Composing Classes

Hi all!

I apologise for not writing for so long, but alas I had to beckon to the call of uni assignments and placement...scary how time flies!

Recently I have embarked on my final year placement before finishing my studies at the end of this year....scary! While there, I have noticed that the school I am at has many composite classes, including my own. In fact, most of the classes are composite. Now I was curious as to why this was, as this particular school was not a small school, so numbers was not the issue.

But then I realised....is there really an issue with students being in composite classes compared to mainstream year levels?

Short answer...no.

It is a myth universally acknowledged that a student in a composite class is disadvantaged. WRONG! In my experience, I have found that in a normal mainstream class, there is a variety of skill levels already in place; no student is the same. In a regular year 4 classroom, there may be students doing year 3 work and some doing year 4 and some even year 5 work. That is just how it is.

This is the same in a composite year 2/3 class; there will be students doing year 2 work (some maybe even year 1), some doing year 3 work and some year 4 work...no difference.

Another myth is that a composite year 1/2 class will be composed of the 'smarter' year 1's and the 'dumber' year 2's... also completely WRONG! Believe it or not....classes are more based on friendship groups than 'intelligence'.

To all those parents out there who are concerned about their child being in a composite class...I completely understand. I have always been terrified of teaching a composite class....how am I supposed to teach one curriculum, let alone two! But I quickly realised that no matter what class I am teaching in, I would have to differentiate the curriculum. Teaching in a composite class is just good practice.

So let me assure all the parents out there that no matter what type of class your child is in, they will receive the utmost attention from their teacher and will have the curriculum they need.