Is it normal to stream Yr1 children in maths?

[MoonTheLoon]

Seems to me they did very little maths last year and this year they are planning to stream into three groups, I think this is very early, have I got it wrong?

If anyone else can think of a better way of teaching 30 children who need differentiated activities for literacy and numeracy, please speak up.
Even at Y1, the difference in understanding and ability is significant, so how would you organise the groups so that the higher ability were stretched and the lower ability given the support and structure they need?

Hula, is it alphabetical? Butterflies, caterpillars, ladybirds, spiders.

ds was in Yr 1 last year and the children were in ability groups across the year (across both classes). School kept it quiet - I only found out because ds was worried by having to go into the other classroom (fortunately this turned out to be good news).

I have no idea whether there is any streaming in DS's Y1 class. Will try and find out if he knows. There is only one class so it would be groups within that.

Yes we used to have 3 abilty groups in yr 1, the very able who could work unassisted, the middlies (majority of class) who were asssisted by the teacher and the lower ability, a group of about 4 who had either a TA or sometimes the teacher with them to support throughout.

Hmmm - you may be rigth Edam; had never realised that. Will check tomorrow whether ladybords or caterpillars come first and that may explain it.

I thought it was the number of legs! More legs = higher group. Maybe it's just random.

Hulababy, my groups are always random, we've had everything from cartoon characters to names of significant mathematicians or colours.
Once those who need to know have it straight, you don't need a linear theme along the lines of egg-caterpillar-pupae-butterfly.

We had shapes. Most sides = top group, so pentagon, hexagon, down to square, triangle and bottom was the circles with obviously no sides.
so yes prob butterflies are better than catepillars, ladybirds bottomish.
would make sense.

But ladybirds are predators, higher up the foodchain!

I was very relieved when ds was streamed in Yr 1, as academic work does not come easily to him and sitting with his mate who was a very clever boy was just grinding his self-confidence down. He genuinely could not cope with the sort of stuff this boy needed to learn.

They didn't tell the parents which groups were which- but the children did that anyway

Ds has since moved up one step.

Dd moved from set 4 (out of 5) to 1 in the course of two years. So it's certainly not set in

Goblinchild, I suppose I didn't realise that there would be a significant difference in mathematical ability at 5/6 years old.

Is there no chance that they get branded a little too young? How easily do they get moved around?

When I taught Y1/2 they moved around quite a bit, especially if it was a shape/measurement activity rather than arithmetic.
Teachers don't 'brand' children that young, or at all. It's a constant delight to find a child can do or understand something that you didn't expect. or intriguing to find an able child who struggles with one aspect of learning.