Is it a bad thing for Yr 6s to be mixed with Yr 5s?

[peanutbutterkid]

Some parents at our school feel very strongly about it. Our DC currently in Yr5, and the parents are going to try get assurances in writing about our future Yr6s not being mixed with younger children, next academic year.

They feel that our (future) Yr6s won't concentrate as well or do as well on SATs if they have Yr5s in same class.

I TOTALLY didn't understand why the parents thought that way, or why they valued the Yr6 SATs so much. Can anyone enlighten me? Would you feel the same?

[pointyhat]

Wouldn't bother me. We don't have sats, though, so don't know if that would make a difference.

Schools here have no choice about making composite classes or not. The council decides based on class numbers.

[clam]

"parents are going to try get assurances in writing about our future Yr6s not being mixed with younger children, next academic year."

Ermm... assurances from whom? No one in authority's going to sign their name to that - even if they could. They'll do what their budgets force them to do when the time comes.

[bellavita]

peanut - wonder if our children are at the same school...

DS2 is in Yr5 and he has been put up with the lower end of the Yr6's (he is one of the oldest in his class).

The lessons are done on ability.

FWIW our head hates the SATS.

[lavenderkate]

It does not work well for the child in Year 6.

Well certainly didnt help dd1 and now second time around with dd2 its just as poor.

She has to sit next to a yr5 boy (they all do opp sex and other yr group)
When work is finished instead of extension work being set,she gets used as a Teaching assistant to the less able.

Our local secondary takes their sats grades and streams them for their year 7 classes. Thats why there's often fuss over Sats.

Hope that sheds a bit of light onto it all PBK ?

[peanutbutterkid]

The (very new) head teacher, they want some kind of assurance from her.
I pointed out that the previous headT once told me that the school would try very hard to never mix Yr6s with the Yr5s, because of the strict curriculum Yr6s have to follow (ie, they get their pants bored off by being drilled for SATs for 4-5 months).

We usually have had small class sizes (well under 30). Someone was saying her son's class is currently 32 pupils (mixed Yr4-5), she was saying how bad it would be if the class was that big in next year's Yr6 (current Yr6 classes are both only about 23 pupils). I didn't try to tell her that 32 isn't that big at all.

[bellavita]

Ah, our Head Teacher isn't new..

[pointyhat]

I doubt the head is choosing to have large mixed year classes. By all means, phone and speak to teh head but it will probably be the LA you need to lobby.

[teamcullen]

We have mixed classes. Y1/2, y3/4 and y5/6. I cant say it makes any difference to the quality of teaching that the children recieve. However they are placed in sets for literacy and numeracy and in y6, sets are are not mixed years.

Children in different year groups will often be working on the same subjects such as history topics. The teacer just sets different work or expect the quality of work to be different between the year groups.

I think your best to ask how they aim to teach a mixed class than say you dont want it no matter what. As for being held back by younger children, some children will be closer in age to the year 5s than their year 6 peers, and some children in y5 will be working at a higher key stage than some y6 children.

Im not saying it works for everybody but it seems to in our school. I have never heard a parent say that their child didnt get the sats results they expected from being in a mixed class.

[clam]

There is no way that any Head Teacher is going to give that assurance. Even if they wanted to.

[JustGettingByMum]

We have all mixed sets in our local primaries. tbh I was concerned at the start but in fact, our experience has been that they work very well - even in classes of 30+.
Re secondary school - are you sure they use the SATs results for streaming? I thought most use CATs now which the students take at the start of y7?

[peanutbutterkid]

I thought that most secondary schools used CATs,too, maybe I need to check on that for our local High Schools.

I don't have a problem with the Yr6s being with Yr5s, it's other parents who have the problem, lol. I don't think 32 is that big, either, but we have been lucky enough to have lots of classes under 25, even.

Lavenderkate, your DD's experiences are bummers, but are those signs of bad management, not necessarily how it has to be?

[neverwasswedishanyway]

My dd1 was in the top set of a very small school for 3 years. At one point was in top set with her younger sis (by 2 years). Can never fit all sizes. I teach and I know there are very big problems with mixed classes. Moved dcs 2, 3 and 4 to a larger school for just this reason. If dd is top dog (academically) in Y3/4, what is there for her to look forward to?