Staff vs parents' opinions

[Corneliawildthing]

In the past our HT has asked for staff suggestions when allocating pupils to classes for the following year. So we usually tell her which children are in the same groups for reading, numeracy etc. This year, she has had several parents saying "I don't want my child in the same class as pupil x or y. They've had to put up with them for a year so it's time they had a break....."

Now we've received the lists for next year and the groupings are all over the place to accommodate these parents' wishes Does this happen in other schools?

Never let parents have a say in classes.

Unless there is a very real and substantial reason for parental involvement in classes (and they exist but are the exception), it shouldn't even be an option.

Classes need to be balanced by sex, ability grouped as policy (either mixed or setted), consideration given to placement of those with TAs so you don't get 3 TAs in one class, allocation of students with SEND, any notorious combinations of students should be avoided.

The problem is that some parents think their child's classes should change on a whim based on who has fallen out with who, who they are friends with etc. None of them are grounds for choosing classes and when you start pandering to these requests you get more and more and more. We've had requests for class moves after a falling out on social media because now their child is too anxious and traumatised to come to school, they want a class change effective immediately... we don't do it and 3 days later they're all friends again.

It's annoying enough already having to explain how setting works so you can't keep moving every able child in set 2 up to set 1, yes your child may have scored higher than 1 child in set 1 on 2 assessments but that's not actually showing us they are consistently outperforming the group above. Would you like your child moving down if they had a bad 3 weeks, because last term a child in set 3 has outperformed yours, based on your logic your child should have been moved out of set 2... oh you dont agree with that... so it's only moves that suit your desire to be in top set that matters.

Sadly lots of head teachers seem to bend more and more to parental wishes nowadays - but given how fucking entitled so many parents are I’m not surprised .

That's a slippery slope to go down.

Lola is completely right- there will be the very odd year where one parent makes a reasonable request and that should be accommodated, but it shouldn't be done as a matter of course.

I think it's setting z dangerous precedent as this is a small town and word will soon get round that if you don't want your child in the same class as some child (usually with behavioural issues), then the HT will change if for you.

We get no say as parents here - means we've had the class teacher situation from hell this year unfortunately and I've been really pissed off throughout over things that have gone on but just gritted teeth because that's the way it is.

The kids get to list a few friends they'd like to stay with and they'll make sure they're with at least one of them but that's about it... I'm hoping next year they put DD at least away from the kid who's tormented her a lot of this year but I'm half expecting them to end up together again as the cohort is one where there are so many difficult combinations of personalities involved there's not enough ways to separate them out! They do a full mix up of classes every year.

I don't think the teachers' wishes get listened to particularly well either from unguarded comments made to me from a teacher who really had pushed to try to get my other DD into her class and been thwarted - it's very much the head showing it's her party and she'll cry if she wants to with it.