Year 3 Teaching & Learning Groups Questionnaire

Year 3 Teaching & Learning Groups Questionnaire

14.3.17

14.3.17

Year 3 Teaching & Learning Groups

Dear Parents & Carers,

As you may already be aware the children in Year 3 are currently grouped according to ability for Literacy and Numeracy lessons. Children are grouped in this way so that teachers can easily plan and create resources according to the children’s ability. It also means that teachers can slow down or speed up the pace of lessons to best suit the needs of the children.

However, during Theme Week (at the beginning of this half term) the Year 3 teachers decided to teach the children in their mixed ability classes. They were shocked by the progress of the children during this week. Higher attaining children were fantastic role models for the lower attaining children, encouraging these children to use more advanced vocabulary and complex sentence types. Higher attaining children had a real boost to their confidence as they were being praised by other children for their advanced knowledge. Children who normally struggle with change appeared to be more settled in their surroundings and therefore could access the learning more easily. Teachers thoroughly enjoyed the process as it allowed them to team plan, sharing ideas and resources. It also enabled class teachers to get to know individual children better.

Therefore, we would like to trial teaching the children in their own mixed ability classes for Literacy and Numeracy from Monday 20th March until the May half term. We would like to measure the impact of this trial so are asking parents to fill out a questionnaire before and after the trial. We willalso do the same with the teachers and pupils and look at assessments to see if the children have made good progress as a result of the trial. We will still be ensuring that we both challenge and support children in lessons by offering different ability groups different levels of challenge within their work. Teaching assistants will also work with individuals and small groups of children to ensure they are supported and also offered challenge.

If you have any questions or queries please feel free to speak to your class teacher about this during Parents Evening or make an appointment to see Mrs Rostron.

Yours Faithfully,

Mrs S Rostron (Head of School)