small school organisation - teachers point of view please

[Pitchounette]

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How many children in the infant department altogether? Reception Y1 & Y2 as this is how teacher numbers are calculated.

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Pitchounette - is this a UK state school?

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So they have seven classes: Reception and Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6; 200 pupils and only six class teachers?

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Surely they are having 1 teacher for R/yr1 and 1 teacher for Yr1/2 with a floating TA then?
Unfortunately small schools have to jiggle mixed years to make sure they have enough to retain the teachers if they have a low intake some years.
We were in a small school where they had R/1, 1/2, 3/4, 5/6, so 4 teachers.

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not a teachers point of view, just as a parent.

Our school is small (100 children) and usually has the following class structure
class 1 - rec & part yr 1
class 2 - part yr 1 & all yr 2
class 3 - all yrs 3 & 4
class 4 - all yrs 5 & 6.
due to recent numbers (ds1's year) last year class 1 was just reception and class 2 was all yrs 1 & 2 and I understand next year class 1 will be rec & all yr 1 and class 2 will just be the yr 2's (the large year).

From what I see it works well, I don't have the experience of having a child in the mixed rec/yr1 class due to the above, but do have him in the mixed yr1/yr2 class.

I haven't heard of the teachers doing a 50/50 split of their time with the TA, they just seem to do more group or class teaching.

It must be harder than a single year group as you have effectively a 24 month age spread within the class rather than a 12 month one, this can advantage the younger more able children and the older slower ones. However, the flip side it that the older more able and younger slower ones may be even more on the edge of the group (in term of ability distribution) than for a single year group.

My DSS2, who is very bright, was in a mixed year 5/6 (French equivalent) class last year. It was a disaster for him as he was so bored.

was he a yr6 (equiv)? I have concerns about ds1 when he is in the older year group in the class. ATM he is a yr 1 in a mixed yr1/2 class and working with the yr 2's, which is great.

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Does the teacher have QTS? I work in a class at the moment which is a split 3/4 year group. In numeracy and literacy lessons, the teacher takes either year 3 OR 4, and the TA, who is a qualified teacher, takes the other year group. The next day they alternate year groups. This seems to work well as the children end up in very small year group classes for the main two subjects.

I wonder if the TA is a qualified teacher or HLTA, this could be the reason why she has responsibility for the class for 50% of the time?

is the teacher in a different room that the ones she isn't teaching?

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HLTA is higher level teaching assistant and QTS
is qualified teacher status

I have taught mixed aged classes and both my children attended a small primary school and were in mixed aged classes for all 7 years they were there without any ill effects, but I have never worked in the way you describe.
When I had a mixed R/Y1 class I was the teacher and taught both groups of children ensuring they had work at their own level.
35 children in a class with 1 teacher is illegal even if there is a full time TA.

Pitchounette - do you know who the parent governors are for your school?

You need to ask them to raise your concerns directly with the governors.

Mixed age classes can work very well (I've taught several myself), but they need a skilled and committed teacher to be able to support all the children.

It is simply not acceptable to use a TA as a teacher on a long term basis. If there are only 54 children in yrs R, 1 & 2 combined nect year, then there should be 2 classes (R/1 and 1/2), with 1 teacher in each.

You need to know more about how they are planning to give the year 1 children time together. To be honest, I don't know why they think they need to do this. In such a small school, the children are likely to continue playing together at play time and lunchtime. It sounds like some Y1 parents have complained about their children being split from friends, and this is how the school is proposing to sort it out.

All the schools in my area have mixed age classes and on the whole, they are classes of less than 30. Each class has a classteacher, even if there are less than 30 pupils in the class. The schools simply have to find other ways of making savings, or raising more money e.g. through the PTA.

One local school has an intake number of 20. They have made a decision to have single age classes of 20 every morning, and then mixed age classes of 30 every afternoon in order to save on teacher salaries (ie. they save a whole teacher's salary per year).

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I'm pretty sure that the "break-even" number for pupils in a class to pay for a teacher is 28. I know that that used to be the case in my LEA, but it may have changed. It will also vary from LEA to LEA as each LEA is paid a different amount per pupil. Eg. the LEA I work in is paid approx £300 per pupil less, per year, than one of our neighbouring LEAs. Our overheads are the same, but we just get less money to work with. Tis absolute madness.

Perhaps she means that 25 pupils is "perfect" from a teaching point of view.

I am concerned that the basic problem lies with the teacher, and her inability to teach mixed age classes. I love teaching mixed age classes, but they do take more organisation, and thought than a single age class. In an average single age class, I used to differentiate every piece of recorded work into three ability groups (plus addition for either SEN or G&T). With a mixed age class, that doesn't double to 6 groups plus G&T and SEN. With a mixed age class, I used to differentiate 4 ways, plus SEN & G&T, because there used to be a lot of crossover in the middle.

It absolutely should not be up to you to let the teacher know when your dd is ready to move up a reading level. The teacher should be aware because she is hearing her read on a regular basis (weekly).

If they split the 54? KS1 children into a Rec/1 and 1/2, then there should be 27 in each class. This is absolutely manageable, particularly with a TA half of the time as well.

What the school are doing at the moment with 35 children in a class is illegal as far as I know, and at best, dishonest and ill thoughtout (ie. running two registers, but having half of the children taught by a TA).

I really think you need to raise your concerns with the governors and if necessary, the LEA. However, time is of the essence. You need to get a move on with this and get some answers before half term.

When we have had mixed age classes it has been to reduce class size ... we have added an extra class to keep class sizes below 30 so had 4 classes R,R/Y1, Y1 and Y2 for example

Sorry - dreadful spelling and grammer. I'm not feeling well!