hi

they are doing this at my daughters school this year... she will be going into year 1 in september, but at  least half the class have to do another year in reception ( rec/yr1), alot of the moms arnt happy about it as there children are having to repeat another year of reception, im not sure how they are working it, but talking to some of the moms whose children are being kept back, there saying they have to repeat reception work till xmas, then after xmas they should of caught up enough to go onto year 1 work, but they will still be in reception doing this work for a whole year so that teacher as to teach 2 different age groups....which isnt that unusal as they have 2 intakes at aimee`s school so they work with 2 different age groups from the start, the only thing i noticed aimee being one of the eldest started reception last september and she was learning really fast she was the first to finish all her set of 45 words she finished them by november...but then when the new intake started after xmas her learning seemed to of slowed down, (almost as if the teacher was now concentrating on the new children to get them up to the same level)..and seems as half the class have been kept back it looks like that was what the teacher was trying to do

Am bumping this for Viviennes post about mixing classes

heidih

All the classes in my dds school are combined years i.e. there are three year1/2 classes, 3 year 3/4 classes and 3 year 5/6 classes.  My dd is in year 1.  I was worried how it would work but at her school they are taught in the mixed year class for all subjects except literacy and numeracy.  For those 2 subjects year 1s are taught separately to year 2s.  It seems to work quite well.  The only slightly annoying thing is the kids make friends in their class but every year the classes are split again so in September she might not be in the same class as all the kids in year 1 in her class now.  We had a meeting to explain to us how the mixed year classes would work.  I would push your school to do the same to go through any fears/problems you have.

in that case your dd will have much more teacher attention which should be really good news.  When there are 30-33 ( i thought 30 was maximum allowed by government) then there are children who do get ignored all the time, especially the middle of the road children, or the top end who are left to get on with it and never encouraged. Again this depends onthe teacher as not all the schools are the same.

I am sure it will work well for your dd.  If it isnt then you speak to the school, but if there are only 19 in a class this is brilliant -

heidih

ps, at my sons school the average no is 20-25 and the teachers think its too many in a class!!!

hi thanks for your reply , welli iknow that at the mo dd class has 33 children so next term the new year 2 will only have 24 and the year 1/2 will have 19 children (9 from year 2 and 10 from year1 )

more and more schools seem to be doing this, mainly to accommodate numbers in classes.  eg, 3 classes with 30 children = 90 kids. 

If there are 40-45 year 1, and 40-45 year 2 children, and they kept them separate, that would be 4 classes and 4 teachers, and not all schools can get the funding or have the space for extra classes/teachers.

SOme schools separate purely on age, others by abilities, so you would probably need to understand your own school protocol.

I personally wouldnt like it, however, my best friends child went into a mixed class and has been 2 years and has progressed as expected.

the school will recycle the curriculum topics so that they are not duplicated year on year,

the school  will categorise within the class for reading, writing, maths ability, irrespective of which class your child is in, so that they are working with similar ability classmates so, if its done properly, this should not affect the learning progress of your child.

my son is in a mixed year 3/4 class, and as he is year 3, this is ok, but Im not too sure I will be ok when he is in year 4 because the focus of the general lessons seem to be at a much lower level than he is capable of.  his grouping is with the top set year 4 kids now and he is still working well below his potential.

however, at the end of the day, it is down to the teacher as to whether this system will work fr your child or not. But do ask questions.  ask why your child was chosen for the mixed class - at least then you know why

let us know next term how it goes

heidih

hi my dd school  have decided to have a year 1 class,a year 1/2 class and a year 2 class,well  myy dd is going into year 1/2 (officially she will be a year 2 ) but there is 8 children going from her class and the rest of the class will be made up from new year 1 , now i know myy dd has struggled slightly due to medical reasons but im still upset as i feel she isnt good enough to go into a year2 class only, i am also worried that she will be repeating things all the time , has anyone else experianced this , hope this makes sense