Should I be worried about DS1 going into a class where everyone else is a year older than him, after what his end of year report said?

[NatalieJane]

DS1 is in reception now, his report is glowing, he has achieved all of the stepping stones in all of the catagories, it states he is an excellent student, and I am very proud of him for doing so well.

But, he has been placed in a mixed year 1 and Year 2 class (I think there are 4 year 1's, and 14 year 2's), which in itself would show that he is getting on very well, only thing is, his report said "Thomas has been held back by the number of absences due to illness", he has been off a lot because he has genuinely been ill, he has been sent home from school on a number of occassions because he is poorly, and 9 times out of 10 when he goes back to school he still either looks or is still a little bit poorly, but not bad enough to stay home, so the school is aware that he is genuinely ill. He has had 1 and a half days of over the year when he wasn't ill, the day was when his Grandma got married (not exactly something that happens every week) and he had the morning off after we had spent the night before down the hospital after his brother had a fit, but I don't think either of those times can be compared to the 5 students that have spent 6+ weeks in India and the other students who have had holidays in term time, we have doubled the cost of our holiday this year just because we didn't want him to miss school.

Anyway the question is, should I be worried that if he goes into the higher class, and still continues to pick up every bloody bug going around, is he going to struggle terribly against the other students in his class? And if he would, where do I stand with the school, can I insist he goes into the 'proper' Year 1 class?

Sorry it is so long.

Anyone?

We run mixed age classes in the school where I teach and I am pleased to say they work rather well.
In any class you will have a range of abilities that will need to be catered for. In a year 6 class this year, for example, we had everything from working towards level one up to level five. The need of all the children were met through careful planning and good use of teaching assistants and intervention groups.
In the progress meetings held at the end of term all staff across the school agreed that the younger age group benefitted a great deal from being with older children and test resulkts showed that the younger children progressed more quickly than in previous years when the classes were not mixed.

I would let the term start and support your child in all homework and reading tasks he is given. Provide him with a stable loving home environment with plenty of stimulating family activities at the weekends, lots of sleep and nourishing food and I reckon he will thrive.

Thanks Spud, sounds like I won't have much to worry about then.

I suppose I had better go and pick him up now really!

My DS only had one term in reception before going into a mixed Y1/Y2 class where he was almost the youngest child. He benefitted massively. The older kids helped him a lot and modeled good behaviour. He did really well in his KS1 sats. DD on the other hand has been in a class of Y1s only this year and I've felt that she has been held back by the younger, less mature children as the teacher only seems to be teaching to one level. So no I don't think your DS should have a problem!