Active discussions

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Original poster

Ability Groups

125 replies

curiousmum32 · 02/11/2017 21:16

My daughter who is 4 an in reception told me today that the class has been divided into a few groups- Moon, Stars, Earth, Sun. And that she is in the star group.
Cant figure out if she's in the top group or in the middle or below. Havent had a chance to ask the teacher and I am not sure if they would tell.
Please advise.
Thank you

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Set a reminder
Catalufa · 02/11/2017 21:17

We won’t be able to tell you - it could be in any order.

Inkandbone · 02/11/2017 21:19

You can generally work it out from the other kids, although it's probably one if the middle groups.

drspouse · 02/11/2017 21:29

My DS' reception class was in keyworker groups. Then they were in so and so's phonics group and someone else's number group.

pipistrell · 02/11/2017 21:30

Why does it matter?

sirfredfredgeorge · 02/11/2017 21:31

How do you know they're ability groups - as opposed to any other sort of grouping? In our school they had the same group names, but it was nothing to do with ability

Stars - the loud annoying kids, think Stars in their eyes.
Moon - the kids who had a tendency to drop their trousers at the drop of a hat and show everyone their bums
Earth - the kids who were always covered in dirt.

Never did figure out who the sun group was made up of...

ineedamoreadultieradult · 02/11/2017 21:32

The whole point is you are not meant to be able to work it out. She will be in the group she needs to be in and if she was having any problems the teacher would have raised it with you or will raise it at parents evening.

thepatchworkcat · 02/11/2017 21:33

Might not be ability groups, could just be organisational.

PatriciaHolm · 02/11/2017 21:39

May not be anything other than random, especially in reception.

If they do group them by ability, they are unlikely to tell you explicitly, though the kids will work it out for themselves pretty quickly!

Original poster
curiousmum32 · 02/11/2017 22:17

Right, not sure if its an ability group. I will ask the teacher.
Thank you

OP posts:
ProfessorCat · 02/11/2017 22:21

Do you need to know? What difference does it make?

I've never been asked about why a child is in what group and if I group by ability or not. I don't think it's something that parents need to know.

Wiggypudding · 02/11/2017 23:30

These are common names for ability groups

It's done in distance from the teacher so goes earth, moon, sun, stars

Stars is top group as furthest away from teacher ie needs less help

Norestformrz · 03/11/2017 04:57

“It's done in distance from the teacher so goes earth, moon, sun, stars” what! As a teacher I have to say that would never occur to me Hmm

OP I’d discuss your child if you asked but wouldn’t discuss my classroom organisation.

pipistrell · 03/11/2017 08:18

It's very unlikely that they'd be grouped by abilities this early on in school anyway

user789653241 · 03/11/2017 08:26

They definitely had ability grouping in reception at my ds's school, but I don't know since when.
It was very obvious to see as well, they used 2d shapes, and more vertices, higher the group. And the list was on the wall for everyone to see. They did the same for whole ks1, so must be school policy. Kind of grim.

ProfessorCat · 03/11/2017 08:36

Of course they are ability grouped this early.

I have never in all my years of teaching seen or heard of the Earth Moon Sun Stars thing.

wobblywonderwoman · 03/11/2017 08:45

It probably isn't ability. It may just be actually groupings. Like north, south, east ,west

sirfredfredgeorge · 03/11/2017 09:02

No ability grouping in our reception, some whole class work, otherwise they laid out stations with activities, kids chose what they wanted to do within that choice. I'm sure the adults guided kids in specific areas, and took them to do specific things, but there was no ability grouping.

In KS1 there were groups, but other than for phonics, all the groups were mixed ability, phonics was split to the type of thing they were practicing.

I would disagree with professorcat on if parents need to know, but only so they can answer questions from the child like "why can't I sit with X now? why do I have to be in a group with annoying person Y?" etc. so the reasons, and if they're fluid so the child can be communicated.

MiaowTheCat · 03/11/2017 09:05

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

user789653241 · 03/11/2017 09:09

Tbh, ability grouping in reception/ks1 doesn't really reflect the child's true ability ime. Most of top table were Autumn/Winter born in ds's classes.
By ks2, it will be totally different. Some will stay on top, some will be taken over.

2014newme · 03/11/2017 09:20

They move groups constantly also will soon introduce more groups eg different groups for maths.

RedSkyAtNight · 03/11/2017 09:54

Even if they are ability groups, please bear in mind that this is only relevant to where your DC sits within their current class.
They could, for example, be in the "bottom" group but still in the top 20% nationally if you go to a particularly high achieving school.
Please, please don't get hung up on what group your child is in, particularly in Reception!

Witchend · 03/11/2017 10:55

It's done in distance from the teacher so goes earth, moon, sun, stars

Stars is top group as furthest away from teacher ie needs less help

Who says? They can do what they want. Dd1 had these groups once for reading, (plus comet) and the top group was moon and the bottom was stars.

My dc at infants always had several groups. Group for maths, group for reading, group for writing, group for art. All had their own names. Some were ability based totally, some were loosely ability based (so 6 groups with 2 equal groups in each banding) and some weren't ability based at all.
You cannot tell what this is. Wait a few weeks and then you will probably hear, if they are ability based, "Jonny's in triangles because he's really good at maths. Martha and Milly are in jumpers because they don't know all their letters yet"

dantdmistedious · 03/11/2017 11:03

You cant catgotically day that star is the top - I’d say it’s more likely random so you or the kids can’t work it out. Mine had animals in reception - think it was lion tiger bear or something.

Joinourclub · 03/11/2017 11:13

Wiggypudding
Actually in my experience it is to do with mass, starting at the bottom with the lowest mass - the Moon. Then the Earth , The Sun and finally The Stars. The mass of all the stars is clearly many times greater than the Sun, so the Stars group is only for those who are exceptionally gifted and talented.

ProfessorCat · 03/11/2017 13:00

so they can answer questions from the child like "why can't I sit with X now? why do I have to be in a group with annoying person Y?" etc. so the reasons, and if they're fluid so the child can be communicated

Which causes massive problems as soon as they are told, or realise they are ability grouped.

Parents coming in to demand why their PFB isn't in the highest ability group because they're clearly of a higher intelligence level than any other child in the class, when they're distinctly average.

Parents coming in to ask why their child is in the "thick group".

Children asking why they're in the "thick group"

Etc