Mixed year group - justification

[PRIMARYHELP]

Our school has a Year 1/Reception and a Year 2/Year 1.

they have allocated students into each class from current reception cohort.

Out of 35 they’ve put 25 in the yr1/2 and 10 in the yr1/reception. They’ve provided no justification on how children were chosen other than a subjective we’ve looked at them as a whole (ability, social interactions and friendships).

we asked to move our child into the yr1/2 class but they school have said no. They keep professing that the classes are taught the same, however; even there work examples on their website show that the classes are learning different topics.

I can’t help but feel that our child is being restricted in learning by being in this yr1/reception class, I’m not sure on what we can do next as the school are not listening to our concerns, are not reassuring us and it took me three phone calls (over a week, not in one day) to even get the head to call me back with an update.

Has anyone had any success with moving classes?

This is exactly why our council wide policy is that composite classes are done purely on an age basis.

I would go by what the school suggests unless your child is getting bored. At that early age social and development skills can vary greatly from child to child. At this age, when what they cover in school re so simple and easy to reinforce at home AND when their personality is forming, I would much rather have my child being one if the oldest in a group of slightly younger children (helps with confidence) than being one that is a bit behind not yet ready in the older child group (it will knock their confidence quite a bit).

@helpfulperson That would make me leave any school that did this. Younger dc are not behind their peers in all cases. My DD is mid August birthday and got 1 mark off top mark in our 11 plus. She has always been a good learner at school. No way would she have thrived with younger dc. Posters are right that every dc is different and parents absolutely should be involved - others will want dc with the lower age group. Or ideally, mix everyone up!

In that case it's as well you aren't in Scotland because these decisions are made at council level meaning there are no other local schools who do it differently. As far as I'm aware most councils do it by age.

I'm confused how this works.

What happens in the following year?

Y1 going into Yr2....
Some Yr1s have been with reception
Some year 1s have been with Yr2s

So presumably in the following year the Y1s who were with reception become the Yr2s with new Yr1s

Are the Y1s who were with Yr2s now going to be Yr2s with.... Yr3s?

Does it stop?

In our setting they have

straight reception
reception/ year 1
year 1 / year 2
straight year 2

and then from year 3 onwards all straight as at this point there is no legal cap on the number of kids in a class….

@helpfulperson The huge issue is what do you do with bright DC who are summer born who can read in y1? In my DDs state primary, 4 of her class got Oxbridge places. One for maths at Cambridge. If anything, she could have been accelerated! She was a July birthday. DD was August and one was May. Not sure about the other one!

My view has always been that age splits are 100% wrong. My DD would never have thrived being around yr children again. The classrooms here are set up differently too. More play based in yr. So different resources in yr from y1. My dd and others needed to move into the more formal stage of education. Others would benefit from being in the yr setting longer with its separate outside space!

You cannot imagine the rows that splitting on age would have created in our infant school! A number of DDs bright friends were summer born. This was an unusually bright year I have to say. 45% got 11 plus. Usually 15-20% which meant some dedicated parents re getting best for dc.

Im amazed parents with bright summer born dc put up with it in Scotland. Does this account for 25% in private Ed in Edinburgh. I would have paid in this scenario.

That happened at my dc school. And those children who were in the y1/rec class as Y1 did just as well in their SATS, gcses , A levels as those that weren't.

I think there is a misconception that all children in a composite class will be taught together as one class. Just as there is differentiation to accommodate all levels and needs in a single year class this will happen in a composite class. Some things will be done whole class but others will be done in year groups. Sometimes they will join their peers for activities or outings. Achieving this is more work for a teacher and in Scotland this is recognised by the maximum size for a composite being 25 instead of the usual 33.

I have been helping in reception. There are two classes. For phonics and maths they split along ability lines for different groups across the two classes.

The rest of the time, they do other work, in small groups based on ability.

Why make life harder and put the kids who are reading well with the kids who are still on ditty books in the same classroom if you have to split in this way for teacher ratios? It makes no sense!

The fact you can rejig it a year later is good.

The problem for me is that YR is a different curriculum with different goals. Play equipment for learning is in the classroom and outside. KS1 simply isn’t the same envirionment. You should not be seeing non potty trained dc. Very unsettled crying dc. Huge amounts of time taken up with socialising dc. By y1, I would expect most dc to be through that and not impinging on my dc to learn. Plus a much quiter environment.

I understand differentiation but between a distressed sen child in YR and a very keen to learn bright ks1 child, there’s a big difference. Not a great idea to mix them and it impinges on the y1 experience if dc are with yr DC. If your child is suited by this, fair enough but the idea that every summer born should suffer it is wrong. Plus many schools don’t have a separate room for maths and literacy in this scenario. Nor have they a teacher to spare.

My daughter is a November baby so one of the older ones in her year group.
She's been picked as one of five to go in a reception/year 1 class, it's the first year the school is doing this and even though I'm a bit anxious I also think this will be good for her as I know she struggles with sitting and concentrating for any length of time.
Her school are still having the 5 interact with the main year 1 group by having phonics together, break and lunch together and story time so she still gets to see all her other friends, they have made a lovely year 1 area in reception and she is so excited about being a helper.
Hopefully this is just what she needs