New Class - Child seperated from close friends

[Ozanj]

Hi,
I just wanted a teacher’s opinion please. Why would you seperate a child from all their friends? My DS is moving up from preschool to Reception and all of his friends are in one class, while he’s in the other.

I did request, when they were forming classes, for him to have a few friends with him and they said they would but he only really has one loose (family) friend with him . The teacher involved in making the decision has now left and so nobody else knows why.

Age of children so too many summer borns aren’t in the one class. SEN needs being spread. Probably absolutely nothing to do with him. Just the way it is.

Creating class lists can be such a headache, especially for Reception teachers who don't yet know the children and only have the advice of the nursery staff to go on. It's even harder when you have children from various settings as there is just no knowing how they'll all gel. Things like gender split, SEN, pupil premium, EAL etc need to be roughly equal in each class. While friendships are considered, they can't be a deciding factor over those other things. Children can and do make new friends.

Nursey will pass on known friendship factors to be considered and I'd say one of two things has happened. Either they see your child playing well with several peers in the new class, despite you as the parent not being overly familiar with those children. Or, they've passed on that your child makes friends easily and it really doesn't matter who he is with.

Scenario 1 is quite common. I've often known parents to query why their child is apparently with no friends, only to find out that the children they believe to be their child's closest friends (often based on whose parents the parent themself is closest to and knows best, therefore has out of school play dates with etc) aren't necessarily the children the teachers see their child play with the most when they're not around.

How is the school set up? If it's one unit with different carpet spaces for each class I really wouldn't worry as they'll still mix loads with the other class in provision. Even if they're in separate classrooms, they'll still share an outdoor space/playground and have plenty of opportunities to play with old nursery friends, as well as scope to make lots of new friends. Win win.