Shared Classes

[BristolIrishGirl]

DD is due to start school in 2011 so we will need to apply next year for her place. Our local primary is walking distance from our house and is a good school. It is a small school so has a small annual intake. This means that they have shared classes - any opinions on whether this is a good thing or does it hinder development?

Many of the schools round here have this (including DD1's). I know some people have a problem with it, but personally I have seen nothing but benefits for DD. She has blossomed both being with the older ones last year, and being one of the older ones herself this year. It has meant that the school can respond flexibly to the needs of each child and what stage of learning they are at.

I do think that the teachers need to be experienced in teaching mixed classes however, and that mixing across key stages can be more problematic.

My DS was in mixed classes throughout Primary, and it worked very well. In general, I'd say that a school which has this as the norm will be fine - they will be used to it and have practice at setting appropriate work for the different children.

The time when I have more worries about it is in schools which are used to single age classes and suddenly have to manage a mixed age class for one group because of numbers etc, as they will not be used to it and it can take them longer to get the hang of the different dynamic.

But in a small school where all the classes are mixed, it can work very well.

The possible downside is that your DD will have a smaller pool of people to pick friends from, which can sometimes be an issue. More I think for girls, who often want to have a "best friend" where boys that age tend to be happy with a group of friends.

Yes, size of intake is definitely something to look out for - DD1's year is quite large and balanced - 9 girls and 7 boys, but the new Year R has only 9 boys and 2 girls, which makes it a bit unbalanced I think. One benefit of small schools though is that children often form friendships outside their year group - DD is very good friends with a girl in Yr 3 - they were in the same class last year, and will be again next year.

Thanks for your responses. We would really like to send her to this school so that she can make friends within our village as we intend to stay here indefinitely so would like to get to know the local children and school.