Are all schools late in letting parents know...?!

[rainbowsandsparkles86]

DD is at a 2 form entry primary. She is just about to finish Y1. Classes were mixed from reception going into Y1 and the Deputy Head had suggested to another parent that there was a "strong possibility" that they would be mixing again for Y2.

It feels like we are the last to know compared to other local schools what is happening for Y2 and children, including DD, are beginning to worry about who will be teaching them next year and whether they will be friends. Absolutely get that this is school specific, but just wondering if hearing this late is usual?!

Our school only puts out class lists the week before school goes back. They re-mix the kids every year and teachers change the grade levels they teach most years as well. My kids are always really excited in that last week of holidays to find out who their teacher will be and which other kids will be in their class.

Should have said ours is a 2 form primary as well.
They do also put the classes from the same form together for quite a few activities as well during the week, and/or mix kids from both across both classes into smaller groups for things like maths and reading so they can group them with kids with similar abilities

Completely normal, consider yourself lucky if you hear before the last week of term.

Oh wow - last week before they go back?! We are meant to be having transition days so I was thinking it might be next week with the Y6 children on their week's secondary school induction / taster week.

Schools leave it to literally the last minute so parents can't complain. Very wise!

Or possibly confirming numbers of children, any staff leaving or joining the school, teacher preferences as to year group. If parents are going to complain (why?) it wouldn't really help to have them all complain in the last couple of days.

Our school found out today, which classes and teachers etc

Why would you have transition days between Y1 and Y2? Even if they're mixed?

It was always pretty late when we found out who the teachers were going to be in ours, although we never had any mixed age groups.

Because Yr6s visit the Secondary school, the nursery kids visit reception... so everyone else moves up a classroom to make space.

This is normal. The support staff in my school don’t even know where they’re going yet, never mind informing the parents about classes!

For leaving at the end of summer term it is usually a 3 month notice period for recruitment purposes so they already know who is leaving. Parents always complain that their little Jimmy isn't in class with his best mate. Mine went to a 3 form entry. They started doing mixed classes every year once they stopped moving children around for ability sets so everyone stays in their form for maths or English. Plus it gets them used to be moved.

My feeling is that the children will find out first on that year 6 taster day, They will all file into their new classroom so they can visibly see they know other children in the class meaning they are not focusing on losing their best mate. They meet their teacher and will come out with a letter telling the parent who their new teacher is.

Classes are mixed for lots of reasons, ability, girl/boy heavy and some friendships are not positive ones in a classroom setting. Also teacher preference is usually relatively low down the list of why a head/SLT make decisions about classes.

Agree. Ours has them on a big notice boars first day in September. The children have to go in, find their name and then stand in the right line, parents out the gates. Got a problem? Speak to the school secretary and they will get back to you in about 3 weeks (by which time kids are settling. Perfect!

We hear the Friday before the last week of term. Kids get to meet the new teacher too.

Our primary had transition days last week (3 weeks left) where we dropped them off at their usual classroom and then got a text with their new teacher's details and where to collect them. Seemed to go pretty smoothly for most I think.

2 form state primary here. We haven't been given any information about next year yet!

Ours used to announce it last week of term but now do it a few weeks earlier to help those who need an enhanced transition ( it helps everyone). They don't mix classes unless they've become very unbalanced though, so just a case of meeting new teacher and seeing new classroom,

Our school used to send out the class lists towards the end of the summer holidays. That way they weren't deluged with requests to move children into different classes.

We will find out the end of this week with reports. For once it won't make a difference to me because DS is staying in his class with his teacher (mixed year1/2) so he's moving into year2 and DD is going up to secondary.

Ours is 1.5 form entry and we found out classes 2 weeks ago

Our school.
Classes mixed up after reception and the teachers knowing ability, who gets on with who and who are nightmare combinations to be avoided (the two classes mix a lot for lessons so they can see how they get on)

They then stay the same for the rest of primary. Parents can't complain then. You just have that initial mix up and then tough shit. Always complaints over this but really the allocation is fair and done from understanding the kids well.

The way they split the classes seems to be fairly formulatic year on year with certain personality types in one class and others in the other. It works well.

We get told the new class teachers in early July. This also is good for staff so they know who they are getting.

There's a transition day with the new teacher on the day the yr6s visit the local high school which most attend.

The school is dropping classes due to a fall in the birth rate over the next few years so this may complicate things financially as they will have to reduce costs whilst still maintaining the size of the school.

We find out on Thursday of this week. As a previous pp it's the day the older ones go to senior school for the day, so all the years move up for the day.

I think that's really potentially upsetting for the kids especially those who struggle more with change tbh. I don't think that's in the interests of the children.

Just not pissing about with classes seems a better approach tbh.

My kids classes were mixed every year when they were in London. Here it's done every other year and frankly a yearly arrangement worked much better.
Yes there might be some tears on the day of allocation but it's created much healthier relationships between the kids I think and it's quite often the case that kids are separated into female/male groups for sports in any case so they do all still get to do stuff with close friends frequently.
My oldest is now in senior school. I would describe her as socially awkward but all her closest friends at school are not in a single one of her taught classes. They do find like minded people.

Schools may be trying to fill any recruitment gaps at the moment

Give them a chance to upload the year 6 SATs data with the DfE/LA, start transition meetings with the schools, do last minute interviews where somebody's asked to be released (because realistically if you say no, they're going to be off sick until Christmas), interview new support/TAs, deal with MIS updates, sports day, trips, shows, church services, end of financial year if it's an academy, raising POs, making orders and settling invoices for books and stuff for September...

Far better for the majority to announce it by letter at the end of the last day. That way, the emails can be ignored and the data transfers for Y6, packing up files and creating new records/finding nursery records for the little ones can be got on with in the first week of the 'holiday'.