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Split classes


Guest Tinam

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Guest Tinam

Hi,

We are moving to Perth around September time and have two children age 6 and 7. From a reccie we did earlier this year we've learnt that most state primary schools have split classes at different year levels. What I would like to know is how people have found this works and their experiences with it? Have your children been ok with it?

Any info would be much appreciated.

Thanks :smile2:

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My children have both been in split classes and had no issues. My youngest is a bright girl and last year when she was year 3 was in a Year 3/4 split class. She learnt so much as the teacher was able to include her in some of the year 4 work as she was bright enough. They usually only put kids in split classes who are mature and capable of working autonomously unless of course it is a very small school where there isn't the choice as due to numbers all year groups are split.

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Basically as the school year here runs in a calendar year, children start at kindy. For example, a child that turned 4 between July 1 last year and June 30 this year will already be attending kindy and any child that turns 4 after July 1 this year is not eligible to start until next year.

 

We have one child that is due to start kindy next year and as the last one is only 18 months younger she will be starting kindy the following year. The wife is looking forward to the break.

 

Hope this helps you work out where your children will be.

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Basically as the school year here runs in a calendar year, children start at kindy. For example, a child that turned 4 between July 1 last year and June 30 this year will already be attending kindy and any child that turns 4 after July 1 this year is not eligible to start until next year.

 

We have one child that is due to start kindy next year and as the last one is only 18 months younger she will be starting kindy the following year. The wife is looking forward to the break.

 

Hope this helps you work out where your children will be.

 

A split class is where you have a class made up of 2 different year groups. For instance my daughter last year was year 3 and in her class were 20 year 3 children and 8 year 4 children. Nothing to do with school cut off dates.

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Guest Matilda

We've been here 18 months and, in our experience, it works well when your child is in the lower year, as they can be stretched and work alongside the upper year group. The following year when they are in the higher year doesn't seem to be as successful (at least not for the more able ones), as they are doing work they have already covered, with no real provision being made for the brighter ones. I can see why smaller schools have split classes, but don't understand why larger schools need to do it.

Don't mean to sound negative - different schools handle it in different ways, as do different classes within schools.

Hope this helps!

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We've been here 18 months and, in our experience, it works well when your child is in the lower year, as they can be stretched and work alongside the upper year group. The following year when they are in the higher year doesn't seem to be as successful (at least not for the more able ones), as they are doing work they have already covered, with no real provision being made for the brighter ones. I can see why smaller schools have split classes, but don't understand why larger schools need to do it.

Don't mean to sound negative - different schools handle it in different ways, as do different classes within schools.

Hope this helps!

 

The reason schools need to do it is that a principal is provided with a certain number of teaching staff based on the enrolled students. they then need to plan the class structure of the school based on that.

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Guest angelachill

I have alarm bells ringing here, my children will already be repeating a year because of their birthdays, my girl who is coming to the end of year 7 will be back in year 6 [hmm]

Might be time to get the cheque book out, I assume the private schools don't do this ?

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My 5 yr old is in a Kindy/preprimary split and I wasn't to happy to begin with but its worked out great, the kindy kids are only in for 2 days a week and the rest of the week he only has 18 kids in his class. I wouldn't look at it as repeating a year as it is a totally different school system.

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My daughter is now in year 9 and has done 3 lots of split classes since Year 2. It has not affected her at all. I would echo the above poster and say try not to think of it as going backwards because the schooling is very different. My daughter finished year 2 in the UK in July and started year 2 here in August. She wasn't bored, they were doing very different stuff here and was happy from day 1. Different doesn't always mean worse.

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Have to agree...my children are also in a spilt year school. Now our school is not a small school...near on 1000 pupils. I feel it works well..for both lower year group and higher year group. Children in the higher year group that are more able do get extra work.

 

Have to say the statement of "my child is repeating a year" needs to be put to bed. The school structure is different here as is the year grouping... and paying for a private education isn't going to alter what year your child is going to go into. Also at the end of the day would you not prefer to have your child with their peers of the same age group.

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I really dont think it works for all kids. When my son was in year 4 of a 4/5 split he did well. The following year he had the same teacher but was now in year 5 and it was dreadful for him. The work was not challenging enough and he spent much of the time going over work he had already done the year before. This year he is in year 6 of a 6/7 split and despite being the youngest year 6 in his year, he is thriving! He wont reach year 7 this time as he is starting High School a year early at a private school.

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Guest angelachill

Give Me a break, can I ask which private schools you looked at ?

I really want to get this right and am worried about this issue.

Thanks

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Guest katydaily

Hiya, I have no real experience of Aussie schools and split classes (my kids just started school here last week!) but our primary school back in the UK did this a lot to get round large/small year groups. My daughters year group was very large and the years above and below were small so she has always been in a split class. Because they had two parallel classes (that is two year 3/4 for example,) the school would stream the kids into ability, regardless of which year they were in, for subjects such as maths and English. For other subjects they were just with their class. The school held the belief that being with the older kids provided the younger ones with role models and something to aspire to, an expectation that the older ones lived up to and also allowed the older ones to be more caring and less cynical as they progressed through the school. I know every school is different but I don't believe it had any negative effect on my daughter and has allowed her to broaden her circle of friends. I guess it will come down to the school and children in question.

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Guest Tinam

Hi Arwen, I would like to ask you another question please. We are thinking about sending our girls to Mullaloo Beach Primary school or Ocean Reef primary school. I saw on a post somewhere that you wrote that there had been a bit of an exodus of kids from MBPS to your school so would appreciate if you could give me any further info on that and also if you have heard good/bad things about Ocean Reef PS?

Many thanks.

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Hi Arwen, I would like to ask you another question please. We are thinking about sending our girls to Mullaloo Beach Primary school or Ocean Reef primary school. I saw on a post somewhere that you wrote that there had been a bit of an exodus of kids from MBPS to your school so would appreciate if you could give me any further info on that and also if you have heard good/bad things about Ocean Reef PS?

Many thanks.

 

Mullaloo is a suburb with 2 schools and ultimately they will close one. If you had a choice I would choose Ocean Reef, smaller school and IMO no danger of closure as Beaumaris PS that looks after the other side of Ocean Reef is too big to absorb Ocean Reef PS. I have friends with kids at OR and they are very happy. I have no direct experience of the school.

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