Composite class / starting school worries

[shouldistop]

Can any teachers shed any light on how they decide which p1s go into the p2/1 composite class?
It looks like my wee one will be going into the composite class which I'm a wee bit sad about because of the bubbles he won't be allowed to play with the other p1s, I'm also worried he'll miss out on some of the p1 play experience.
Afaik p1 is meant to be play based learning but how can the teacher provide that for the p1s in the class and learning for the p2s?
Can anyone reassure me?
Just feeling a bit worried as ds2 still hasn't met his teacher and won't be allowed to visit his classroom then will start full time on his first day.

Our parent council is run by a super eager lady. Might be worth asking about if there are additional plans to facilitate kids transitioning.
Or even emailing the school directly? A single playground visit seems very light touch for such a big change in small kids lives.

Do they do a buddy system? (Match each new P1 to a new P7), ours did that, and it's really what made transition so easy for my eldest, but sadly this cohort isn't getting it because of Covid....

Hopefully your little boy will do just fine. I've seen the last August's P1 intake at pick up all this year, and they seem to be doing really well (teeny class though, which helps).
My recently turned 5 year old is super un-phased about going to school. She's not excited (except for getting a proper Smiggle school bag), nor anxious, she is pissed that it's a 4.5 day deal, she quite likes her 2.5 day set up ~~ She needs to be able to relax apparently ~~

They do have a buddy system but I'm unsure how that will work this year due to bubbles.
It's 5 full days our school does which he's excited about as he's only 2.5 days at nursery and his best friend is full time. He always thinks he's missing out
The school haven't replied to my email. I've emailed nursery manager to see if she has any info.

Hopefully you get some reassurance soon.

I can relate to finding the lack of communication and uncertainty the hardest part. I always feel that no matter what it is, as long as I know, I can deal with it and prep myself and/or the kid for it. Uncertainty = lack of control.

Last year we had the new p1 in for 30 minutes in late June in small groups. This won’t happen this year as we are in school with children. Most classes are composites academically and developmentally. It’s part and package of teaching. Play doesn’t stop on P1. No one is going to expect your child to sit at a desk for 6 hours a day. It’ll be fine.

I hear you @shouldistop, my dc has been in composite this year and I was extremely cross about how they communicated it with us. During the summer they said composite, and I though okay that's fine.
Then when they back to school it was a composite made up of five children from the same gender and there was only one child in the composite that my child had been in class with before. I was very frustrated that I hadn't chased it earlier, and questioned the composition of the class.
I would say that you've done the right thing questioning the composite make up. My Dc is the youngest in the class by 4 months, which I think is wrong however Dc has flourished in the composite class this year, unfortunately the school seems to love moving classes around so after year of forming friendships he's off back to a straight class again.

DC2 starts school this year, no induction just a 30 minute play in the playground with nursery buddies. I'm beyond frustrated with them, they are one of the only schools in the area with no induction time allocated. I'm finding there are two reactions to covid restrictions, one is how can we do as near to normal as possible? And the other is covid says no, let's do nothing.

Nursery manager got back to me. Apparently the school aren't replying to her either and she's no idea what's going on. They've offered to facilitate the children meeting their teacher etc and school haven't confirmed anything with them. So it looks like the teacher won't even be visiting the nursery and the one 30 minute playground visit is it. We got 10 days notice for it. I genuinely would have cut short our holiday with more notice.
I don't even know when I'll get the opportunity to ask about the make up of the composite class, ask what we're meant to buy to send into school or anything.

We only have a composite P2/1 at DC's school and it's worked well for my DC. They all do free flow play with some "carpet" time and then they get pulled "in" for some teaching time. Not sure how much attention the DC play to how much play the others get though.

There is a massive range in a normal P1 even without the composite.

Hopefully a bit of reassurance for parents worried about lack of transition..
We moved abroad in the Sept DD1 was four. We moved on the Wednesday, had a tour of the school on the Friday, she started full time on the Monday, going into a class that had been together over a year. She settled really quickly.
Two years later we moved to another country in time for DD2 to start school. Again no issues... From day 2 she happily went off on the bus with all the big kids. She got annoyed it was only half days the first week so I picked her up rather than getting the bus home.

They've been to two other schools since then. (Military family). One school they barely attended due to Covid. I've never seen inside their current school. Only met one of their teachers. (Theyve been there a month)

Children pick up some of their feelings from us. They don't know about transition events, so starting school not knowing the place will be normal for them. I can't help on composite classes, but the teachers do. Even in bigger single aged classes, the children are seperated into smaller groups .

Hope everything goes well and by September the children can mix a bit more.

The lack of communication and transition sounds poor.

I’d have no concerns over composite classes. I went to a primary school with only 2 classes and more recently Dd went to a primary with only 3 classes. I don’t know the specifics of how they set different work but there was definitely differentiation for the different year groups. Will the class have a TA, that can help a lot?

I've honestly no idea if they will have a TA. I've been told absolutely nothing. We were meant to be having an online parent induction and it's been cancelled twice now.

Class early in Scotland do not have TAs as a matter of routine. Additional members of staff are allocated to classes but usually on a timetabled basis. Dedicated learning assistants to one class tend to be there to support a child/ children with ASNs. You wouldn’t know at this point who else will be in the class as a parent. As a teacher I won’t know that until August.
I can understand you are upset but ten days notice at the moment is more notice than we are getting for most things. Any transitional activities happen in June each year so having a holiday at that point does mean that there was always a risk you’d miss them. We had hoped to have a very different transition to the one we are now offering. If we had sent home our expected timetable in April, parents would be very unhappy when we then cancelled everything on it. Schools are closed over the summer so transition activities cannot be planned for then. My own child is not having any time in high school for her own transition so I know how annoying it is. However last year the new P1s in my class settled so quickly. We didn’t have buddies due to bubbles but everything went really well. There certainly were a lot fewer upset children on day one than is usually the case when parents come in with them to settle them traditionally.

Transitional activities usually begin in May with our school. I do realise things are tricky this year but the school haven't been communicating with us or the nursery at all, have cancelled 2 meetings at last minute. It's bizarre actually. I wonder if there are staffing issues.

What do parents usually need to provide for p1s? I'd expected some sort of 'kit list' by now.

I've just realised I don't even know what time he's to be dropped at school and picked up. I know they staggered the times slightly last year. Hopefully I find out before his first day

I think what parents need to provide is pretty much on a school by school basis.
Our council have the school "handbooks" uploaded onto their website, where you can find out about uniform, etc, but not sure if they've been updated since Covid (our school has pretty much dumped its uniform, kids aren't to bring pencil cases and waterproofs are a must).

This thread has made me realise, our school isn't doing a parents intro zoom/teams... We had an evening meeting when it was my eldest. I found out about school timetable, the weird first week hours (shorter for P1s), uniform, about the teachers, got the paperwork to fill out...
I'm lucky I already have a kid in the school, or the control freak in me would be going nuts.

Hopefully your school will up their comms soon. Ours has also been a bit off the ball. I assume it's a result of last minute resourcing decisions, and last minute council changes. Hopefully it'll all become clear in the next week or so.

Yes the info should be in school handbook on their website.
We ordered polo shirts and sweatshirts through the school. Do you know anyone with child in early years at the school that can give you all the info? If not then can you walk past at break time and see what the kids are wearing?

Best advice I got was Label everything, make sure he's got clothing and shoes he can manage himself, Don't put things that need peeled in lunchbox or for snack

And yes I feel your pain. Lack of info starting P1 would have freaked me out

We got an out of catchment request granted at the very last minute and DD had never ever been into the school she now attends before starting.

That's not the issue as kids are resilient but what is lacking from the schools is information that parents need to know - the uniform policy, the water bottle policy, how to order lunch, drop off and pick up times and locations - with maps because we've never been to the school before!!

There seems to be this assumption from the school that you know all this - but you don't because no one has told you! We muddled through because our NDN had older kids at the school.

Composite classes are fine. Different schools composite in different ways so you will need to ask them.

Both of mine have been in composites. They were absolutely fine and indeed flourished. Teachers are professionals and know what they are doing. They are actually good as they are smaller class sizes.

@Saltnsauceta

The rule is to do it by age. I've never heard of it done any other way, it wouldn't be fair. If you think it's being done differently then ask. I'm a teacher btw, and I've taught many composite classes.

My son’s school did it by ability in maths, my eldest was in p6 in a p6/5 composite and it was the top maths group who went into the composite - they said they did it that way so they had a group of very similar ability who could work together well. We got a letter home about it presumably so people could read about it and not phone ip the school and moan. 🙄 Similarly when my youngest son was going into p2 I asked if he might be going into a p2/1 composite and our lovely depute head basically told me in the nicest possible way that he wasn’t really capable enough for the 2/1 composite. 😝We later moved him to another school so he went into a composite as that was the class that had space.

My eldest son was then put on a fast track programme for N5 maths when he got to high school, so it certainly didn’t hold him back.

My SIL’s school only has composite classes as it’s a small school.
It’s honestly fine OP. You’ll wonder what you were worried about. :)

It’s worth remembering too that no school can make decisions around daily staggered start times, etc just now because as we move through the summer, we all hope restrictions will be lifted. Will we still need to provide stationery packs for children or will they be able to bring their own? Everything will change. Our staff don’t know which class they’re teaching next year yet. We don’t know if we still will need staggered starts or if this will be gone by August. Many schools in my area are facing unexpected staffing problems as teachers have to self isolate as they or their own children are identified as close contacts. Some schools are struggling to ensure classes in the building have a teacher in front of them. Hopefully you’ll hear more details next week which is still lots of time to buy uniform etc before the new term starts.

Yes, at this point last year we thought we were coming back to blended learning and were telling parents not to buy too much uniform 🙈

My kids have been in composites. I would not recommend it at all. There is year and a half worth of kids in each year. They mix the composites each year so they never know if they are going to be in a class with their friends next year and are really stressed with the uncertainty. One of my kids learnt nothing new in a full year as they were too advanced for the work the rest of the class was doing. We complained and complained and complained then gave up and forked out for a tutor.

I think if it had been whole class composites (I.e. P5/6/7 all together in one school I think the teachers would have made more effort to differentiate.

@Iwouldratherbesailing

My kids have been in composites. I would not recommend it at all. There is year and a half worth of kids in each year. They mix the composites each year so they never know if they are going to be in a class with their friends next year and are really stressed with the uncertainty. One of my kids learnt nothing new in a full year as they were too advanced for the work the rest of the class was doing. We complained and complained and complained then gave up and forked out for a tutor.

I think if it had been whole class composites (I.e. P5/6/7 all together in one school I think the teachers would have made more effort to differentiate.

That sounds more like your school was shit at managing the differing abilities than a problem with composite classes in general. My eldest is very bright as well as being an April baby and did brilliantly in the p6 end of his p6/5 composite, he had a fantastic teacher.

@Iwouldratherbesailing this sounds like what happens in my child’s school.
Dc1 is currently worrying about who will be in his class next year, the school have said it will be a straight class rather than a composite. No indication of who will be in it, and who will be teaching them. There’s more of a back story to all of this but this is the bare bones of it.
Our experience of learning in the composite has been positive, however the emotional aspect and the change seems rather negative. There is almost a two year spread of ages in their class currently, which for academic learning isn’t such an issue but emotionally and socially it has been. Especially as my child is 4 months younger than next child in age.
I wouldn’t be hugely concerned if my child going into p1 was in a composite though, i would be questioning the structure of the class, how they will integrate them with other p1s and what will they plan for the year after. I’d be happier if they were in a composite for a longer period of time rather than switching about annually.

I think the school could have managed it much much better. They need to acknowledge that you really need to work much harder on ensuring all kids educational needs are being met in a composite, not just the majority of the class, and they need to acknowledge that the constant stress over who is going to be in their class the following year is a big thing for a lot of kids. The attitude of our school has always been that studies have shown that it’s fine for kids so we’re ignoring what you are saying. So frustrating. Which is why if I had my time again I would absolutely apply for an out of catchment place in a school with straight classes.