Help! My DD school is introducing Mixed Reception Year 1 composite class

[Twix29]

Can anyone please help?? My DD is currently in Reception at an Independent school. They have just informed us that due to a large amount of applicants for Reception next yr they will be integrating the new reception intake with her Year One class as they already have a full reception class for next year and her class is small. They are not going to have any other vertical grouped classes apart from hers. We are very worried that this will have a detrimental effect on her education as the school has never run vertical classes before and the Year One teacher has no experience of running a mixed class. Has anyone else had a similar experience? Has it worked or do the more able children get left behind? The class size will be about 16 Year One and 6 Reception. Are there any other Independent Primary schools that have implemented mixed age classes?

Thanks

I had this problem last year with DD2. She is now in mixed yr 1 reception class and it has worked very well.
All classes have a mix of ability which teacher have to manage so mix yr 1/rec works fine. A lot of the time the yr1's mix with the other half of their original class while rec join together.
This was the 1st time our school had to do this too.

Thanks, everything i've read on the internet says it only works with excellent planning and i'm not sure how well this has been planned! It looks like they are just trying to get extra money rather than doing what's best for the children. How many teachers / TA does your DD have - is it a big class?

There is about 30 in each yr1/rec class. 1 teacher and 2-3 TAs.
I had a lot of reassurance from Mumsnet at the time. All saying it was the norm now in a lot of school and that they have had no problems with it.

We've only got one teacher & one TA... You've got between 6-8 extra children but 2 extra TAs, surely that makes a big difference? Also we are struggling to pay for private school & only chose to do so as we thought we'd get a higher level of education, we've missed out on a place in our local state school - they are full and are feeling very let down.

Whilst this is fairly common in state schools I would not expect this in an independent school. I cannot see how a mixed class can be as good as a single year group class. IMO they should either be creating 2 very small classes for reception or not taking the extra pupils. I would be a bit worried about the financial security of an independent school that is having to do this. Have you spoken to them? What do the other parents think?

my experience of mixed year groups has not been positive (state)

Please, please, please elaborate!!! why?

I agree iloverainbows! We have checked the financial status of the school & it's fine. The parent are outraged, we all had a meeting with the Head & she was unable to answer our questions, turned into a bit of a disaster as parents started shouting so meeting had to end.

resources weren't available to take account of the huge range in age/ability
dc bonded into friendship groups but no one was sure of class groupings for the following year as it all had to be rethought
currently ds is in a mixed y2/3 class which also means key stages are mixed and he is in a separate playground from his friends
in my mind the only pro of mixing years is an economic one
if I was paying for his education I would feel let down, personally

one eg, questions were asked, my ds went to answer and was told put your hand down the question was for Y1
eg of bad teaching
it COULD be done well
but I would ask questions as to why in the private sector this needs to happen
somthing is amiss

Yep, we do. I can't see any benefit unless it runs throughout the entire school and that the school has had that structure for a number of years so the right planning is in place & that the younger year have always sat with an older year group to benefit from their experience. I really do feel that DD cannot benefit from this new setup & would love someone to put my mind to rest but so far it's not happened.

twix I will think about this again tomorrow
my gut instinct is no
as I guess is yours
but the overall school ethos might be wonderful in which case it's worth a trial

Thanks ninah, the rest of the school is unchanged, a lovely school & what we paid for... it's just our year that's having this imposed ... trials are supposed to be free .. this is a very expensive one!

DD was in a mixed class (20 reception Sept to December birthdays) and 10 year One (july and August).
Didn't seem to affect in a negative way- I seem to remember they were in sets for English and numeracy.

2 years from now the R/Y1 mix issue will have more or less faded from your memory. I had to rack my brains yesterday to recall exactly which of my DS1's classes were composite, and that happened 2 years ago!

In the big picture it's neither here nor there, really it isn't.

It's unfortunate that as you're paying directly you will obviously perhaps feel the pain and concern more than a state school parent who knows there's no option, (and, of course, the EA has rules in place in the state sector re numbers of DCs/teachers/TAs which the private sector may not, but even so, 6 older reception agers in a class of Y1 (know what? It's JUST this moment occurred to me that DS1 had that in HIS Y1!) won't destabilize your DDs education, really it won't.

Thanks so much everyone for your responses, it's good to hear it can work but we're paying for the education. The question is if you had the option of private school would you pay for one with mixed age classes or would you prefer single age?

Twix - we are ALL paying for our children's education. Some people just choose to pay twice. Thank you.

Be aware that private does not necessarily equate to a better education. Teachers do not have to be qualified and do not have to follow what is currently felt to be best practice. I am a teacher in a private school, btw.

Provided the teacher is well-versed and prepared, all will be fine. If s/he is not up to speed, then it is likely that whether the class is mixed or not will be the least of your worries.

A good teacher will always be differentiating activities and grouping children according to their strengths and weaknesses in the different areas of the curriculum, and making adjustments throughout the year.

However, if a teacher is assuming that single age = same work for all, your child will be a lot worse off than a child in a mixed class. Sadly there are independent schools that work on the basis that if the child doesn't fit their idea of what they should be doing, the child is the problem. State schools are better equipped to deal with whatever/whoever is thrown at them, because they have to.

My DD is currently in a mixed YearR/Year 1 class, and will go into a mixed Year1/year 2 class. It's what small schools do, and I think that it often works extremely well. She plays as much with Year 1s as with her fellow year Rs, and has been inspired by the more tricky stuff that they have been doing. Next year she will be able to look to the Year 2s. A summer born boy, for example, (the group least likely to cope well with our early school starting laws) will find the pressure less.

I'd be a tad worried about my child being in a school where parents thought that it was OK to shout down teachers in meeting.

Our DD's school is in a less than salubrious area, but noone would ever dream of doing that. How precious, how rude.

Twix29 - to answer your question "if you had the option of private school would you pay for one with mixed age classes or would you prefer single age?" - I would definitely not pay for one with mixed age classes, unless I knew the school & the particular teacher(s) were exceptionally good. There will naturally be a greater spread of abilities to cope with if there is more than one year group in a class. I would be asking how this will be dealt with - in detail, e.g. will children be taught in ability groupings at all?

We have recently moved DS to a (private) school to get away from the lack of challenge for him presented by his teacher in a largish (26 pupils) mixed yr1/yr2 class while he was in yr 2 - it did not improve despite many meetings/requests. I am sure some teachers manage this well, but not all. Yes, state schools do have to deal with "whatever/whoever is thrown at them" but they do not necessarily do it well!

Sorry, should have worded my sentence better - the parents weren't shouting just all trying to raise their objections at once so it was very noisy & difficult. No one was rude, just very upset as this is a big change and not what they thought they were getting when they were "sold" the school!

I notice that Anner is pleased with how the system works for her DD: however, her DD is R age whilst in the R/yr1 class, and will be yr 1 age whilst in the yr1/yr2 class, so the groupings will benefit her - being the younger age both times. But what if she was going to be in the same class for two years running - in that case, in the second year she would be a yr1 in a R/yr1 class so there would be nobody older to work with if her ability was advanced for her age, so it is likely she would be doing work she'd already covered (unless the teacher managed it well for her). I speak from experience of this!

Another point - I have not heard of a school doing this for any reason apart from financial ones, however they may put across any potential benefits to the pupils! IME it is only done because there is not enough money for the extra teacher(s) needed.

Thanks Englishpatient, i've not heard the greatest reports on the Year 1 teacher and do not think that the teacher will be able to cope as well as some.

Sorry if I am worrying you, twix, but I do have bad experiences with this (with older DD as well as DS).

Englishpatient you are just confirming everything I already think. DD will not benefit from sitting with a year ahead, she's always going to be grouped with same same year beneath her as they are not running this scheme anywhere else in the school. Am feeling miserable