nicki-k Posted July 4, 2006 Posted July 4, 2006 Help me please!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have just found out my daughter will be in a mixed yr1/yr2 class next year. They haven't done this at our school before but because the numbers of children are dropping they are combining classes so they will have one class of yr 2's, one mixed class and one class of yr 1's. My daughter is just about to finish her first year in reception and has really done well. She is in a class of 18 children. Next year she will be in a class of 30 and only 10 of those are from reception. I am really worried how she will cope with this change and how schools work the curriculum. Surely the year 2 children won't repeat the same curriculum but does this mean the year 1 children will miss a year? I know teachers differentiate between abilities but if the topic is romans then all children in that year group cover this don't they? How do you manage combined year groups. Thank goodness for this wonderful forum.................rather than worry I thought I would ask all the dedicated foundation stage/key stage one teachers how this works and should I be worried.
Marion Posted July 4, 2006 Posted July 4, 2006 To be honest in a well organised mixed age things should be much the same as in a single age class. In any group of children there will be a wide spread of ability/maturity and learning needs to planned to meet every childs starting point. Ive taught in a number of mixed aged classes and both my children went through school in mixed age classes due to the size of the village school and did not suffer. It can in fact be an advantage for some children. http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandle...brary/mixedage/
nicki-k Posted July 4, 2006 Author Posted July 4, 2006 Thanks for the reply Marion. The link was really useful. Its given me a few questions I can ask the school. As a parent we do worry don't we. Talking to another mum today I said 'my professional head says that the teacher will differentiate anyway and it shouldn't make any difference but my mummy head says that's my baby and how will she cope!'
Guest Posted July 5, 2006 Posted July 5, 2006 Hi Nicki-K I've just read your post (left my laptop at school yesterday!!!) - I teach a mixe Y1/2 class at the moment, although next year I'll have straight Y1. At the moment we work on a 2 year cycle, so children wont cover work twice or recover topics - and yes we differentiate between Y1/2 (more specifically ability rather than year). Our children are also taught in straight year groups for Literacy and Numeracy (we can do this as our numbers for each year were not above 30 -your school sounds as though they'd have more than 30 in a year and may not be able to). Hope this helps a little!!
nicki-k Posted July 5, 2006 Author Posted July 5, 2006 Thanks Spam, I feel a little less panicked by the change now. What would we do without this forum. If only we could build a school with a purpose built pre-school unit taking children from 2.5, staffed by all the dedicated people that use this site. That would really set the new standards for the government!
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