Combo Class (Kindergarten/1st Grade)

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My son was in 2nd grade put into a 2nd/3rd grade combo class.  At first I was not happy, but the teacher was amazing, and like others have said, she was a very experienced teacher.  After the school year, I actually requested her again- and he had her for 3rd grade but it wasn't a combo class.

The only negative I had was that the majority of the 2nd graders in the combo class were girls, so socially, my son didn't have many friends in class.  I think there were only aprrox. 6-8 boys.  It was a very uneven mix of girls to boys.
 
meatball said:
For me combo class is only a convenient arrangement when the school cannot find enough students to form a full class
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This is the only reason period.  It's just a fact of life now with budget cuts that public schools need to fill classrooms.  Instead of spreading out kids in the same grade for a better student/teacher ratio, they have to combine grades.  It's not an ideal situation but today's reality.

That being said, combining early elementary school grades will not hamper the kid's academic development.  Socially is another matter as stated above about not having a good male/female ratio, but that can be said about one grade classrooms also.  There's not a lot parents can do to change the class, at least not at the start of the year.
 
It has been a week since my son started his K/1 combo class and while it is not ideal... the major benefit is that the Kinders go home at 11:30 so the 1st grade class (15 kids) has the teacher to themselves from 11:30-2:20... I hear that's a huge benefit (so i hear... )

The K/1 arrangement seems to be okay since it's only a few hours in the morning but I definitely don't think a 1/2, 2/3 and etc would be beneficial if the teacher has to split up his/her time the entire day.

If these combo classes are a result of budget cuts or whatever, why don't they cap out the enrollment and shuffle kids to another neighboring school to balance all the grades out like if you aren't zoned to the school then you would be bumped to your zoned school or another school?
 
Just found out my kid got in the K-1 combo class.  Hope this works out, got the exact email that kalbi posted above, so they send out a generic letter to all parents with kids in combo classes (I was thinking our principal wrote a personal email to the parents).  I don't understand how they eval'd my daughter with just a 20 minute interview and feel the combo class is best.  Feels more like luck of the draw, no more room so we'll shove them into one room with the 1st graders.  we'll see.
 
The principal also emailed that requests for transfer won't be accepted till sept 15 and will be reviewed on a case by case basis.  Dreading to go this path, hate to be labeled as 'difficult' right from the get go.  Tread carefully?  Any parents been in this position before or just let it go?

Personally I don't think my kid is independent like they stated in the email.  Hope this works out
 
PS9- my kid has been in the k/1 combo for a month now (year round school) and it seems fine.  At first, a lot of parents were pissed because we didn't think it was fair to our kids because we didn't think our kids were getting the full 1st grade experience (or kinder experience).  The teacher and principal sent out a schedule of how the day is broken down and during the 3 hours that the kinders were in school, there was only 30 mins where they were all 1 class. In my son's class, during the 3 hours that kinders are at school, there is an instructional aide helping out so it is almost like having 2 teachers (1:15 ratio).  The kinders have recess with the other kinder classes and the 1st graders with with lower grades.

They are pretty much separated ALL day. 

My friends that are teachers all tell me that teachers that teach combo classes are very strong and well liked. It takes an extremely organized teacher to balance and teach both grades.  I don't know how they select kinders but they picked 1st graders based on kids who are independent workers, good role models and are very good socially (one parent actually emailed the kinder teacher to ask why her daughter and my son got put in a kinder/1 combo and that is what our kinder teachers explanation).

Hope your kid has a good 1st good day next week!
 
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