Is this teaching trend disadvantaging our kids?

If you’re a school parent you’ll probably agree with me.

School is back. Routine is back. And parents, like us, are back to criticising school procedures.

There are a couple of teaching trends that are really getting parents up in arms now the school year is back.

Things like composite classes.

No two words ever get parents more worked up than those.

Two grades in one class, sometimes more than two grades. For smaller schools it is usually a given. But do bigger schools really need to go down that route?

There is a K/1 in our school this year and while I’m sure it was a numbers game, I definitely was relieved my kindergartner son was not in this class.

Other parents in our office agreed.

Shauna, in particularly was quite concerned, “All the parents hate them," she said, "I would worry the teachers would concentrate on the little kids and the older grade would be left behind.”

Our resident teacher, Valentina assured us we were worried for no reason.

“Students learn and mature at different rates. Teachers are trained in differentiated learning strategies so that they are able to cater for the different learning needs of each student. For this reason, students in a composite class are no better/worse off than those in a single year class.”

But it’s not just composite classes getting parents talking. There’s also group class arrangements that have contributed to the b*tching at the school gate after the bell goes.

A few years ago, my son’s kindy class made a group class arrangement where two teachers put their classes together in one big classroom. Otherwise know as an "open-plan classroom". 36 kids to two teachers. I didn’t mind it and it didn’t seem to bother the kids.

But our writer Jo disagreed:

“Open-plan classrooms. THEY SUCK.  There are three classes put in one big room for my son’s year this year. Several families left our school this year to avoid Year 5 and 6 open-plan classes. My nephew went from being a brilliant student to below average just from going from normal classes to open-plan.”

The noise in open-plan classrooms is also a factor. The Daily Telegraph reported, “Listening scores of students in a more traditional enclosed classroom are 30 to 45 per cent higher than those learning in the noisiest open-plan spaces, new research has found.”

As we continued our discussion on school class arrangements the ever-popular job-share was also brought to the table.

A great alternative for teachers returning after maternity leave or those working part time, a job share sees two teachers teaching the one class. Normally one teacher takes them for three days, the other for two.

Valentina thinks it can be beneficial to the children:

“Students being able to learn from multiple teachers will benefit them, as they don’t become too reliant on one person and learn to be increasingly adaptable.”

Jo believes that’s as long as the teachers work well together it can be great, but if they are too different, it can be a disaster. I tend to agree with her.

It's hard being a parent. We can whinge all we want but ultimately we don't get a say in how the classes are taught.

It's not easy to do but we have to trust that the teachers know what they are doing. After all we leave our kids in their care for five days a week.

Are your kids in a composite class or a group class situation? How do you feel about it?

Want more? Try these:

“Sending my children back to school is cheap.” Said no parent ever.

The 7 things you should NOT do when your kids go back to school.

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