etc etc.

The last thing on her mind is who's got the same name.

[jijilamorose]

I think no one should judge an OP.
With comment such as oh you are that parent!! and get a life.
This mum it's here to ask opinion and maybe that will make change her mind or even question herself about what's important in life.


And for me having the same name not a big deal they all get use to it. Children parent and teacher!
And same here our school keep the same children in the same class for the all primary.
And by going to the school and tell them politely about the children name in the same class...
Well they won't do much about this.

[Lurkedforever1]

jiji it's not whether they do something about it, or whether op should be concerned from my pov.

It's because for me, it comes across as highly insulting to the school staff to suggest they are all so stupid they haven't already noticed 3 Sophie's together, and if they have that they are too stupid to think of why in an ideal world it would be easier at first to have split them up. Even if I think of the most useless and thoughtless teachers I've ever come across, they could still read a class list and count to 3. So to contact school and imply that you consider the teachers incapable of this, is imo incredibly rude. Not to mention I would generally assume teachers to be of the good variety, rather than bad until they prove otherwise. And if you really do think your dc's future teachers are this stupid / in observant then you really need to be saving your complaints for bigger issues.

[Wilhelminaaa]

It does seem a bit silly to not separate the 3 girls so 1 is in each, but it's really not uncommon.

There was only 1 class in each year in my primary school & we stayed together all through to Y6, a few of us had the same names and had surname initials... No big deal.

[MaisyPops]

Unfortunately jijilamorose the OP was hoping for confirmation on wanting to complain about there being multiples with the same name. When people have said YABU they've gone down the route of 'oh so parents aren't allowed to give feedback on policies etc'.
That does tick quite a few of the boxes for being 'that parent'. It's worth considering that every time somebody decides to be 'that parent', it's time I can't spend doing useful things that help children to learn & supporting them pastorally. Or put another way, what if all parents decided to be 'those parents'?

[Thespilster]

I am a Reception teacher and we spend a lot of time putting children into classes. Based on friendship groups and supporting each other in different ways. We do not however, sort the children by names.

[NSEA]

😂😂having the same name as children in your class leads to bullying. Hilarious.

[kungfupannda]

Please don't 'feed back' to the school on this complete non-issue. This will be the first (or one of the first) interactions that the school has with you, and you really don't want to spend the next x number of years mentally labelled as 'the parent who complained about names, before her child had started, when none of the children were hers.'

There will be plenty of issues - big and small - that will arise over the years, and you'll have to decide which are worth raising and which to let go. If you start off with such a picky complaint - and it will be seen as a complaint, even if you call it feedback - you're setting the bar pretty low.

DS1 has a fairly popular name and at one point there were 4 with that name in his year, 3 of whom were in the same class. Within that 3, two had the same surname initial. It's really never been an issue.

[kungfupannda]

I meant to add that we've got a slightly odd class split this year, and lots of the parents are speculating as to the reasons. But no-one has said 'I wonder if it's occurred to them that they could have done X instead. I think I'll go and mention it' because we're all fairly sure that the class arrangements have been based on various factors, and not just a random whim.