Is there such a thing as a 'bad' school class?

[chuckiecheese]

Coming to the end of my children's primary school careers and reflecting on our experience.

Such different experiences with each of my kids.

My youngest leaves next year but his class has a reputation for being a 'bad year'.

Is there such a thing?

Yes! My three DC all went to our local village school. DC1 had a particularly nice class, DC2 had a perfectly okay class. We moved DC3 in year 3 because his class was so awful. Loads of naughty disruptive pupils.

Also - me and my brother. Same primary school and only a year apart in age, but my class was nice and his wasn't.

Honestly? Yes. For lots of reasons. Behaviour, ability, the personalities of the children and how they interact. The parents...! Maybe bad is the wrong word to use, but there are definitely year groups who, as a cohort, are more challenging than others.

Definitely! I’d probably use “difficult” rather than “bad”.

That has been my experience, shouty kids, entitled parenting, snowflake parenting.

I am losing my mind with it to the point I am doubting myself

Depends on how well behaved the children are on how good the teacher is.
If you have an amazing teacher and quiter children who do as they're told then its going to be a better enviroment to learn in and a good class but if the teacher isnt the best and there is a large number of naughty and disruptive children then its going to be harder to learn.

Yes, this was my year at school. When we were in year 11, the day before the last day of the year we were called into the assembly hall and told study leave was starting one day early as they didn't want any trouble from us.

15 years on and I'm still bitter about not getting to sign our school shirts

I think so.
I've taught ks3 classes that were a handful even with a strong teacher (I got them because I'm strong on behaviour management).
If you get the wrong mix at primary then there's no reason why you couldn't get a more difficult year group.

We notice it at secondary too but with cohorts of 250. Some year groups are simply weird and unsettled cohorts and others are wonderful.

My ds3 has just started reception and I can already tell his class is going to be ‘interesting’. His sisters both have lovely classes so I feel a bit sorry for him. Unfortunately he fits right in!

All classes vary but I wouldn’t say there is such a thing as good and bad classes. All have their pros and cons. A good teacher should be able to work with any class.

I think so - my two certainly had very different classes. My ds's class had lovely kids who generally all got on very well, was a happy class and the parents were lovely. There was lots of really good friendships and I wouldn't say anyone was left out. DD's was interesting. Far more problems between the children, there were some very strong characters. She wasn't sad to see the back of some of them when she moved on. I felt the same way about a few of the parents.

Definitely some groups are more challenging, and unfortunately once they get a reputation it can be self-fulfilling and more established teachers manage to avoid them so they end up with NQTs.

I probably wouldn't use the word "bad", but yes, there are definitely some classes, or year groups that are more challenging' than others. In a bigger school, you can sometimes mix the classes up, and get a more 'balanced' group, but that can't be done in a single form entry school.

Each class definitely has its own personality. My class last year took me a while to...appreciate them for all they had. By the end of the year I thought they were hilarious - they really began to bounce off each other with their little personalities. I was a bit puzzled by them at the start of the year, and didn’t really get them.

Same for teachers, though. My “hilarious” class might be someone else’s “annoying”, or someone else’s “irritating”.

Different classes/year groups definitely have different personalities. Some can be v bright, not so bright, some with lots of behaviour problems, or lots of pushy parents. Dd’s Teacher in Yr 3 described her class as lots of Chiefs not enough Indians.

Yes I would agree that single entry classes aren't always a good thing. It would have been great if dd's class could have been mixed up a bit. Separating out some of the children would have been beneficial for the whole class!

One of my DCs was in a 'challenging' class. It was just an unfortunate combination of multiple children with different SEN or difficult family situations that added up to many behavioural problems. Several of their teachers left or had extensive time off sick after having them. Rotten luck of the draw in a school too small to split them up.

science . I once had a class with lots of strong personalities. Their teacher the previous year had left the school (to do a masters, nothing to do with them!). In the final week of term, one of the quietest children came up to me, hugged me and said “are you going to leave after teaching us like Mrs X did?”

It broke me that she had spent all year thinking her class had driven the teacher away.

Yes, my primary school was a 'good' year but my first year of secondary was a 'bad' year (I'd moved over with hardly anyone from primary). I was bullied and a few of the teachers told my mum that they were finding my year a 'bad' year with quite a few children who were not overly nice (others were being bullied too). I think the reality is that you only need a few more extra kids who aren't that great to shift the balance of the whole year group - it doesn't mean every kid is a problem. I moved schools and was much happier.

dandelion Sadly, this class really was that bad. They were virtually a check list of every possible diagnosis and Social Services involvement. All the experts & advisors were called in. Every strategy employed. The behaviour issue of one would be the trigger of another. I saw it as parent & colleague. I taught their siblings. Never saw another class like it.

I had the group with the label "class from hell" last year. Previous (good and experienced) teachers had almost resigned over them.
I loved them! Challenging, yes. Bunch of fruitcakes with a myriad of "ishoos" who continually bickered and fought with each other all year.

But I never hated going in each morning. I didn't take it personally. They needed firm handling (and got it) but also warmth and good humour and then they were mostly OK in lessons. It was mainly on the playground and outside school that things kicked off. The parallel class were delightful.
Just happens that way sometimes.

I once had a Reception class where around half of the mums had new babies, were pregnant or became pregnant. It was a really trying year because so many of them were tryign to work around that change in their home lives.

Similarly you can have a year with a lot of precious first borns, or a lot of 'just get on with it' third borns!

Teacher retention within a school tends to help too. A tricky class whose teacher leaves midway through immediately becomes trickier. Similarly, if they know Mrs X always has Y5, has taught their big brother/cousin and puts up with no nonsense, Mrs X might have a good chance of getting them down.

I think rather than bad classed is more of a really bad mix of children. A particular class comes to mind where the were so many SEN,emotional and social issues that in the end the only solution was to split up the class in half(they even had to be separated in the playground and kept away from eachother when lining up).

Each class definitely has a personality.

It’s not necessarily behaviour or other issues, sometimes it’s just an odd mix of personalities where the children just don’t get on with each other at all.

Yes, our school seems to be one big 'bad' class. It's a new school and ended up with all of the behaviourally challenging kids who were subtly managed out of their previous school, or kids who have learning difficulties or are on the spectrum but the parents aren't willing to acknowledge it, so moved schools rather than deal with teachers who were pushing for their children to be assessed. It's exhausting, and over half the staff are leaving at the end of the school year as admin don't back up the teachers, and we're all getting fed up of being hit or kicked or abused without any sanctions for the students.

Yes, definitely. Id probably describe it more as having a glut of kids with issues (behaviour etc) or ridiculous parents in one class. Together they create a class dynamic and it can be really hard for a teacher to work with.