Question about teacher's reaction....

[BusyMomatCanadaWater]

My child has been taking 7+ assessments and had a few days off school due to exam dates. She is one of the top-performing pupils at her current school (which is not a prep school).

Strangely and quite shockingly, at the start of the new term she was removed from the more advanced reading group and replaced by another child who is academically less strong, while the rest of the group remained unchanged. My child was a bit upset.

I have written to the school to ask for clarification. Has anyone experienced a similar situation before?

Do you know that the change in group and the days off are linked? How? And how confident are you that the other child is academically weaker, given that you don’t teach them?

How do you know the child who has replaced him is academically less strong? I can’t see how you would know this unless you were the teacher.
Perhaps your child can read well but needs to be in a different group to build other skills e.g. comprehension or expression.

I imagine there will be an eye roll from the teacher at your email and I’m hoping you didn’t say that you think your child is better than the other.

So your child is 6 or 7? Teachers move groups about all the time for a myriad of reasons, the thing to focus on is why your child was so upset - this shouldn't really have registered as any type of problem.

How on earth do you possibly know that this 6/7 year old is less academically able than your child?

These children are in year 2. They move groups around a lot at this age for all sorts of reasons. I would personally be looking into building your child's resilience, changing groups should not be something that upsets your child and nor does it require a response or explanation from the school.

Don't be that parent thinking your kid is better than all other kids.

Reading levels - colour coding gives a clear indication of their levels. Point is not to judge other children, but the change to remove.

I think it’s odd that you seem to just assume that it must be linked to your child taking the exams, and therefore frame this as the teacher’s “reaction” to that.

What other possibilities? That's why I wanted to better understand. You are right, that's my assumptions.

Is your child still in a group that is appropriate for them and their reading is developing? If they are, it doesn't matter that you (and I'm guessing it's you and not your child) think they should be in what you perceive as the "top" group.

The move could be for any number of reasons. The teacher might have created two equal "top" groups. They might have moved children for better group dynamics. Your child might benefit from a particular area that is to be focussed on in the other group. Or maybe it's to accommodate groupings in something entirely unrelated to reading. For example.

But you’ve picked something that doesn’t really make sense as a reason. Are you saying it’s based on attendance, so she’s been moved down due to lower attendance from the missed days? Or are you saying the teacher is prejudiced now because she’ll be going to a private school?

Not judging teacher either. It seems to me it's a biased view that because my child is potentially moving schools, opportunities are given to other children in class.

I wouldn’t worry too much about your child’s reading group change. What I would worry about is your child getting upset about being moved to another reading group. You are currently trying to get your child into a private fee paying school, most of which are notorious for the fierce competition between parents which usually trickles down to the children, especially those prone to anxiety and the need to achieve.

If your child is anxious about what they perceive as a demotion due to academic failure in a year 2 reading group, then I fear they are going to find life in a competitive atmosphere where every test and assessment will be known and commented on, very difficult.

The best thing you can do for your anxious child is to build in resilience, teach them that as long as they are doing their best then what other children achieve is not important. Teach your child that there are areas of life that everyone struggles with, that overcoming difficulties brings immense satisfaction, that perseverance and determination are positive traits, and that other human attributes such as kindness, empathy, generosity of spirit and helpfulness are actually as important as academic ability both for happiness and future success.

There are only two reading groups (mainstream and more advanced 4 children). The more advanced reading gives children more stimulations. Yes all children have potential. Again, not judging teacher nor other children, just finding out what could be the reasons.

I’d imagine the most likely explanation is that your child is struggling to keep up with the top group, whereas the other child is flying through their group, so a swap makes sense.

I agree it makes sense to ask, it’s perfectly reasonable to want to know where your child is at. But I wouldn’t go in with the attitude of “what other possibilities” apart from “bias” that your child is moving schools.

What if the reason was that you are likely to leave? Why should that be a problem? Other children deserve the place in the advanced group as much as your dd if they are capable, and if your child is likely to leave, then it makes more sense for the school to push and prioritise the children that are going to affect their overall results long term.

Oh I actually disagree with you there.

Firstly she might not actually end up leaving.
And secondly I don’t think they should just stop bothering with a child because they’re leaving. We moved schools for our DD, and the school knew for a while because we were moving house so we knew we’d be moving a few months before we did. It was a non-issue, but I would have been annoyed if they’d gone “well we won’t bother keeping her in the stretched group for maths then”. And if they had moved her down, I wouldn’t have automatically assumed that must be the reason.

Ah, come on.

This doesn’t matter. Let your kid be a kid and stop comparing her to others.

Hang on a minute. How on EARTH do you know what book band the other child is on?!

I couldn’t stand parents like you when I was teaching. I had them all round on me once because I moved my maths groups around. I did it because a) I was the teacher and knew how best to support the kids, and b) some of them were awful together and didn’t get any work done. Parents like you are the reason we had to cover up the wall displays with children’s groupings when it was parents evening.

Let the teacher make their own decisions, and teach your child to accept change.

You can't possibly know what level all the other children are on unless you're basically using you child to act as some sort of informant about her peers?

I'm going to be honest it doesn't sound like she would currently be suited to an academically pressured school from what you've written.

If your child is anxious about what they perceive as a demotion due to academic failure in a year 2 reading group, then I fear they are going to find life in a competitive atmosphere where every test and assessment will be known and commented on, very difficult.

This x 100!

On the subject of the groups thing. No teacher is going to move a child that is suited to a reading group into one that they are less suited to, to move a child into one who is worse suited to that group. That would be making their own classroom management more complicated for themselves

I agree with others.
Firstly, even if you know the other child’s reading level (how?) it doesn't tell the whole picture. There could be a number of reasons why the teacher wanted to move that child into a stretch reading group – not necessarily all related to their ability (for example, they might feel that that child would do better in a group offering them more challenge).

Equally they might feel that your DC would do better if they felt more comfortable in a slightly less demanding group.

Or maybe they rotate who is in which group every term or so.

Secondly yes please support your child to be more resilient. Moving groups should not be a reason to be upset. Try to frame it to them positively (they will be one of the better readers in that group (not that that matters!) – can they use the opportunity to try a greater range of texts?)

Finally I cannot imagine this has happened bc you child might be moving schools. Honestly I promise teachers have got lots of other things to think about rather than that sort of issue. As noted above, it’s much more likely to be to do with a benefit for your DC or maybe relating to how well the children in one group are getting on (or not).

ETA as an example, my DS was moved from a higher maths set in juniors to a lower one – the teacher expected us to object but it was great – he could do all the work, there was more support, instead of being bottom of the top group he was top of the lower group, teacher got him to demo the learning as he had understood it – it was great for his confidence.

OP, your child's Y2 teacher absolutely does not care one way or another that your DD might be leaving the school next year. They just don't.

It's not reasonable for a parent to be trying to establish some definitive ranking of students in their child's class and expecting reading groups to rigidly adhere to that. Learning and student needs (both individually and as a group) are more complex than that and it isn't a competition.

If your DD is upset about the change then it's reasonable to ask the teacher for help in explaining the move in a way that supports her confidence and resilience.