Class Allocations - Parent and Teacher Survey

[maxblizzard]

www.surveymonkey.com/r/5HCHWF8

I am a parent, with two daughters aged 11 and 8.

Each school year, my daughters are allocated into a specific form or class. We have found the process stressful, as our daughters have worried about being with friends and as parents, we have worried about having the best teacher. There is also the possibility of the class bully being with our daughter!

I am aware that from a teacher's perspective, class or form allocations are very difficult. They have pressure from parents and colleagues. There is a need to balance classes, to allow form tutors to properly manage the class. There may be children with special educational needs to consider as well.

I am looking at ways in which to assist in this process and would be really grateful for your thoughts. I have a few simple questions below and I would welcome any comments at all.

Thanks in advance for your time and best wishes to you and your children/classes!

@Saucery

What will your organisation’s strategy wrt the “disruptive and difficult” children?

They'll all be in my Bob class

Space in primaries being at a premium I imagine it will be more of a Bob Cupboard……..

So, this (parent) survey...
Q1: Do you want your child in Mrs X or Mr B's class?
Q2: How do you feel about your child being in the same class as Bob (who has SEN)?

Or am I missing something?

That’s a terrible survey.

I’d be fascinated to know what your new tool will do with the ‘class bullies’ OP?

I just can’t envisage how the ‘tool’ will work? Or why a school would pay for it?
Unless it is going to be aimed at parents. A sort of elbow-sharpening protocol where parents pay for a set of instructions on how to escalate complaints through the system. Heads and Governors are not going to fall for that, however faux-legalese it appears.

Q1: Do you want your child in Mrs X or Mr B's class?
The nice one who smiles a lot and everyone likes.
Q2: How do you feel about your child being in the same class as Bob (who has SEN)?
Not on your nelly.

Intrigued as to what the tool is so please do update OP as your project progresses. We always sorted classes using a pen and paper, about as basic as your can get! As always in teaching, we wouldn't have had time to do anything that would have taken much more time that what we were already doing.

I remember once, a few years ago, spending hours with a colleague jumbling up two classes. We ended up with a fair mix of boys/girls, ability range, SEN, friendship groups plus and minus (as in, several had to be split up) and so forth.
We showed the new lists to the wider staff and asked them, if they had to choose, which class they'd pick as theirs. Every single one of them looked and said, "Good God, not Class A!!!!"
Back to the drawing board!

I also remember on here a thread by a mum whose little girl was about to start Reception, but she'd been allocated the older, "sensible-looking" stricter teacher. The poster was so upset as the other class teacher was young and pretty, so she wanted her for her daughter!!
Nearly got myself permanently banned on that thread!

@CallmeHendricks I must have missed that one!

@MrsHamlet

So very true.
On all accounts.

"Good God, not Class A!!!!"

That's how we judge how well we've done it. If there are any we'd really want, or not want, then we have to go again.

I can't see why any school would pay for a system for doing something simple! The best way when mixing up kids is to try and balance friendship, need, academic ability and then choose a class teacher that you think will get the best out of the group. It really doesn't need a special IT system. I always then get other colleagues to look at lists to make suggestions and see if they can spot any problems. There really is no substitute for several pairs of eyes.

OK I have checked out your survey. It really is nonsense. How can asking parents what suggestions they have make the process better? Most parents only care about getting the best for their kid. So parent with academic kids wants all the less bright, potentially disruptive kids in another class. Oh how surprising!

My children attend a one form entry primary - what happens if they don’t like their teacher? Oh I know, bloody get on with it!

Blimey - I hadn't actually clicked on the survey!!

Just what is the point of it? How are the answers to those questions going to "help" you "help" schools?

So you want schools to waste money by paying you to do something that they can do themselves?

Unbelievable.

What exactly are you going to do with the survey answers? Go to the Head and tell them that parents don't want their kids in the same class as anyone with SEN or with "the class bully?"
I have news for you: there isn't one identifiable "bully" in a class, like Flashman in Tom Brown's Schooldays. Bullying behaviour is quite widespread and insidious and there won't be a classroom in the country where there aren't some children who can exhibit bullying behaviour at times.

@motherrunner

My children attend a one form entry primary - what happens if they don’t like their teacher? Oh I know, bloody get on with it!

Some of the smaller schools in our area only have 3 classes - imagine the horror of someone's precious child getting the same horrible teacher for 3 years in a row!

OP, where have you gone? I want to know more about how you can help.

@RaraRachael, the school a mile away from my house to the west has only 2 classes, EY and kS1 share 1 teacher, KS2 have 1, imagine the OPs horror

@RaraRachael Originally we were going to send our children to our nearest Catholic primary. They only have 15 pupils in a year so so combine key stages!

Do people really worry about the classes their child will be in? Sounds like the OP has way too much time on her hands.

I once taught a group of children for five years! I taught in a small school and initially had R/1/2, we then re organised and I had 2/3. I then changed key stage and had 5/6 so one group had me in R, 1,2 5 and 6. If a child didn't want to be in my class, they had a problem!

With our previous HT, parents knew that if their child wasn't in the class they wanted, she would change them to keep the parents happy.

Thankfully she has gone and we now have one who takes none of this stuff.

As teachers it's very difficult to sort children out by whichever criteria you're using. Our old HT used to do it by reading groups, but then you'd have children who weren't good readers but excelled at other things so that didn't really work.

Seriously we'd get stopped in Tesco and quizzed over why a particular child was in class A and another was in classB etc