What about the school board's practice of having multiple grades in one classroom? Try grades 4 through 8 inclusive. The "Systems Classes" at the board will often include this range of grades. Admittedly, these classes are very small, but usually a teacher has little or no in-class supports, in addition to managing an IEP for each child AND a diverse range of complex learning disabilities.

Clearly the only teachers that should be teaching a split grade are experienced teachers. Unfortunately too many administrators are reluctant to make such decisions in the face of teacher unions.

my children are only in jk / sk splits but with the months they were born in + ontario cut offs, the jan born is almost 2 years older than the some...while beneficial in the younger year of a split, I think it's detrimental to older children who are in need of stimulation in a classroom of where some children are still pre-school level , and all 22 are being taught by one person regardless of how talented they are

I was in split grades for most of my elementary school career, including a 1/2/3 split, 6/7, and 7/8. My experiences were all positive. The split enabled the students to have a wider circle of friends across different ages, and gave younger children who were ready for it access to more challenging material (such as being able to sit in on the higher grades' English groups). We also had highly organized teachers.

I spent several years in split classes. Not only did I enjoy them at the time, but in retrospect, I can see the benefits they wrought.

Younger students saw the relevance of the more basic lessons they did, and how they would need to use the information later.

Older students mastered material by helping young ones learn.

We all got used to being made responsible for our own work, while the teacher was occupied with the other sections.

Moreover, if a student was over or under achieving in a particular area, there was no stigma attached to their participating in the section most suited to them.

Of course, at the time, we younger ones simply enjoyed the ringside seat at all the sixth grade drama, and the cachet of sitting with them at lunch.

more "teacher hate" from Kathy Dobson. how surprising.

The comments in this article are too simplistic. Generally, split grades are not a good idea. The reason why split grade students are "leaders" is because they're often chosen for being independent - that is if they're in the lower grade of the split.

There are some grades that should NOT be split. Grade 1 is definitely one of them as reading skills develop in this year at a rapid pace - at least they should - and grade 1's need lots of attention. Ironically, a jk/sk split is one of the worst ways to split a class as the developmental leap between jk's and sk's is often huge.

Speaking as a teacher, splits in grades 2 to 3 and 4 to 5 are not as bad. 7 to 8 is not a bad split, although grade 8's should be in high school already where they'll benefit from specialist teachers - but that's another story.......

The best experience I ever had in school was when I was enrolled in a Montessori program that encompassed grades 1 through 4 inclusive - with *three* teachers sharing the teaching duties across two enlarged classrooms (two pairs of rooms where the dividing wall in each pair had been removed).

When we moved in the summer before grade 4, and I went into a school with a more standard arrangement, I felt like I had gone about two years backwards.

That was thirty years ago.

Given that teacher prep time is capped, how to teachers prepare TWO or more grades of lessons & tests etc at the same level of QUALITY as they could prep one? How do they switch gears and marks tests and assignements etc for TWO or more grades in the same short restricted prep time. Something will suffer, surely.

I was in splits from grade 2 to grade 6. Almost all classes at my school were splits because it was a dual-track French Immersion/English school and there simply weren't enough students for full classes in each grade. Most years were good, but there were serious bullying issues in my 2/3 split that the teacher just wasn't able to deal with.

I don't know that the Ontario Curriculum expectations are staggering. I have always felt they are very low, especially in high school, I am not sure about lower grades. Even if they are not low, they definantly aren't staggering.

Great a great read (as usual). I'm so glad I didn't have to experience this in school while growing up :)

LOL! Meant to write What a great read...

Teacher hate? Did you read the same article I read? I'm a teacher and didn't see any teacher hate.

Unfortunately it's true that some who share my profession are burned out and resentful. As a parent of grown children, I never liked it when one of my children had a teacher like that. I have also repeatedly said that if I'm ever not ready to return to the classroom after a break, that will be my last year in the classroom. Students need teachers who honestly want to be in the classroom. . .

I started to let the immaturity of your user-name pass, but come on! If you're going to attack someone at least be honest about who you are!

I enjoyed the article Kathy and the rest of the comments as well. Good exchange of ideas.

The cited study regarding split ('combined' would be more correct) classes focuses on grades, as is too often the case with such studies. But it ignores the social development of our children, which favours bigger classes, even if different grades are combined in one classroom.

"Given that teacher prep time is capped, how to teachers prepare TWO or more grades of lessons & tests etc at the same level of QUALITY as they could prep one? How do they switch gears and marks tests and assignements etc for TWO or more grades in the same short restricted prep time. Something will suffer, surely."

I was in a split class in grade 3 (split 3/4) and grade 5 (split 5/6). Both times neither teacher came up with separate lesson plans. I had to do the grade 4 curriculum in grade three and the grade 6 curriculum in grade 5.

My grade three teacher spent extra time with us to make sure we could follow along with the material (especially in math). When I made it to grade 4 this same teacher gave those who had already experienced this curriculum the opportunity to do more advanced projects and also expected us to help those struggling with the curriculum. This experience was generally a positive one.

However when I was in grade 5 my teacher did not come up with a separate lesson plan, nor did she spend extra time helping us catch up in the basics - in particular most of us fell behind in math because we were expected to keep up with grade 6 math without having learned the fundamentals of grade 5 math. I ended up failing half of the math curriculum that year.

Therefore, I would say that a split class CAN be a positive experience, but it most certainly depends on the teacher.

Interesting !! My daughter has just been shifted to a 2/3 split ( she's in grade 3) due to restructuring of class. There are 6 grade 3 students and 14 grade 2 students. I would like to ask people reading here if they think its a justified balance? I mean wouldnt it have been better to have 23 students in 2 grade 3s, rather than shift the 6 kids to a split class ?
How do the teachers balance the teaching? what about the time she's teaching the lower grade? I know for a fact that my daughter gets extremely distracted when the teacher is talking / teaching the grade 2s ...
All I can say is that her being good in studies has gone against her ..
If split classes are such a successful system of education, why have only some kids in them, why not rotate all the kids , so that they all can have a chance of interacting with older / younger children and being role models?
My daughter resents being pulled out of 'her' class that she was in and being put with the younger kids, she is so happy when sometimes they are taken to their previous class for some special classes, like science etc.
Last year when she was in Grade 2 her class was dissolved due to the restructuring also and all the kids were distributed in various classes. It was an extremely traumatic experience for her since for the 1st few days she didnt have a seat assigned to her, she started getting regular homeworks etc only after two weeks and all the kids had already made friends and she never felt accepted in the new class.
Now, I always know when she has had a chance to interact with other grade 3s because she comes back from school with a smile. This is an experiment being carried out on the children who dont have a voice. It is a most disappointing system being adopted and I am sure very soon, in the future, it will be discarded as a failure ...
Give me 25 , 26 , 28 kids in a class but atleast the teacher can talk to them in the smae language ..
Look forward to people's comments ...

i remember mine to be horrible.i couldnt understand why they hated me so much. and then they kept trying to sell me stuff i didnt need or want.

I do have the same problem this year with my child. she is going in grade 1 and she was placed in split class. we were shocked. we talked with the principal and the option he gave to us was optional attendance , shame on her. me , personally do not think that combined class works for grade 1, but I don't know where else to go, or who to contact to replace my daughter in same age class . help me out please if you have any information.