Anyone had this happen..??

fortuneteller

This year my son's school split his class into 4/5th and 5/6th.
They decided to place the 7 youngest in my sons class which he is one of in with 4th while the other 18 of his class were placed in with eight 6th class lads!.
my son scored sten 10 in english and sten 9 in maths in the drumcondra test while in 4th last year.Yet now he is expected to repeat the same irish text from last year bun go barr 4 and the same religon book he had last year........While the other class are on more advanced books...
I had a meeting with the principal on two occasions since june and he refuses point blank to move my lad into the 5/6th,despite my pleading and strong objections.
I have written a letter to the school board of management, Where do i go from here if they dont respond to me.
Thanks in advance for any help on this one !

afkasurfjunkie

i dont think there is anywhere that you can go. the school obviously has a policy in place whereby children are split according to age. ability is not a criteria they use. plenty of schools have split classes depending on their numbers and age is a very definate way of splitting the class.
if they had split based on ability i am sure there would have been other parents into the principal objecting strongly too. the teacher will adjust the irish work for the 5th class children in the room and they will work to a 5th class standard. you dont mention a 4th class english or maths book so i gather from that they are doing those at 5th class level. the religion book is not a huge issue. in fact the children gone into the 6th class room will be listening in on confirmation prep later in the year (which can be quite time consuming) while your son will be able to get on with things in his classroom.
there are pros and cons with every split class. but unless you expect the BOM to provide another classroom and teacher its something that parents will just have to get used to when the current government hits the pupil/teacher ratio again in the budget.

byhookorbycrook

No, nothing you can do.Schools hate having to split classes and however it is done,someone will always be unhappy.

fortuneteller

Thanks for your replies.It's causing trouble at home and affecting his confidence as he is a small lad and got respect from being top of the class.He is looked on now as being in someway kept back..
I have a few other avenues i can persue.Of the 7 that were dumped from his former class 5 had learning difficulties 1 was a foreign national,and the other has some other issues!

E.T.

Does the school have a policy on split classes?

Split classes have been the norm in many schools for the last few years, and with the continual increase in pupil-teacher ratio, they're the norm in a lot of bigger schools at this stage. Schools have to figure out a way to split classes fairly as the Department doesn't give any guidelines.

There is no way of keeping everyone happy. Most schools split by age, which isn't ideal, but it is a completely independent criteria so it's fairer than other methods. Sten scores etc are only a tiny part of the picture in school and really shouldn't be used as a means for splitting classes. It's a complete headache for all involved. If you do a search of this forum, you'll find other posts similar to yours, with the same replies that you're receiving here.

Just editing to add - people really don't realise how much the government fiddle the pupil-teacher ratio figures. This knowledge might help understand why there are so many split classes. If a school has eg 140 pupils they will have 5 class teachers. They may also have 1 Learning Support and 1 Resource teacher. The government uses ALL teachers in the school to give a false ratio of 1 teacher to 20 pupils, when it's actually 5 class teachers to 140 pupils or 1 teacher to 28 pupils.

RainyDay

One of our little ones got the raw end of a split class deal last year - 2nd class. 6 of the second class were put in with the 1st class. I'm pretty sure that the school split them based on ability, which I think they're really not supposed to do. In fairness to the principal at the time, she didn't force it on us. She told us that this would be the best thing for our guy, and she'd make sure the 6 got extra support from the resource teacher. If we didn't want to do it, we didn't have to. I trusted her, so we agreed to go with it.

In fairness, it worked out well academically for our lad. He got lots of guidance from the support teacher, and we did a fair bit (well mostly herself did a fair bit) of work at home as well. Her STEN scores were fairly solidly average - 5 and 6. As far as I can work out, the other 5 in the split class didn't have the same outcome. Maybe they didn't do the work at home, but they didn't seem to develop as much as our guy, from the little bits that we got to see.

The real problem for us was the social impacts of the split, which I have to say the school handled poorly. For the nativity play, our guy was in with the 1st class group, not the 2nd class - leading to questions to us from other parents as to whether he'd been kept back a year. They have a playground in the yard, and the 2nd classes can use the slide, but the 1st classes (and those mixed with the 1st class) can't - which was a big issue for them. We also found that he wasn't getting as many party invites or playdate invites. The 2nd class did a 'buddy system' in the yard at breaks, but the split 6 were left out of the buddy system, and were then rejected as playmates by others as a result. We raised all these issues during the year, but we didn't get far.

This year, they've done the split by age - maybe because we did kick up a fuss. Our lad is in the full class, and 8 of the 3rds are now back with 2nd.

If your fella is in the split class, push to make sure they are kept socially integrated with their peers.

fortuneteller

Thanks ,great input.
Recieved a letter from Board of management today.It's being brought up at next meeting.I'm not resting till i get a result or some compramise.
The principal is not very approachable.It's going to be a long cold winter for him either way,and he deserves it after the way he treated us as parents.:(

Mr.Wemmick

It's a pity the Principle is so unapproachable. It's important - while you wait for the outcome of the meeting - to see if the teacher can give your boy, and the other six, some extension work which is a little different from the set curriculum they have already covered last year. This would help improve confidence and self esteem if they're seen in the class to have extra work to do.. or more difficult work to do.. also some responsibility in the class to improve confidence would be good. Have you spoken to his teacher about him? Most teachers do a grand job and are very receptive to a chat about any trouble a child is having in class (I am sure she is finding it difficult too and doesn't like it any more than you do). I would certainly talk to her about improving things for him day to day, so he begins to settle and enjoy school again.

If you can not speak to the teacher and the principle is unapproachable, I would pen a letter to him, and copy the teacher into the letter, and ask to have a meeting with both to discuss the progress of learning for your son while he is kept back a class. How do they plan to help him? Ask them lots of questions at the meeting regarding his educational development in a repeated curriculum and how they plan to tackle the educational problem of him being kept back. Then just wait for them to answer, and see what they come up with..

Your best bet, though, is talking to the teacher about developing more work for him to do.. and be aware/ understanding that having 7 children back to do the same set curriculum again affects her too, as she has to make good out a situation that isn't easy.

The best of luck - hope you get it sorted.

Keep us updated.

afkasurfjunkie

Mr.Wemmick wrote: »

If you can not speak to the teacher and the principle is unapproachable, I would pen a letter to him, and copy the teacher into the letter, and ask to have a meeting with both to discuss the progress of learning for your son while he is kept back a class. QUOTE]

may i point out that he is not being kept back a class. he is spending an extra year in his old CLASSROOM. he has moved into a different class but remained with the old teacher. he will be taught 5th class material.
as a collegue of mine recently put it when some parents had issues with split classes.
we have 8 classes and 5 classrooms. what do they expect is going to happen?!!

thesimpsons

fortuneteller wrote: »

.Yet now he is expected to repeat the same irish text from last year bun go barr 4 and the same religon book he had last year........While the other class are on more advanced books...
![/QUOTE}

this should not be happening. the teacher should be using the appropriate books for the core subjects of irish, english, maths at the very least. We had a teacher who used to refuse to teach appropriate books and expected the kids to move from 3rd class irish and maths to 5th class work. Quite a jump in a child's work level. my kids have had split classes also where they were left out of the fun activities (ie swimming from 4th upwards, school tours for senior side only, different yards, etc). this also should not happen as it can and does affect a child's confidence. happily the school made sure that the next year it didn't happen anymore but my child still lost out.

Mr.Wemmick

fortuneteller wrote: »

This year my son's school split his class into 4/5th and 5/6th.
They decided to place the 7 youngest in my sons class which he is one of in with 4th while the other 18 of his class were placed in with eight 6th class lads!.
my son scored sten 10 in english and sten 9 in maths in the drumcondra test while in 4th last year.Yet now he is expected to repeat the same irish text from last year bun go barr 4 and the same religon book he had last year........While the other class are on more advanced books...
I had a meeting with the principal on two occasions since june and he refuses point blank to move my lad into the 5/6th,despite my pleading and strong objections.
I have written a letter to the school board of management, Where do i go from here if they dont respond to me.
Thanks in advance for any help on this one !

afkasurfjunkie wrote: »

may i point out that he is not being kept back a class. he is spending an extra year in his old CLASSROOM. he has moved into a different class but remained with the old teacher. he will be taught 5th class material.
as a collegue of mine recently put it when some parents had issues with split classes.
we have 8 classes and 5 classrooms. what do they expect is going to happen?!!

Did you not read the same post I did.. and there's no need to shout!

byhookorbycrook

Ok, my take: it is most unlikely a child will be moved, but if you have social concerns or concern about the work being undertaken, then I think you should appproach the class teacher, in the first instance.

As I already said, there is no way the school can avoid splits and someone will always want their child put in the "other class" for whatever reason however it is split.BUT, there are some reasonable expectations that a parent can have, as outlined above.

juneg

If you are concerned that your son is going to be bored off his head then you are right to pursue the matter.

But is he very young? You might run into other difficulties having him in with the older gang of 6th class lads.