Anyone else wrestling with a seating chart?

[TheFuckingAllanKey]

Mine are going into rows (Y5 equivalent). They’re incredibly LOUD so hoping this will make a difference.

Almost always rows for me.
I like doing some group work, but find it's comfier for students to all face the board so nobody has to do the awkward neck turn.

Every now and then I consider going to tables or horseshoes or whatever cool thing I've seen online... and then the rows go back.

Tried horseshoes
Tried groups.
Tried various other shapes.....

Does is the only thing for difficult groups. I have a particularly testing year 9 set with 5 boys who drive me crazy. Not enough corners to put them in....

Rows. Not does.

It's been a long day!! 😖

It's like whackamole. Half the time I don't think they are even having a conversation, I think most of them are talking to themselves.

We had a seating plan which we've been using for the first couple of weeks, but it now needs changing as we have discovered:

New EAL child needs to be in a three rather than a pair so language can be model
We need a second three because we have an even number.
A, B, C, D (and preferably E) cannot be sat near each other
F, G and H will never get anything done if they're anywhere near each other, and they always manage to gravitate together
I and J should probably be apart as they're either best friends or worst enemies, and neither is conducive to work
And finally, K and L need to be as far apart as possible, preferably without line of sight to each other, so they can't feed off each other!

Sounds like a great brain teaser GetTheGoodLookingGuy a bit like the chicken/fox/grain challenge.

GetTheGoodLookingGuy
And then just when you think you've got it sorted J' s parent complains about them being sat next to D because although there's been no issues in 3 years they fell out in nursery when D knocked a sandcastle down maliciously and J hasn't recovered from the trauma and is filled with anxiety about the bullying starting again,
unless school ensure that J is nowhere near D. J's mum has called an assistant head and told them that she'll be reporting the school to the Local Authority for failing to safeguard her child if they arent happy with the new seating plans.

Then Y gets added making your class of 32 up to 33 and you only have 33 but this has to happen because Y's kicked off in another class and home have complained that their child can't be in their class because there is a personality clash with the teacher.
And then next half term J's mum is back on the phone with a list of 4 children she is happy for her child to be sat near because her child should only sit near people on track to get grade 9s (who are conveniently all very nice middle class girls who J is friends with) because obviously the reason J didn't get full marks in their mock was because they had to sit next to a nice hard working student