Split year groups

[WeirdCat]

Has anyone had any experience of their child being in a split year group. DS has been HE'd but is being reintroduced to school gradually. As from September though he will be with the same classmates in Y5 but with 9 members of Y4 as the school is skint and can't afford to replace the outgoing Y4 teacher. I have tried to explain it to him but he doesn't get why Y4 are in Y5, it's not logical. I need to prepare him as much as possible over the holidays so that he doesn't get totally stressed on his first day back. Also if you have experience how did the teaching work out overall with two different curriculums being taught?

[CarerQuie]

My children were sometimes in mixed year groups in Infant School.It didn't seem to cause any problems,since good teachers will group children according to ability,so they do work appropriate to their own abilities.This seems a common practice in some areas.xx

[mossgrove]

It is becoming the norm in our area for year 1 and reception to be mixed.

 

At our local Primary school they are also knocking 2 classrooms together and teaching them as one vary large group which may cause relatively few problems for NT kids, but for autistic children who cannot cope with large groups it is a disaster waiting to happen.

 

This combining is usually a nice word for 'increasing class sizes' which is particularly bad news for children with special needs.

 

Simon

Edited July 22, 2005 by mossgrove

[sarahjane]

My son who is 6 goes to a v small rural school and the first 3 yrs are in together then the next 4 in the "big" class. This means H will now be going into p3 with the same teacher for the third yr running. This has worked well as no change so far has beeen needed. The down side i have found is H tends to pick up on all that is going on when the teacher is teaching another yr group instead of doing his work he will be listening to her. This means he has got v behind with his work, as he doesn't do anythink unless he gets a 1-2-1, but he knows his times tables which he isn't due to start until next yr! Also as he is behind the teacher has tried to group him with the yr below which caused a major meltdown!

 

On the plus side he has made freinds with children older and younger than him which helps. I think ther are ups and downs to it but the most important is preparing your son for the change. H school was v good before it broke up they had photos out of who would be in which class and who would be new and also a practice day as to where they would all be sitting next yr. I have to say i'm dreading next yr when he goes to the "big" class!

[Zemanski]

reception and nursery are often mixed as they follow the same foundation curriculum and there is a move towards 'early years units' to facilitate this.

 

small schools often mix year groups as they get per capita budgets that do not allow for the extra teachers to be able to teach small classes.

 

It's usually not a problem as the QCA units are designed to cover 2 year groups in general and the differentiation over 2 year groups for literacy and numeracy doesn't require a much greater spread than over a single year group. It is harder work for the staff but usually it works fine.

 

My children were at a school where it was normal to mix year groups and neither had any problems with it but if it is a new thing at school your son will need a lot of explanation.

 

It helped Com that he was able to maintain contact with a child in the year below him that he had been to nursery with - and all good relationships are precious for AS kids. Also he was quite young in his play and emotional development so mixing with younger children was very good.

 

try to find positive reasons for the change when you try to explain it. and reassure him that it won't be much different.

[eddie]

my son is going into y3 and will be in a mixed y3/y4 class, i find it hard to imagine how he will cope with little support when he is only working at low y1 level!!!

but he thinks it's fab cos he'll be in y4!!!!