I feel it is necessary to write to clear up some confusion about the way the school is organised this term. A couple of parents that have spoken with me or with other staff have left us thinking that there is some misunderstanding about how Classes 1, 2 and 3 are made up.
The number of teachers employed by the school is decided by the total number of children in school who are in full time education. We receive set amounts of money for every child attending the school. By law, classes are not allowed to contain more than 30 children. This year, as in previous years, we cannot afford to have one age group per class and therefore we have had to create two mixed age classes. These are Classes 1 and 2. They each consist of 16 children from Year 2 and 12 children from Year 1. Class 3 contains the remainder of Year 1 children and is not a mixed age class, nor is it a class which we have created to accommodate children with learning difficulties.
Last term, staff spent a great deal of time considering where Year 1 and Year 2 children would be best placed and decisions were taken after discussing a wide range of information which included consideration of individual children’s learning styles. Staff discussed which teaching style – and therefore which teacher – children were best suited to. We also tried to keep friends together or separate children where relationships were more problematic. In addition to all this we have to try and make sure that there are not too many boys or girls in each class.
The teachers of Classes 1, 2 and 3 are meeting together to plan work every week. This ensures that all Year 1 and Year 2 children receive age appropriate learning experiences. Year 1 children in Classes 1 and 2 are not being ‘fast-tracked’ as there are vital steps in their learning that must be taken to ensure that they make good progress in the future.
I hope that this goes some way to helping you understand us better and apologise if I did not communicate this with sufficient clarity last term. As ever, please feel free to ask about anything about which you would like to know more.
