mixed age classes, infant school. advice please

mishkanorman

andyrules wrote: »

The current trend of pushing for levels earlier and earlier makes the hairs on my neck stand up.

I would imagine that the school has placed your son where they think he will feel comfortable learning. I asked about his peers and friendship group as I hope some of them will be with him.

I think spending some cosy one to one time with Granny doing puzzles and looking at books is great and will benefit him. Avoid pencil and paper, instead use coloured letters making his name etc. Granny could read half a story and they make an ending together (orally), or make up stories using his train set/cars/toy animals etc. And don't let him realise it's 'work', make sure it feels like a treat that he wants to initiate and you will strike the balance. Even sticker books are useful for sequencing, problem solving/enjoyment:D

ive no idea who he will be placed with, unfortunately his friends are all in the older portion of the class so he will be split from them. When they first start in reception they are divided by full timers and part timers, so for table work he was placed with the other full timers, and the majority of his time was spent with them. At play time he plays with the year above him mainly.

me and my OH take a very relaxed approach to his development and have never made him do anything before he was ready. Sadly now im wishing i had started a little younger with some of the learning. not to push him but just introduce little things like counting and recognizing words and sounds. cant be helped now.:o


mishka

Spendless

mishkanorman wrote: »

yes spendless you are reading it correctly, it sounds quite reasonable when you word it how you have.
Im just really confused how the school are saying on one hand he isnt behind, naughty or struggling and the decision that he will be better off with the younger ones is because thats where his mind set is at, and then on the other say that across the school all the children are divided on age. Why was my son specifically looked at and judged if they had no concerns ? we were told when we first heard of the change that it would be based on either age OR ability and they were yet to decide what was best for the numbers. Its only been announced this fri that its down to age, so I dont understand why they were discussing DS1 prior to that. Im just not getting the full story and feel its been sold to me in a slightly under-hand way.

It's always easy to be reasonable when you're not talking about your own child.;)

Possibly the school looked at the way they originally said and then realised they had too big a class doing it one way against the other, so changed their mind. Do you know that other parents haven't been approached about which class their child is going into? I'd just query it next week.

My son's school did a mixed year group once when he went into yr 1 put some of them into a mixed yr1/2 class based on ability/suitability -not my son (I mentioned earlier he couldn't read his key words at end of reception) and by yr4 it has made no difference. My friend's son (late may born) that was the youngest in the yr 1/2 class is now behind and other children that didn't go in the mixed year class are now 'ahead' of their peers.

Crispy_Ambulance

mishkanorman wrote: »

you seem to be taking my actions as a very negative thing, and jumping to some pretty big conclusions with only a small amount of information. I know my son and so my actions are based on that, its not a child ive just met and im running around like a headless chicken throwing all sorts of random solutions at the problem.

I think he will regress in his behaviour not his knowledge, dont forget here that im not saying no to the mixed class but no to him being placed with younger children. He will still have play based learning and exactly the same lesson plan in either class, so thats not really the issue however if he is surrounded by children that are playing whilst he is trying to write or read he will get distracted - thats just human nature.

the extra 'tutoring' will be an afternoon a week at his grandmas house, reading books and doing puzzles etc that will give him some one on one time that I cant offer, any child benefits from reading often and it would be with the guidance from the school over material and what level to expect him to cope with.

I have no idea at what level he should be comfortable with but the school clearly feel he is laking in some area and im only offering to do what I can to help.


mishka

I'm sorry - I didn't mean what I said to come across in that way (I'm going to blame DT). But your post did read that you seemed to be very concerned about him regressing because he was going to be with younger children and you were suggesting that tutoring would help him "catch up" with the children in the other class. That's how I read it, anyway.

What I am trying to say is that the school are unlikely to put a child where they won't thrive, but would put them in an environment that they think will suit them best. Our children are often quite different in school than they are at home and can often surprise us. I think a mentoring role is actually very beneficial for children and is likely to help rather than hinder your son.

My daughter was put into a smaller class because she had issues with her self-confidence. I was concerned because her friendship group was broken up but it actually did her a lot of good and she really thrived and came out of her shell as a result. So while we might not agree with the school's suggestion at first, it could be that they actually know our child (or the version they get at school anyway).

clairehi

My DS was in a mixed Reception/Year 1 class about 4 years ago. We were not told by the school that this was the case and only found out from talking to other parents during the year, that there were 6 Year 1 pupils in the class. I was quite shocked that the school had not seen fit to mention this to us. I was also told by friends who are primary school teachers that they could not see how this would work in practice as the Reception curriculum (Foundation stage) was very different to Year 1 (KS1) as it was much more play based.

We had other issues with the school, and DS left at the end of Reception class. When he started at his next school, they were so concerned about the quality of his written work comparted with his verbal abilities that he was given an IEP to help him catch up. However by the end of Year 1 he had made huge progress, and is now on the Gifted and Talented register.

dizziblonde

These days the move is afoot to make year 1 and 2 much more play-based in line with the Foundation Stage anyway. It could be that they've placed your son in the R/1 class because he could benefit from the boost to his self confidence (he's going to be the big boy in the class and that's bound to make him feel good about himself) or it could be that they feel he'll just benefit from some more practical activities to help with things like gross and fine motor skills - it must be absolutely hell to have to try to write lots of sentences when you're struggling to hold and use a pencil properly - no wonder a lot of kids get turned off school.......................................................................................................... As for teaching Reception and Year1 together - the planning can be slightly more arkward but when I did it - I split the class for phonic time between me and my TA, and within whole class time I just had questions targetted at reception level and some targetted at year1 level - and reception would get shorter bursts of teaching, then sometimes I'd keep the y1 kids back for some extension teaching... but of course when they finished their work they could go join in the "choosing" activities. That was before the moves were afoot to bring more play into year 1 as well... it was actually an incredibly nice mix within the class and they worked incredibly well together........................................................... (My paragraphs are vanishing - hence the lots of full stops to break text up)

Poppy9

Looking at this issue as a parent what would concern me most is how the child feels about being in the younger class. Is he aware he is one of the oldest in the class and will he feel he's being put with the babies? As an adult we can see the rationale behind the decision but how the child feels about the issue and how his friends deal with it is important.

I have to say I'm glad that this issue never arose when DD was in primary school as I'm not sure how she would have coped with it if she'd been in the lower class.

If it's done straight on age then children can see it's just on birthday and not because they are "clever" or "dull" as will be the talk in the playground for a while, because kids are cruel. Two boys in DD year in primary were extremely competitive and were always bragging how smart they were etc. and they wanted to intimidate class mates.

I think it's great the school is looking after your son as an individual but if they are telling everyone it's done on age and then making a few exceptions then this could cause problems.

You should also ask the school if the Y1 children will do any activities together to maintain the Y1 identity which will be important for the children in R/Y1.

mishkanorman

bit of an update ,

we had the parent induction night for my DS2 last night and found that he has been given the same teacher as DS1 had in reception, im trying really hard not to judge that decision but I think we will take it as it comes.

DS1 is in a class of 29. 10 of which will be year 1 the same as him. He knows a few faces from that class but im most pleased with the teacher as Ive heard great things about her and she is the only teacher not to be doing job-share.

Ive also spoken to my son at length and he is really excited about being with the younger ones, and isnt bothered about not being with any of his friends.


iM VERY GRATEFUL FOR ALL THE REPLIES HERE. Its really helped to have some support and conflicting opinions, now its just a case of wait and see !!


mishka