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Primary education

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

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Original poster

I cant wrap my head around this set up...

52 replies

Confused095 · 21/08/2021 07:24

Hello, I'm hoping somebody can help me understand the set up of our local primary school...
DC1 will be starting school properly September 2022, but we've managed to get him into a nursery class for this September.

So this school he has a place at this September are set I'm years 0, 1, 2, 3, Etc etc...

Unfortunately, after speaking to schools admissions, it is unlikely he will be able to continue in this school when we reapply for September 2022.

But the school that we have a high chance of getting a place has a different set out.
Instead of yr 0, 1, 2, 3... etc. Its yr 0, yr1 & 2, yr 2 & 3, yr 3 & 4.
So basically the classes are combined?
I just dont understand how there can be potentially a 2 yr gap between children in the class?
Or is it that they will have say an August child and a September child in the same class?

I'm sorry if what I've wrote is confusing, I just can't understand the idea of blended school years and how it works.

If anybody can help me understand it I would appreciate it.

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Shieldingending · 21/08/2021 07:28

It’s a very common set up in small primary schools, the teacher will be used to it and will plan accordingly for the range of abilities in the class – ask the school for more information about how it works. For some children it can be very beneficial, a school I was looking up for my DC was very small and combined years 3–6 each afternoon and for that reason I did not choose that school. I felt that by the time they were in year six being taught with seven-year-old was really poor preparation for secondary school. Just mixing two year groups I don’t see is a big issue though

GingerAndTheBiscuits · 21/08/2021 07:30

Is the one with mixed classes a very small school? One of our local schools only takes 15 children a year but combines the classes. I guess it’s a cost/staffing/space issue. We didn’t go for it because I wasn’t sure how children at the top and bottom end academically would cope with such a wide age/ability range in one class

LizzieSiddal · 21/08/2021 07:31

Lots of village primary schools work like this. It has its advantages and disadvantages.

Apeirogon · 21/08/2021 07:33

This is fairly common in small primary schools. If the school has, say, 100 children it's not financially viable to have 7 classes of 15 children and pay for a full-time teacher for each class. Don't worry, the teachers will be used to the system and will be able to provide differentiated work for the younger and older kids.

OldScrappyAndHungry · 21/08/2021 07:34

It’s not uncommon at all and it can work really well for lots of children. We work with a huge range of inabilities anyway, even in a “standard” class. Teaching rigidly within a school year really makes no sense - children start school with such widely differing abilities anyway.

If you like the school then please don’t let the vertically grouped classes put you off.

DaisyDaisydoo · 21/08/2021 07:38

We have this in my children’s small village primary. So far we have been very pleased with how it works. The children do a fair amount of work in smaller groups which seem to be by ability. so for example a year 3 child who is doing particularly well in a subject gets exposure to some of the ‘year 4’ level work. I really wouldn’t worry, the teachers will know how to deal with the gap.

FusionChefGeoff · 21/08/2021 07:39

I know at least 2 NCT friends who went into small schools like this and it's worked out really well for them. It's generally an indicator of a small school which can really get to know the kids and has a lovely community feel. Not always of course but there are definitely benefits.

As others say there is already a huge range of ability in a class so teachers are used to having 3 or 4 levels of learning available.

Having said that, I'd still choose single classes if I could if I'm honest!

Apeirogon · 21/08/2021 07:39

The way it works in a local school is:

Consider two of the classes - the Y1/Y2 and Y2/Y3 classes. Assuming 20 children per year group, there will be 30 in each class. Year 2 will be split with the youngest 10 children with the Y1s and the oldest 10 children with the Y3s. (In this school the split is purely age not ability.) So the age range will be around 18 months for both classes, or a little bit more or less depending on the timing of birthdays.

The split Y2 class will, the following year, be all together in the Y2/Y3 class.

Spondooliesforholibobs · 21/08/2021 07:45

Lots of schools work like this.

In my primary school we had ALL the infant years in one room ie the first 4 years and all the juniors in one room (3 years).

My kids are in a school with composite classes.

They don’t do the same work, they sit at different tables and the teacher gives year 2 the year 2 work and year 3 something else. It was not ideal during COVID as they couldn’t mix with the other half that they were already friends with. Generally though it’s fine and I’m sure the teachers must work together so if the class is split it still gets the same work.

GoWalkabout · 21/08/2021 07:46

Its actually a good set up. Some parents /teachers feel there shouldn't be a year 2/3 split because the curriculum is different but it worked well for us. Think of the primary curriculum as being taught in a spiral fashion - children will learn in all sorts of ways and at the level that they are (they will be differentiated with less or more challenging tasks, and things will come round again). Ours was a big school with mixed year groups and multiple classes and this suited my September born and my August born.

Spondooliesforholibobs · 21/08/2021 07:47

Ours is not split on age or ability, slightly based on friendship groups (I’d prefer age as less controversial!)

SusannaM · 21/08/2021 07:50

DD went to two primary schools like this. It worked fine academically and they kept yr6 as a separate class because of SATS. But in the first school they moved the older half of the class up each year, DD struggled with friendships. Twice she ended up in a younger friendship group (she is young in the year anyway) and when her year moved up she had to leave them behind, it was really unsettling for her. She moved to another school where they stayed in the same groups all through school.

Ligglepiggle · 21/08/2021 07:54

I’ve just moved my DS out of a school with blended classes, he is very able and seemed bored.
I know some children benefit but as PP have said there is nearly two years age wise not to mention those who are ahead/behind expectation, DS previous school definitely focused on getting everyone to bare minimum rather than investing time with anyone more able - as an example once he passed a certain book band we were told he couldn’t have any more until he moved up a class!

Megan2018 · 21/08/2021 07:57

Our village school is tiny with mixed aged teaching. Three classes for 48 5-11 year olds. There’s usually 5 new starters in reception who are taught with years 1 and 2.

Thissucksmonkeynuts · 21/08/2021 08:11

I went to a largish village school, about 100 children split over 4 classes, some of us were in the oldest group early, so there was a mix of 8-11 year olds.

SuperheroBirds · 21/08/2021 08:23

@Ligglepiggle

I’ve just moved my DS out of a school with blended classes, he is very able and seemed bored. I know some children benefit but as PP have said there is nearly two years age wise not to mention those who are ahead/behind expectation, DS previous school definitely focused on getting everyone to bare minimum rather than investing time with anyone more able - as an example once he passed a certain book band we were told he couldn’t have any more until he moved up a class!

I agree with this. My husband went to a primary school like this and he has said he’d never send children to one if there was any choice. He was very able, so always with the older set, and they didn’t provide much stretching work so he got bored. When you are 9 or 10 being bored often means being disruptive or naughty.

NovacDino · 21/08/2021 08:26

I teach a mixed age class, year 1 and 2, and it's no different really to teaching a single age class because there would still be a range of abilities in that group of children. We use a two year rolling curriculum so that the children cover all of the objectives they need to. I teach the children in small groups, matched to what they personally need to learn next.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 21/08/2021 08:32

My mother went to a primary school of 25 children. Covering two villages. She was the only person in her year, but they had two classes. There are still schools of this size.

There are pros and cons of small schools. And of medium size schools, and of large schools (some primarys have 180 children per year!)

alphabetspagetti · 21/08/2021 08:36

My concern with this wouldn't be the academic side of it as, as so many have explained, teachers are used to teaching a range of abilities. Instead, it suggests it's a smaller school and so the pool of potential friends is reduced. I'd also want to know what sports teams and after school clubs are offered.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 21/08/2021 08:42

@alphabetspagetti

Turning this round...when my DDs attended a small school pretty much every child could join the choir, or football team, or netball team. In fact, sometimes they had to do get the numbers up. When they moved to a larger school, they were more clubs...but not spaces for everyone Gymnastics club for example... 20 spaces for Yr1&2, but that was 60 kids per year, so only half that wanted a place got in.

Athrawes · 21/08/2021 08:45

My son's school has 45 kids from year 1 to 8. His class is years 3 - 8. It seems to work.

idontlikealdi · 21/08/2021 08:56

Depends where you live, if you are remote or in a small village this will likely be the set up, you don't get to choose between 6 primaries.

SheWhoRemains · 21/08/2021 09:03

@Ligglepiggle

I’ve just moved my DS out of a school with blended classes, he is very able and seemed bored. I know some children benefit but as PP have said there is nearly two years age wise not to mention those who are ahead/behind expectation, DS previous school definitely focused on getting everyone to bare minimum rather than investing time with anyone more able - as an example once he passed a certain book band we were told he couldn’t have any more until he moved up a class!

I did exactly the same when DS was younger and have no regrets. He is September born, but also, extremely bright (not just saying this, his teachers have acknowledged that he is far ahead of his peers). In his old school he was in a class with kids almost two years younger and he was bored, often left to his own devices. Now he's in a larger two form entry school and he gets challenged a lot more.

However, I can see how it would benefit some kids, especially summer born children.

waltzingparrot · 21/08/2021 09:29

My village school was like this - over 50 years ago! It's not a new idea.

Clarkey86 · 21/08/2021 09:38

It doesn’t make a huge amount of difference because there are often children working at extremely low or extremely high levels that need catering and planning for anyway. For example, in a straight year 2 class there might be 1 child working at a low year 1 level. In a mixed year 1/2
Class there might be 10. The same work is planned for the one child in the first scenario or the 10 in the second. The same applies to the upper end.

I’m a teacher and have taught both in mixed 1/2 and a standard year 2 and the only thing that is different really is the social/emotional maturity of the children.

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