Is having two year groups in one class necessarily a negative thing?

[CarlaTheGnome]

My instinct is to feel that teaching Reception and Yr1, for example, together in one room with one teacher cannot possibly be as effective as having separate classes tailored to each year group. Can any primary teachers or parents with experience of this give me some insight? There may be advantages to doubled-up classes, or at the very least no evidence of it being detrimental to the children, but all I can see from my perspective is the disadvantage of having so many disparate abilities and needs in one room.

My DD had this throughout primary. It had its pros and cons but she did very well.
I suspect it's much more challenging to teach such a mixed group.

My school tried it last year, separated them out again this year. So I guess that speaks volumes.

My dc was one of 10 reception children in a class of yr1's. I feel he missed out on the reception experience to some extent.

@Reluctantadult my DS is going through this right now, exact same numbers. He's missing out on loads and I'm very upset about it.

I said this elsewhere but I attended a school with the two years in one class system. The school I'd attended before that didn't have the same system but for me there was honestly no difference between the two. I don't remember it causing any issues whatsoever. I was trying to remember how exactly lessons worked but honestly I can't because it caused no problems for us, I can't speak for the teacher though but I honestly noticed no difference between my previous primary school and the one with this system.

@sittingonacornflake if it's in any way reassuring, my son doesn't seem to feel he missed out on anything and he's got some brilliant secure friendships from his little group.

It's very normal in small rural schools, and has been for decades.

in our school reception and pre-school are mixed
yr 1 and yr2
yr 3 and yr 4
yr 5 and yr6

there are between 5 - 15 children per year group depending on intake. The total number in each class is generally around 20.

my bright high achieving autumn born yr1 is able to join in the bits of the yr 2 work going on in the same class where appropriate and as a result isn't getting bored and fidgety like they were towards the end of reception.

my feisty, awesome but still a bit immature for her age late summer born reception child is being appropriately challenged within her year group but still has lots of opportunities to play as the room is also set up to cater for pre-school.

I think it's great

Reception and year ine is not an easy mix for teachers as they are on different curriculumns. So reception is on eyfs and year 1 is the start of ks1.
Im not sure the children notice.

My dd has this throughout primary - only 4 classes in the school. She loved it and I thought way more positives than negatives

I think there's pros and cons. My 3 all went through schools like this (2 schools both mixed experience).
Mostly positive I have one dc with sen and learning disabilities who thrived and was kept back easier when needed. I also have 2 dc who are very intellectual and often were put in groups with older children. It worked really well. I think the biggest downfall was from a social point of view having fewer dc means less friends. Ds had 2 boys and 10 girls in his year which didn't seem a problem till ks2. Also less pupils means less money meant limited on what extras the school could provide. On the other hand they got an extra years swimming lessons.
The schools also had extra TAs so often had lots of small group work compared to my dn schools.
For two dc they are very shy and would have gone under the radar in a lot of schools but not in a small school so it was definitely confidence building. Both schools are village schools and this had been a long standing arrangement and so the teachers were experienced at this. They definitely said it could be challenging at times.
One school had r/y1, y2 on there own, y3/4, y5/6 which worked well. Yr 2 had 13 dc in ds year. The other school mixed key stages which must have been difficult to teach. So even between schools that do this there will be different set ups and different ways of working.

Reception and year 1 have very different teaching styles but it does seem to work for year 1 plus as the top of one year overlaps the bottom of the next ability wise. My DC's school doesn't do this but I went to a school with 3 and at one point 4 years in a class. As a bright autistic child who was socially behind it was great, until year 6 when I was bored to tears. No idea how the teacher managed such a wide range though!

My daughter went to a three form entry school for juniors. So there were 2 year 3 classes, and a mixed year 3 and 4, and 2 year 4 classes, and a mixed year 4 and 5 and so on.
She moved there late so I did actually ask the head the thinking behind it, she explained that some children can lag behind with social/emotional maturity etc and can benefit from being in a mixed age group

It’s been really positive for my DD. She is currently in a mixed year 3&4 class and has found it really beneficial, as there are parts of the year 4 curriculum she can do which boosts her confidence as she struggles with school generally, they also do some mentoring so having the older kids help the younger ones benefits the little ones in the class but also the older ones feeling responsible. She really enjoyed being the mentor last year in her mixed 1&2 class. They do wider mixed year activities such as juniors & infants mixed PE, sports days where the bigger ones support and cheer on the littlies is so cute. They also do mixed school drama & music ‘band lessons’. It really fosters a sense of community which is lovely to see. They even come back to help out at sports days and things when they’ve gone off to high school!

It can have pros however it's definitely not in the best interests of the children at this age in my opinion.

Reception and year 1 are two exceeding different curriculums and it's rare to find a school that mixes them who favours the eyfs curriculum instead of the KS1 curriculum so inevitably what happens is the poor reception kids miss out on a proper reception year and are instead sat at desks and given little to no opportunity to learn through play.

A more sensible approach is year 1/2 mix and having reception and nursery mixed as at least them the children are working off the same curriculum. It's definitely not something I would be happy with.

I was in a school which did mixed mainly year groups and generally much preferred mixed classes. Reception was separate (which as an adult I can see makes sense).

I know I had a single year yr 4 class, and then mixed classes for years 5 and 6. The latter was much better as I was a bright year 5 child and the teacher was able to group with some of the bright year 6 children so I was really able to be stretched. It was then more difficult in year 6. The single year year 4 class was memorably frustrating as I couldn't work to the level I wanted to.

My brother went to a different school and they had more options for mixing - so a bright year 2 might work in a year 2/3 class, whereas someone else less able was able to be taught with the year 1s - so that flexibility actually aided keeping people with similar abilities together more than in a traditional one class, one year scenario.

DC school have yr1/2 together and yr3/4 together. The other year groups are split up. I think it changed to accommodate the middle schools going.

Anyway! I didn't find any problems with it. My eldest is very bright so in the lower year, he would work with the older year. Then when he was in the older year, he would be given harder work as there was a few at that level so they had their own table.
My middle is at expected level, and it was okay for her too.

At our school,
Reception have 1 teacher & 2-3 TA.
Yr1/2 have 1 teacher & 2 TA.
Yr3/4 have 1 teacher and 2 TA.
Year 5 have 1 teacher and 1 TA.
Year 6 have 1 teacher and 1 TA.

I could have written this!

It's worked really well for mine as both the one who was behind and the one who was ahead have been able to take advantage of additional work/provision without a big deal being made out of it.

When we looked round I questioned it and the teacher explained that all qualified teachers deal with a very wide range of ability in a typical class and that often age is not the most important consideration for them when planning work. The very fact that it takes such skill reassures me my DC are getting good provision. Academically mine have all done really well under the system and are in no way behind at secondary.

Socially it's worked for mine too, they've met and mixed with more people in the school and have been able to play for longer as they're encouraged to accommodate the younger ones. Now mine are at high school they are comfortable talking to older ones because they were once in the same class etc.

DS was in one. He is very able and the first year was fine. He was stretched by having older children in the same class working at a higher level and quite often was working with them.

The second year - not fine. By Christmas it was clear he was effectively repeating the previous year. We made the decision to remove him to a school which did not mix the years groups.

Not a parent or teacher in this situation but I was a child in a mixed year group primary school.
It was not a small school, we had three 5/6 classes for example so it must have been out of choice rather than necessity. They left reception alone and did 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6. It was made so you had to switch teacher every year.

I liked it- you got a better mix of students so were not stuck with the same group every year for the seven years you are there- as every other year, half your class switches. You got to learn from your slightly older peers and support the younger ones.

I don't remember the lessons being split by year group, you would all be taught the same thing and generally do the same work. Maybe there was some year group differentiated worksheets.

I was a more able student so loved the years when I was in the younger class because I got to do harder work. It did sort of blur the september cut off line, so as I was one of the oldest in my year and could have fitted in fine with the older class- I just did the same work as them. Wheras there was a few children in my class and the class above with ALNs and they would work more with the younger year to get extra support.

I honestly don't remember anything negative about it at all. I am in my 20s and the primary school has been through 5 head teachers and still has mixed year classes so it must work well.

I've taught mixed year classes for 11 years.

I'm not going to lie, it's hard work. I understand the concerns about bright children struggling in the older half of the class. I teach year 4/5 and I have some year 5s working at year 6 level. To be honest I simply can't stretch them enough in a single lesson whilst also supporting low year 4s. It was ok in year 4 as the did the year 5 work.
To give the teacher's perspective on this at least.

Some kids really thrive in mixed classes. Many of my year 4s who were perhaps a bit silly and immature in year 3 are now sat on the same table as much more mature year 5s and they've really grown up as a result. When they reach year 5 quite a few rise up to that and want to set an example to the younger ones.

Socially it can be a problem as there are fewer children in a year group so we do get a lot of fallouts and children feeling left out.

Overall though I've got 30 mostly happy children (I think).
Loads of schools mix year groups, often you're forced to because of the numbers.

However, I will say reception/year 1 isn't an easy mix and not as effective I don't think, as mixing older children.

My daughter’s school does this but not across key stages (i.e. they don’t mix reception and year 1 or years 2 and 3). I think it’s fine, no major negatives from my point of view!

Both my kids went to mixed year group schools (R+Y1, Y1+Y2, Y3+Y4, Y5+Y6). My eldest was young for his year group and benefited from being in the first class for two years; my youngest was old for his year group so moved to the second class in his second year.

They were both fairly bright so enjoyed the challenge on the year when they were mixed with the older year group, and got a bit bored when they were the older year group.

Socially for the school it mean there was more mixing between year groups and it felt more like a community.

Must be hard for teachers as it you can end up with low attaining year 5 and high attaining year 6 which is a very broad range ...

It wasn’t good for my shy dd, one of the youngest in the class compared to the boisterous boys almost two years older than her. It didn’t do her confidence much good as she was too shy to answer questions etc. It also limited friendship options.

I teach mixed year groups but moved my own children to a single form intake primary as it just didn't work for them. It's not ideal but can work brilliantly for some children.

Mine had this, it was excellent. They had the same teacher for two years which was nice, and they got half a new class each year which helped prevent stagnant social issues. Socially I thought it was excellent. Going from younger group to older group was also excellent for their feelings of progression.

Was a single reception class though, which I understand.

Depends on the teacher and the number of pupils and additional needs and TAs. If done right the more able from the lower year can extend by joining in with the older children which is good for them.