We don't do that at Beverly Farms, and all of the Kindergartners are both well-behaved and advanced.

Anonymous wrote:Beall (in Rockville) does this and has for at least a few years. I know a couple other schools do it too.

It actually works really well. KG students get to know more students and teachers and become more familiar with the classrooms. The teachers are able to develop more balanced class lists. The classes are created and then teachers assigned (it's not like teachers are picking the kids they want).

I was anxious about this too, but it worked well.

Just want to add that at Beall, each group of students travels together from teacher to teacher that week and that group has an adult (one of the aides/assistants) always with it, so there's always the same adult and same group of kids until the classes are sorted at the end of the week.

I think the reasoning is that creating K classes is basically a crapshoot. You know nothing about the kids' behavior or needs. After a week, the teachers at least have an idea of who stands out, so one class doesn't end up with five kids who won't talk, and another with five kids who like to playfight, and another with five kids who have never held a pencil. Or one class with all fifteen of those kids.

Not saying I support (or am against) the idea, just speculating on the rationale. I also don't know which school it is that does this, but it's definitely not the norm.

Barnsley does this too. Not a K parent there, so I don't know how long they have been doing it this way.

I think it benefits the teachers but does not benefit the students initially.

If you are talking about RP, they have had so many issues with kids in the K the last few years. Many kids don't speak English, many with undiagnosed special needs, many who act out and have zero care if they are getting in trouble. You put about 5-7 of those in one class, it makes for a disastrous year for the other kids and the teacher.

This way, they figure out who the kids are that are going to be trouble/heavy needs and spread them out evenly. If they had a better K orientation this wouldn't be needed.

I don't think this would've worked well for my daughter - but who knows.

Ritchie Park is doing it for the first time this year. I like the idea, and I've not seen any fallout with my kindergartner's transition. He's actually transitioning better than his older sibling did 2 years ago.

What's the reasoning behind this?

Beall (in Rockville) does this and has for at least a few years. I know a couple other schools do it too.

It actually works really well. KG students get to know more students and teachers and become more familiar with the classrooms. The teachers are able to develop more balanced class lists. The classes are created and then teachers assigned (it's not like teachers are picking the kids they want).

I was anxious about this too, but it worked well.

Our school is piloting this for the first time this year. Parents are displeased so far, but I'd be interested to hear from anyone whose school has been doing it for a while.

That seems really confusing to little kids starting school for the first time. The teacher/class matches are never going to be perfect, so just do it and give the kids some consistency.

Our neighborhood elementary school didn't used to do this. But there is a new principal this year, and she changed to this policy. DD is out of ES now, so i don't know how parents are reacting. I know that I would not have liked it.

What school? That's nuts.

Our school has the assignment in place when school starts.

No (lower MoCo), and I think it's weird. What's the reasoning?

Which schools are doing this? Our school is not, but my SIL's DD started K at a school in Rockville. First time this year, the K students did not get assigned an actual K teacher. Kids all rotate around to 5 different classrooms/teachers and then they were assigned a class today.

Can you comment if your school does this or not?