One mixed year class, one single year class, preference?

[Heckythump1]

Daughter is coming up to the end of reception, current setup (due to drastic drop in birth rate locally) is:

1 reception class
1 mixed reception and year 1 class
1 year 1 class

presuning in take is similar for this September, I’m wondering what the school will do and what people’s preference would be if they keep the same system of some single year group and some mixed year group classes?
Obviously we have no say in what happened, just interested to hear other people’s similar experiences and thoughts!

When my DC were in this situation the school allocated the older Y1 children to the Y1 class and the younger ones to the mixed Y1/R. I think it’s really important that the school has clear and unambiguous criteria. X

This was the first year of the mixed class.
there’s roughly 45 children in reception and year 1 currently and presuming similar intake for September, will be interesting to see how they split the classes over the 3 year groups, as there’s numerous ways they could do it.

i.e carry on as they have so a class each of:
reception
reception/y1
year 1
year 1/year 2
year 2

or they could go for 3 y1/2 classes and keep the reception children separate

or 3 reception/year1 classes and keep year separate

and probably numerous other combos I haven’t thought of!

I’m wondering what is the most likely!

My dc1 was in the same situation as the previous poster and was kept down because was one of the youngest. I also agree that there needs to be a clear criteria for this. In ds1 case it was the youngest in the year plus a couple of sen children who's parents had agreed. Dc1 also has sen and the extra year in reception was very helpful socially as well as academically.
The year before dc1 had the parents in uproar because school did it by academic attainment which can be difficult to assess in reception plus some parents weren't happy with how it was assessed.
Dc2 and 3 ended up having this situation in y1/2 and I think that the difference between the younger y1 and older y2 showed more than in reception/y1 with dc1. Obviously anecdotale but it did seem a bigger gap.
It would not be a concern for me and I do feel dc1 had a softer transition into schooling which was very helpful.

If the actual PAN is 45 for all years R - Yr2, then a common pattern is two Reception only classes of 22 and 23, then three classes of Year 1 and Year 2 split either Yr1 - Yr1: Yr2 - Yr2, or (less commonly) all three Yr1 : Yr2. Problems come where one or more of the KS1 Year groups has a different PAN, because the school has to allow for the year group(s) with the higher PAN to fill to that number.

Mixing R with Yr1 isn't usual with a PAN of 45 in all three year groups (because with a potential 90 in Yr1 plus Yr2, it isn'tnecessary), so what is PAN for the current Yr2?

As for, which would I prefer for Yr1? DS2 was in a mixed year class; the school had Yr1 : Yr2 classes when he was in Yr1 and split the tables according to ability (yes, I know, you're not meant to do this now, but this was 2008) without reference to year group - he was put on the 'upper year 2' table, which suited him and didn't seem to bother the Yr2 pupils. The next year, they were back to single year classes and he didn't seem to mind that at least some of what they were doing was repetition. Just one pupil's views, though, who tended to 'go with the flow' anynyway.

Our current year 5 has 2 classes of 23/24 kids (max capacity is 30) apparently fewer babies born between 1st Sept 2015 and 31st Aug 2016. A couple of other local schools are the same, and so not mega low but could accommodate more.
The primary my kids go to have said that mixing the year groups would be a last resort - this is practically unheard of and the current year 2 is rammed there’s 30-31 in each class but I know the nursery and reception numbers are much lower.

I guess it depends tho as smaller more rural schools for example have maybe always had mixed year classes and the teachers are probably used to this but I think I’d want to understand how this would work in reality and the level of work and the reassurance they then won’t repeat stuff the following year etc….

With a falling birth rate tho I’m sure there will be more merged year group classes as schools can’t afford to pay staff if they don’t have enough children on-roll.

PAN is 60 per year group, but the last two years intake has dropped and we’re at around 45 per year group, hence the mixed reception/y1 class this year.
obvioisly I don’t know how many children are starting in reception this year yet.

It's quite tricky mixing R/y1. My guess is if they will have 90 kids across y1/2 next year, they will split those into 3 classes and figure Reception out separately. However that will depend on numbers, plus numbers going into y3 (assuming primary and not infant school). If the numbers in y3 are lower, they might do something more complicated e.g. R, R/1, 1, 1/2, 2, 2/3, 3 but that sounds trickier.

I think 3 mixed y1/y2 would be the 'best'.

As otherwise parents will get very het up with whether their DC are 'being kept back' by being in yR/y1 or 'so clever they are with y2' for 'y1/y2'.

It also gives the teachers the chance to share planning and everyone gets the same experience. It will force the school to consider the needs of both y1 and y2.
They can even tweak the classes a bit if they want to so less able/mature y2 are grouped with less able/mature y1 to give the y2s a chance to be the more able/mature in the class for a change.
So eg winter borns in one class, spring in another and summer in the third so the age range is only 16 months in any one class.

I wouldnt be happy as a summer born parent with dc going into a lower mixed year group as she was very far ahead academically (free reader by end reception)

So i would think there should be some flexibility rather than age.

Mainly because often mixed year groups are then remixed and kids can be behind peers.

Will your preference make any difference? The school will probably decide and you may well not have a choice.

At DDs primary it was:

Reception
Reception/Year 1
Year 1
Year 2 with a handful of Year 1
Year 2

Year 3
Year 3/4
Year 4
Year 5
Year 5/6
Year 6

In Reception the decisions were made on age then in Years 1 & 2 on “maturity/emotional age”.

Year 3 is the next key stage so couldn’t be mixed with Year 2. Years 3 & 4 were “mixed to achieve a good balance of characters & abilities”. The Year 5/6 split was on ability.

August born DD was only in a mixed year class in Year 4. It seemed to work but there were complaints.

My children had mixed yr1:2 3/4 and 5:6 with reception separate

I think it is fine academically but can be hard socially as they swung from either being the youngest or eldest each year with no set core group.

Abilities in one year group vary so much anyway.

My DS's previous school did Reception separately and then mixed Y1/2, 3/4 and 5/6.
Honestly though, to answer your question, I'd love my child to be in a mixed R/year 1 class. I think we move away from play-based education far too early in this country and it can be a huge culture shock to move straight from reception to year one.