being put in new form year 8

[southeastastra]

my ds(12) has been told today (great 1 day to go) that next term he is going to be split from his form into another - as a couple of the children are a bad influence on him. he has only been in the school for a year and has got used to his form and made friends there.

does anyone know if this is something that's done routinely or do they normally stay together as a form until 'option' time.

he is very upset!

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i'm quite happy for him to change! he isn't happy though

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We do move children if there are behavioural 'issues'.

Although it can be tricky at the start you can get huge improvements in behaviour and attainment if a child is in the 'right' group.

Often it can even be the case of two OK, nice kids who just egg each other on to naughtiness,, split them up and they both do better.

i hope he'll be okay, at the moment he is very worried, he finds it hard to make new friends.

in my dd school they keep them in the same form until they leave.. with the same people and same form tutor until year 9.. shes in 7i so next year she will be 8i then 9i and so on.. But with the teaching sets thats different in year 8.. they swap them around so there with nearly different people for each lesson... they will obviously no some of the children in that class.

We sometimes move forms although not that often as none of our children are taught in forms so the change is only effctive for fifteen minutes a day. Sometimes we move them forms becuas eof issues with the form tutor rather than the children as a negative or ineffective relationship with a form tutor can limit a child.

I am about to be a year 7 tutor and some of my tutees were worried as they were in a different form from their primary school friends but when I pointed out how little time they spend in form it mattered much less. How often will your son be in the form.

thats true twinsetandpearls.. but my dd primary teacher had to write down who each child was friendly with.. and my dd is the same form as her cousin and one girl from her primary.. so shes quite happy. and she knows most all of the children in her form now

I'm surprised that if there are issues with some of the others sufficient to move your ds, that the school haven't made you aware of them.
I'm sure he'll be fine though - it's the holidays thinking about it that will be the problem.

he's settled into his new class and seems happy enough, but he's now telling me the work is very easy and he's going over stuff he's done before. i'm quite annoyed at the school and getting a meeting with them is quite hard work. he also was in an accelerated learning class and isn't now, but his grades have been constant. i suppose i have to talk to the school but am confused over the whole thing.

Our school keeps tutor groups together from Yr7-11 with the same form tutor, and only moves children if there is a real issue with friendships, behavioural problems etc.

Having said that, most lessons are set by ability, so children are only with their tutor groups for 10 mins in the morning, 15 or 20 in the afternoon and then for PSRE, music, art and dance/drama. P.E. and D.T. is in mixed ability groups taken from their half of the year group, and all other lessons are ability-set.

So time in tutor groups is actually fairly limited when you look at a whole week.

I would try to talk to the school, it sounds like they haven't communicated with you very well.

ours routinely get mixed up between Y7/8 - cue a fair bit of moaning from the children but in practice it worls really well, they get to know some other children better, and a lot of the time they aren't taught in their tutor group anyway.