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?

Often it comes down to a clash of personalities. As individuals the children couldn't be nicer but put them together in a group/class and nightmare!

2016/2017 year six in our school was not great tbh. Not all of them but results were down and there was some major behavioural issues.

Apparently my son's year us quite challenging as it's 2/3 boys yet the year below is 50/50 m/f. When you think about it's a random luck of the draw which includes birth rates, geography and parents choices.

I remember one of my teachers saying that our year had a reputation for being a really 'bad year'. I could see why tbh, there just seemed to be a higher concentration than usual of kids who caused trouble, got into trouble with the law, bunked off, were awful to teachers. Just coincidence, I think, as there were 210 of us so not the fault of one bad teacher or the school overall. It definitely affected everyone's education though despite it being just a few in each class. That was in the 90s btw.

ArnoldBee my DC1's primary school class was 2/3rds boys but it was a really lovely class.

In our school, they mix the classes up every year. There is generally one tough class, given to the teacher most likely yo keep them under control, and 2 nicer classes.
DS2 has got the remaining spaces in the challenging class this year. Its already showing

Ours is a one year entry which has not helped because they could not mix up the children

My form class in secondary school was like this - loads of people had criminal records by the time we left, there were often physical, violent altercations in the classroom (think things like furniture being thrown etc) - it was pretty awful. Through grown up eyes I can see that it was an unfortunate mix of kids with frankly awful home lives (I went to one girl's 'birthday party' which consisted of five of us watching her mum getting pissed and chatting up men in a rough as dogs pub; another girl was forever nicking food because her parents didn't feed her and her sisters, another girl was always off because her mum was unable to cope and kept sending her to stay with her father 200 miles away for weeks on end, another girl was, in hindsight, almost definitely being sexually abused by her father (we didn't understand this at the time), all kinds of things). Unfortunately our form tutor was, although a very nice man and well meaning enough, close to retirement, very middle class and clearly out of his depth so the problems just got worse.

I spent most of my teaching career in one-form entry primaries and there were definitely certain years when you wished you had parallel classes and could have split up a really challenging mix of children. Not necessarily years with lots of SEND but years with clashing personalities, groups of kids who egged each other on, groups where the "nice" hard-working kids were not strong enough personalities to be class leaders. Sometimes you could see a difficult year evolving when they were in Reception or Y1.

Then again, it depends on teachers too. I took a class in Y6 who'd been considered difficult going up the school and I really enjoyed them. I think it was a mixture of me "getting" their personalities and them maturing a little bit. Sometimes just one of the ringleaders leaving the school can change the dynamics of a whole class.

We also had a theory, in the London borough I worked in, that certain years seemed to be challenging across the borough. I'd meet teachers from other schools at INSETs and we'd have discussions - "Our Year 5s are awful this year" - "But our Year 5s are the most difficult class too! Every school round here has a difficult Y5 this year! What was in the water 10/11 years ago???!!"

themadgardener your description definitely sums up my sons class. He is the nice hard working kid who does not get why he behaves & gets overlooked. That plus precious parents 'manipulating ' things.

Thankfully he leaves next year, fingers crossed Secondary school is better & it is not district wide

Yes definitely- not bad but difficult.
Usually the parents actually. One very tricky year group, lots of high need children and parents who complain about everything.
I’ve had lovely classes and funnily enough the parents all seem to be lovely

I remember when I was in year 9 they rejigged the classes half way through the year as mine was so bad. I think it was a case of dynamics and the way certain kids egged each other on. As soon as they were separated it was much better.

Definitely.

One of my dc's infant class started as a group with a band of bright precocious girls, low ability boys, and a group of children with various serious behavioural issues- one was permanently excluded (with parents' agreement to help access help) at the end of reception due to behaviour. They had almost no middle. They were hard to teach simply because there was such a spread.
The equivalent form had all the middle, no behavoural issues and hence was closer on ability so easier to teach.

Dbro went to a school that did an entrance exam (private). They way they sorted the 6 forms was they listed the children from top to bottom from the exam. They then put them in turn in each form-the theory being that they would be similarly academically. In almost every year there was one form that was better than the rest, and one that had all the issues.