Streaming or not how can i tell? Parents evening to find out?

[nomorebbq]

My yr7 dc's school split the whole year pupils into two tutor groups. I don't know if either group consists of the same numbers of children. Anyway her best friend is in a different tutor group from her.
My main concern is how do I know if the school is treating both tutor groups as the same. My dc's friend seems to constantly have home work almost everyday. However my dc hardly has any homework. I beginning to worry if the school is streaming half of the children and letting the other half of them to take it easy.
How can find out? What questions to ask? Advise please?

I doubt they are streaming in Year 7. Most schools seem to start putting pupils into sets for some subjects from Year 8 onwards.

My guess is that it's simply down to different teachers - some set more homework than others.

Also some pupils do more homework than others! Either they spend a long time, because they find it hard, or they choose to do extra, etc.

If you're concerned, just ask at parents evening. Or ask about sets in the future, and see what they say.

Meer i used to kind of believe that too. But the other mum told me her dc always has home work everyday but mine dosent! I know my dc s not a fast worker I do not believe dc could have finished all the work at school every day. I will ask the questions but just how? Will the teacher tell parents say if their dcs are not selected to be streamed? But to take things easier?

Okay I'm confused. Is this a very small secondary with only 2 classes (about 60 in total)? Or do they subdivide a much larger group into two parallel groups (my DCs' school does this so 300 becomes 2 groups of 5 forms in each half)?

To know the answer honestly you are going to have to ask. But some teachers set more homework than others.

I would want to know: the school policy on homework, sanctions for homework not being done, if they set or stream, on what basis.

If there are only 60 pupils it will be very hard to stream/set effectively as there will not really be enough of any high or low abilities to group properly.

Thanks mummytime, not quite 300 but around 240 . Only set eng and maths so far in yr7 and five sets per tutor group not sure about other subjects. The lower the ability set the smaller the class (it seems). But will ask about yr8 arrangement.

That sounds pretty usual, I know a school with about 180 in a year which still splits them into 2 groups, with 2 equivalant top sets, 2 middle and 2 bottom. Top is often bigger and bottom smaller (as they need more attention and may have more behavioural issues). Sometimes they do mix things so actually they have one bottom set which is less able than the other (eg. once one took an easier qualification as they really couldn't attempt proper GCSE, the other group did proper GCSE, and some could even get B's if their confidence was boosted).

But different teachers do set different amounts of homework. Some children skim over it more superficially. Oh and some parents will set extra work/interfere a lot.

my ds is in a school which unusually does stream from the very start of Y7 - he's in the top stream (of four), my friend's dd is in the second stream

For the last 3 years she has consistently had much more hw than my ds - that could be because she takes more care or it could be that she does actually get more work set

Just because your dd's friend is getting more hw it doesn't necessarily follow that she's in a higher stream

Sorry but why don't you just email form tutor or head of that year group for the facts? I always do that and have very clear idea of where my son is at. Is it so rude to ask these questions to teachers??? Why bother to wait until parents evening?

I would like to know if I have been violating any invisible rules...

Sorry but why don't you just email form tutor or head of that year group for the facts? I always do that and have very clear idea of where my son is at.

Well lucky you. Our school seemed to pride itself on keeping set information secret.
I eventually found out that we also did the two-halves thing (so if you try to ask about xyz set they would always say that there isn't one of any set, there's two).
You could ask about being moved to the other half of the school.
Does DC have a planner, where they record homework etc? Can you compare planners with others; can you use it as a discussion tool with school.

Khk, I would email but parents evening s just next week. I wait until Ihave a collective of questions and also those subjects teachers I haven't managed to see. I don't want to be a parent who emails school too often with small issues.

Did they not run through their banding / tutor / setting systems at admission?

Big year groups are often split into bands
each of the bands is then split into sets for each subject (a good thing) or streams (a bad thing)

different sets will work at different speeds

• often the highest one has the least homework as they rattle through all the work in class

Questions to ask :
Is your child with the same people for every lesson?

If not, what are the class names for each subject
eg if Maths is 7W1 and English is 7W2
that implies them being in Band W and set 1 for maths and set 2 for English

Emailing teachers with concerns can be better than waiting for parents' evening. At a KS3 parents' evening each of my appointments is only 5 minutes long. If you have a few questions for the teacher that's just not enough.
At our school you see subject teachers not form tutors.
I would like to think that information on setting and streaming would be on the school's website.

I was wondering whether your dc's school was the same as mine, but we haven't got parents evening next week :)

Anyway, my dcs' school is the same - 240 in a year, split into two halves, so each half can be on a different timetable adn they don't have to have 8 maths teachers tied up at once. Each half gets divided into 4 or 5 classes for each subject. As far as I know from what we've been told at open day etc, the two halves are very carefully and evenly matched gender-wise and ability-wise.

Just ask :)

Ask about the difference in homework and why. It could be that one group just hasn't been set some of it yet. Alternatively, it could be to do with ability - there is a massive difference in the amount of homework my DD does compared to some friends - she does approx. 12 hours a week, whereas some others only do approx. 4 hours. She's in the top sets and gets extension work, also I think she puts a lot more time and effort into it to try and keep up with her peers.

I hope the school is the same as Atia's dc's. I would worry if the school is like Lottie dd's. My dc does work hard and wants to do well even dc may not necessarily be one of the brightest ones besides my dc is a summer child. I think I will email a few questions to each of the teachers this weekend so hope they can prepare some answers for me as five minutes is very short.

nomore
TBH your first email should go to your child's pastoral tutor as the school system will not be a secret

Just ask them
But my dds' school splits like this - x Band and Y band and you don't get taught with the other band until they divide into GCSE options groups. There's no academic streaming between the bands though. Within the bands, some subjects set but most don't - where they set, there are parallel sets within each band.
My dd1's friend from Primary was in the other band. Her Mum often asked me about the amount of homework as her dd was doing hours every night - but it was nothing to do with the teachers and everything to do with the personalities of our 2 dds. Hers is some kind of a perfectionist who stresses and frets about improving already excellent work, mine is much more practical and grasps that if the teachers think it's of a high enough standard, then she's done enough work.

Thanks Back I believe my dc's school is like that. Dose your school move the children between groups or just keep the children as they are until pupils start their prefer GCSEs?

They review and move dc around.