Boys/Girls in Year 1

[redskyatnight]

DS is in Year 1. He is in an ability group for reading which consists of him and 5 girls. He is in an ability group for literacy which consists of himself and 6 girls. he is in a group for "other" work which consists of himself, 1 other boy and 4 girls. He comes home every day and moans about being surrounded by girls all day. (they obviously do whole class work, so I realise he exaggerates slightly).

They do do some cross class (2 classes in the year) work in phonics which he raves about because there are 3 boys (from the other class) in his group.

There are 13 boys and 15 girls in his class - however most of the boys are in the "lower" groups. (DS is in "higher" groups)

Is this "usual" in Y1 or just DS's particular class? Is it likely that the other boys will start catching up sometime soon? Is it worth mentioning to DS's teacher (I know she can't magic up any extra boys but possibly something can be done for next year - maybe shuffling the classes or doing more cross class work. Or am I just being precious and should tell DS it is "just the way it is" and he just has to put up with it).

Can only speak for dd's class, but certainly in her year there was no link between gender & being in the higher groups. At that stage it was pretty much directly age related, tbh - the kids with Sept - Xmas birthdays were just that much more advanced with everything.

Could it be a co-incidence of ages, that the girls are the older ones in the class? I think if that is the case then your ds may find that things move around a lot as they get a bit older & the age differences are less significant.

I don't know if it helps, but I have seen in dd's friendship groups that around yr1 they went through a real sex segregation thing, with girls playing only with girls & boys ditto, whereas now (yr 3) it has reverted to playing more in mixed groups.

Congrats to your ds, btw, he is obviously doing very well, moans notwithstanding!

My DS (9) is in the same situation, it is a very small school - and very few boys - he works with a group of girls and to be honest I think its better for him - they encourage him to work hard and less messing around! I make sure he does activities out of school where he can mix with more boys.

You could be describing my Y2 class I have 9 boys and 20 girls and don't group by ability but due to numbers and personalities working groups are very girl heavy with a boy or two to keep things calm.

Ability grouping would give me 4 boys and one girl in the top group for reading /writing / and 3 boys and 2 girls for maths.

A little younger but in my ds' reception class the top reading group is half boys and half girls.
Three are Autumn/ Winter born and the other three have birthdays in May - July so not age related either.

Sounds a little tricky for your ds being surrounded by girls if he doesn't like it.

Hmm let me think; DD1s class (YR4) top set 3 girls (All autumn born), 2 boys (one autumn, the other August so that blows that theory out of the water) for lit, numeracy AFAIK the same; DD2s class (YR1) 2 winter girls and 1 boy (dont know his birthday) for lit, 2 and 2 for numeracy.

Hi,

Yep same here. DS in yr 1 and has to work with girls nearly all the time as he is an able Autumn born. I don't mind as I am pleased he is bucking the 'boys can't do literacy trend' but it has put me off sending him to an all boys school which I had planned from yr 3.
I'm also interested to know when the boys generally catch up (if they do)?? DD is yr 5 and no boys in top literacy group and only 2 in maths group.
S.

DS is in year 1 and is pretty much at the top of the class for maths and literacy, although the groupings they use are pretty flexible with no fixed groups.

He too is an Autumn born - am trying to think which other children are towards the upper end. Probably another three boys, and a couple of girls, with a spread of autumn, spring and summer birthdays.

DS is in Year 1 and is in a similar situation. His group is him (May birthday), one other boy (September birthday) and 4 girls (with birthdays spread accross the year).

The biggest problem he has is that he isn't quite as "mature" as them, although he is pretty bright and has a high reading age he is still a 5 year old boy and would probably rather be playing with mud.

My observation of how boys progress is that there are very keen and motivated boys who do very well and very much the opposite, all the way through, with very little in-between, whereas girls can be all over the map in terms of performance.

I think you should try to get to the bottom of your DS's negative feelings about the girls. Are the other boys teasing him for being placed with the girls and doing well academically? There's a certain amount of "real boys don't do school" culture even from a young age that is very maddening and also very sad, and I wonder if this is rearing its ugly head in some way here. (The teacher plays a role in this dynamic too of course)