Afternoon fellow forummers! Have just found out that next academic year my son will be in a mixed Y1/ Y2 class (he will be Y1). Does anyone have any experience of mixed classes? I'm interested to know how they work, and whether other parents feel they have been beneficial or detrimental to their child's progress at school.

I have got an opportunity coming up to meet and speak to his new teacher, but just wanted some other input first. :thumbsup:

I worked as a teacher for a number of years and found that mixed Y1/2 classes can work really well for children. It can stop the Y2 teacher from letting SATs take over, and offer role models to Y1 pupils, as well as giving Y2 pupils a great sense of responsibility. Teachers have to differentiate all their work to suit the needs of all pupils. The mixed class just means a bit more differentiation. It can be also a great opportunity for children who are doing particularly well, as it can stretch their capabilities that much more. Hope your meeting goes well, and you get what you want out of it. :)

Thank you treadlightly! That's very encouraging. I like to think my little boy is on the more capable side of average (but then who doesn't :D), so hopefully he'll do well and enjoy the mixed class...

My daughter did a mixed year 1/2 (she was yr1). She thrived in it. She wasnt only 'top yr 1' but was considerably brighter than many of the yr2's. There were 7 yr1's in her class with her and all of them have gone on to be 'brighter' than thier peers when they did revert back to an unmixed class.

2 years further on and she has just sat level 3 sats (and done very well thank you :) )

Dont worry about it if your school have placed him in a mixed class he will be capable of the work presented to him to do.

It depends if it is a big class or not. If it's a smaller sized class then it can work very, very well and be good for the brighter child in the younger age group as they can do the older kids' work.

When I was a child I went to a very small village school (30 kids at one point) and we had 1 teacher for all ages at Infants level and only 1 and a half teachers for all ages in Juniors. It worked well as the school was so small and you were given work according to your ability, not your age.

Ask if you can sit in on a lesson, maybe even with your child so he can get a feel for school?

i taught a mixed y1/y2 group 3 years ago and it was awful, there wasnt enough time to give each set of kids the time they needed and in my opinion they suffered and parents agreed, the idea was dropped after i year

my daughter was in a mixed class and loved it, one of her best friends was older and it calmed her down (due to the older kids being 'responsible').

I've taught a mixed class and I think it is harder to give appropriate work to all children but it is possible. I think it is probably better for the Y1 children for reasons mentioned above but spare a thought for the self esteem of a Y2 who can see a number of Y1 children who are brighter than them. It's horrible being at the bottom of the class in a normal class, it doesn't do your self esteem much to see children a year younger than you who are brighter than you.

A primary school near us was recently criticised by OFSTED for the low achievement across the year group of a year who had shared classes. It's not fair on the kids, or the teacher. It's hard enough teaching under normal circumstances, without coping with the demands of trying to challenge children who should be in different year groups within the same class. I don't think schools should be allowed to do this, it's not fair on the students. It's as good as keeping the older ones back a year. It's time the government did something about this cost-cutting exercise that's going on in too many schools. Kids only get one chance.

I agree with Corbyn, that I would not be so happy about the mixed class if my child was a Y2 being put with younger children. I'm going to enquire this morning about the overall class size, and proportion of Y1s to Y2s.

As for the comment from DIVA that it's unfair or difficult for the teacher to have to target work at different levels of ability, I would imagine that most teachers do this already, as even within a single year group there will be greatly varying levels of capability and/ or special needs. I would hope that the children chosen for the mixed class would have been selected as perhaps the better achieving Y1s, ans the not so well achieving Y2s, meaning the gap was minimised. Which I suppose comes back round to Corbyn's point about the self esteem of those Y2s.

You could ask how the children have been split. I have experience of a mixed age class where the top Y3 were put with the bottom of Y4 and I don't think it worked that well. The Y3 were a lot brighter than the Y4 so the gap wasn't minimised because if you take the very top Y3 and the very bottom Y4, in that group you are going to have the extremes (those children who are really struggling in Y4 and those who are very gifted in Y3). There are some benefits for the children who are struggling in the upper year, they will get to work with the lower year at times, giving them a chance to catch up.

In my experience of mixed age classes it is only Literacy and Numeracy where the objectives of the lesson may differ for the two year groups. For subjects like History, Art, Music and in my last school Science too, the children will usually all cover the same topic in lessons e.g. Tudors in History. It will work on a rolling programme of topics over 2 years. So in this case because the Y2 in the class will have done the Y1 topics already in Y1 (if they were in a single age group class), the whole class will probably do Y2 topics and then the Y1 will do Y1 topics when they get into Y2! If you get me! It works ok because topics are usaully grouped into those suitable for Y1/2, Y3/4 and Y5/6. It might not be like this in all schools but this is what I have experienced.

In Literacy and Numeracy similar objectives will probably be covered e.g all the class will be looking at place value or subtraction etc but will be set appropriate work for their ability and age group.

Just had a really good meeting with school. There will be 24 kids in my son's mixed class next year, 10 Y1s and 14 Y2s. The Y1s were picked on the basis of maturity, not academic achievement, and the Y2s were NOT picked for being the worst achievers, but on general suitability.

The teacher and Head explained how they have a whole range of topics that they can choose from, to ensure no topics are repeated in later years. They also said that for some science teaching my son will join in with the reast of the Y1s rather than being taught in the mixed class. There will also be the normal range of play opportunities for the Y1s (e.g. sand & water) in the classroom.


All in all, I think my little boy's going to love being with some older kids, the teacher seems very nice, and I'm very glad there will only be 24 in the class!

That sounds like the best mix of children in a mixed age class in my opinion. And with only 24 in the class, it will be much easier for the teacher to differentiate all the work so that it is appropriate for the children.

Sounds like they probably do use a rolling programme of topics which makes sure they are not repeated.

I hope your little boy settles in well in his new class.

As for the comment from DIVA that it's unfair or difficult for the teacher to have to target work at different levels of ability, I would imagine that most teachers do this already, as even within a single year group there will be greatly varying levels of capability and/ or special needs. I would hope that the children chosen for the mixed class would have been selected as perhaps the better achieving Y1s, ans the not so well achieving Y2s, meaning the gap was minimised. Which I suppose comes back round to Corbyn's point about the self esteem of those Y2s.

Yes, it is a requirement and hard work. That's why they don't need two year groups putting together on top of this. If you know any primary teachers, have a word with them, and let them tell you of their experiences. Your child will be at an advantage to ones in the older year group, who suffer terribly, imo, but on principle, I would be protesting very strongly. If the school think they can get away with it, there's every chance that your child will be in the older half a mixed group further up the school, then you'll be able to see first hand how detrimental it is for the older kids. :(

When I was at primary school I was a yr4 in a yr5 class and a yr5 in a yr6 class, however it was done on age, rather than ability. The older year was smaller than our year, so the oldest few (6 or 7 of us, I recall) went into the next class up. There wasn't all this SATs nonsense then (my first SATs were the yr9 ones), so we just all did the same work. I really enjoyed it because I was a bit brighter than some of the older ones and liked the challenge - the only place I was bottom of the class was maths and that's because I had undiagnosed visual processing problems (I'm ok with words because you think with words, but I am unable to visually process numbers that well, it's very non-specific and NOT dyslexia/dyscalculia as I've been tested for these).

I'm glad I was given the opportunity and kind of wish that the I could have been skipped ahead at secondary school as I got bored in most subjects because I didn't find it as challenging having been in an older class before.

I was interested to read the comments and concerns about the mixed-age class plans experienced by Cal3549.

We now found ourselves in a similar situation with our son, currently in year 1 and due to be in a mixed year 1/2 class next year. The previous comments seemed to indicate that overall, a year 1 child in the mix is more likely to benefit than a year 2. Our boy is bright but has a tendency to 'drift off' if not watched. Our gut-reaction is that this change is not a good thing, although only just presented to us a a fait accomplit. Like Cal3549, we have a 'consultation' (15 minutes with the form teacher!!!) on Friday after school. Any more comments/ammo please? Please email me if time is tight!! Thanks

I worked as a teacher for a number of years and found that mixed Y1/2 classes can work really well for children. It can stop the Y2 teacher from letting SATs take over, and offer role models to Y1 pupils, as well as giving Y2 pupils a great sense of responsibility. Teachers have to differentiate all their work to suit the needs of all pupils. The mixed class just means a bit more differentiation. It can be also a great opportunity for children who are doing particularly well, as it can stretch their capabilities that much more. Hope your meeting goes well, and you get what you want out of it. :)

I used to be a year one teacher and worked in a team with a mixed year 1/2 teacher and a year 2 teacher. The mixed year teacher was very experienced and it wasnt a problem, she planned for both age groups using differentiation. I agree with all that treatlightly said, so wont repeat it. It crops up quite a lot: my own son (now 26!) was in a mixed y1/2 class and did very well.