Setting by ability in comprehensives, Hackney and Islington?

[Mrsfrumble]

First off, I should that my opinion on mixed ability teaching and setting by ability is based on my own experiences at a comprehensive in the 90s. My experience was that years 7 & 8, which were taught in mixed ability classes, were a bit rubbish; disruptive behaviour and boredom for the most and least able. Years 9-11, which were set for all academic subjects, were much better. I accept that teachers and the curriculum might be better suited to differentiation in mixed classes these days.

We have a child in year 6 and are currently looking at secondaries. Our options are basically comprehensives in the above boroughs (and possibly Camden). We looked around a school this morning and were a bit surprised to hear that the only lessons that were not taught in mixed ability classes were GCSE maths and science (so just years 10 and 11). The websites and prospectuses of the schools we’re looking at don’t seem to mention setting at all, although we’re doing lots of visits over the next 2 weeks so I’ll be able to ask in person.

Is setting before KS4 quite unusual now? And can anyone shed any light in particular on schools in Hackney and Islington? Thanks!

Yeah, setting in secondary schools does seem to be slightly out of fashion compared to the days of our youth. Selective schools don't need to do it as much and comprehensives don't seem to want to do it as much.

My own view is probably that it's best to do setting starting at the beginning of year 8, after giving everyone a year to settle in & to enable proper observation of progress and attainment levels, accounting for differences in starting levels, etc.

At my local comp in Wandsworth they set maths from midway in year 7, I think there's maybe some modern languages setting too [IMO arguably the subject where you need it most, because of the time that kids spent speaking in pairs etc] and then that's it until either year 9 or year 10, I forget which.

I have a DD in year 9 in a comprehensive in one of the boroughs you mention (feel free to DM me if you'd like more detail). They set in maths from year 7, MFL from year 9 onwards and science (I think) from Y10 - a recent change because the maths and science sets used to be the same.

My DD's experience is that there's been considerably less disruption in the sets compared with the mixed ability groups but some subjects lend themselves more to mixed ability, I guess. Setting seems to be a very emotive subject these days!

I wonder why setting for English seems so unpopular? I agree that mixed ability classes for art, music, drama, DT, PE etc are positive.

Will DM you @stuckinaGSCEloop.

Not the borough you’re interested in, but mine was in the middle stream of a comprehensive. However, by GCSE, some classes at least seemed more general -ie, children from different streams were in the same class. Mine still got 12 A*/A, despite being in the middle stream, so it didn’t seem to matter. Back in my day, the the streams were very separate and no intermingling.