Anybody have experience of a mixed Reception/Year 1 /Year 2 class?

[AnneMarieW]

DD is at Nursery in a small state primary. Unfortunately the school has recently had to merge their Reception class into the Year 1/Year 2 class due to falling pupil numbers and budgetary problems.

I do like the school and it’s our closest one but it will now mean DD going from spending a couple of hours a day in a class of about 8 other 3 year olds (she only goes in the mornings), to spending all day in a class of more than 30 4 to 7 year olds if she stays there next year. It’s a big change and I’m not sure how well she will cope as she is quite shy and easily overwhelmed.

So I am considering sending her to another school next year - either with a smaller Reception class size or a mixed Nursery/Reception class. Based on last years council data, she should easily get in to other schools but I had originally hoped she could be at a school closer to home.

Is anyone’s child in a big mixed class like this or has anyone taught in such a class?
Thanks for any advice.

It's much too big an age gap in my experience, and one that does not add benefits. I'd move.

My DS is in a mixed Year 1/2 class (the youngest children from Year 2 and the oldest children from Year 1). He’s in Year 2. I have some concerns but it just about works because they are quite well staffed. I would be very concerned if I were a Reception parent though. Reception is so much about free play and the expectations in Year 1/2 are very different.

Thank you both for your help ❤️

Sorry, should have said I’m in Wales so it’s probable the curriculum is slightly different to the English one - but I still worry such a mixed class might mean they push the reception kids into more academic work too early (I think they should really still be learning through play at 4 years old).

I have no issues with a mixed class of Year 1/2 or 3/4 etc as I know it’s commonplace in most smaller schools - my own primary school did the same thing. But I hadn’t heard of a mixed Reception/Year1/Year 2 class before (except at the really tiny schools of 30 or 40 kids where they tend to get split into ages 4-7 and 8- 11 as there are only 2 classrooms).

But at this school it’s been unexpected and quite concerning, so I’m still not sure what to do for the best. I can imagine that some 4 year olds who are happy to sit and do writing/drawing/reading type of activities might thrive but my DD hates stuff like that, she’s very active and wants to be constantly playing. I think that’s pretty normal for a 4 year old, even at school (hence the learning through play) but likely to be considered less appropriate for the 7 year olds.

I’m flummoxed at how the teacher will get it to work - obviously I’m going to question as much as I can at the open evening, but they are desperate for pupils so I’m worried they might just say what I want to hear. I’m hoping someone on Mumsnet might have some personal experience of it.

I went to a school like this (granted it was a loooong time ago!). It wasn't a good experience!

If you don’t mind, why wasn’t it good @PornOfCopia ?

Was it just that your school was too small to have many opportunities for different friendships? Unfortunately most of the schools are about 90 - 130 kids around here so that might be the case even if I sent her to a different school. (There is one bigger school but it’s about 600 pupils, which I think might be too far the other way for shy DD).

Or was it that you felt pushed into work more suited to the older kids? Or that you felt uncomfortable/intimidated being in class with them? That is more my concern for DD as 4-7 seems such a big difference at that age.

My DC go to a tiny village primary with only two classes - KS1 (YrR, Yr1 & Yr2) & KS2 (Yr3-6). Both classes have one teacher & 2 TAs.
we actually found the opposite in that Class 1 did more play based learning for longer than making Reception children do formal learning. At times the year groups are split up & do activities/lessons specific for them. It works well but it’s how our school has been so the teachers are used to planning for different abilities across the age groups.

I was in a mixed class with those ages. I think it was more of a thing in the 70’s they called it ‘family grouping’ or similar. I quite liked having some older kids in the class. As far as I can remember things like learning to read was more haphazard than it is now but maybe that wasn’t so much to do with the class structure but the ethos. I can see it might suit some children - particularly if more advanced at some things.
I don’t think it hurt academically in the long term - I did well and was happy socially.

What are the class limits for Wales? Are you sure it would be as many as 30 kids in the class?

In Scotland a class of 2 year groups is a max of 25 children
A class of 3 or more year groups is a max of 19 children

Id be surprised if England and Wales weren't similar

I went to a primary school where you were in a mixed age class. You stayed in the same class for two years.

For the first year in class you were being mentored a bit by the older half of the class, then in the following year you'd be the older one guiding the younger ones a bit.

There was no competition or exams/tests and learning was always made really fun. No sitting behind desks with a blackboard.

But we all did the same work and worked really well in collaboration. It minimised bullying and meant I had friends a year older and also a year younger. For me I thought it worked really well.

I'm in Scotland and my dd is in a mixed P1-P4 class (so, potentially, 5-9 with a couple starting at 4), though with only 20 children in the class.

I like it. The younger ones get more playing time but see the older ones doing more academic work. There is great mixing between the ages with the older children looking after the younger, and the children can easily work at their level.

Thank you all for the help.

@APurpleSquirrel @Pandorea @UniversityofWarwick It’s really good to know it’s worked well for you, thank you for sharing your experiences. Can I ask did you/they go to nurseries with lots of children before you/they started in the bigger mixed class? I wonder if being used to being in a bigger nursery class with lots of kids would make the transition easier.

I don’t think I’d worry about DD being in a bigger mixed class, if it wasn’t also her first time staying all day at school and with lots more children too - it seems to be a lot of “firsts” for a more timid child to cope with at once.

@Needspaceforlego No such rules in Wales unfortunately. Currently the class is at 33 - could be slightly more or less depending on numbers next year. It’s going to be a big shock for DD, having been used to being in a class with only about half a dozen other 3 year olds 😩

@DiscoBob Yes, I think 2 combined years is pretty common - they had it at my school too and I don’t have any problems with that. But they typically seem to combine Nursery/Reception, Yr1/2, Yr3/4, Yr5/6 - there don’t seem to be a lot of other schools that do Reception/Year 1/Year 2 together, especially in such a big class.

The trouble is that we have to list our primary choices in November (unlike in England) so there isn’t as much time to see how the dust has settled in the class before I have to decide.

DS2 was one of seven reception children placed in a year 1 class nearly 15 years ago. They chose the seven ‘most confident’. They were supposed to integrate with their peers regularly but it never really happened so socially friendships in that year group were limited and they played more with year ones. Academically, these seven more or less performed the best through primary and interestingly they were all placed in top sets and this more or less continued through high school. Or maybe that was coincidence. DS2 had been to nursery from a very young age and has an older sibling so took it all in his stride and now 20, don’t think it really caused many problems at all.

Infant classes in England and Wales (as far as I know unless anything has recently changed) are limited to 30 children except in certain circumstances. When your little one comes up next year, there is a chance they will allow less of the preschool to come up to reduce the mixed R/Y1/Y2 class to below 30.
I have taught at a mixed R/Y1/Y2 school and the reception children probably had the least affected, most ‘normal’ experience as they spent most of the day engaged in continuous provision with our (very well trained and amazing) HLTA and the teacher would swap out for periods at a time. It might be okay, maybe just best to get some more info on how things will be set up? I cannot state how much I would always rather go for the infant school close to home if possible, it improved our quality of life so much.

In our case DD has been in a nursery from about 1yr old starting at 1 day a week working up towards 4 days a week be the time she moved up. But this wasn’t the nursery to lead to her primary school so she knew no-one when she went there. I’d say there was about 10-15 in her nursery.
DS had attended the preschool of the primary & was going 3 days a week by the time he moved up. The numbers varied from about 6-7 some days to 20+.
The mixed class never exceeds 24 as PAN is 8 per year group, but most have less. DDs year group now has 9 (due to in year transfers) & DSs year group has grown from 4 to 7 due to in year transfers.
In both cases the mixed class was good for increasing the friendship pool. It removes the siloing of year groups.

Thank you all, it’s really useful to get more perspectives.

I think DD is bright enough to cope with being with kids up to 3 years older than her - she seems ahead in literacy and numeracy etc for her age (we do a lot of “learning by play” at home) so academically it is less of a concern.

It’s more social confidence I’m worried about - she is quite shy and young emotionally for her age (she was born early and her birthday just misses the cut off for reception deferral). She doesn’t have any close friends in nursery at the moment and tends to gravitate to adults as thats what she’s used to. Going from being with 6 or 7 kids to 30 or more will either “make her or break her” - it’s that latter I’m worried about as I don’t want her put off school.

I’m leaning towards applying to smaller schools where the classroom sizes mean they literally can’t fit more than about 20 kids in the classroom. Despite the commute, I honestly think she would find that easier at Reception and Key Stage 1 age. It might be more stifling when she gets older, but it’s the difficulty of balancing what I think she needs now, versus what might be better for her later on.

I’d definitely be more tempted to stay with the local school (despite the big mixed class) if she’d made more friends or there were more kids locally that she could walk to school with when older - but everyone else lives further away and drives to the “local” school anyway (fact of life with rural schools). So wherever she goes it unfortunately won’t make a difference in terms of having friends living nearby - another school will just mean a longer school run for us, which is an annoyance.

As a teacher, that sounds like a nightmare!!

@AnneMarieW Sorry, I just remembered my primary school did combine the first three years too. There was only one class you stayed in for the whole 'lower school'. It seemed great tbh. That school had no bullying and kids of all ages got on well.

Dd was in a mixed year group many years ago when we lived in New Zealand (where it is quite common practice for mixed year groups in rural schools). She did struggle socially as like your DD she was quite shy and one of the youngest but she did make some friends.

Dd thrived in terms of the teaching though, we returned to the UK when she was in year 3 and I didn't notice any difference in terms of education outcomes compared to the mixed classes. All in all, it wasn't a bad experience, having said that, this was 20 odd years ago and the education system has changed.

Thank you both, that’s really good to know- it helps getting people’s experiences who have been there and some different perspectives.

I am still swinging back and forth between choosing the local school or somewhere else and will probably make the decision once I’ve been to more open days. I do love the relaxed approach her current school seems to have (as well as the very easy school run), so I may end up sticking with it. I’d just have to hope she becomes more mature/independent and gains more confidence in the next 11 months to cope with the bigger mixed class.

That’s the problem with having to pick a school so far ahead of time when they are this young- what might not be great for a shyer 3 year old who has only been in a school environment for a very short time, might be just fine for a more confident 4 year old who has been there longer.

Plus for all I know, she’ll end up becoming closer friends with one or two of the kids in her nursery class over the year and prefer to move up with them. Really wish I had a crystal ball! 🤣

I've taught quite a few Yr 1/2 classes and that has worked well with a good TA. You may actually find a lot of the time may be spent with one adult with the group of reception children. Also for the first term many schools will ease Yr 1s into things with afternoons of continuous provision. That would probably mean the year 1s joining them with another adult in the afternoon. It could actually work really well with that levelbof staffing. What are the numbers of children in each Yr 1 and Yr 2 groups?

Thank you all, again. So I think there’s 12 in reception this year but not sure about the exact numbers of Year 1 and 2 (only that apparently there are 33 kids in the class in total). So it will probably be a few less children for reception next year based on current nursery numbers, although you never can tell.

I’m wondering that if there’s a lot less next year (perhaps if the current Year 2 has more kids who will move up), then it might mean that they can at least move the reception/Yr1/Yr2 class from where it is currently. Theres a few empty classrooms but at the moment they have had to use the biggest one which is the opposite end of the school from the toilets 😳 Fine for the 6 or 7 year olds but not always great for the 4 year olds in the class unfortunately- I think some of them are struggling (as they’ve been used to the old nursery/reception classroom which is right by them).

Trouble is we just don’t know what will happen yet, as I think so much will depend on how many kids they get - it seems to be dropping year on year. It would probably be best for DD if they went back to mixing nursery/reception but I can’t see that happening unfortunately.

We had similar at a small village school .
My son couldn't cope with the work expected of him it lead to him school refusing and eventually being removed from school .it wasn't the cause of all his problems,but it did factor in heavily
There was also a group of very bossy year two girls in the class allowed to get away with upsetting the younger pupils .who the teacher believed they could do no wrong.the power balance was off ,because there was such a big age gap and my child was miserable the whole time ..which was a shame having previously been happy there ..the school also did not put in the extra teaching assistant promised

My children went to a school with mixed reception, 1 and 2. There were about 20 children in the class altogether and they had a teacher and a TA.

Both mine are summer babies so were on the young side when they went to school but it worked really well.

They flew through learning to read and write and I feel were brought along more quickly by having the older children to work with. The benefit of having mixed years was that it was easy to give extension tasks when they were needed.

They also made really close friendships with older/younger years which endured throughout the school.

Of course it will depend how well the teacher manages the mixed ages but it can work.

Our primary is similar although reception is kept relatively separate and the staffing ratios are very good. I love it personally and it does mean they have friends both older and younger (handy for secondary school start !) Can you visit the school and also talk to the parents? Get a feel for how it works?

Thanks all for the help and for sharing your experiences ❤️.

Its definitely the pastoral side, rather than the academic side I’m more concerned about at her age - I suspect how happy DD is in school will depend a lot on how she gets on with individual kids and unfortunately you can never tell that, wherever she goes. From reading, I understand that’s why people often say to choose a school with more than 1 class for each year (or mixed years) so she can move classes if there is a problem, but the only school I know of that offers that around here is more like 600 pupils which I think she’d find overwhelming.

I will wait for the open day to discuss things with the teachers and also try to speak to more parents at her school - it’s just a bit tricky as DD only started in Sept so I don’t know many parents and the nursery area is a bit separated from the rest of the school.