[thesheriff443]

Do you think school children should be split up more during their school life?, meaning friends should not stay with friends for more than one term!

Do you think we should still have mixed ability classes and not top and bottom groups?

Do you think there should be a class throughout school, that would deal with real life issues, Bullying, Racism, Addiction , Sex , stress, and how to be a better human being?

this class would be part of school life and even carry a qualification.

[MTVN]

No I don't think so, kids like the stability of staying in the same class generally with the same people they know, sometimes a change might be necessary like moving someone up or down a class for a specific subject but otherwise I think it's fine and that kids will progress better in a class of people with similar abilities to themselves

PSHE will cover most of those issues you mentioned as well, think that's still a mandatory class at least till GCSE?

[thesheriff443]

Originally Posted by MTVN

No I don't think so, kids like the stability of staying in the same class generally with the same people they know, sometimes a change might be necessary like moving someone up or down a class for a specific subject but otherwise I think it's fine and that kids will progress better in a class of people with similar abilities to themselves

PSHE will cover most of those issues you mentioned as well, think that's still a mandatory class at least till GCSE?

but if they stay together groups can form, and bulling is by people in groups.

[Crimson Dynamo]

tape their insolent mouths

[Niamh.]

Do you think school children should be split up more during their school life?, meaning friends should not stay with friends for more than one term!

No absolutely not, making friends and keeping friends is an important part of learning how to make and maintain relationships imo

Do you think we should still have mixed ability classes and not top and bottom groups?

I think for secondary school it's necessary to split the classes according to ability, so that kids A - Aren't falling behind because the class is moving too fast or B - The class is moving too slow for other students and they're not able to reach their full potential because of that

Do you think there should be a class throughout school, that would deal with real life issues, Bullying, Racism, Addiction , Sex , stress, and how to be a better human being?
this class would be part of school life and even carry a qualification.

There already is such a class CPSE (Civic, Social and Political Education) and the kids actually do this as a Junior Cert subject here (similar to your GCSEs)

[lostalex]

I remember in 6th grade we had a project once where we were split into teams and each team had to do a presentation on the one of the 7 wonders of ancient world, and omg, i wanted the Colossus of Rhodes, he was so hot.

and guess what? yup, my group got him.

[Vicky.]

Our junior school did split up friendship groups. When it came to time to move up a class we got to chose one person we definitely wanted to be with, and that was the only friend we were guaranteed in the next set.

Top and bottom groups mke perfect sense, as they work to different levels. Our seniors didnt do top and bottom until year 11, and I swear doing the normal class was so boring to me..I tended to have my work all done within 10 mins while others struggled for the whole hour. They seperated us in year 11 as they were going to put the normal class on the foundation GCSE paper, and our class on the higher one

Yes I think a class on everyday issues would be much more beneficial than some of the rubbish that we did.

[Kizzy]

I don't think it matters so much at primary but at high school associations seem to be everything... Taking your GCSEs means you're split from your friends during lessons I suppose?
I do for primary believe that the classes should be mixed but not high school
And there is time dedicated to those discussions, it was friday afternoon when I was at school and called 'personal and social development' it was sometimes a full day when my two were at school and they both hated it... which is strange as we loved it, it kind of felt 'grown up' to be discussing things that were more to do with who you were than a specific subject.

Thought this was going to be a thread about the church.

[user104658]

There shouldn't be a deliberate attempt to separate friends at the primary school level - there's no need really. After the first couple of years of high school, after choosing subjects, it's different people in every class anyway. Or at least it was when I was at school.

Dividing according to ability is essential. For example, in my final primary school year (age 10/11), the "top" group (my group, of course ...) was doing 2nd year high school level work whereas the "bottom" group was still struggling with some aspects of basic literacy.

There's a huge gap in natural ability level and you can't ignore that. It'll push the "behind" kids too hard and leave the brightest kids bored, and that boredom leads to a general distaste for academia. Both fall through the cracks. Its only good for the "average" child and we're in serious trouble when we start only shooting for the glorious heights of "average".

As for "teaching life skills" - there was a social / sex education class once a week when I was at school. It was pretty useless, but it existed. It could probably do with an overhaul to make it more practical, it's shocking how many 18 year olds (even clever ones) leave school with little to no understanding of how to manage household bills, the implications of debt, what APR means, how to operate a bank account properly... Etc. A lot of what we learned in Social Ed was pretty useless and in need of modernising. Though that was 10 to 15 years ago ( )... No idea what its like now. I do think it should always be taught by someone young, though, preferably just a few years out of University (so under 30). Older generations simply do not understand the day to day lives of the current generation of teenagers, younger teachers stand more of a chance.