Primary school which mix class years by age

megela

Eldeset daughter spent 2 years with same teacher in a mixed yr 3/4 class - I felt she merely repeated yr 4 and barely made any progress at all.

That said she then spent 2 years in mixed yr 5/6 groups with another teacher and absolutely flew - so I think our problems stemmed more from the teacher than the mixed year grouping.

Everytime I enquired about the problems of teaching children where there could potentially be a 2 year age difference I was told they taught each child to their ability - is that possible in a class of 30?

Strangely after being adamant it worked the school is now getting an extension putting an end to mixed classes - too late for my 2 though.

valk_scot

megela wrote: »

Everytime I enquired about the problems of teaching children where there could potentially be a 2 year age difference I was told they taught each child to their ability - is that possible in a class of 30?

Depends on your school and why they're compositing but my DD's class has an age range of just over four months, putting together the youngest of DD's class the P7s and the oldest of the P6s. There's a far wider age range within the two other P7 classes, one child is 15 months older than DD.

All pupils in all classes should be taught to their ability anyway, but the composite classes have a better chance at this than most if the composite class size is capped at 24, as it is in my region. And composite classes are supposed to get extra resources to allow for the logistics of each half of the class being involved with different whole year activities.

The two teachers that taught DD in her composite years have been awesome btw...no shirking or slacking allowed! I think the sucess of any year depends a lot on the teacher and their abilities. You can get duff teachers at any stage, composite class or not.

mysk_girl

My DD's school only has an intake of 15, so (apart from Foundation where they are taught just as a class of 15), she will be in a mixed class for her whole primary education with a max age difference of nearly 2 years. The school recently obtained an OFSTED rating of outstanding in every aspect, so it can be done. I do think it depends a lot on the teachers though...

ellay864

I was in a similar position to mysk-girl as my boys both went to a small village school with mixed age years. DS1 year had an inhtake of 12, the year above him had 4 and the one above that had 9 and at certain points all 3 of those year groups were in one class. The work was structured well, the younger ones who were more able were given the chance to see the other work and be stretched (in a good way!). And there was a lovely community feel with the older ones looking out for younger ones. Agree it depends on the teachers - ours were great and we always got glowing OFSTED reports

busiscoming2

The school I work in only has four classes and covers years R to 6. I used to think it was strange and couldn't see how it would work but it obviously does. The vast majority of its pupils do very well and the school repeatedly gets an outstanding Ofsted report.

MadDogWoman_2

Hi,

In DD year in reception 1 full class of Reception and a class of reception/year 1. This was based on ability. My DD was in the full class, which I wanted.

This year there all year 1/2 are mixed over 3 classes. My DD also has 2 teachers as they job share. Doesn't seem to have slowed her down, she is now on the independent working table. It has actually helped to expand her pool of friends.

Not sure what is going to happen next year, I think it depends on the numbers coming into reception.

Paddles

I'm all in favour having attended a primary school that did this (mostly because it was tiny and couldn't do anything else) years ago. I don't remember being taught different things but I guess we were we all did well at primary though and mostly ended up in the top sets when we moved to seniors

The summer baby thing is odd, I have a child born during the last week of August who is only two weeks older than my neighbours child who is in the year below, but then the cut off has to be somewhere I suppose.

Janepig

DD/DS's school has two forms per year and they are split along age lines. So DD is April born and one of the oldest in her class, DS is Christmas born so he's roughly in the middle age-wise in his class. It seems to work well for those precious and seemingly hard done by summer borns - there's no more than about a five/six month spread between eldest and youngest in any class. They also go to different teachers for things like maths/welsh/english, other than their actual class teacher, depending on ability. Seems to work really well.

Jx

mysk_girl

Yes, in DD's school they move children between classes for different subjects. My daughter does phonics with Year 1 as she (and about 4 others) are particularly able.

This school also has 2 part time teachers for every class except foundation, so the kids have different teachers, different ages and they still seem to do well.

ciderwithrosie_2

Not really a new thing, schools were doing this back in the 1960s - part of the 'Open Classroom' idea from the US. I went to such a school in Oxfordshire. You were in the same mixed class from aged 4 to 7. The older children helped the little ones. I can't remember too much about the structure of the day, apart from avoiding doing my maths, being milk monitor and playing in the Wendy house. It was 42+ years ago! Didn't seem to do my education any harm.