Why do 2-class Reception children get split up to go into Year One?

[imaginaryfriend]

Dd's at a school with two Reception classes, September and January intake. One of my friends told me that when they move into Year One the two groups will be mixed together and split and I wondered under what criteria they will be split (to balance age / ability ranges?) and if poor shy dd will be able to keep any of her hard-won friends?

Did any of your kids find this hard? And do they get split again after Year One?

(And I know I'm worrying about this early as dd's only just started Reception)

This was supposed to happpen at Dd's school (now Year1). However due to the fact that the "balance" in both classes was good there was no reason to.
Apparently it is done because when the inital mix is done (for Reception) all the school has to go on is really the childs sex. Therefore all the "brightest" or "shyest" or "naughtiest" etc. children may well be in one class.
If is did go ahead for Dd then we were able to put names of four children that Dd would like to stay with (the school only guarenteeing one selection though)

We have been told that it may happen at entry into KS2.

Really don't think it's anything to worry about as both Reception classes are probably mixing lots at this stage and children will have friends in both classes.

this happened to my dd who is now in her new year one class.

I did question it at the time, yet I casn't see there has been any problem with it, and have not heard anything to the contrary form any other parents either.

They spend so many hours together in the playground, anyway that dd still has amle time to be with her reception mates.

Don't worry, i am sure it wil be fine.

Well, if you knew my dd ... It really has taken her an age to get to know just one girl in her current Reception class. Although she's become nicely familiar with the other girls in the class too. It would throw her hugely if they all got broken apart next year.

So they split the class according to behaviour / ability / sex? not age?

Dd did it at end of reception, to balance out older and younger kids, girls and boys, abilities, lively/quieter children. They did take into account friendships and also antagonistic pairings.
They rejig them throughout school if need be. For instance dd's year was remixed at the end of y3 as they were very unequal in terms of all the criteria above (particularly dd's class had a large group of boys who weren't good together, and due to people moving away etc, there were just 8 girls in the other class). In this instance they asked them to say 2 friends they'd like to stay with, with the guarantee they'd be put with 1.

They will be sympathetic to children's needs, they don't want unhappy children.

At my ds's school, they kept "friends" together if you asked them to, as they keep the same classes/teachers for both yr 1 and 2.

Ok, maybe I should ask then if dd can stay with her one and only Friend?

It's only coming to the end of the 1st half term. Your Dd will make and break many friendships by July.
Re-evalualte at Easter.

Maybe she will. But so far she's only had one real best friend ever!

You're definitely right about re-evaluating at Easter though.

I'm such a worrier.

I would agree that it is very early days. But I am sure that the teacher will recognise that your dd hasn't made many attachments (if this is still the case in 9mo time) and unless there was a major reason why (ie the 2 of them were very disruptive) then they would keep them together.

This happens at my son's school and he has been heartbroken because his best friend is in the other class.

The arguement is that they want the children to get to know all the children in the year. They want both year one teacher to have a mixture of ablity in year 1.

Last year the January reception class had 19 summer born boys. I imagine it must have been very hard to the teacher. The september class had a high number of girls.

This happens in my dc's school. It can cause problems with children who do not like change but generally by the time the class has been rejigged in Yr1 and Yr2 they know pretty much everyone anyway and there are few problems going forward. The teachers can use it to split up disruptive or too close pairings / groups wihtout issue and children learn the strategies to make new link ups.

They mix for seveal lessons anyway and at playtime, so it is fine.

At our school the reception children in ds's year (he is now yr 2) were arranged age-wise (all the older ones in one class). Obviously they needed to mix them for year 1, and tried to get a balance of ages, sexes and abilities. They also tried to ensure each child was with at least one good friend. They will not now be mixed again. It worked well for ds, beacuse he remained with his best friend, but was also with another friend in yr1 (and still in yr 2) who was in the other class in reception.

Last year they arranged it differently, so they had a mixture of ages in both classes, and (they had hoped) abilities. But it became evident during the year that one class had a far higher number of children with special needs etc than the other, so they ended up mixing them again before going in to yr1. I think most schools who do mix the children try to make some effort to ensure they are still with some good friends. if you are wooried by Easter timeI would have a word with the teacher, to try to ensure your dd remains with her best friend at least.

A friend of mine is a governor at a school where they had a situation like this although the children were older. I remember her saying that they debated it for ages, I think they did it on ability in the end. I would guess however that it depends on the school.