What does HA, MA and LA signify in a classroom?

[ListersSister]

A friend of mine said she has seen lists of children's names in her school's classroom under these titles. If they are as she assumes, High/Middle/Low achieving lists, should they be on public display, or does it not matter as the children are only yr 1 and so not likely to notice or understand/care?

Jenni and cazzy- thankyou, that makes me feel better!
-that must have been a one off stressed out teacher then in a very big inner city school.

AWee snails
do they have lemmings, dodos, turkeys, sloths, goats, sheep ?

We have rockets, planes, boats and submarines.

Apparently, the Rockets (that ds1 is in) have the "Easiest jobs, because they always finish first of all, and submarines have to do lots of colouring, and colouring is borning (sic)"

In DS1's year 2 class, the groups are named after illustrators, don't you know

He is in Quentin Blake. Is that higher than Tony Ross?? I don't think the children are aware that there is a "ranking" in the groups, but they do know that some groups get harder work than others and that some can read better than others.

Ds1 impressed me recently, by saying "XX can't read very well, but she's much better at skipping than me. We're all good at different things" bless. Msapp is right, the children know exactly who's good at what, regardless of there being a list on the wall.

am so glad my ds doesn't spend his life at school comparing himself to others. I avoid the pushy mothers with their "what reading level is your child on?" like the plague so I can remain in blissful ignorance. Am sure my ds will cotton on soon enough. At parents eveing hopefully they will tell us where he is and how he has progressed since Sep not how he compared to x and y.

My dps colleague did accidently say "can my lower ability group do..." last week. She was mortified.

It is all very brutal but then, life is. The children know the score, even if they are in the Amoeba group.Give them some credit!

What is really important is that parents, who care and want to make a difference, know exactly where there child is an how to move them on.

Their.

my dd s class sets for science include the magnetic metals (top) and the woody woods(bottom)
do you think the teacher is having a laugh at the lower ability groups expense ?

cat64 - now that is wishful thinking.

in my ds class (reception) children actually call names the ones that are on the lower abitlity table (keep quiet you...stupid (then animal name which is LA)

Ds has been in tears when he's been changed ability table to a lower one saying that he must be very stupid and he will never be good at nothing.

I believe it makes sense to split children by ability when they are older, but when they are so young it can really dent their confidence and set them to be lower achiever for life.

cantput
I really sympathise with you.
our kids are at a small school, where there's no need to set like this, but I do think the labelling is unnecessary, and certainly dents esteem. And for other kids to say stupid etc is unforgivable.

This is partly why I asked any teachers if it was true that moving the kids around was a palava. because in educational circles, it's well known that kids can plateau for moths, sometimes years, and then suddenly shoot ahead amazingly for no apparent reason.
You only have to look at one yr olds who go from one or two unintelligible words to constructing sentences almost over night sometimes.
And to move kids between groups, when they've all had their very specific gradiet levels and books is a hassle, because you have to get the new one onto that gradient/learning curve.

I think we all agree the educational sytem has many flaws, and this is one big one.

I also think it marks out the middle class kids, because they've often had much more input at home, and the teacher assumes that means they're more clever, and vice versa with kids who haven't had the input.

Don't know what you'd do about it tho, because for teachers, there's always going to be a wide variety in any class; we wouldn't want to go back to all seats facing the teacher at the front would we? Or would we?

plumandolive

I have spoken to other mums - the ds of one of them attends one of the top primaries in the country- and she said her son is in Reception but doesn't have any understanding of who the higher or lower achiever is. They mostly play together, change table every other day so that there is a good mixture and higher achiever can actually help lower achiever in doing things thus also helping children feeling useful. She said, that apart from a couple of SN children in the class, these children will have different degrees of abilities.i.e. not so good at numbers but good at sounding. So in the end they can all show they are good at something and they are helping each other.

I don't think reception is the time to group children together because you might hold back the bright ones - some of them are still 4 fgs! And like you say there is a net difference in my ds class between the children of working parents and stay at home parents. It's true that it's a choice of life, but if you are a working parent you will have less time to spend with your child doing work at home. But this shouldn't result into the child being labelled at such an early age.

I thought that the main aim of reception was mainly to "receive" children in the school, to have them used to the school rules and to make friendships.

Certainly the grouping doesn't focus on that?

Why group children who are 4yrs old or barely 5 by ability- what is the aim of that?

This is what I cannot get....

We also have animals such as leapards,etc DD has just informed me that she was a lion now she's in Leopards Now i'm wondering if Lion's were the kings of the classroom jungle and she's moved down!

Led- ask the teacher.... if they're open they should be honest about the ability groups really.
Unless they think you 're not aware?

So does anyone know WHY they don't tell the parents? Has always seemed really bizarre to me, especially as it's all supposed to be about schools and homes working together.

mmnn, cos they'll get lots of pushy parents complaining about why their perfaect darling isn't a rocket of course- parents can be a teacher's worst nightmare,

DS is in year 2, and this is the first time I've been told what ability groups he is in. The teachers have always given me a good idea of where he is wrt the NC levels, and their own opinion of how well he is doing, but his place in the class hasn't been mentioned before.

I'm not worried we had parents evening last week and she's doing brilliantly.

cat64- I don't see any point in grouping children when they are in reception full stop.

I am a teacher myself - I only have experience in other European countries though- and I can say that there there is no pressure for children to learn when they are 4 or 5 years old. They are not streamed until they are 6 or 7 years old and by the time they are 8 they have all caught up big time with the UK children.

These children don't stay at home until they are 6 and then miracously become proficient in their first year at school. They start compulsory pre school at the age of 4, but there are no official curriculum and no targets to achieve. They learn about the rules, they do lots of art and start writing and reading, at their own pace. No pressure at all- it's not school yet after all. And it does seem to be working and my impression is that children and parents are a lot more relaxed and are saved unnecessary worries and stress.

Now I know this is a completely different thread, but I guess you as a teacher have the pressure to be ticking boxes and reach targets and don't really have the time to look at the individuals and how upset they might be or how their confidence can be affected because they might be born late in the year or are boys or they have parents who cannot sit down with them every evening because they have to work full time.

Hence your statement that the children take it in their stride and are not affected by it.
Now, that is a generalization I am not sure built on which experience...

Thank God not all teachers are like that in this country though....

then I am sorry that you need a tick skin to cope with somebody disagreeing with you.

And however I have also noticed you completely ignored my point and not only on this thread... now, looking offended and twisting other posters words seem like a good trick to avoid the main question- I will keep that in mind.

I agree cat64 - she must have offended a whole lot of hardworking teachers out there with the sweeping generalisation.

Please note that the you in my statement was referred to cat64 only.

I don't know enough teachers to make an assumption for the whole category and I wouldn't do it.

However there must be a reason why you feel offended, might be that chip on your shoulder?

And with this I am off this thread for good and to bed.

DS1's YR2 lists groups are impossible to work out - they're grouped with each sub-topic with subjects (so DS1 for example could be in the "top" group for multiplication, but in the bottom for subtraction).

Last year was a little easier (Yr1) different animal names.....