Child's new class year 1

[sarak20]

Hi, hoping someone will be able to help. Are there any teachers or teaching assistants here who can help explain as to how children are split into year groups please. There are two classes for my child's year group: year 1/ yeat 1&2 mixed. My child has been placed in the year 1 class. I've had a parent say to me their child has been placed in the mixed year group class based on their child being intelligent. I'm feeling quite deflated by this to be honest as I've worked my socks off to help my child do well this year. From her school report it appears that my child has done very well. Now I feel sad knowing that my child maybe hasn't done as well as I think and I've somehow messed up somewhere. Any advice is very much appreciated! Thank you 🥰

Our school has a policy which explains how they do class mixing, check if yours does too as it may shed some light. I very much doubt they have taken the top 'x' year 1 kids and put them in the mixed class. They probably want both classes to have the same range of abilities more or less.

Tell the other parent the put the brighter children in a year one class and the mixed one is for the children in both years who aren’t that bright.

then smile and forget about it, she just sounds mean to be honest. Children develop at different speeds, my ds1 was behind in loads when he started school, he got all 8&9’s in his GCSE’s

Very unlikely.

there will be a policy somewhere. The most common is by birth date so the older ones go in the mixed class

Not every school will have the same method. I’ve taught in schools where the oldest would have automatically have been placed into the split year group on a “ ready or not basis” often to avoid any challenges from parents.

Sometimes it is done based on ability but you can have a child who is exceeding academic expectations but would still benefit from more play based learning or time to develop social skills.

It can be quite a leap from Reception to Y1.
Please trust the school staff to make the right choice for your child. Try not to listen to other parents and absolutely don’t blame yourself.
Children learn best when they are happy and a good school will place children in classes that will suit them best wherever possible.

Just for context my child is on Oxford tree- blue band books. She has gotten expected in all her areas. Thanks everyone for the reassurance. My child was born in April

Can you imagine letting those words leave your mouth as that other parent did. Your kid has a parent who isnt a total bellend and so will probably do well in life, no matter which Y1 class they're in.

Oh please ignore the other braggy parent. They are talking out of their backside! They have no idea that's why their child is in that class. It's likely just that they're older. Even if ability is considered, it doesn't mean that your child isn't achieving well. They've achieved the Early Learning Goals, and that's fantastic! It's not a competition between children.

Please try to relax. If you do wish to query it, the only people who can give you firm answers are the teachers at the school. Please don't worry about what other parents think. They're just as clueless as you as to the reasons!

My child’s school it goes on a mix of things including maturity, friendships, academic ability. My summer born child unsurprisingly ended up in the 1/2 class rather than the year 2 class. It doesn’t mean he wasn’t intelligent. In fact now he’s in going into year 4 and I’ve been told he’s above average academically. Trust the school and don’t worry what other parents say.

I think they would have chosen children ready for a 1/2 mix. They may also have had a small year 2 class which is why they mixed.

My dd was kept in a foundation/year 1 mix. Turned out to be the best thing for her. Helped her massively build her confidence. Plus she had the better teacher.

Ours was always done on age.

The composite class would be the oldest Year 1s with the youngest Year 2s.

Other parent sounds like a bit of an overly competitive cow and she's probably making it up or been told wrong by another parent.

In my DCs school it's largely done on birthday, with a little bit of shuffling to make sure there's a similar mix of boys and girls in each (ie not putting one girl in one class and all the rest in the other class).

Totally reasonable question to ask the school though!

I can’t understand why you feel it matters, they’ll be covering the curriculum exactly the same?

Ours is done on age with the very occasional exception.

I work in a school where mixed classes are based on date of birth not ability.
For example, 10 oldest Year 1's mixed with the 20 youngest Year 2's. It is split directly Sep-Feb March-Aug.

At my DD’s school year 1/2 classes are done based on age. There is the odd exception such as a child who is some way below what’s expected being kept with younger ones, but all other children are grouped based on age. It’s only year 3 upwards when other things are taken into account during class placements.

Thank you everyone for replying! Appreciate it

Parents have no idea of the discussions around class organisation brcause they are never the same! In all the schools I've worked in we take into account age, development, attainment, social/emotional/behaviour needs, friendships. And even with attainment it isn't who is the smartest. It might be that other issues you've prioritised mean you have a child or 2 with no one reading at their level so you swap their class to help with classroom organisation. Or one more independent group goes into a class because the other groups require greater input so it helps with classroom management. There are many, many spinning plates that go into the final decision.