Please can you tell me about your small village primary schools/combined classes?

[Marne]

I have 2 dd's, dd1 is at a small school, dd2 due to start in September. At the moment the classes are combined so they contain children from 2 years (so dd1's year contains some of year 2 and 3). I have just found out that in September only 3 children will be starting reception, the plan is to combine year 1,2 and 3 in the same class, they are planing on having 1 teacher and 2 TA's for 24 children.

Surely one teacher can not teach children with such a wide range of abilities in one classroom?

If your child attends a small primary how do they arrange the classes?

DS is at a small - about 110 kids between 3 and 11. nursery and reception are taught together - which works very well (glowing ofsted, probably best bit of the school tbh) - they have 2 teachers and 2 TAs. then the classes are individual up to I think year 3 - so y3 and y4 are together, and then y5 and y6.

I think there are 98 pupils at the moment, so will be around 80 in September, at the moment there are 4 classes which will be reduced to 3.

isn't this how montessori schools operate? (disclaimer, not an expert here!). Sounds like the children will be split up to do work according to their ability.

My dc are at a school which combines two years in each class, and somehow it works, although it was a bit of a leap of faith when dc1 started.

Our local village school was extended and they have mixed classes, ie foundation stage, yr 1/2 yr 3/4 etc.

At first I was really unhappy about it.

However, the children seem to be progressing fine. My DDs are doing VERY well at school...I think it helps that it is quite a good school with lots of TA's, and parent helpers too.

It DOES sound different in your case though, why not talk to the teacher or head about your concerns- is that something you have thought about?

is it yrs 1,2 & 3 (ie split between KS1 and KS2) or is it rec, y1 & y2?

It must be harder than a single year, but a good teacher would manage it. And they are already teaching a mixed class so have experience of it.

My son is in a P3/P4 class, in a village school of 80. I was very much against it at first, but I must admit my son is thriving. Seeing what the others do is encouraging him. His class don't have any TA's but another teacher is assigned for some of the week.

Both of my dd's are on the Autistic spectrum, dd1 has Aspergers and is working at the level of a 8 year old (she's 6) the school refuse to put her up to another class as she wen't up last year. Dd2 has more severe Autism and will need 1:1 support. I just can't believe that both dd's will be taught in the same class, surely reception children should be doing mainly learning through play whilst the year 3's will be doing totally different work.

I have already decided that dd2 will not be going to this school, we kind of decided yesterday that we should send her to SN school for a year and see how she progresses, this has helped me make up my mind.

I'm now thinking about moving dd1. I will talk to the head on Monday.

80 kids and 4 teachers in our school.

Junior and Senior infants together

1st, 2nd and 3rd class together

4th, 5th and 6th clas together

and a resource teacher

works fine, dd is in junior infants and ds1 will be in with her next year, they'll spend the majority of their time in the school in the same room.

Science and social studies, Art, Religion, Music and some PE are done as a class and then for maths and reading one class will do written work or readers while the other half is being taught. They ocasionally take part of the room to do PE and leave just one class with the teacher so they can work on something as a class group without interruptions.

We have experience of this and all I would say is it seems to work if the teachers are excellent and prepared to work very hard to cater for the mixed age ranges. In our school when they had a very small group come in they combined that year in with two others. It has stayed like that as the year moves up the school - whilst it was fine in foundation as the TA took the tinies out and taught them, it has got more problematic as they move up. Unfortunately, in some schools mixed year groups work very badly and people leave making the school even smaller. Personally it really hasnt worked for us - but the teachers are not good or dedicated (school now failing).

I wouldn't worry too much about the teacher not being able to teach the range of abilities that might be found in a mixed class; as children move through school the range of performance often broadens. In one of the Y3 classes I currently teach I have children who are currently operating at a level similar to nursery right the way through to those tackling Y4 objectives.

80 pupils (ish) at the school ds1 will attend in Spetember.

4 classes - reception/yr 1, yr 2, yr 3+4, yr 5+6.

It's best you talk to the Head about their approach. I would say in our experience, the combined classes (ours are all doubled) are made up for by the fact each child is well known and receives individual attention. The timetable varies the activities so each year group gets dedicated time as well as doing whole class activities at different levels. I imagine having an ASD child would be an extra complication but will they not get extra funding for that?

Ive taught in schools like this for supply work, and I think it can work very well, providing that the teacher is very organised and that there is plenty of TA support (so different groups can be catered for). The teacher just has to use her time wisely - so for example the reception children might have 20 mins stuctured play while she is doing hands on teaching with a different year, then they can go off to complete an independent task while the teacher puts input into reception.

I think that children can benefit from this family type atmosphere actually - the younger ones learn loads from the older ones, and the older ones thrive on extra responsibilities.

I would second what SE13mummy says - you can have an incredibly wide range of abilities within one year group anyway.

I went to a village school with around 80 children across 3 classes and it was the best school I ever went to. I moved there half way through year 4 and went straight into the 'Junior' class. Infant was Reception and year 1; Transition was year 2 and year 3; Junior was year 5 and 6; year 4 was either in Transition or Juniors, depending on how many pupils in each year at that time.

It was, as someone said, a very 'family' atmosphere; no bullying; lots of fun. To be fair, though, it was pre-National Curriculum! The other great advantage was that you played with children of all ages as you weren't segregated into 'years'!

I would recommend small schools - your DC will learn to work far more independently and, as a secondary teacher, that can only be a good thing!

In my experience 2 years together are fine and 3 are too many.It's not just about maths English and science.We have Y2,3 and 4 together
Take PE for example Big difference between what a young 6 yo can do compared to a 9 y o in rounders,football etc .Same with DT finding a story suitable for the whole age range is nigh on impossible

I went to a very small primary where there were 3 classes: little class, middle class & top class. It had such a happy, family atmosphere. Teaching must have been good as when I made the transition to a large secondary school I was placed in all the upper ability classes.
I'm happily moving my dds next sept from a very large primary to a very small one (due to house move) and though both are very good schools I feel hugely delighted that my dds will be able to have that family spirit and close knit commumity and all the other benefits of a tiny village school.

DS's school is a village school with combined classes - we choose it for the small size and ethics when we were house hunting.

It works extremely well, the classes are separated on different tables in line with ability and each group gets work in line with this. It is fab as those who are struggling are supported (there is always a TA and usually a student teacher) and those who are flourishing can be moved up easily.

spiderpig8, my DCs go to a book club and the age range is 4-13. We usually have 2 groups. The younger group this month are reading "The Island of Adventure" (Enid Blyton) and will include DS2, who is 9. The older group are reading "The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas", which will include a 10 year old girl. The children in the middle can change but it usually means we have an age range of 4-5 years in each group and this works really well. There are plenty of books suitable for 6-9 year olds. How you tackle it in the classroom is a different kettle of fish.

I can understand that with some sports it could cause problems but rounders, you would just have to think about where to place them for fielding and ensure that the teacher bowls and adjusts his/her 'aim' accordingly. But you would have to do that anyway - even at 11 I could never hit the damned ball (even when she aimed straight at my bat)!!

My junior teacher coped with 25-30 of us split over 3 years with no extra help in the classroom (no TAs in my day!) We had great stories read to us from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to The Hobbit and Watership Down!

How do they implement the EYFS? There are all sorts of 'rules' for reception and I don't see how a teacher could possibly juggle all the different pieces of paper!

We had a choice of 2 small schools in our village as a county line runs right down the middle.

The school we didn't choose has combined reception, year 1 and 2. Personally, I thought my children would benefit from a more play based reception so we chose the other school. They have a separate reception classwhich is very much play based, then the other classes are combined 1 and 2, 3 and 4 etc. Each class has a teacher and a TA and it works very well. The headmaster also floats and takes regular classes.

They both seem like lovely schools and seem to have similar results, but having looked at both we were lucky enough to be able to choose.