Split classes in Primary School

lesleystrawson

Does anyone here have good or bad experiences of these? I know that many Primary schools are having to go down this route. My daughter is virtually the youngest in her reception year, and whilst next year will be in a straight Year 1 class, it looks as though in the following year she would be in a Year1/2 split class.

She is a slightly better than average child academically. I am very much along the lines of 'as long as she is happy' but OH is jumping up and down already, wanting to look at alternatives (maybe private - which in our area is very good) education.

Thanks in anticipation.

Lesley

bestpud

Nearly all of the rural schools in this area have two years per class and they also split year groups to keep class numbers consistent across the schools.

It really doesn't seem to be a problem. In fact, these schools tend to produce better results than the bigger city schools which have one class per year, or often two classes per year. Of course, there could be many factors involved in this!!!

I wouldn't worry about it - why not make an appt with the head teacher, for yourself and OH, as that may help put his mind at rest?

iwanttosave_2

Our sons school does this in the infants so we have Yr. 1, Yr.1/2 and Yr. 2

I haven't really noticed anything bad about it, we were concerned at first for the children that got put in the Yr.1/2 if they had a knock to their confience about not being clever, but there doesn't seem to have been much of a problem.

wendym

Teachers doing their post-graduate year are well-versed in teaching mixed age classes, and my daughter (teacher, not pupil) has found it works really well. She has now taught classes like this in 2 very different schools.

Curious_George_2

iwanttosave wrote: »

Our sons school does this in the infants so we have Yr. 1, Yr.1/2 and Yr. 2

I haven't really noticed anything bad about it, we were concerned at first for the children that got put in the Yr.1/2 if they had a knock to their confience about not being clever, but there doesn't seem to have been much of a problem.

my DDS primary has a similar system, reception classes then class 1, class 1 2 etc
our school doesnt split the children depending on who is cleverer or older or any other way i can figure out,
my DD has 2 very close friends, they have grown up together, 2 of them got put into class one and one of them into class 1 2 and we never figured out why...
J = the oldest, born in april, also the slowest of the 3 due to problems as a toddler, very babyish.
my DD = born in june, reasonably smart but terrible memory! lol
E= the youngest, born in july, best reader and biggest vocab (at the time)

J and E got put together in the lower class, my DD went into the higher class

Rupa

At my youngest son's school they do it. Reception, Y1, Y1/2, Y2. They are split up solely on the birth dates, ie the youngest third of Year 2 and the oldest third of Y1 are together. The teachers have a teaching plan for two years, so all the classes are studying the same thing but at different levels according to their ages. It works really well. The alternative would be for the school to employ another teacher and to have two classes in each year group, half empty, and not really have the money for books, trips, and whatever else the school spends money on.

buxtonrabbitgreen

When my DS started primary they decided to do this as the class was too big 38 kids. They decided to put the 8 oldest kids in to year 1 instead of reception. My DS had not been to nursery (he didn't want to) so would have been the only boy, the other 7 were girls. The idea was that at some stage they would be put back a year. Well i wasn't having that. I had a meeting with the head and was successful in having him returned to reception after one week. My arguments were, he had not been in any kind of school situation and may have been out of his depth: when they all had to repeat a year he would then have no friends in his year (boys) and that, knowing his nature he would be likely to be bored repeating a year and lose interest, therefore actually ending up behind others of his year. I am very pleased that I sorted this out so early as he doesn't remember it at all. It was a very ill though out splitting the class plan IMO.

inkie

Similar situation for us - DD2 was in a year 1/2 class - not a problem at all. Even if you had a 'straight' year group, there would be such variances in abilities that they all would not be taught to the same level anyway.

astonsmummy

when i was in year 5 and 6 (14 years ago! :eek:) it was split, i stayed with the same teacher for both the years though.
I dont think it done us any harm.

Spendless

It depends on how many are in the year at my childrens school, when the year above DS was only a small year, it did get mixed with the year either above or below that were more than 2 classess full. It wasn't done on birth dates though, the more academic of the year below were put in to that class. When the small year moved to another school,, the large years were then split into 3 classes instead. So my friend sons though he did do a split year class, the following year he didn't. I'm unsure of what is happening for the next academic year yet whether there will remain 3 classes in each year or whether there will be a split year class.

Rupa

Forgot to say, when my eldest started school he was in a reception, Y1 and Y2 class! Had he stayed, he would have been in Y3/4, then Y5/6.