Splitting Mixed Rec/year 1 For Part Of Week

[Guest]

Hello, know I've posted on this before..

 

At my school there is a mixed rec (20children) and year 1 (9), then a mixed Year 1 (10) and Year 2 (20).

To allow for single year group teaching on three mornings the classes are split so there is 20 rec in one class, 19 year 1 in another and 20 year 2 in another.

 

This is the first year this has happened, and planning is quite tricky! We are trying to use the 3 year topic cycle of term long topics. The timetable is split so that the on Mon the children focus on text level lit, then Tues word level (we have a phonografix teacher comes in for this session), Wed - Fri is sentence level and handwriting. For Maths Mon- Tues focus is shape, measure, time, space and Wed to Fri number. The NC subjects are divided up so Mon and Tues is Geography, IT, music, Wed to Fri is art, DT, history...

 

So I have the reception on their own for the Wed, Thurs and Fri mornings and my share of the timetable is meant to be Literacy (sentence and handwriting) Maths (number) Science and PE. However, I am supposed to be teaching within the FS curriculum, and I have been trying to do this by, on my mornings, giving the children an opportunity to cover all areas of learning by playing in as many areas as possible, - construction, sand, water, painting, music, writing, maths etc, with focus activities planned and short sessions in the things I'm supposed' to be covering above..

 

Is anyone else in this situation and how do they deal with it? I have chatted to the curriculum co-ordinator for KS1 and we have discussed it - and agreeed I wouldn't have to teach in discrete blocks as on the timetable.

 

I'm just not sure that what I'm planning fits in overall with the overall scheme of things.. What would Ofsted expect, does it matter? In general reception are a very able group, many have already acheived the ELGs for maths, and the Year One targets too, should I be pushing them more... (although not many can share and take turns!)

 

The tricky bit I think is that mornings are traditionally times for maths and english, which is the times we come apart. The teachers all agree that this split has been good for the Year ones and twos who now get smaller groups and year group lit and num,.

 

How would you plan and teach in this situation?

[Guest]

Hmm now I'm not at home so I can't give you all the details, but there is a book published that is designed for teaching mixed r/1/2 classes (I have the r/1 book) and they give details of cycles of work so that all bits of the curriculms are covered, maybe this would be of some use to you. If you think it is, let me know and I'll dig my book out and find you the publisher/title etc. I think it's by featherstone ed, but don't quote me on that! The school I'm in has mixed classes all the way through the school, so the issues of planning is an ongoing one. At the moment there is a 2-year cycle, but I've a feeling that this may change when the cycle starts again next year (they only introduced it last year)

 

Hope this helps a little bit.

[Guest]

Hi, thank you Nicola, I bought that book but as the school already has topics in place which are planned and resources for I don't think we will be changing. Thanks for the idea though