Large class split and streamed by ability

Cat Melodeon

I was hoping some of you involved in primary education might be able to give me some advice. I'm trying to help out a friend.

A rural primary school has had a problem with an extra large class (26) in a school where 8-12 pupils per class is the norm. Through the years, the class has been split, first alphabetically, then by age, then by lottery.

In September the class will be moving into 5th. Again, splitting was required - this has been known all along - and a letter was sent out the week before term end informing parents that it would again be by age. One parent kicked up an enormous fuss as her child has repeatedly been assigned to the smaller split group. As a result, the principal changed tactics and announced at a general meeting that this year the children would be streamed according to their STEN scores of the past 3 years with the weakest 8 remaining behind with this year's teacher.

Parents protested but the principal allowed no argument and said the BOM/Parents' Council were in agreement. This was 2 days before the end of term when the BOM etc were unavailable and teachers were unable to find time to discuss the consequences of the decision with parents, who were dismissed with the line 'it's Department policy'.

We have since learned that the Parents' Council/BOM were at no stage consulted and that this decision was solely made by the principal. At the point where the parents of the 8 were informed, booklists etc had been printed (the 8 will be using different books to the rest of 5th class) so there clearly was no intention on the principal's part to allow discussion or review of his decision.

That the 'weaker' pupils are remaining with this year's teacher is already known by the other pupils. On the last day of school they were taunted by other pupils that they were 'staying back', 'too thick for 5th', 'the spastic class' etc. This taunting has since continued at sports training and social events. Some of the children concerned are distraught; all of the parents are upset, most particularly by the way the decision was communicated and the refusal of the school to discuss the matter since.

Everyone understands that resources are scarce and that the class must be split, but the manner in which it has been handled is insensitive, has caused emotional distress to the children and exposed them to stigmatisation and bullying. Not one of the parents would have objected if their child had been selected by lottery/age/any criteria other than openly labelling them as 'weak'.

I thought this type of policy had long died a death in Irish primaries. Is there anyone who could give me any advice at all?

Is streaming by ability allowed?
Should the BOM/Parents' Council be consulted by the principal on such decisions?
Is there any right to appeal?
Is this in contravention of the 'child-centred approach' to planning required by the dept?
Most pertinently, this exposes children to bullying. Is there any way to invoke the anti-bullying code?

Is this simply a matter for the principal's discretion with no input or right to appeal allowed for parents?

E.T.

As far as I'm aware the Department don't issue any official guidelines on splitting classes.

In this case it seems that consulting with the Parents' Association may have allayed some of the problem, but with a parent kicking up as you've said, so late in the term, there may not have been time. If the BOM were unavailable then the principal couldn't consult them on the matter, and would have had to make the decision themselves as seems to have happened.

Your friend could write a formal letter of complaint to the BOM, but as I've said above, the Department won't give guidelines to schools on splitting classes, so I don't know how far any complaints would get. It mightn't be any harm just to have their unhappiness with the situation on record.

"Child-centred approach" - this is a bad joke at this stage. Class sizes have been raised, grants and funding cut, resource hours cut, SNAs not being allocated fairly. It's a bit rich for the government to mouth off about a child-centred approach while making it harder and harder for schools to do this all the time. Classes are being split more and more due to the rise in pupil-teacher ratio so it's very hypocritical for the government to say that we need to provide a child-centred approach when they're the ones making it more difficult.

We've had problems in the past with splitting classes, there's just no way to keep people happy. There was a post about this recently with a parent querying why the same classes are split throughout their time in school. The basic answer is that because of that particular class size, a school will have to constantly split them to ensure that each teacher ends up with a manageable (and more child-centred!) group in numbers.

Splitting by educational ability may work in some ways, but you could have an extremely bright child with low social ability who may struggle in an older class grouping. Splitting by age may mean that an older child who is weak educationally ends up in an older class grouping, and a younger child who is academically strong ends up in a lower class grouping. Splitting arbitrarily eg by surname or roll-number can lead to all of the problems above. There really is no ideal solution.

There is just no fair way of splitting classes unfortunately, and it's a massive headache for teachers throughout the country. If a school does allow parents to pick and choose which class their children are in, the system would just be unworkable.

If it happens once, then it can't be stopped in the future. You could have parents deciding they don't want their child in a particular class because there's a pupil with special needs (I've unfortunately come across this a number of times), or because their best friend is in the other class etc etc.

The anti-bullying policy is there to protect pupils and staff in cases of bullying, and to describe how the school uses best practice to prevent bullying. You could say that any type of splitting exposes children to bullying, pupils could be told they're the babies, or the tag-alongs, if someone is a bully they'll find ammunition whatever the case. I'm not really sure if it's an appropriate slant to raise because I'd feel that it draws more attention to the fact that the children with lower STENs are in the lower half of the split.

Personally I think that splitting by age or roll-number is the simplest option, it's not up to anybody's opinion and nobody can argue that their child is being treated unfairly when it is completely arbitrary. The school should have a policy on it though, and once parents have enrolled their child they've agreed to the policy. It makes things much easier.

Big Bag of Chips

Something similar is happening in my nephew's class. It was always done by age. Some parents started giving out, now its being done by ability.... The parents still aren't happy.

I think parents are just going to have to accept that split classes are now a norm in schools. And someone will ALWAYS be "left behind". Once parents realise that their kids will still cover the same curriculum be it this year, or next.. what is the difference?

The school in question seems to have exhausted all other possible ways of splitting the class and still people weren't happy, so this was the last one.

Some might say, the school should have stood firm behind its original reason for splitting the class and been confident in it's decision... But then some might say the school should liase with parents and work with them (which is what they've done by changing the split criteria so often)

You cant please all the people all the time. I would now lay the blame for the current situation squarely at the feet of the complaining parent.

Not one of the parents would have objected if their child had been selected by lottery/age/any criteria other than openly labelling them as 'weak'.

One parent did!

Cat Melodeon

Big Bag of Chips wrote: »

You cant please all the people all the time. I would now lay the blame for the current situation squarely at the feet of the complaining parent.

Not one of the parents would have objected if their child had been selected by lottery/age/any criteria other than openly labelling them as 'weak'.

One parent did!

Yes, and the other parents are very angry with her for it, as her complaint has lead to the shift in policy & subsequent bullying (bullying in relation to the class split has never happened before as there were no grounds for it when done alphabetically/ by lottery). Age doesn't seem to have thrown up very many problems - younger/smaller kids do get a certain amount of banter but its certainly of a gentler nature than what is happening at this school. We all know the research on labelling, streaming & self esteem. Here it is in action.

overmantle

A few facts:

1. The bottom line is that Split or Multi-Grade classes are a fact of life and becoming increasingly so, not only in rural areas but also in urban.

2. One of the most difficult tasks with which a principal is charged is the allocation of classes (Circular 16/73). The fact is, however, that it is the principal alone is charged with this responsibility (not the BOM, not the Parents' Association and not anybodyelse).

3. You can please SOME of the people SOME of the time but it is just not possible to please ALL of the people ALL of the time.

4. There is no right way and no matter what a principal does, s/he is damned if s/he does and damned if s/he doesn't.

5. Most principals would very gladly hand the allocation of classes over to somebody else, as they usually end up being the ones who are the subject of abuse and sometimes hysteria.

6. Well over 80% of primary school pupils in this country are being taught in mixed or multi-grade classes and there are many advantages to being taught in such classes. Sadly, some parents only choose to see the negatives.

I hope that these facts may bring a little clarity to the discussion. I speak as a parent who has had children in mixed classes, who also happens to be a teacher.

Cat Melodeon

Thanks for your reply, and for the clarifaction at point 2. It is helpful to know that the principal alone is responsible for this decision.

overmantle wrote: »

6. Well over 80% of primary school pupils in this country are being taught in mixed or multi-grade classes and there are many advantages to being taught in such classes. Sadly, some parents only choose to see the negatives.

Sadly, the negative coming from this situation is the fact that children were openly selected on the basis of ability and that the other children have used this already to stigmatise and bully. I'm sure as both a teacher and a parent you will acknowledge that that is negative and not just the hysteria of parents?

As I said in my initial post, parents accept that the class needs to be split, the class has been split every year for the past 6 years, everyone is used to dealing with mixed ability classes and that is why this year's split is causing such upset - why stream this year when everyone is already accustomed to mixed ability settings? (One child has been split into the smaller group three times previously but she has said that this is the first time she has been made to feel 'stupid').


Is anyone here critical of streaming as a policy for splitting classes?

huskerdu

overmantle wrote: »

6. Well over 80% of primary school pupils in this country are being taught in mixed or multi-grade classes

I agree with all your points, but I am very interested in knowing where you get this statistic.

Based on the school that my kids attend and the many schools that their friends / cousins attend, I would guess that the number of kids in multi-grade classes is well below 50%. Is my experience so far away from the average ?

E.T.

Most schools outside of a big town would have split classes all the way through, as would smaller schools in towns. As there are 8 class levels in a primary school, anything under an 8 teacher school will have split classes. An 8 teacher school would have an enrolment of between 205-232 pupils, so it's not exactly small. As pupil numbers continue increasing, it's more the norm in bigger schools too.

I couldn't tell you how many schools in the country have less than 8 teachers, but I'd imagine it's more than have 8+.

afkasurfjunkie

any school with a teaching principal is more than likely going to have mixed/split classes. there are a lot of those. more than likely in a rural area, not an urban area.

echo beach

Cat Melodeon wrote: »

That the 'weaker' pupils are remaining with this year's teacher is already known by the other pupils. On the last day of school they were taunted by other pupils that they were 'staying back', 'too thick for 5th', 'the spastic class' etc. This taunting has since continued at sports training and social events.

The only way the children could know the criteria for splitting and use this as an excuse for bullying is if somebody told them. Unless the teacher told them directly that these pupils are 'weaker' it must have come from the parents.
Some people should be looking closely at their own attitudes and watching carefully what they say in front of impressionable children. It is time for everybody to understand a few facts and get them across to their children over the summer. In September all the children will be in 5th class, doing the same classwork but, just like in other years, some of them will have one teacher and some will have another. It doesn't have to be such a big deal unless the parents insist on making it into one.

Big Bag of Chips

Rural schools are usually grouped Juniors&Seniors, 1st&2nd, 3rd&4th, 5th&6th. That's the way its always been, and the way I've always known it.

In "the good days" and populations increased and even small schools got bigger, schools were given extra teachers and/or resources.

Now lots of schools because of population increases and cuts in resources are having to return to multi-grade classes again.

It's not a new phenomenon, by any means. It's just some parents seem to have forgotten their own school days, and the fact that their own class was probably mixed with other classed right the way through!

Split classes are relatively new. But multi-grade classes are around 'since Adam was a boy'!

Both 5th class classes should still be covering much the same work, and by the time they leave 6th class they will all have done the same work anyway.

I agree that its now down to the parents to discuss it with their children, and call a halt to any bullying. The school will handle it in September, its up to the parents to handle it over the summer. If the class has regularly been split before then this yeae shouldnt really be causing as much outcry as it seems to be.

Cat Melodeon

echo beach wrote: »

The only way the children could know the criteria for splitting and use this as an excuse for bullying is if somebody told them. Unless the teacher told them directly that these pupils are 'weaker' it must have come from the parents.

Yes, unfortunately the principal made it clear that the group were being selected on ability. This was discussed in front of pupils. It was also discussed at a group meeting among all parents so it certainly hasn't been done discreetly. If it had been, no bullying would be taking place and this would most likely be a non-issue.

echo beach wrote: »

Some people should be looking closely at their own attitudes and watching carefully what they say in front of impressionable children. It is time for everybody to understand a few facts and get them across to their children over the summer. In September all the children will be in 5th class, doing the same classwork but, just like in other years, some of them will have one teacher and some will have another. It doesn't have to be such a big deal unless the parents insist on making it into one.

The parents of the children involved are intending to make big deal out of it to ensure the policy is changed for future classes and to show the affected children that labelling and bullying is not acceptable. They have no issue with class splitting, with the quality of the teaching or anything else - they all accept splitting has to happen. However it is STREAMING and labelling, the manner in which it was handled and the resultant BULLYING which is causing the problem here, NOT class splitting. Everyone is fine with splitting as I have said.

I would be making a big deal if it were my children and when it comes time for mine to start school I will certainly be checking our local school's policies to ensure that streaming is not done.

The Big Red Button

The way it's done in a school I'm familiar with is that, if a class is to be split, the strongest pupils will be mixed in with a higher class, while the rest of the pupils will get a new teacher. As in, with a 4th class moving into 5th class, the strongest pupils will instead be mixed in with some of the 6th class - and the other pupils will either be in a 5th class, or a mixed 4th/5th class - but the school will always ensure that the mixed class gets a new teacher each year, so that there can't be any bullying about certain pupils being "left behind" with the old teacher.

It would never be said, to either parents or especially to students, that the split was based on ability.

In your case, the way the split was decided was not necessarily wrong - but the way the school handled it certainly was.

dambarude

The school should have a set policy on how classes were split, so that last minute changes and parental pressure wouldn't be an issue. If the school had a policy that was ratified by the BOM *before* the issue arose, this wouldn't have happened. Any pressure put on the principal could have been brushed off with a 'I'm following the policy agreed by the BOM two years ago'. Something to be borne in mind for future.

toothie

An inspector visited our school in June and told us that all classes had to be split on the basis of age, with the older children being mixed with the next class up.

overmantle

toothie wrote: »

An inspector visited our school in June and told us that all classes had to be split on the basis of age, with the older children being mixed with the next class up.

The Department of Education & Skills has no such policy, so an inspector was only in a position to advise or make a suggestion. An inspector cannot/should not make an absolute directive on how classes should be split, unless Circular 16/73 has been rewritten without our knowledge. That decision must be made by the school principal. It may be music to the ears of some abused principals when justifying such a decision to parents, by being able to explain that s/he was acting on the advice of the inspector.

byhookorbycrook

26 is a large class??Anyway, more to the point, STEN scores are not meant to be used in this way. What happens if a child has a bad day and gets a lower score than usual?What about the child who is good at Maths, but not at English and vice versa?What is a child who has severe dyslexia gets a low maths score because they couldn't read the test properly, even though their ability may be STEN 10 range?There are too many variables and most children won't get the same STEN in the two tests.The NRIT would be a better indicator for IQ perhaps, but again is very narrow in focus.

Never mind the whole idea of telling the class who is weak and who isn't by this very flawed yardstick.As a learning support teacher, I really am stuck for words.:eek::eek:

Cat Melodeon

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

26 is a large class??Anyway, more to the point, STEN scores are not meant to be used in this way. What happens if a child has a bad day and gets a lower score than usual?What about the child who is good at Maths, but not at English and vice versa?What is a child who has severe dyslexia gets a low maths score because they couldn't read the test properly, even though their ability may be STEN 10 range?There are too many variables and most children won't get the same STEN in the two tests.The NRIT would be a better indicator for IQ perhaps, but again is very narrow in focus.

Never mind the whole idea of telling the class who is weak and who isn't by this very flawed yardstick.As a learning support teacher, I really am stuck for words.:eek::eek:

I know, it's rubbish.

Just to clarify, there are two year groups with each teacher so it would be the 26 of 5th class PLUS the 10 or so pupils in Sixth, so there's no quibble with the class being split, it's just the method.

Anyway, letters have been sent, we'll see what response results from that. Thanks byhookorbycrook, I was hoping you'd reply as I know you have a lot of experience around this. It's good to think we're not being totally unreasonable about the whole thing.

byhookorbycrook

Fáilte!

aisher

My kids are going into 6th class this year - there are 91 kids and they will be spilt into 4 groups instead of the 3 groups that have been in place since they started school. My kids are not happy as they hate 'losing' their friends for the last year but the class sizes are being reduced which is great. The spilt was done on a radom basis - having 3 kids in each of the classes I knew from my kids how their friends had done on the Sten scores so I was glad to see those who were 'high' achievers being in the same class as the 'weaker' kids. Any other way and I would have been mad - I hate seeing kids being made to feel they are stupid and not as capable as their friends - especially in Pimary school. Kids can be very hurtful to one another and become smug if they think they are better then another child - telling them its not the case does not stop the name calling etc. My kids started off in the 'weak' group for Maths this year and I can assure you it really effected their self esteem. To the OP - yes I would not be happy and yes I would be letting the Principal know.